Think Spring!

idiotLooking ahead (no pun intended) to April, it’s going to be a Scatastic  month. Back in 2013, we issued a little limited edition chapbook titled HOW I BECAME AN IDIOT by Francisque Sarcey. It was actually written by the brilliant French humorist Alphonse Allais, who signed Sarcey’s name to a series of columns that appeared in the bohemian journal Le Chat Noir. Sarcey, a well-known drama critic, became the butt of jokes among the literati for his stodgy, conservative views (e.g., he blasted Alfred Jarry‘s absurdist classic UBU ROI).

Our limited edition sold out quickly, but it was just a sampler. Now Doug Skinner has compiled and translated all the columns in a delicious 200+ paged trade paperback edition: I AM SARCEY.

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These texts reveal Allais at his wicked best and the book is a must-have for fans of hilarious black humor. This volume marks the seventh title in our Alphonse Allais Collection, and our resident Allais scholar, Doug Skinner, provides a sublime introduction and notes on each text.

Only an idiot would pass up I AM SARCEY when it rolls off the press on April 1st.

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Also on tap is a special (redesigned) April Fools Issue of LE SCAT NOIR. You can download a copy on our web site (BlackScatBooks.net) on April 1st for FREE.

No joke!

Mark your calendars.

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Happy New Year!

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THE SCAT’S OUT OF THE BAG and we’re starting the New Year off with a BANG —the January issue of Le Scat Noir — crammed with art, fiction, poetry, translations, advice, horoscopes, lists, inspired doodles and detritus. Featuring contributions by an international roster: ALPHONSE ALLAIS, PAULO BRITO, PINK BUDDHA, SIMON CHILD, NORMAN CONQUEST, ECKHARD GERDES,  RUSSELL HELMS,  HAROLD JAFFE, JAN VANDER LAENEN,  TERRI LLOYD, SAMANTHA MEMI, SHEILA PELL, FRANK PULASKI, RON RIEKKI, STEPHEN SILKE, DOUG SKINNER, MADALINA TANTAREANU, TOM WHALEN, & CARLA M. WILSON.

LSN is published monthly by Black Scat Books and is available free online. You can download the new issue  HERE.

Spread the good turd.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

“Waiter — another Alphonse Allais — on the double!”

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Black Scat Books is proud to serve up the master absurdist’s inaugural collection,  containing his hand-picked favorites from the pages of Le Chat Noir, the bohemian journal that amused and scandalized Paris. Here you’ll find Allais in the first flush of his comic genius, spinning out elegant and hilarious gems of black humor on suicide, murder, obsession, and adultery. You will meet the philosophical cuckold, the young lady in love with a pig, the inventor of the Tumultoscope, and Ferdinand, the most resourceful duck in literature. Among the highlights is Allais’s most famous story, “A Thoroughly Parisian Drama,” a favorite of André Breton and Umberto Eco. This is the book’s first publication in English, and features seven additional stories from Le Chat Noir, as well as a sublime introduction, notes on the text, and drawings by Doug Skinner.

Belly laughs guaranteed.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER ON AMAZON

Hip! Hip! Allais! He Never Ages!

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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. Celebrate the master’s birthday with mirth, mischief, and cocktails!

And one of his sublime books translated by Doug Skinner, from Black Scat, of course.

The Blaireau Affair

Captain Cap: His Adventures, His Ideas, His Drinks

Selected Plays of Alphonse Allais

Masks

The Squadron’s Umbrella

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LSN “SPECIAL INFECTION ISSUE” NOW AVAILABLE!

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Due to the raging Ubu Trump shitstorm, we have rushed publication of the “SPECIAL INFECTION ISSUE” of Le Scat Noir.

Number 216 features a cast of luminaries: Alphonse Allais, Samuele Bastianello, Paulo Brito, Colin Dodds, Allen Forrest, Eckhard Gerdes, Derek Pell, Alice Pulaski, Frank Pulaski, Jason E. Rolfe, Erik Satie, and Doug Skinner.

Includes the complete, uncensored transcript of Norman Conquest‘s “Ubu Raw: As You Like It.”

The journal is free for all.

CLICK HERE to download.

Oulipian Wordplay & Ecstatic Constraints

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Pucker up your lipograms, OULIPO PORNOBONGO has arrived.

Our three,  limited edition volumes of the Anthology of Erotic Wordplay are out of print and scarce. Now the complete set has been compiled into one juicy paperback edition—Illustrated in shocking  full color. This is the book collectors have been drooling for.

Discover inspired works of constrained ecstasy by Alphonse Allais, Alain Arias-Misson, Paulo Brito, Norman Conquest, Rusty Cuffs, Farewell Debut, Tom La Farge, Larry Fondation, Paul Forristal, Ryan Forsythe, Eckhard Gerdes, Harold Jaffe, Roger Leatherwood, D.S. Macpherson, Samantha Memi, Ellen Nations, Opal Louis Nations, Andy O’Clancy, Lance Olsen, Derek Pell, Shane Roeschlein, Thaddeus Rutkowski, Maria Schurr, Lucy Selleck, Kebob G. Shoon, Doug Skinner, Tara Stillions Whitehead, and Giovanni Zuniga.

It’s a veritable orgy of art, text, and Oulipian mischief.

BONGO-COVER-FINAL

OULIPO PORNOBONGO
Anthology of Erotic Wordplay
edited by Norman Conquest
168 pages; illustrated, full color
trade paperback; $24.95

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

Act Now and receive…

BONUS

 

Surprise!

bday

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. Celebrate the master’s birthday with mirth, mischief, and cocktails!

And one of his sublime books translated by Doug Skinner, from Black Scat, of course.

The Blaireau Affair

Captain Cap: His Adventures, His Ideas, His Drinks

Selected Plays of Alphonse Allais

Masks

The Squadron’s Umbrella

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

toast_to_master

“To leave is to die a little, but to die is to leave a lot.” –-Alphonse Allais

Cheers!