Author: Black Scat Books

Publishers of Sublime Art & Literature Since 2012

It’s a bird… !

We are thrilled to present our first book of 2025 – THE VIRTUOSO PARROT & OTHER STORIES.

Claude-Sosthène Grasset d’Orcet (1828-1900) wrote startling articles and stories about secret societies, hidden bloodlines, and his own idiosyncratic views of history. His obsession with finding puns and rebuses, in both ancient inscriptions and modern speech, influenced generations of occultists and was the inspiration for the “language of the birds” expounded by the enigmatic Fulcanelli.

This book is Grasset d’Orcet’s first appearance in English! It contains five of his odd short stories, a contemporary obituary, and detailed notes on his ideas and allusions.

At last, the virtuoso parrot speaks to English readers!

It must be fate, 8 is great…

Reach for quick relief with TYPO #8, a timely remedy for your anxiety and depression. Bring feelings of joy back into your life with its mixture of fictions, poems and artworks from different times and countries. Also it’s a perfect holiday gift for the connoisseurs in your family.

PACKED WITH PROTOMORPHS, DADA, SURREALISM, COLLAGE, FUTURISM, EXPERIMENTAL FICTION, CRIME SCENES, STOLEN LOVE POSITIONS, VISUAL POETRY, BILITERAL ALPHABETS, CONSTRAINED TEXTS, MAD FOLD-INS, FRENCH LITERATURE, ABSURDIST HUMOR, SOUND POEMS, SILENT CINEMA, FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS, & MORE.

This issue features contributions by Tim Newton Anderson; Tom Barrett; Terry Bradford; Steve Carll; Peter Cherches; Norman Conquest; Lynn Crawford; Jeanne Devlin;  Jean-Christophe Duchon-Doris; Albert Ehrenstein; James Montgomery Flagg; Shawn Garrett; Edward Gauvin; Vasilisk Gnedov; Michael Gould; Allan Randolph Kausch; Amy Kurman; Julia Lillard; Emilia Loseva; George MacLennan; Zach Keali’i Murphy; Opal Louis Nations; Grasset d’Orcet;  Bernard Quiriny; Paul Rosheim; Marcel Schneider;  Doug Skinner; Lono Taggers; Mark Valentine; Renée Vivien; Tom Whalen; Paul Willems; Carla M. Wilson; Danny Winkler; Mark Wyatt.

TYPO #8: The International Journal of Prototypes
155 pp., trade paperback; ISBN: 979-8-9908521-9-8
$20

“There’s been a murder here and someone’s responsible.”

Those words from Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) are as true today as ever. But as any hard-boiled dick knows, solving a murder—or any crime for that matter—is no easy task. The proof of that lies in Lono Tagger‘s weird little picture-puzzle book: CRIME MEMES.

Discover imaginary crimes, impossible clues, contaminated evidence, red herrings, private a-eyes, surrealist stoolies, & masters of disguise.

WARNING: FORENSIC HUMOR

CRIME MEMES: A SURREALIST PUZZLE BOOK—just in time for the holidays.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lono Taggers is an insurgent collage artist and translator. He was born in Budapest, Hungary, educated in Great Britain, and lives in Paris with his wife and daughter. He has translated several notorious works by Pierre Louÿs, including A Handbook of Manners for the Good Girls of France (New Urge Editions, Pocket Erotica Series: 2022). His experiments with AI-assisted collage have appeared in Roussel’s Revenge and Typo: The International Journal of Prototypes.

COFFEE TABLE NOIR

“This eerily beautiful picturebook is at once nostalgic, futique, and a testimony to our evolving cyborg reality. Art-goers new and old will not be able to look away.”
–D. Harlan Wilson

We’re excited to release this sublime, large format edition, AFTER HOPPER, featuring over fifty full color collages by artist Norman Conquest.

Here’s a peek:

AFTER HOPPER is, in part, an homage to American Painter Edward Hopper, with original, surreal, and ironic images to haunt your imagination. Using both traditional cut-and-paste collage techniques, as well as cutting edge AI tools, Norman Conquest paints a fresh absurdist portrait of the past and present.

Seven is Heaven

Where else would you meet this cast of luminaries….

Alphonse Allais; mIEKAL aND; Terry Bradford; Steve Carll; Norman Conquest; Lynn Crawford; Noël Devaulx; Mark DuCharme; Albert Ehrenstein; Shawn Garrett; Edward Gauvin; Richard Huelsenbeck; Iliazd; Mark Kanak; Thomas J. Kitson; Amy Kurman; Jean Lorrain; Emilia Loseva; Marcel Mariën; Willy Melnikov; Raymond Roussel; Heather Sager; Phil Demise Smith; Doug Skinner; Paul Willems; Cynthia Yatchman.

151 pp., trade paperback; $20

Sweet Sixteen!

We are elated, delirious, tickled, thrilled, and ecstatic to announce the 16th volume in our acclaimed Alphonse Allais Collection. This first English translation of Allais’s Pour cause de fin de bail has been exquisitely prepared and introduced (with notes on the text) by master translator Doug Skinner.

 

This wickedly amusing collection contains fifty-three absurdist tales—packed with phantom limbs, floating brothels, tapeworms, ostrich shoes, and other remarkable things. It makes a jolly beach read, or to browse in your hammock whilst sipping a cool glass of lemonade—or better yet, a jug of absinthe.

 

So, if you haven’t already begun gathering your personal Allais collection—shame on you!—now is the time to start. Scroll down and you’ll find unadulterated links to each edition for convenient purchasing.

Happy Summer!

Le propriétaire

My Rent Is Due!

Let’s Not Hit Each Other

We Are Not Sheep

2 + 2 = 5

Loves, Delights, & Organs

Alphonse Allais Reader

The Blaireau Affair

Captain Cap: His Adventures, His Ideas, His Drinks

Pink and Apple-Green

Double Over

I Am Sarcey

Long Live Life!

Masks: Deluxe Special Edition

No Bile!

Selected Plays of Alphonse Allais

The Squadron’s Umbrella  

 

LIGHT THOSE FIREWORKS, BABY!

222 titles and counting, and we’re counting on you to keep us going. Support this small independent press and help the good Scat keep on rolling.

HAPPY SUMMER!

JAFFE

With deep sadness Black Scat Books mourns the loss of a great writer and good friend.

WHET YOUR APPETITE…

Here’s your chance to sample 14 titles in the Pocket Erotica Series, the
seminal series of classic & contemporary erotic fiction.

This mouth-watering anthology includes:

Travels to Merryland. Anonymous
From Their Lips to His Ear. Denis Diderot
Priapeia. Anonymous
A Judge Deceived. Marquis de Sade
A Good Girl’s Home Companion. Lawrence Hamilton
A Handbook of Manners for the Good Girls of France. Pierre Louÿs
Poems of Lust & Desire. Various
Jean-Fucque. Louis Aragon / RJ Dent
Eve’s Academy. Eurydice Eve
A Dirty Story as You Like It. Kim Vodicka
Escape Artists. Su Orwell
Grand Hotel Vittoria. Nina Ansani
The Obedience Room. Catherine D’Avis
The Desire Box. Laure Favager

THE POCKET EROTICA READER

A Connoisseur’s Sampler
Edited by Norman Conquest
New Urge Editions
Paperback; 178 pp.; $14
ISBN 979-8-9908521-5-0