If not, here’s a taste from A CAMI SAMPLER.
Translated from the French by John Crombie
You can order the limited edition book right here.
BON APPETIT!
Category: Humor
Laughter & Cheer for the New Year!
We proudly present a New Year’s treat—#9 in our Absurdist Texts & Documents series: A CAMI SAMPLER, translated from the French by John Crombie in Paris. The collection includes 10 zany, Dadaesque microdramas by Pierre Henri Cami, plus nine pages of his rare drawings. This is the first collection of Cami’s mini plays to be published in the U.S.
From the introduction by John Crombie:
“Though blissfully ignored for most of his life by the
English-speaking public, Cami (Pierre Henri) remained
for four full decades one of France’s most prolific,
and acclaimed, comic authors. Hailed by his idol and
admirer Charlie Chaplin as ‘the greatest humorist in the
world,’ Cami was somewhat willfully omitted by André
Breton from his Anthologie de l’Humour Noir—no doubt
on account of his huge popular success—but admired
by other Surrealists. Between 1910, when he founded
Le Petit Corbillard Illustré, the ‘humorous organ of the
corporation of undertakers,’ and his death in 1958,
Cami published well over forty volumes of minidramas
and comic novels—notably The Memoirs of God-the-
Father, The Adventures of Loufock-Holmes, The Son of
the Three Musketeers, and the travels of his perhaps most
famous creation, Monsieur Rikiki and the Rikiki family—
as well as countless songs, strip cartoons, screenplays
and even operettas. Many of these he also illustrated.
But Cami was best known for his ‘dramatic fantasies,’
written mostly for La Vie Drôle, the humorous column
published weekly by Le Journal, where he had stepped,
somewhat belatedly, into the shoes of that column’s
immortal co-founder, Alphonse Allais. Self-styled
microdramas of everyday life, of legend, of history
(and even of geography), of true (and false) romance,
and more often than not of volupté, these screwball
skits look backward to the music hall and Alfred Jarry,
sideways to the Marx Brothers and forward to, in
England, the Goons and, in France, to the Theatre
of the Absurd.”
Edition limited to 100 copies.
THIS BOOK IS OUT OF PRINT
Word-Freaks of the World, Unite!
A new year, a new imprint: Black Scat Scholastic Classics (“A Wealth of Knowledge at Your Fingertips”), our premiere educational reference series.
We’re pleased to announce the first volume in the series—The Complete Unabridged Lexicon by Opal Louis Nations. Excerpts from this seminal (albeit eccentric) dictionary have appeared over the years in obscure little magazines and avant-garde broadsides, but now Black Scat Books unleashes the entire unexpurgated edition in a deluxe 128-page trade paperback. OUT OF PRINT
As for the OED…it’s time to toss that dusty dinosaur in the dumpster and make room for this contemporary masterpiece which, according to The Brighton Daily Herald “…gives new meaning to the word definition.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
photo by Ellen Nations
Opal Louis Nations was born in Brighton, England. During the mid-1960s he worked as lead vocalist in London clubs with the late Alexis Korner’s Band, and later his own group, The Frays. He helped popularize American soul-based R&B and gospel music in Great Britain. After brief periods with various London R&B bands, he turned his back on singing and began a career as an experimental fiction writer. His textual work, sometimes strange, sometimes humorous in nature, appeared in over 200 small press magazines around the world. He is the author of over 30 books of fiction, including The Strange Case of Inspector Loophole (Véhicule Press), Stabbed to Death with Artificial Respiration (Coach House Press), and Etiquette for Ladies and Gentlemen of Good Society (Obscure Publications), as well as drawings and collage. As an editor, he brought to the public’s attention fresh young poets and writers, both in the publication of books and through his literary magazine periodical, Strange Faeces. Nations currently spends his time interviewing gospel performers, writing articles on a regular basis for Blues & Rhythm, Soul Bag, and Dr. Jazz magazines (to name a few), conducting music research and compiling CD reissues for English and U.S. record companies.
Kate Moss Walks!
So begins one of the twisted tales in Samantha Memi‘s first collection of short fiction— KATE MOSS & OTHER HEROINES. OUT OF PRINT
Publisher’s Note: Read Elizabeth Archer’s interview with Samantha Memi in Black Scat Review #1.
The Perils of Science & Other Divertissements
Les périls de la science
We’re giddy over our lineup of new titles for 2013. Among the offerings…
• Adventures in Pataphysics—an anonymous classic of “imaginary solutions,” profusely illustrated in a deluxe limited edition. You can reserve a copy now by sending an email to blackscat@outlook.com No payment necessary, simply indicate that you’d like us to set one aside for you. The book is guaranteed to sell out quickly.
• Also in the wings, Captain Cap (Volume One) by the great Alphonse Allais. Faithfully translated from the French by Doug Skinner, this is the first in an exclusive, multi-volume series. This is the only English translation—a literary landmark—and a must-have for fans of the master absurdist.
• To start 2013 off with a grand guffaw, we’re serving up A Cami Sampler on New Year’s Day. Consider this a spicy dessert by a slightly mad French chef: ten cockeyed microdramas by Pierre Henri Cami, including 9-pages of his rare drawings. Translated by Paris-based Cami-connoisseur John Crombie, this collection is a scrumptious treat by a writer Charlie Chaplin hailed as “the greatest humorist in the world.”
And that’s just the tip of the smorgasbord, as Black Scat is also publishing works by Pedro Carolino, Florence Bocherel, Farewell Debut, Alain Arias-Misson and others. Plus new issues of Black Scat Review.
Solution imaginaire: Décodage sourire de Mona Lisa (from Adventures in ‘Pataphysics)
Happy New Year, All!
Sleepers Awake!
Black Scat Review awaits you like a shot of espresso. The new issue features steaming art by Florence Bocherel and Michael Leigh; eye-opening translations by John Crombie and Doug Skinner; plus jolts of piping hot fiction by Alphonse Allais, Pierre Henri Cami, Pedro Carolino, Crad Kilodney, Samantha Memi, Yuriy Tarnawsky, and Tom Whalen. And if that’s not enough to get you out of bed, check out the startling cover photo by S. N. Jacobson, and Elizabeth Archer’s revealing interview with Samantha Memi. Get your copy here.
This Book Has Legs
Sexy legs and a whole lot more.
Let yourself be seduced by a new comic voice. Meet talking Tampax, rebellious stilettos, singing lizards, weeping Lamborghinis, and heroines to die for—Guinevere, Marie Antoinette and, of course. Kate Moss.
These eight twisted tales by British writer Samantha Memi will dazzle, shock, and surprise.
CLICK HERE to order.
Black Scat News from London, Paris, Montreal & Austria
Exciting new books are on the way and you won’t want to miss them. 
We’ve just published Samantha Memi’s first collection of short fiction: Kate Moss & Other Heroines—#7 in our Absurdist Texts & Documents series. Memi is a gifted young British writer with a unique, offbeat voice. And if we didn’t know better we’d swear she’s a relation to the great French absurdist, Alphonse Allais. Also, the forthcoming first issue of Black Scat Review features an interview with the London-based writer.
The French humorist Pierre Henri Cami (1884–1958) is virtually unknown in America and Black Scat Books is proud to be the first to publish a collection of his writings & drawings in the States. A Cami Sampler
(Absurdist Texts & Documents #9) is translated by John Crombie whose Kiickshaws Press in Paris published several exquisite letterpress editions of works by Cami. Charlie Chaplin hailed Cami as “the greatest humorist in the world,” and if that’s hyperbole… well he’s certainly right up there alongside several Black Scat authors.
Another literary event coming your way—also in the AT&D series—is a text by the Romanian-born French poet and artist, Isidore Isou, founder of the art movement Lettrism. Translated by Doug Skinner, Considerations on the Death and Burial of Tristan Tzara has never before appeared in English. Isou recounts his bizarre and humorous behavior at Tristan Tzara’s funeral. It’s a rare tidbit of renegade art history.
In December, Black Scat will publish Shattered Rainbow by the Austrian artist Monika Mori. The book features a series of stunning abstract works created on x-rays with acrylics using a palette knife.
Florence Bocherel is an experimental comic artist/writer. She was born in London, but currently lives in Montreal, Canada. Black Scat will publish her graphic novel, Post-asphyx in 2013.
If you don’t buy this book…
That’s right, the terrorists will win.
A cheap scare tactic? Not on your life. It was a former president who instructed us to do our patriotic duty: shop till you drop.
But don’t take his word for it, just ask Ryan Forsythe, the author of IF YOU DON’T READ THIS THE TERRORISTS WILL WIN. He was tortured by the U.S. government and lived to tell this shocking (some might say hilarious) tale of faith, patriotism, and how to pitch a children’s book.
That may sound screwy, but these are screwy times. Just remember, the fate of the nation is in your hands.
OUT OF PRINT
