The Terrible Twos!

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JULY 4TH — Black Scat Books is celebrating two years of publishing sublime art and literature. In just 24 months we’ve published over 60 titles.

Since July 4th, 2012, we’ve had the honor to publish many innovative artists and writers from around the world, including Alphonse Allais (France), Alain Arias-Misson (France),  Mark Axelrod, G. Mackenzie Bacon, Honoré de Balzac (France), Allan Bealy, Eleanor Bennett (UK), Peppo Bianchessi (Italy), Poggio Bracciolini (Italy), Pierre Henri Cami (France), Pedro Carolino (Portugal), Norman Conquest, John Crombie (Paris), Farewell Debut, Ryan Forsythe, Eckhard Gerdes, Judson Hamilton, C.S. Hibbard (UK), Isidore Isou (France), Harold Jaffe, M. Kasper, Ievgen Kharuk (Ukraine),  Richard Kostelanetz, Michael Leigh (UK), Samantha Memi (UK), Monika Mori (Austria),  Ellen Nations, Opal Louis Nations, John Nickle, Derek Pell, Gisèle Prassinos (France), Frank Pulaski, Doug Skinner, Terry Southern, Yuriy Tarnawsky, Michel Varisco, Jana Vukovic (Serbia), Tom Whalen, and Ed Wood.

And in the seven issues of our magazine (Black Scat Review) we’ve published many others. All these men and women are what make this little indie publishing house truly unique. After all, without them Black Scat Books would be nothing but blank pages.

A special thank you goes to all of our readers who have kept this ship afloat during troubled times. Without you…well, there wouldn’t even be a blank page.

Finally, for those who have yet to discover the joy of Scat, may we suggest these recent titles. They’re guaranteed to add some fireworks to your bookshelves.

 

THE UNKNOWN ADJECTIVE AND OTHER STORIES by Doug Skinner

CROCODILE SMILES: SHORT SHRIFT FICTIONS by Yuriy Tarnawsky

WOMEN THAT DON’T EXIST by Frank Pulaski

THE DERANGEMENT OF JULES TORQUEMAL by Robert Wexelblatt

REAR WINDOWS: AN INSIDE LOOK AT FIFTY FILM NOIR CLASSICS

‘S A BIRD by Eckhard Gerdes

SURREALIST TEXTS by Gisèle Prassinos

The special  “LIT NOIR” issue of BLACK SCAT REVIEW

 

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

Even more fun than fireworks!

Witty and ingenious comics from the exceptionally-talented writer, musician, performer, ventriloquist, and cartoonist Doug Skinner. It’s exciting to finally have these little-seen strips available in one beautiful book. You may be reminded of Voltaire or Ernie Bushmiller while reading these meticulously drawn stories featuring utterly hapless characters, but Mr. Skinner has a style all his own.

  —R. Sikoryak (Masterpiece Comics)

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“Mr. Skinner knows many terrible, terrible secrets about us. We are once again fortunate that he chooses to share them so deftly and so altruistically.” —Mark Newgarden

What is the truth behind the “Unknown Adjective”?

Will Walter and Benny find the elusive batworm? What really goes on out in “Cowboy Country”? And can Dr. Docket find a cure for all that ails Mr. Pert? You’ll discover the answers to these and other burning questions in this profusely illustrated collection of comics and picture stories from the brilliant (albeit peculiar) mind of Doug Skinner. Take a look inside and see for yourself. Your daily dilemmas will soon seem inconsequential, and the laughter you hear may turn out to be your own.

BLACK SCAT BOOKS proudly presents Doug Skinner‘s curious comics in a large format (10 x 8 x 0.3 inches) trade paperback edition, featuring over 100 pages of wicked strips designed to disrupt “normal” thought patterns.

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CLICK HERE for a peek….

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Direct from Red China—the Shocking Underground Classic!

COMMIE-COVER

As capitalist running dog days of August approach, we are preparing to release one of the most controversial books ever published—THE LITTLE RED BOOK OF COMMIE PORN.

Long suppressed and banned in Red China, this incendiary work has never before been seen by Western eyes. So shocking and graphic are its contents that anyone found possessing it in the People’s Republic faced years of re-education or—during Mao’s reign—execution. The Great Helmsman himself urged party members to “strike down pinko porno!” yet was rumored to have kept a copy under his pillow. Throughout Peking, anti-Commie Porn posters warned citizens to “Pound Bourgeois Stroke Books with Red Fists of Fury!”…“Oppose Sex Worship!”... “Struggle Vigorously—Defeat Yankee-Panky!”, etc.

In 2013, two notorious California-based artists—Terri Lloyd and Norman Conquest—conspired to obtain a copy of the original banned edition. Disguised as tourists, they traveled to China and smuggled out a rare, running dog-eared copy.They have devoted nearly a year to disinfecting its pages, fine-scanning the lewd illustrations, and translating the often cryptic Red Guard “pornoganda” slogans into English.

EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS TITLE IS OUT OF PRINT AND NO LONGER AVAILABLE

Word Champions!

Last Saturday’s BLACK SCAT AUTHORS PUNCHOUT at the Emily Harvey Foundation in NYC was packed. The bloodthirsty crowd was eager to see a K.O. but had to settle for wine. Nothing beats a night of fiction and fisticuffs and these  “Lit Bull” contenders were all victorious—Alain Arias-Misson, Yuriy Tarnawsky, Karen Moller, and (in absentia) Frank Pulaski.

Karina Tarnawsky deserves high praise for presiding over the unruly crowd as MC.  Here are a few shots of the event.

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Alain Arias-Misson, Yuriy Tarnawsky, Karen Moller

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Yuriy Tarnawsky; Karina Tarnawsky (MC) Karen Moller, and Alain Arias-Misson

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Word is Out

READERS

Discerning art lovers are talking about Frank Pulaski‘s provocative new book, WOMEN THAT DON’T EXIST. While the young woman in this photograph has chosen to peruse it in public, many will prefer to enjoy it in private.

The artist’s ephemeral, fresco’d goddesses drift just out of reach, taunt and haunt us, inspire desire and erotic obsessions. Indifferent brides and savage debutantes, sirens and succubi, dream queens, and surrealist girls next door. You’ll find them all in this stunning Black Scat Classic Interim Edition—guaranteed to ignite your imagination.

THIS TITLE IS OUT OF PRINT

Please don’t feed the . . .

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Female barbers attached to a pair of scissors that won’t stop, women who can’t conceal hard-earned wads of hundred dollar bills sticking up under their polka dot bikini bottoms, adulteresses who bludgeon their husbands to bloody deaths, Dostoyevskian prostitute virgins, compulsive seductresses who delight in torturing tall wimpy men, all shown in a blinding bright light on an absurdist stage. Are crocodiles capable of smiling if they can’t cry?

A dazzling new collection of absurdist “short shrift fictions” by Yuriy Tarnawsky, author of THE PLACEBO EFFECT TRILOGY.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR CROCODILE SMILES:

“In case you have missed the voice of the rich, courageous, adventurous fiction writing of Yuriy Tarnawsky, this collection will be a great introduction. You will experience his unique ability to meld wicked humor and looming gravitas.One of the great under-recognized talents in the fiction of the 20th – 21st century.” —Steve Katz

“If Frankenstein had had the wit of Groucho Marx and the subtle plasticity of Magritte he might have written these magical and dangerous stories instead of Yuriy Tarnawsky.The master of short tails has struck again! Frightening, funny and baffling as ever!” —Alain Arias-Misson

“Yuriy Tarnawsky’s fictional world is one in which every object and every action is meaningful. Haircuts have meaning. Two refrigerators are alive with ominous activity. Kafka meets Sartre (implying hell is… other bugs!).  Sweet porridge can ‘assuage the victim’s suffering.’ The stories are perfectly envisioned, as if Tarnawsky had just landed on this earth with his sense of wonder still intact, looking at everything and trying to understand. Reading these stories is like learning to see all over again!” —Eckhard Gerdes

Order the trade paperback edition now.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Yuriy Tarnawsky has authored some three dozen books of fiction, poetry, drama, essays, and translations in Ukrainian and English, most recently The Placebo Effect Trilogy—three volumes of interrelated mininovels—and Modus Tollens—a volume of Heuristic poetry. His affinity for animals is well exemplified not only in Crocodile Smiles but also in such books as the collection of stories Short Tails, in the second volume of the Trilogy, The Future of Giraffes, and most vividly in his best-known novel Three Blondes and Death. He was born in Ukraine but was raised and educated in the West. An engineer and linguist by training, he has worked as a computer scientist specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing as well as professor of Ukrainian Literature and Culture. He lives with his wife Karina in the New York City metropolitan area.

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Author photo: Oleh Holovackiy