Feb 16, 2016 90 minutes at LA Art Book Fair 2016
Last Friday, I went to the LA Art Book Fair and bought a bunch of comics and zines from old friends and some newly made ones. Yes, one can find plenty of serious galleries and art books at the annual event, but I guess I have trashy taste that goes with my thin wallet. Actually, there’s a lot of overlap between high art and low culture at a gathering like this and did I mention that the show is free?
Wendy and I knew Eloise wouldn’t last much more than an hour or so after we picked her up from school in Chinatown (just a few minutes away from MOCA’s Little Tokyo location) and we went straight to the RE/Search table to say hi to my friend, underground publishing pioneer, and champion of subculture V. Vale. I learned that he self-published a zine that had to do with our mutual friend Mike Watt and had to get it. Hand bound with duct tape, it features lengthy spieling and includes photos of Watt and Vale, Watt and Jello, and the famous Econo van!
There were other indie publishing friends including Ray Potes and his pal (whose name I can’t remember) at the Hamburger Eyes table. I love their no-BS, all-family, photography for the people agenda. Righteous and radical! Of course, we had to see our old friend Eric. There was a time when I would have been at the Giant Robot table sharing awesome stuff and making friends, but it’s great to catch up with to see him at shows like this these days and it isn’t bad pushing culture from the other side, either!
I was introduced to Clint Woodside years ago by our mutual friend Gabie Strong at KCHUNG. How could I not say hi to him with Ed and Deanna Templeton at the Deadbeat Club table and pick up a photo zine by Cynthia Connolly while I was at it? The photographer is best known for her work related to punk bands from Washington DC, but Big Lots has environmental photos shot mostly on road trips. Color. B&W. Texture. Objects. Nature. Manmade stuff. It’s all there in half-frame photos, fold-outs, and more.
I bought some other stuff, too. I got Special Comix 5, a phone-book sized anthology of B&W underground “silent comics” from China. That means there aren’t any words. Well worth 25 bucks, and I hope to visit the store/magazine office in Beijing one day. My friend Rich Jacobs was also there and had some interesting new art zines including a booklet of robots fashioned using vegetable stamps and a Japanese exhibit catalog. I love seeing how he has experimented and branched out his style over the years.
Another familiar face. I used to work with Keenan Keller back in the Giant Robot garage and hadn’t seen him in years, but have been keeping tabs on the red-hot comic book that he’s been making with Tom Neely. So it was cool to catch up with him and pick up his brand-new anthology, but after reading the Planet of the Apes/stoner-hippie biker movie hybrid–which totally rules–I totally regret being cheap and not buying one of the 7″ singles. Was it the Zig-Zags? Crap! Hopefully I can get one with Volume 2 in San Diego this summer.
The FER YOUz display was amazing. The L.A. hardcore punk zine had a full-on gallery with old zines, vintage flyers, actual set lists, and other artifacts from L.A.’s early days of punk including a menu from the old Hong Kong Café! We traded a Save Music in Chinatown zine for a copy of Stick Time, which was made circa 1981 but never published until now and features interviews with Lee Ving from FEAR, Lucky from the Circle Jerks, Joe Blow from the Strap Ons, and a cop–not to mention essays about how much cover charge is acceptable and what’s up with Andy Warhol exploiting punk. Amazing. We told Nikki Tucker that she is permanently invited to our Chinatown shows!
Before leaving, we went upstairs to take a picture from above and spotted Jason Jaworski’s table of limited-edition, hand-crafted, out-of-his-mind literature. I hadn’t seen him in ages–same with his crew, Saelee Oh and Jenny Kwok. Sadly, I was out of money by then and Eloise was bored by me gabbing with all these old friends and acquaintances, so we had to run. But it was great to see them kick artistic ass and that’s how it goes the L.A. Art Book Fair. See you there in 2017!
Below, clockwise from top right: Unearthed-and-never-published-until-now Stick Time zine from FOR YOUz, gigantic Special Comix 5 anthology from China, The Humans Vol. 1 anthology signed by Tom Neely and Keenan Keller, Big Lots photo zine by Cynthia Connolly, Japanese art show program by Rich Jacobs, vegetable robots zine by Rich Jacobs, Mike Watt interview zine by V. Vale of RE/Search (2 of 22).
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