I have been asked by Norman Conquest, the indefatigable director of Black Scat Books, to post this announcement. Perhaps some of you will see fit to contribute to this useful reference work.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Hugo Gernsback was one of the pioneers of publishing, producing one of the first science fiction magazines, Amazing Stories, and many publications devoted to radio and electronics. Along the way, he also published pulp magazines (Pirate Stories), comics (Superworld), and, of course, the controversial but probably informative digest Sexology. He was also known for his poor treatment of writers, and for his early science fiction novel Ralph 124C 41+, essentially a list of fictional inventions couched in clumsy prose.

Starting in 1934, he sent out a small magazine called Forecast as a Christmas bonus to his subscribers. It was officially published by Radio-Electronics, and contained 32 pages of scientific articles and predictions. It was never sold, and I suppose copies are rare nowadays. This 1965 edition contained articles on the first satellite photos of the moon, medical electronics, flying saucers, the possibility of picturephones, the difficulties of manned space flight, multiplex televisions, and changing tastes in science fiction–all written by Gernsback.

And here’s a drawing of his proposed multiplex television. No more families squabbling over the channel in the wonderful world of the future!

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

The 2oth issue of “Black Scat Review” is now available from Black Scat Books! This one is devoted to black humor, 106 pages of it. I contributed a squalid fairy tale, “The Fisherman’s Wish,” a misanthropic song, “We Are Not a Pretty People,” and a translation of Alphonse Allais’s classically tasteless story “The Rajah Is Bored.” The international roster of contributors includes Mark Axelrod, Jocelyne Geneviève Barque, Tom Barrett, Léon Bloy, Ken Brown, Michael Casey, Wayne Coe, Norman Conquest, Thomas James Cooper, Farewell Debut, S. C. Delaney, Rhys Hughes, Harold Jaffe, David Kuhnlein, Mantis, Marcel Mariën, J. H. Matthews, M. G. Mclaughlin, Jim Meirose, Derek Pell, Agnès Potier, Mark Putzi, Richard Robinson, Marquis de Sade, John Galbraith Simmons, Nile Southern, Terry Southern, Yuriy Tarnawsky, Michel Vachey, Tom Whalen, Bill Wolak. You can find it on Amazon!

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

The venerable company Ed-U-Cards published their “Play-All Card Deck” in 1965. It’s simply a standard deck, 52 cards and two jokers, with artwork designed for children. The Jay Bird here is the Jack; the Queen and King are Queen Bee and King Lion. Each number card has relevant picture: a four-leaf clover for four, a glove for five. My, but there were some stylish designers around in 1965.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Bedside Nonsense is now available from Black Scat Books! This anthology, edited by Norman Conquest, offers a dizzying array of approaches to the nonsensical, by a lively group of writers and artists. I contributed “Amerigo and Isabella” (verses about the misadventures of Amerigo Vespucci and Queen Isabella) and “Deucalion’s Ark” (a story about the Greek Noah’s troubles in stocking his ark). The other distinguished contributors are Mark Axelrod, Tom Barrett, Angie Brenner, Ken Brown, Norman Conquest, Caroline Crépiat, Haley Dahl,  Farewell Debut, Paul Forristal, Ryan Forsythe, Penelope Goddard, Jean-Jacques Grandville, Simon Hanes, Rhys Hughes, Alexei Kalinchuk, KKUURRTT, Rick Krieger, David Moscovich, Jason E. Rolfe, Paul Rosheim, Bob Rucker, Thaddeus Rutkowski, Terry Southern, Yuriy Tarnawsky, Tom Whalen, and Carla M. Wilson. You can pick up a copy on Amazon, and then read it from cover to cover.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Pink and Apple-Green is now available from Black Scat Books! By Alphonse Allais, translated, introduced, and annotated by Doug Skinner! This is the first English translation, and the first annotated edition in any language. It’s 261 pages: 44 stories, plus 5 extra stories. You can get one on Amazon.

Alphonse Allais (1854-1905) was France’s greatest humorist. His elegance, scientific curiosity, preoccupation with language and logic, wordplay, and flashes of cruelty inspired Alfred Jarry, as well as succeeding generations of Surrealists, Pataphysicians, and Oulipians. As Paul Verlaine said, “Who is fresh? Allais.”

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

“Poems,” published in 1898 by the Cincinnati Game Co., offered a deck featuring 52 poems. They were divided, like a standard deck, into four suits: America, Ireland, England, and Scotland. The American suit included Longfellow, Whittier, Bryant, and Field, as well as “The American Flag” by William Rodman Drake. Ireland was represented by Thomas Moore, Thomas Davis, Samuel Lover, Ferguson, and Dr. Brennan. England was assigned Thomas Hood, Tennyson, Byron, Gray, and James Thompson (with “Rule, Britannia”). Scotland got Burns, Scott, Campbell, Tannahill, and Hogg. The backs show a vignette of Longfellow’s house. My copy came with no instructions, but I assume you could play any standard card game with them.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

“Life,” published in 1955 by Charles M. Foust of Yates Center, Kansas, is not to be confused with the venerable board game from Milton Bradley. Mr. Foust’s “Life” consists of 98 cards, divided into 14 Repent cards, 5 Confess, 5 Believe, 5 Baptised, 20 Love, 20 Jesus, 30 Fellowship, 5 Heaven, 4 Sin, and 10 Worldly cards. The rules, as might be expected from such a list of cards, are complex. In brief, players must accumulate the right combination of cards in the right order. The order has a religious message: for example, you must play a Repent card before you can play a Confess or Believe card. As Mr. Foust explains, “The game is made to help lead people to a perfect life in Christ Jesus and to Eternity, even though it is fun to play.”

An internet search revealed nothing about “Life” or its creator, so perhaps copies were only circulated to a select few.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

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 certain hallucinogen). Other contributors include Peter Ruric, Yuriy Tarnawsky, Eurydice, Catherine D’Avis, Galya Kerns, Tom Whalen, Bob McNeil, Nicole Scherer, Tom Bussmann, Paul Rosheim, William Minor, Norman Conquest, Adam Matson, Dynamic Wang, Alexandr Ivanov, Jim McMenamin, Rhys Hughes, Amy Kurman, and Emiliano Vittoriosi.

It’s available on Amazon, and there’s more info at Black Scat Books.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Rube Goldberg’s cartoon panel “Foolish Questions” followed a simple formula: an idiot asked an obvious question, and received a sarcastic answer. And yes, Al Jaffee did appropriate the idea for his later feature “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions.” Sometime around 1912, the Wallie Dorr Company published a card game derived from it. The game was as simple as the premise: players tried to match the foolish questions, from a booklet, to the sarcastic answers. The backs of the cards, appropriately, showed a man asking a foolish question.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)