crap hound… saving ephemeral material from the trash bin of culture…
by Art Chantry (art@artchantry.com)
you guys (& gals) should all buy this. it’s a little ‘zine called “crap hound”. this particular issue shown here is the latest in the series – a REPRINT of issue #4 (clowns, devils and bait). lately sean has been re-issuing the earlier (and impossible to find) issues because there is so much demand. but, he completely re-designs and re-catalogs the images. he estimates that about 25% of this re-issue is brand new to the publication. so, it’s definitely worth getting even if you have copies of the original release.
for those of you out there that don’t know about crap hound, it’s a little zine that began back in the early 1990’s. sean tejaratchi (the man behind the crap) was inspired by a legendary underground zine called “no comprende”. (now extremely rare – i only have a xerox of it) that was little more than a collection of weird images that some anonymous artist bound together into a zine and distributed. several sections of the thing were dedicated to odd and disturbing clip art that the guy had compiled. and those pages were what inspired sean to start crap hound.
AC:"mad scientist"!!! ha! that sums the guy up pretty nicely. sean is one of the very funniest people i've ever met. a truly dangerous mischevious wit. i actually sat around in my living room with him and jamie sheehan and watched the 9/11 attack unfold live on the tee vee. only time i ever saw him speechless.
the results were a series of issues, each dedicated to specific materials. issue #1 was entitled “death, telephones & scissors.” it collected together found clip art images from every imaginable source of (you guessed it) images of death, telephones and scissors. at this point i believe there are seven full issues collected of various demented subject matter, along with several re-issues of past issues fully re-construed as virtually new material.
now, due to legal issues (which sean fully discusses from many viewpoints in each issue – a running dialog, as it were) he has had to sub-title the magazine “a picture book for discussion and activity.” basically, his efforts are protected by first amendment rights and usage (after all, it’s an editorial publication and protected under free press laws). however, anybody who uses them for commercial gain (aka – as a “clip art” book) uses them at their own risk. crap hound is not responsible for your legal problems that could emerge. much of the material presented is copyright protected by their owners.
Read More: http://boingboing.net/2006/11/22/crap-hound-no-6-clip.html Doctorow:Crap Hound No. 6, the latest installment in her press's steady reissuance of the seminal clip-art zine. Created by Sean Tejaratchi, Crap Hound issues each featured a grand, disjointed theme -- issue six's is Death, Telephone and Scissors. Each page is a kind of collage of stark, black-and-white imagery of these things, laid out with a lot of wit and yet with a solemn appreciation for the subject.
he does NOT encourage you to use it as clip art. he is merely presenting collections of clip that he has gathered and compiled as a study of this stuff. it’s no hyberbole or lie. that’s exactly what these zines actually ARE. sean does the research and the critique and thoughtful study of what he has found. and sean is a great and extremely witty writer. the result is that these little mags are amazing reads as swell.
sean’s lifetime effort in saving this ephemeral material from the trash bin of culture is a noble and nearly saintly obsession. i loudly applaud his superhuman work and and extreme dedication to the task. he is personal hero of mine.
everybody should make the effort to obtain this latest issue. supply is slight and when it’s gone, it’s gone. i doubt he’ll ever d
third re-issue of this subject matter – there are so many more subjects to tackle.
Read More: http://www.needles-pens.com/newstuff.html The long awaited revised & expanded edition of the (at this point) zine cult classic Crap Hound #5 is here! This pressing is complete w/ a new cover & 35% new material, totaling out at 96 pages of HANDS, HEARTS & EYES! The 1st edition of this zine was released over a decade ago & with a print run of only a couple thousand! Hoarded by tattoo artists and graphic designers alike, the original issues are serious ebay fodder.
it’s available through show & tell press in portland, OR. individual copies should be ordered through the legendary ‘reading frenzy’ ‘zine store in portland (another intense and heroic effort of long standing). contact them to order individual copies at www.readingfrenzy.com.
copies can also be ordered through www.lastgasp.com, www.buyolympia.com and www.microcosmpublishing.com. in europe, get copies through mark pawson/disinfotainment – www.mpawson.demon.co.uk
you won’t be disappointed.
ADDENDUM:
AC:poor mike diana. he was like the only person in the united states legally banned from drawing (for a period of years). all because some twit thought his drawings were obscene and pressed charges.
apparently, it was ordered through the mail and thereby crossing state lines and arcane obscenity charges and even the FBI got involved. crazy. his comics were not that strange or offensive. it’s just that they went after him and he couldn’t afford to fight.
whatever became of mike diana? i worked on a poster to promote a show of his work after he got the obscene conviction. all his originals disappeared when they sent them back – through the mail. the insurance company had to pay up. strange event.
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