HAPPY NEW YEAR!

January 1, 2026January 1, 2026

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.

NEW ISSUE!

October 1, 2025October 1, 2025

IN THIS ISSUE:
Julien Gracq’s “The House”
Albert Cossery’s “Perpetually Barking Man”
The Belgian School of the Bizarre
Paul Nougé’s Optic Unveiled
A “Surreal Wheels” pictorial
Doug Skinner’s intrusive Reader Survey
A rare Boggle toss
Bouncing Draculas
An Oulipian crossword puzzle
And more avant-garde goodness.

FEATURING 38 LUMINARIES: Robert Archambeau; Corina Bardoff; Terry Bradford; Igor Bulatovsky; Paul Busson; Apollo Camembert; Norman Conquest; Albert Cossery; Noël Devaulx; Rachel Galvin; Jean-Luc Gameau; Shawn Garrett; Edward Gauvin; Julien Gracq; Pierre Autin-Grenier; Daniel Y. Harris; Rick Henry; Esteban Isnardi; Julia Lillard; Joshua Martin; George MacLennan; Dmitri Manin; Paul Nougé; Thomas Owen; Angelo Pastormerlo; Alejandro Albarrán Polanco; Bernard Quiriny; Adam Ranđelović; Simon Read; Doug Skinner; Lono Taggers; Mark Valentine; Tim Walker; Gregory Wallace; Alyson Waters; Andrew Wenaus; Tom Whalen; Bill Wolak.

TYPO #12: The International Journal of Prototypes
edited by Norman Conquest & Paul Rosheim
Trade paperback; 157 pp., illustrated.
ISBN 979-8-9923826-9-3

Hats off to Norman Conquest (again)

September 21, 2025

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.

11 is HEAVEN

June 30, 2025June 30, 2025

IN THIS ISSUE: Alphonse Allais; Terry Bradford; Norman Conquest; Lynn Crawford; John Dee; S. C. Delaney; Luc Fierens; Shawn Garrett; Edward Gauvin; Paulette Hampton; Isidore Isou; Ben D. Jaeger; Paul Kavanagh; Amy Kurman; Joel Lipman; George MacLennan; André Pieyre de Mandiargues; Marcel Mariën; Sean G. Meggeson; Thomas Owen; Angelo Pastormerlo; Agnès Potier; Bernard Quiriny; Paul Rosheim; Alberto Savinio; Doug Skinner; Corinne Taunay; Michel Vachey; and D. Harlan Wilson.

Featuring

SUBTERRANEAN ART SHARDS
“PAPA BACH”
MARCEL MARIEN’S “AUTOPORTRAIT”
LUC FIERENS COLLAGES
D. HARLAN WILSON SPECULATIVE FICTION
“ISOU: THE JAMES DEAN OF LETTRISM”
JAEGER ON “THE RITES OF ECSTASY

PLUS new translations of André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Michel Vachey, Alberto Savinio, Alphonse Allais, Bernard Quiriny, & Thomas Owen.

TYPO: The International Journal of Prototypes #11
154 pp., trade paperback; $20
ISBN 979-8-9923826-8-6

Summer Reading…

May 14, 2025

Avant-garde composer & poet, Mirtha Pozzi in Paris.

Don’t miss the current issue of TYPO: The International Journal of Prototypes, featuring the first English translation of a novelette by surrealist André Pieyre de Mandiargues, and previously unavailable translations from a diverse selection of neglected literary masters: Marcel Schneider, Bernard Quiriny, Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando, Walter Serner, and others. Plus art and startling surprises.

INANE Is Insane!

March 18, 2025

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.

Dig in!

March 10, 2025

Alphonse Allais’s collected stories were published in eleven volumes between 1892 and 1902. He called these books his “Anthumous Works.” With the publication of Feeding Time, Black Scat has now issued all of them—all first English translations by Doug Skinner.

Our stellar, 17-volume Alphonse Allais Collection is now complete and includes six additional volumes: Captain Cap: His Adventures, His Ideas, His Drinks; The Blaireau Affair, Allais’s only novel; Selected Plays of Alphonse Allais; I Am Sarcey, his stories featuring Francisque Sarcey; Alphonse Allais’s Masks: Deluxe Special Edition. (an illustrated version of one of his stories); and our sampler, The Alphonse Allais Reader.

If you haven’t discovered France’s greatest humorist, dig in!

FEEDING TIME
Alphonse Allais
Translated by Doug Skinner
Paperback; 168 pp.; $14.95
ISBN 979-8-9923826-4-8

Three Strikes You’re Out …

January 18, 2025

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

It must be fate, 8 is great…

October 31, 2024

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

Sweet Sixteen!

July 12, 2024July 12, 2024

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!