Pluck and Luck was the most persistent of the “dime novels,” racking up 1605 issues between 1898 and 1929. I put “dime novel” in quotes, since it’s somewhat of a misnomer; as you can see, this issue cost a nickel. It was published by Frank Tousey, a  New York publisher responsible for a number of […]

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The 19th issue of Black Scat Review is now available! This issue’s theme is “ecstasy.” I contributed “Two and One” (a story about a love triangle, told entirely in three-letter words), “Up to the Summit” (in which Owen’s daily mountain climbing is interrupted by his mother’s sudden wedding), and “C11H13NO2” (an alliterative consideration of a […]

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Black Scat Review #18 is now available! This jam-packed issue contains four pages of my comic strip “Shorten the Classics,” an excerpt from my translation of Alfred Jarry’s play The Pope’s Mustard-Maker, and my translations of poems by Charles Cros, Jules Jouy, and Laurent Tailhade. You will also find contributions by Mark Axelrod, Angela Buck, […]

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The Pope’s Mustard-Maker is now available from Black Scat Books! Translated by Doug Skinner! Le Moutardier du pape was the last work that Alfred Jarry finished, a few months before his death in 1907. It was one of many operettas he worked on in his last years, and one of the few he finished: a bawdy […]

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True or False, subtitled “Factual Stories of the Impossible,” lasted for two issues in 1958. This is the first, proudly carrying on its cover “an actual unretouched photograph!” that was obviously retouched with a red pen. It was one of the many publications due to the industry of Myron Fass, who began his career as […]

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Flash-News Illustrated was a monthly that came out in 1964. I assume only two issues were published; searching the internet turns up only these two. It was published by Correspondent News Service, and edited by Earl H. Dempsey and Charles McBain. Further searches turn up nothing about either publisher or editors. The editorial policy was […]

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Here’s another of Anton Romatka’s curious publications. This one is A History of Versification, 16 pages of a meticulously lettered, rather eccentrically written, history of poetry. I’ll give you the front cover, first page, and back cover, the last of these an ad for Romatka’s other publications. The “Merit” at the top of the cover […]

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And here follow the last four pages of Calligraphs, a small hand-lettered poetry magazine published by Anton Romatka in 1935. The last two pages advertise Romatka’s services as publisher, editor, teacher, and calligrapher. Googling reveals little about Max Berman or Gussie Perlman, but turned up the interesting fact that Harvey W. Flink contributed his poems […]

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We continue our examination of Anton Romatka, who led a curious bohemian existence providing poetry, writing workshops, and calligraphy in Greenwich Village in the ’30s and ’40s. Here are the next four pages of his hand-lettered magazine Calligraphs, from 1935. They include one poem by Romatka, and an acrostic on his name by Richard Zeydel. A […]

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Anton Romatka published a number of poetry magazines in Greenwich Village, in the ’30s and ’40s. Calligraphs, from 1935, was small in both size and page count, being only 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ and sixteen pages. Like his other publications, it was flamboyantly written and meticulously hand lettered. Here are the first four pages. […]

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