Jean Veber drew several caricatures of Allais in Le Journal, January 6, 1896; here are two of them. Ernest La Jeunesse (who, parenthetically, had a long affair with Allais’s wife, and may have fathered her child) drew this sketch of the unhappy husband.   Pierre le Trividie drew this portrait of the young Allais in […]

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As I continue to translate and illustrate Alphonse Allais, I’ve been contemplating the many caricatures of him.  Having already offered portraits of his semi-fictional antihero, Captain Cap, I’ll now post some of the man himself.  Internet Allais buffs, you’re welcome. The first is by Cabriol, aka Georges Lorin, from the Hydropathe, January 28, 1880.  Allais’s […]

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As the cardinals convene in the Vatican to elect a new boss, let’s consider for a moment the once flourishing art of cardinal paintings. In the late 19th century, particularly in France, several artists specialized in painting pictures of the red-robed religious. There’s a fine article on the subject by John Fleming, in the 13th […]

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“Peculiar Popularities” attracted a nice large audience.  Thanks to all of you who came out; more Ullage Group events are in preparation.  For those who missed it: Lisa Hirschfield covered the early history of X-Rays in popular culture, with plenty of pictures and early films; Doug Skinner talked about slang, artificial languages, and other fleeting […]

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The next Ullage Group event, “Peculiar Popularities,” is in preparation.  It will take place on Sunday, March 3, at the Jalopy Theater.  Details will follow. If you happen to be in London the next day (that would be the 4th) at 8 pm, you might pay a visit to Kings Place, 90 York Way.  There, […]

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When I suggested to Norman Conquest, the CEO of Black Scat Books, that I translate the Captain Cap stories of Alphonse Allais, he was all for it.  However, he also proposed that I draw the cover, which left me with a problem:  what did Captain Cap look like? The French pocket book that my friend […]

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Alphonse Allais was a peerless French humorist, celebrated posthumously by the Surrealists for his elegant style and disturbing imagination.  Among other things, he wrote a series of wonderful stories about his friend Albert Caperon.  In Allais’s hands, “Captain Cap” became an adventurer and inventor, with a disdain for bureaucracy and a heroic thirst for cocktails.  […]

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Here, as a Christmas treat, is the story of “The Monkey and the Parrot,” written by Alphonse Allais in 1899, and translated by the undersigned this afternoon. THE MONKEY AND THE PARROT Speaking of parrots, do you know the Persian fable of “The Monkey and the Parrot,” a story both ingenious and rich in instruction […]

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My translation of Pierre-Henri Cami’s playlet, “The Man in the Iron Mask,” is included in the first issue of The Black Scat Review.  You read it first on this site; now read it with other interesting material in a magazine. Black Scat Books will also publish a series of booklets collecting the Captain Cap stories, […]

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On April 1, 1897, the remarkable French humorist Alphonse Allais published his Album primo-avrilesque.  It was a slim volume, containing seven monochromatic paintings (such as “Apoplectic cardinals picking tomatoes by the Red Sea”) and a silent funeral march (because the greatest sorrows are mute).  The march was the first silent piece, preceding similar works by […]

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