And we close our overview of “Snap” decks with a 1954 edition by Parker Brothers.  And quite stylish, too, in my opinion.  Snap!

 (Posted by Doug Skinner)

There are many reports of Alien Big Cats (ABC’s, as their devotees like to call them) in the fortean database.  This one, which I found in the French daily Libération (July 25, 1994), and passed along to the INFO Journal at the time, seems to have been overlooked.  I was unable to find a follow-up, explanation, confirmation, or debunking in the days that followed.  I rediscovered it in my files; and ran a few www searches, but turned up no mention of it.  I post it here for ABC buffs to ponder; and because I find a panther showing up on an airport security camera outside Paris such a haunting image.  I doubt that big cats do indeed prowl urban airports at night; but, if I had my way, they would.

WILD BEAST.  A feline freely roaming the airport zone of Roissy was filmed by a security camera Thursday night.  The animal, of adult age, resembles a panther or puma.  The alert was not given until the next day, when the videotape was reviewed.  Yesterday, the cat had still not been found.  As a security measure, the police of Seine-Saint-Denis recommend that windows not be left open in ground floor apartments.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

This deck, “Animal Snap,” is another low-budget entry, with no indication of publisher other than “Made in Hong Kong.”  The cheap paper and printing give it, to me, a particular grainy charm.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

I found this anonymous pencil drawing at a flea market.  There’s probably a story behind it; perhaps it’s just as well that we don’t know what it is.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

The Western Publishing Company left posterity this aggressively cute version of “Snap.”  The colors are a treat, though.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

[As a postscript to our event about hoaxes, I’ll post this account of a memorable literary hoax that may be unfamiliar to American readers.  It’s taken from my article “Boris Vian for Anglophones,” on the life and work of that French writer/musician, in Strange Attractor Journal Two.] 

The war had ended, Paris was free, and nightlife was in full bloom.  A rather drab neighborhood, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, started sprouting nightclubs, mostly in cellars; jazz musicians, existentialists, surrealists, lettrists, and actors filled them with smoke and noise.  Vian, tall and pale, trompinette in hand, became a symbol of the scene: the “Prince of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.”  Scandal-hungry journalists (“copy-pissers,” Vian called them) snapped photos of couples necking in the murky basements, and whipped up public outrage.

A small publisher, Scorpion, suggested that Vian translate a rousing American thriller.  He had a better idea: he’d write his own.  And so was born Vernon Sullivan, a young black American too racially and sexually daring to be published in the US.  In ten days, Vian cranked out a brutal novella, about a black man passing for white, who seduces and murders white women to avenge his brother’s lynching.  Dubbed J’irai cracher sur vos tombes (I Shall Spit on Your Graves), it was published as a novel by Vernon Sullivan, translated by Boris Vian.

A certain Daniel Parker, head of a “Cartel for social and moral action,” had already led a campaign against Henry Miller; now he targeted Sullivan.  As usual, the publicity only sparked sales.

Then, something unexpected intervened.  A salesman, Edmond Rougé, strangled his lover in a Paris hotel, leaving a copy of J’irai cracher beside her.  The press blamed the Sullivan smut; there was talk of banning it; and it became a best seller.  Vian was rumored to be the author, and the papers pissed copious copy about his career in the clubs.

Vian was grateful for the royalties — which allowed him to quit his job — but found himself in an increasingly difficult position.  He promised [his wife] Michelle that he wouldn’t admit his authorship.  Instead, he reinforced the hoax by producing the English “original” with his friend Milton Rosenthal, and by “translating” more Sullivan novels.  He also adapted J’irai cracher for the stage, under his own name; with the sex offstage, and the anti-racism front and center, he had a preachy show that pleased nobody and further entangled him in the scandal.

Rougé’s crime and Parker’s crusade eventually landed Vian in court, where he was compelled to confess that he was indeed Vernon Sullivan.  In spite of literary experts’ testimony, he was convicted of an “attack on public morals,” fined, and sentenced to prison.  The judgment was overturned on appeal, but the damage had been done: he was now branded a pornographer and hoaxer.  The joke had taken over his life.

[…]

J’irai cracher arose to haunt Vian one final time.  A production company hoped to turn the famous title into a movie; so Vian and Jacques Dopagne set to work on a screenplay.  It went through several versions, and even more production companies.  After being instructed that the script was too short, Vian sent off a thick typescript padded with absurdly detailed descriptions.  This brought his participation to a close, which was perhaps what he wanted all along, and the production passed to other writers.

The film was completed.  Vian attended a screening, and died a few minutes into it.  The symbolism has become a part of his legend; biographers disagree on whether he shouted a final insult at the movie.  At any rate, his heart had been killing him for years; friends recalled that he thought he’d never reach 40.

(Posted by Doug Skinner.  For more about Strange Attractor Journal, look here.)            

Another “Snap” deck; and another based on nursery rhymes.  This one comes from Thomas de la Rue & Co., in London.  Like the frog, all depict delicately colored figures against crisp black and white backgrounds.  I particularly appreciate the distinctly froggy hands.

(Posted by Doug Skinner.  Thanks to Angela Alverson for this one!)

While perusing eBay recently, I happened upon the work of Vernon Grant.  Not Vernon Grant the wonderful graphic artist (and father of Kellogg’s Snap, Crackle, and Pop) but Vernon E. Grant the wonderful cartoonist, whose work has never been reprinted to my knowledge, and which seems to be all but unavailable.  I’m not a scholar, historian, or ravenous collector of comics and cartoons, but I definitely more than like them, and I know what I more than like when I see it.  Fortunately, I was able to snag (for a reasonable price) the second issue of The Love Rangers,  a black-and-white ‘zine Grant self-published from 1978 through 1988.

Born in 1935 in Cambridge, MA, Vernon Grant began his professional cartooning career as a child, and later spent a year at the Vesper George School of Art, until 1958 when he enlisted in the army.  While living in Tokyo during and after his military service, Grant wrote and drew for Stars and Stripes and the Mainichi Daily News, and published several graphic novels.  (He also survived two tours of Vietnam.)

Grant’s developing interest in Japanese cartooning and manga took a new direction after his introduction to The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers; it’s all reflected in the narrative, composition, and stylistic detail of The Love Rangers.  In fact, Grant is credited with introducing aspects of manga to the American underground cartoon scene.

Back in Boston, Grant started work on The Love Rangers, and later produced a line of post cards for the Boston Computer Museum.  He died a little more than three years ago, after a heart attack and fall.  His wife Betsy organized a retrospective of his work in 2007.

You can find Vernon Grant’s Boston Globe obituary here.

(Posted by Lisa Hirschfield)

A holiday weekend marred by beautiful autumn weather and massive transit disruptions didn’t keep the curious from turning out for the Ullage Group’s presentation, “Straight Talk About Hoaxes.” Anthony Matt’s multimedia exegesis of the 1969 “Paul is Dead” hoax was a rousing success. Original tapes of radio shows and phone calls, furnished by the DJ who started it all, along with a short slide-show of revealing album covers and persons responsible, provided fascinating and plausible evidence that Paul McCartney may indeed be alive.
Doug Skinner began by showing off a trick Gideon Bible concealing rubber monkeys – a new Ullage Group endeavor that promises to astound traveling salesmen and vacationing families alike.  He then entertained the audience with enlightening tales of pseudo-hoaxes, fictions taken for truth, and the generally fickle nature of belief.  Running short on time, Lisa Hirschfield postponed her talk on storytelling, seduction, and Nigerian scam letters for another round of hoax-talk in the future; she will also post some of her findings on this site.

The truth is out there, always waiting to be debunked.

(posted by Lisa Hirschfield)

Our next “Snap” is a cheaply printed deck from China, still available in 99c stores.  Each card shows a character from a nursery rhyme.  Note that a couple of musical notes seem to be coming from Tom’s kilt.  Has our bored artist slipped in a fart joke for his or her own amusement?

(Posted by Doug Skinner)