Category: absurdism

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What a great way to start 2026 — “The Eros Issue” of TYPO: The International Journal of Prototypes #13 — 160 pages of prurient prose, poetry, & titillating graphics. Featuring Nile Southern‘s Oulipian dive into Daddy Terry Southern‘s classic novel CANDY; Amy Kurman on silent stag films; an interview with a bisexual Surrealist vampire; suggestive covers from a 1930s French glamour zine; a report on a shocking Parisienne incident by Alfred Jarry; excerpts from Walter Serner‘s novel THE TIGRESS; and much more.

This special issue includes stellar works by Madeleine de L’Aubépine; Marcel Béalu; Erik Belgum; Tristan Bernard; Terry Bradford; R J Dent; Mike Ferguson; Rachel Galvin; Massimo Gatta; Edward Gauvin; Alfred Jarry; Gabriel de Lautrec; George MacLennan; Alfred de Musset; Opal Louis Nations; Ernesto López Parra; Alejandro Albarrán Polanco; Bernard Quiriny; James Richie; George Sand; Doug Skinner; Lono Taggers; Corinne Taunay; Robin Tomens; Paul Willems, and Mark Wyatt.

Don’t miss TYPO 13.

Hats off to Norman Conquest (again)

DON’T WORRY, IT’S NOT ABOUT HATS
by Norman Conquest

Originally published in 2012 (and long out of print), this is the THIRD BIG PRINTING of this absurd pamphlet. It features a play, a poem, and some hexapods. What more could you ask for?… Okay-okay, it doesn’t have a spine, but so what. Do you really want to advertise the fact you read books by Norman Conquest? (That’s a rhetorical question.)

CLICK HERE to add this classic to your library.

Catalogue Madness

Take a deep dive into Belgian Surrealism and Paul Delvaux in this special edition.

This extraordinary catalogue features full color reproductions of never-before-seen paintings, with specifications and background details on each work. It includes the original clandestine “Surrealist Map of Belgium” (with annotations), plus rare documents and archival photographs restored to their original glory.

Paul Delvaux

Lono Taggers has spent years compiling this faux edition, scouring secondhand bookshops in Brussels and Paris—tracking down reclusive collectors and hostile connoisseurs—breaking into archives and bribing greedy relatives of Paul Delvaux.

Black Scat Books has spared no expense in bringing to light these exceedingly rare paintings and historic Surrealist documents.

CLICK HERE and order your copy now.

PUMPING IRONY

In this issue we’re pleased to present the first English translation of a novelette by the surrealist writer André Pieyre de Mandiargues. You’ll also find previously unavailable translations from a diverse selection of neglected avant-garde literary masters like Marcel Schneider, Bernard Quiriny, Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando, Walter Serner, and others. While these writings range from baroque to fantastic, from dada to surrealism and back, together they helped populate modern literary art.

TYPO #10: The International Journal of Prototypes
Trade paperback, 158 pp., $20
ISBN 979-8-9923826-6-2 

Poèmes phonétiques; DADA; Surrealism, visual poetry; fantasy; Lettrism; experimental fiction.

IN THIS ISSUE: Chiara Ambrosio; Tim Newton Anderson; Terry Bradford; Shawn Garrett; Edward Gauvin; Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando; Thibault Jacquot-Paratte; Mark Kanak; Amy Kurman; André Pieyre de Mandiargues; George MacLennan; Frank Nims; Giambattista Palatino; Angelo Pastormerlo; Maurice Pons; Mirtha Pozzi; Bernard Quiriny; Jason E. Rolfe; Marcel Schneider; Walter Serner; Doug Skinner; Phil Demise Smith; Lono Taggers; Corinne Taunay; Gregory Wallace.

TYPO 10 — an instant collector’s item. Available worldwide.

To order outside the USA, click on your flag:

CA

INANE Is Insane!

A little compendium stuffed with inspired infestations of inanity — from subtle emanations to cartoon lunacy. It’s sprinkled with squirmy absurdist specimens. Indeed, this is an anthology to cherish, worship, and drool over, featuring a range of deranged artists & writers, including Ivars Balkits; Tom Barrett; Michael Cheval; Norman Conquest; R J Dent; Boris Glikman; Rhys Hughes; Mark Kanak; Allan Randolph Kausch; Amy Kurman; David Macpherson; Catulle Mendès; T. Motley; David Paddy; Doug Skinner; Lono Taggers; and Phil Demise Smith.

ON SALE NOW!
Number 50 in the Absurdist Texts & Documents Series.

Three Strikes You’re Out …


Lost souls frozen—albeit pointlessly— in sporting poses; suspended in time like extra innings. Poor lost souls waiting to come home while the world has vanished.

Norman Conquest is a verbo-visual artist based in Northern California. His work has appeared in many publications in the U.S. and Europe. He is the author of over 40 books, including the underground classic, A Beginner’s Guide to Art Deconstruction (Permeable Press) and, most recently, Smells Like Teen ‘Pataphysics (Black Scat).

Farm Team Ballet
Norman Conquest
Illustrated; chapbook,‎ 46 pp., paper, $12
Absurdist Texts & Documents #49
ISBN 979-8992382655

“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.

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  

 

A COLLAGE NOVEL FOR THE AGES

When a tsunami of smut floods the city of London, the Anti-Smut Brigade is at sixes and sevens. Scotland Yard yanks Sir Reginald Fuzz out of retirement, for he  is their last best hope of saving the Empire.

Can the foremost moralist, expert on the perils of porno, and ex-chief of the Anti-Smut Brigade (par excellence),  stem the tide of this degenerate invasion?  

Or… will Great Britain go to hell in a handbasket like the Roman Empire? 

Time is running out.  Big Ben is ticking . . .

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR FUZZ AGAINST SMUT

“Time Trip Incarnate! I thought my fingers (and brain) would explode—this classic Infernal Machine is reignited!… Magnificent!”
—Nile Southern, author of The Candy Men: The Rollicking Life and Times of the Notorious Novel Candy

“Fuzz Against Smut reanimates what has become an endangered subspecies of comedy: madcap, manic, wildly absurd, sublimely subversive humor. (As exemplified by – among others – the Marx Brothers, Lenny Bruce, William Burroughs, Terry Southern, Lord Buckley, and Akbar del Piombo.) This is a zany, quirky and very funny book, an antic fable for our fractured times and a balm for weary minds.”  —Gregory Stephenson, author of Alias Akbar del Piombo

“In 100 years, hipsters will take college classes on Terry Southern, Roland Topor, and Derek Pell. This book will be required reading. Playing the long game, Pastormerlo and Pell’s masterstroke does for smut what Trump did for infectious diseases.”  —Paul Rosheim

“The original ‘Fuzz Against Junk’ text was funny and its images were engaging; this takeoff is even funnier, and more deeply and intricately illustrated. A topnotch homage.”  – M. Kasper

“FUZZ is a wonderland of literary confusions that will enrich your soul.” —Doug Rice

“A fun read.” —John Coulthart

Fuzz Against Smut: The Saga of the Anti-Smut Brigade
Angelo Pastormerlo & Derek Pell, with collages by Norman Conquest
Absurdist Texts & Documents #48
Paperback, profusely illustrated; 105 pp., $15

Rare Fuzz postcard