PrettyFakes

FROM THE DIARY OF THE FMR. GUITARIST OF BLACK DIAMOND:

I am sitting in a bar somewhere in Chicago in what they call the Loop in what is probably a touristy kind of place, which should be okay because I am kind of a tourist, and they are playing Blue Train real loud over the speakers, which I do not really mind even though I am a rock and roll type person, and I am trying really hard not to order a drink or think about ordering a drink or how good a drink would taste except I am in a bar and that is the whole purpose of a bar in the first Goddamned place.

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This is a bag of Sandusky Reviews. More precisely, this is the pasted up masters and a stack of cardstock they’re gonna live on. After I make these artifacts I go through a pretty intense period of ambivalence—normally pride tinged with regret and embarrassment.

Things I like about this one: the AK-47 cover (each hand printed). The line I stole from my friend Lucas that opens the book and that I tried to make a little less bittersweet than it was when he wrote it. The drawing & lettering on the Gibson Explorer page.

The bad: the botched job I did on the Frankenstrat illustration. The Springsteen story. How uncomfortably personal some of it is.

Making art does not always feel good. But I am a rock and roll type person and that is just what we do.

Linoprint, 2010. From Wikipedia:

The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. The designation AK-47 stands for Kalashnikov Automatic Rifle, 1947 Model (Russian: Автомат Калашникова 47, tr. Avtomat Kalashnikova 47). It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova (or simply ‘AK’). Also it is known as Kalashnikov or Russian jargon Kalash.

Click to embiggen, as always.

Components of the back cover for the sixth artifact of the Sandusky Review. Speedball Speedy Carve block, silver paint with a little spit.

Test images for the cover for the newest Sandusky Review. The cover will be linocut prints of these AK-47s. Yes, it’s a sequel. No, I won’t tell you what happens—yet, anyway. The story has already been edited by the Prof. and Sally J. Nordan and now I just have to finish the interior illustrations.

If you still don’t have the latest Sandusky Review, you can snag a copy at Sneaky Beans in Fondren for a mere five bucks—and you’ll get nearly a hundred pages of poetry and drawings, plus an amazing hand-screened cover. There’s also SR4 (maybe my fave), at the blowout price of $2.

If you want to order from me, here’s the availability:

SR1: sold out
SR2: 6 left
SR3: sold out
SR4: about eight million copies left (did I ever tell you about the time I accidentally ordered 175 instead of 75. Srsly, there’s like 50)
SR5: 4 left

As always, you can read them for free online at sanduskyreview.com. I’m working at having the newest issue up in PDF form soon—it’s the fastest selling one I’ve ever done.

John Doe says BUY ‘EM! SB also has some other local Jax poetry zines and great music from the likes of Furrows and Johnny Bertram.