Oh Crap Hound, My Crap Hound

I just found out (via Boing Boing) that Crap Hound, a clip art zine that was originally published by Sean Tejaratchi in the 1990s, has reprinted its magnificent 6th issue: Death, Telephones, and Scissors! Crap Hound was one of the few zines from the time that didn't make me recoil in terror, mostly because Sean had a wonderful eye for design, a keen sense of humor, a refreshing lack of pretension, and a love (that I happen to share) for clip art. Not only that, but I was a contributor to Issue 6: the original printing thanked me, noting that I was "venerable". (I remember hanging out at the Wayne State Library, making copies of illustrations from dusty books, of pages of graveyard rubbings. Sometimes I miss being in college.) But don't misunderstand: the zine was always Sean's show -- the rest of us just provided the raw material, the turds that he would buff into diamonds. I recommend that anyone with a sense of humor and a love for old school clip art books (as opposed to the soulless Microsoft Clip Art that kills me a little bit every time I see it being used on a promotional flyer for public school functions) purchase both Issue 6, and Issue 5 (Hands, Hearts & Eyes), which I also contributed a bit to. Even though I still have my contributor's copies in a box at my parents' house, I bought both the new printings from Reading Frenzy in Oregon. You can never have enough Crap Hound around the house! (And it looks like the earlier issues will eventually be reprinted as well, probably after Sean corrects what he always saw as their early design flaws.)

Extra special bonus: The "Church & State" issue -- Issue 7, for those keeping score at home, and which I actually have some preliminary pages from (dating from about 2002 or 2003) -- finally appears to be nearing completion in the Spring of 2007. Now if only Sean would finish the legendary "Unhappy People" book that he said was going to happen all those years ago, I could die a happy man. Well, maybe not quite, but you don't understand: I thought this zine was dead and buried. To find out that the zine is living and (hopefully) thriving again just makes my day!