I’ve drawn a few pages under the rubric “Shorten the Classics.” Each is four panels, and abbreviates a famous work of literature, usually by nipping it in the bud. Tragedies are averted, murders prevented, adulteries blocked. Derek Pell of Black Scat Books urged me to draw a book of them, so that’s what I’m doing […]

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Here’s another classic nipped in the bud, from Black Scat Review 18. This would save everyone a lot of trouble.

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Here’s another example of a classic work of literature nipped in the bud. Potions are often unpalatable! This too appeared in the latest issue of the Black Scat Review.

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Black Scat Review #18 is now available! This jam-packed issue contains four pages of my comic strip “Shorten the Classics,” an excerpt from my translation of Alfred Jarry’s play The Pope’s Mustard-Maker, and my translations of poems by Charles Cros, Jules Jouy, and Laurent Tailhade. You will also find contributions by Mark Axelrod, Angela Buck, […]

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Here’s an example of my comic strip “Shorten the Classics,” one of four for an upcoming issue of the Black Scat Review. This version of “The Raven” not only makes it more concise, but gives it a happier ending. Please click on it to make it more legible.

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Instrumentarium is now available from Black Scat Books! This delightful volume collects the drawings of imaginary musical instruments I contributed monthly to Le Scat Noir, plus many previously unpublished. Among the 180 selected here are such inventions as the Painpipes, the Sprinkler Trombone, the Sponge Marimba, and the Calfbell. As our culture grows ever more reductive […]

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I’m currently collecting my cartoons of imaginary musical instruments, which appeared in the PDF magazine Le Scat Noir, into a book. I also drew some new ones. Here are a few.  

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Jon B. Cooke’s Book of Weirdo, an encyclopedic history of R. Crumb’s sorely-missed humor magazine, is now out from Last Gasp. It includes reminiscences from most of the artists, as well as photos from the time they contributed. A cartoon of mine was published in the 13th issue, so I’m in there with everyone else. […]

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101 Cartoons from Le Chat Noir: Early Comics from Bohemian Paris is now available from Black Scat Books! “Le Chat Noir” was one of the liveliest avant-garde papers in 19th century Paris. Published by the legendary cabaret, it delivered a weekly blast of anarchism, pranks, Decadent poetry, and black humor by such luminaries as Alphonse Allais, […]

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A black cat investigates six absinthe glasses, in an illustration for my translation of No Bile!, by Alphonse Allais, to be published soon by Black Scat Books. Most of the stories were originally published in Le Chat Noir, Allais often mentions absinthe, and I’ve included six extra stories.

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