un regard moderne

...mandatory in Paris is a visit to un regard moderne; a legended retailer of small-press and otherwise marginal comix publications. Near neighbour is the former 'Beat Hotel': one-time home to Burroughs, Gysin, Balch et al.

To be honest: I found the selection - which is sufficiently extensive as to render human egress past the leaning 'skoob' towers of accumulated graphic detritus mortally perilous - a little disappointing. Ebay has been very kind to me in recent years & I've hoovered up some horribly obscured items (principally, in the Elles Sont De Sortie line) for what was relatively dirt-cheap (& correspondingly; proof also of just how difficult specialist retail is become in an increasingly global & digitised marketplace).

Such were the boom years of the Australian economy: in retrospect I can recognise what a supremely serendipitious thing it was to be earning real money while the Australian dollar actually traded at a decent rate of exchange... Upon returning, I stifled a weary yawn to make the final Goran Bregovic gig of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Bumped into a former colleague there, "we were worried you'd run out of money - the exchange rate went directly south for the Aussie, while you were away"... But I suspect, rather, that my timing could not have been better: I spent my savings while they still obtained a reasonable value.

Is financially much more tightened circumstances now, & perhaps not only for myself. But a joy it was to traipse about Europe in the knowledge that I didn't have to go back to work at the library. And now, the misremembered luxury of leisure moments in which to enjoy alla musique concrete vinyls and 'figuration libre' monographs. I've been hoarding gourmet artefacts of marginal creativity for the last 2 years, but with the defered expectation of ever being able to actually enjoy the damn things!

Anyways. Paris! Un Regard Moderne. Mark H found himself a graphic anthology of works by Roland Topor. I picked up the new Henriette Valium omnibus, and a collection of punky strips by Marc Caro; both of them published by L'Association (who did Persepolis, and the works of our friend Caroline's housemate, Florent)... some confoundingly beautiful books, but I was visited with much better luck at Bimbo Tower - digging up a long OOP #4 of L'Horreur est Humaine, and for a bare 4 Euros, heh heh...

Chester Brown does Chatterley

... the library has just finished accessioning a whole new batch of Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions. The editorial selection - which finds room for repress of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, & Jack London's The Iron Heel - is unapologetic in its militant humanism.

What is most striking about the best of these titles is the absolutely stunning packaging: these are genuinely beautiful books. Frank Miller does artwork for the Gravity's Rainbow of Pynchon, and a Dame Darcy portrait of Dot Parker is all over that anthology. Clearly the execs at Penguin have clues, nerve, and a budget.

This one kills me! The first time I read thru that cover graphic, my eyes teared up. Chester Brown's graphic summary is the passionate & feisty epicentre of the book. In his own way, Gamekeeper Mellors is just as impotent and powerless as any of the other characters; just a bit more outspoken, is all. But the cover's tension - between the furtive tenderness of the becalmed lovers, and the righteous outrage of abased humanity - is what makes this thing so powerful. (click on the image for a better look, in a new tab)

Book Illustrations 2: Trnka

... death & the emperor, from "The Nightingale"

Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales / by H. C. Anderson; illustrated by Jiri Trnka London : Spring Books, 1961

(This one figures in a book I copped as a long-ago b-day present from my Grandfather)


... Titania! A character sketch, for Trnka's stop-motion adaptation of:

A Midsummer Night's Dream / William Shakespeare ; with pictures from the film by Jiri Trnka Praha : Artia, 1960

A sad story: I bought a 16mm print of this one - technicolour, and in wide-screen scope - at a deceased estate auction for $21. I delegated some friends to collect it (the auction was interstate, you understand) & they grabbed the wrong reels - a Russian ballet film of the same title.

Stills can be found at the Kratky Film website...

... and some clips can be found on this site, and at youtube.

Book Illustrations 1: Revolt of the Angels

The revolt of the angels / by Anatole France ; translated by Mrs. Wilfrid Jackson; with illustrations & decorations by Frank C. Papé.

London : J. Lane, 1924

... more on Frank C. Papé can be found here

Lepidoptera of RMIT Library