APOLLO HAS LANDED!


“A work exuding such inventiveness, playfulness, humor, and heart, it dazzles the imagination.”
—Jeff Weisman, author of The Greatest Place on Earth

“A novella for our times, the author illuminates a world of uncertainty, misfortune, and absurdity with astonishing accuracy, simultaneously crafting a powerful and compelling story infused with hope and humor in his signature style.” —Adrienne Auvray

Apollo Camembert’s first novel, The Isolate, tells the tale of a man who has become so fed up with city life that he holes himself up in stealth housing to avoid all personal contact with the outside world. Unfortunately, the outside world has some nasty tricks up its sleeve.

We could say more, but that would risk giving too much away and we don’t want to spoil the fun. What we can reveal is that “Apollo Camembert” is the brainchild (and nom de plume) of Eckhard Gerdes who, after writing his gargantuan The Chronicles of Michel du Jabot, began composing shorter works, i.e., novellas and flash fictions, including two recent releases from Black Scat: Marco & Iarlaith and The Pissers’ Theatre.

We invite you to escape into Camembert’s quirky fictional world — a world you won’t soon forget.

THE ISOLATE
a novel by Apollo Camembert
paperback; 132 pp., $12.95
ISBN 979-8-9869224-6-1


Praise for Eckhard Gerdes’ THE  CHRONICLES OF MICHEL DU JABOT

“Whatever you do, don ´t even look into Eckhard Gerdes’ book, The Chronicles of Michel du Jabot, because you’ll never get out of it again! If J. Joyce were to be reincarnated—and instead of writing in his inextricably reinvented and rather illegible (without the help of an East European multi-lingual scholar) Panglish, were to practice an altogether clear and charmingly grammatical English as here (admittedly with a scatter of soft linguistic implosions but few)—he would have written this book. It will take generations of English professors to sort it out. Hilarious semantic sport. And don’t expect me to tell you what it is about. I would have to give you a involuted idio-semantic analysis with innumerable brackets and labels, which wouldn’t help anyway. No, okay then, dare to tip-toe into the cavernous echoing brain-chamber of Gerdes’ The Chronicles and if you’re  lucky you’ll come tumbling out into the dull everydaylight with a mad enlightened gleam in your eyes and will never read another novel. Yes, this- not Finnegans Wake—is the novel to end the novel.” —Alain Arias-Misson, author of Autobiography of a Character from Fiction

MAD SCATTER

Forthcoming Titles:

Let’s Not Hit Each Other
Alphonse Allais

Her Three Daughters
Pierre Louÿs

Capital of Pain
Paul Éluard

Night Dreams: A Poem for Two Voices and a Secret Piano
Céline Arnauld

JUST IN TIME FOR SUMMER…

photograph: T. Motley


The lovely “Lewd, Nude & Rude” issue of BLACK SCAT REVIEW has stormed the beach!

As you’ve come to expect, the issue is filled with Sublime Art & Literature — innovative fiction, eye-popping graphics, works in translation, and spicy absurdities. Featuring 131 pages packed with an international cast of contributors: Mark Axelrod; Thomas Barrett; Sebastian Bennett; Giacomo Girolamo Casanova; Norman Conquest; R J Dent; Dawn Avril Fitzroy; Eckhard Gerdes; Alexander Krivitskiy; Amy Kurman; Hélène Lavelle; Marc Levy; Olchar E. Lindsann; Clément Marot; Lilianne Milgrom; Alison Miller; T. Motley; Angelo Pastormerlo; Gerard Sarnat; Doug Skinner; Valéry Soers; Jean Donneau de Visé; Gregory Wallace; Tom Whalen; and David Williams.

Have a bang-up Memorial Day!

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH!

Step right up! The “Funhouse” issue is now available. It walks, it talks, it crawls on its belly like a reptile . . .

Featuring astounding art and fiction by  Mark Axelrod; Tom Barrett; David Berger;  Norman Conquest; R J Dent; Muriel Falak; Eckhard Gerdes; Richard Gessner; Alfred Jarry; Richard Kostelanetz; Amy Kurman; Mantis; Kate Meyer-Currey; Bob McNeil; Lillianne Milgrom; Lance Olsen; Paul Rosheim; Doug Skinner; Nile Southern;  and Jim Yoakum.

Ladies and gents, grab your copy now!


P L A Y T I M E

Cover boy: Raymond Queneau

BLACK SCAT REVIEW 23: Wordplay
Bask in the lilt & spew of vowels & consonants, the litter of letters lost & found, visual lipograms, puzzles, puns, and blazing wordplay from the KO Corral.

FEATURING: Mark Axelrod, Tom Barrett, Kevin Brown, Norman Conquest, Brian Coughlan, John Crouse, S. C. Delaney, Paul Forrestal, Ryan Forsythe, Eckhard Gerdes, Penelope Gerdes, Joseph Harms, Amy Kurman, Opal Louis Nations, Angelo PastormerloSteve Patterson, Derek Pell, Agnès Potier, Raymond Queneau, Paul Rosheim, Gerard Sarnat, Doug Skinner, Michel Vachey, Carla M. Wilson, and D. Harlan Wilson.

AN ERROR-FILLED TREASURE TROVE!

The long-awaited “errata” issue is now available.

FEATURING WORKS BY: Terri Carrion, Norman Conquest, Caroline Crépiat, Farewell Debut, S. C. Delaney, Jean-Pierre Duffour, Errorbiblioteca, Paul Forristal, Ryan Forsythe, Eckhard Gerdes, Rhys Hughes, Amy Kurman, Alex McKeown, Claudio Parentela, Angelo Pastormerlo, Agnès Potier, Collin J. Rae, C. R. Resetarits, Jason E. Rolfe, Paul Rosheim, Doug Skinner, Kristine Snodgrass, Linda Klieger Stillman, Corinne Taunay, Michel Vachey, Carla M. Wilson.

IS THE FOURTH WALL A URINAL?

In Eckhard Gerdes’s fifteenth novel, two women friends — one from the city, the other from the suburbs — attend opening night of a cryptic new play: “Pissers’ Theatre.” Oddly enough, both the play and the theatre it’s being presented in have been designed to accommodate audience incontinence. Thus, the production pauses whenever someone needs to empty their bladder. This bizarre experiment plays havoc with the show’s continuity and leads our heroines into strange places — onstage and off.

THE PISSERS’ THEATRE
Eckhard Gerdes
Trade paperback; 112 pp., $12.95
ISBN 978-1-7357646-9-6

TOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Just in time for Xmas — all the world’s knowledge in a single stocking stuffer!

Le Scat Noir Encyclopédie et Dictionnaire de la Pataphsique, des arts et du savoir humain, par une société d’hommes et de femmes de lettres (volume deux) has arrived. This sublime paperback encyclopedia packs everything you need for a successful life of the mind into a single volume. Over 100 pages! This profusely illustrated edition is a must-have for collectors of arcane facts, bizarre biographies, astounding science, impossible inventions, and cryptic definitions. You’ll find everything under the sun from Absentee to Zyborg.

Featuring over 40 distinguished experts from around the globe, including: Adrienne Auvray, Mark Axelrod, Tom Barrett, Norman Conquest, Caroline Crépiat, René Descartes, Peter Gambaccini, Eckhard Gerdes, Charles Holdefer, Rhys Hughes, Tractor Inspector, Alfred Jarry, M. Kasper, Richard Kostelanetz, Amy Kurman, Librairie Larousse, Michael Leigh, Olchar E. Lindsann, Musée Patamécanique, Opal Louis Nations, Daren Elsa Nibelly, Dr. Novalis, Pata-No , Richard Peabody, Mercie Pedro, Derek Pell, Charlotte Porter, Frank Pulaski, Jason E. Rolfe, Sourav Roy, Dr. I. L. Sandomir, Paulette Single, Doug Skinner, Maddy Smith, Linda Klieger Stillman, Corinne Taunay, Text Fixer, Kimberly Vodicka, Tom Whalen, Femke van der Wijk, Carla Wilson.

Order now and we’ll include this lovely back cover…

“You can’t judge a book by its barcode.” —Norman Conquest