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Hiya friends, how about these old new and used bargains in beautiful books? Hard cover, soft cover or you can rip it off and color your own - there’s no additional charge!
Seriously, sorta, we’ve got a very generous catalog at Bear Manor and “books” are still being published and read, I hope. Here’s some thoughts about them-
TALES OF THE OLD DETECTIVE - I only have the hardcover 10x71/2 and it’s really beautiful, with the Bruce Litz illustrations and superb Austin style. It pairs with Phil’s reading, but I don’t know if that’s available. If so, we could offer a combo (and I’m sure the soft cover is just as attractive) somehow. Also, TJ mentioned putting together a PA/DO audio release, which could also pair. Published in 2021.
CANNIBAL TACOS & BIG SUITCASE - OK, the Suitcase was my idea - and, as comically illustrated by Bruce Snyder - it’s really very surreal, as well as concealing the real first draft of Not Insane - it represents us working at it, and at the creative moment before Whacko’s death. Sort of a color souvenir.
OK - I don’t know who will read these two feature scripts - I was originally inspired by the scripts Ben was publishing, and thought we should resurrect the texts, which TJ had gone to great lengths to re-reproduce - The Odyssey is us making ourselves stars at the wrong time - it’s pretty good fun to read and put in the FT context - Saucer is 70s outrageous, but a good SF story, as is the outline for Lumpies. Zachariah explains a lot. Bruce has brought some scenes to vivid AI life And it has an intro by a respected SF writer - is that a market?
I’ve pitched them as “coffee table” books. Published in 2024.
EXORCISM & PROFILES
Exorcism is the script book for the Mushroom package - I thought people might want to perform them, but, so far, no. It’s limited - I split it off from Profiles (at 200 pp) when that book became too heavy. I told Peter we had TWO books coming out - tragically, that was our last call.
Profiles is an important text of 60s protest I think - it’s a much more varied and interesting content.All could be re-voiced for a show about 1967. Frankly, neither of them was very well designed (type’s too big), but I was in a groove with Valerie, and it was hard to find any designer who knew what a “script” was. They came out in 2012.
ANYTHYNGE - Speaking of design - this one was Valerie’s masterpiece, given the footnotes were bigger than the rest of the text. I think the first part - ANYTHYNGE with the footnotes is both the beginning and the end of FT - a wonderful spoof of acadeem and as intricate interweaving of boundless ideas as I could imagine. COUNT shows up in lot of places - this one is the earliest and briefest, after the endless variations of stage and record development. Yes, Armenian’s Paw is duplicated here. The second half is a development of the piece Phil and I first wrote for Big Mystery Joke Book. It’s the “Legend,” and I’m probably the only one who enjoys all the possible stories that could have been told. Litz art is great. Published in 2011.
FIGHTING CLOWNS - a true history according to me - plus half-a-dozen almost-there FT scripts - it’s the story of the end of the 70s and that version of FT. We really tried pretty hard there, at the end (and there’s more plus the Odyssey). It pairs with the download of the same name. (Valerie did her best here, and the book looks pretty good.) It’s the wrap-up and is of historical/biographical interest. Published in 2017.
DR. FIRESIGN’S FOLLIES - I stand by this book - especially the first 60 pp which nail down the beginnings of the first FT albums in detail - there’s no other biographical source. Also, this is the only narrative of Campoon 76. Published in 2008.
FLYING SAUCER MURDER CASE - the new edition (2024) redesigned by Bruce Snyder is just what I imagined. It’s a funny book all about LA in the early 50s. RONALD REAGAN MURDER CASE (2nd ed. 2018) ought to be taught in school - an accurate account of how a weekly radio show got made in 1945. It’s all set in LA in a glamorous time. Both ought to be plugged occasionally - I wish there was a 3rd - I’ve sketched one out.
TROLLING THE WOE - Pete’s book (originally 2011 but republished by BearManor), with some of me and illustrations by Phil Fountain - I hate to say it, but it’s all we have in print for him. There are also two P&B books, but I don’t have copies.
Conclusion! They think that he is insane! No, no, just looking at all the work - I don’t get a sales record separated by books - maybe Phil does. Strategically, it would be good for me to pin this income stream down so we can work on maximizing it.
For someone thinking biographically (not academically) as for a movie, Follies is a must-read for the albums (tho it doesn’t go far enough - I’ve done much the same intros for the download releases). There is a radio show of mine with interviews with all three about Electrician - is that available someplace TJ?
The thing that bothered me most about Braddock’s book is that it doesn’t reach beyond the Columbia albums (hardly past the first four) - at least thru the 70s to Fighting Clowns - that’s a career arc. There’s film thru the decade, which we dominate - for a while.
Happy New Years Cheers! David