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Quirk Books has posted one of the 20 illustrations that will adorn its much-anticipated title, Pride and Pejudice and Zombies.
Feb 20, 2009 
Humbug by Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Will Elder, Al Jaffee, & Arnold Roth (Fantagraphics, 2009)
Fantagraphics has posted the entire first issue of Humbug as a PDF.
From the publisher:
Harvey Kurtzman changed the face of American humor when he created the legendary MAD comic. As editor and chief writer from its inception in 1952, through its transformation into a slick magazine, and until he left MAD in 1956, he influenced an entire generation of cartoonists, comedians, and filmmakers. In 1962, he co-created the long-running Little Annie Fanny with his long-time artistic partner Will Elder for Playboy, which he continued to produce until his virtual retirement in 1988.
Between MAD and Annie Fanny, Kurtzman’s biographical summaries will note that he created and edited three other magazines, Trump, Humbug, and Help!, but, whereas his MAD and Annie Fanny are readily available in reprint form, his major satirical work in the interim period is virtually unknown. Humbug, which had poor distribution, may be the least known, but to those who treasure the rare original copies, it equals or even exceeds MAD in displaying Kurtzman’s creative genius.
Feb 18, 2009 
American Beauty by Michael Hernandez de Luna (Bad Press Books, 2008).
From the publisher:
American Beauty is an artist’s investigation into those Icons of popular culture wading in politics, religion, decadence and sex. This book commemorates and pokes fun at those who have fallen from society’s graces because of lousy judgment and questionable life styles. Prepare yourself for a guided tour of America’s underbelly of misconduct and bad taste through the artworks of Chicago artist and provocateur Michael Hernandez de Luna, who puts it all together for you in the miniature framework of the postage stamp, while using the US postal system as phantom collaborators in the process of creating and certifying his art with the bona-fide markings of the postage cancellation. This book rolls over the many issues of Americana with images hailing the protesting cheer of subversive activism, philately, humor and satire. This book contains colorful biting images of raw and provocative artwork that will surely make you laugh! A little something for everybody!
On Metafilter, shmegegge writes:
Gravity’s Rainbow is a book that I’ve tried to read a couple of times. Every time it goes like this:
Oh hey! Man, I bet I could get through Gravity’s Rainbow this time! I do have a long train ride to work, after all! So what if it takes me a month or longer, I can handle that!
Oh wow! This is awesome! I totally forgot how great these beginning chapters are! I wonder what stopped me from finishing this all those other times?
Fuck, now I remember when my old art teacher told me to keep a little notebook with me so I can note everyone’s name and job and relationships to one another. I forget which scientist this guy is.
Ok, now who the fuck am I reading about? What’s all this with the sibling sex in chains and stuff? Shit, this is the hard part. This is the part that I’ve had trouble getting through in the past. I can do it, though! I can soldier through.
You know what? I don’t think this is my time to finish this book. I’m just way confused right now and I’m not even sure who the hell I’ve been reading about for the past 50 pages. I’m sorry Alan Moore, I know this is one of your favorite books and all, but shit I’m burned out. also, the crying of lot 49 sucked so this’ll probably suck, too. Yeah, I bet this book just sucks, anyway. Yeah, that’s it. This book sucks, that’s why I’m stopping.
A year or so later…
Oh hey! Man, I bet I could get through Gravity’s Rainbow this time!
Feb 8, 2009 After Zelda Fitzgerald was diagnosed with schizophrenia and hospitalized, she wrote to Scott that if she were released, “We shall have all the children we can, and call them Dementia Praecox Fitzgerald–Dear, how gruesome!”
Source: Modernism on File: Writers, Artists, and the FBI 1920-1950
Regarding Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges:
It’s full of more brainfuckery than a mensa whorehouse.
From “rokusan” in this Metafilter thread.
Jan 30, 2009 
A dozen motivational poster spoofs featuring the words of Kurt Vonnegut. Ah, if only they were real and being hung up in workplaces around the world….
[via Readerville]
Jan 10, 2009 
Edward Gorey - the illustrator and writer whose macabre, darkly humorous Edwardian-Gothic style is immediately recognizable, even if his name isn’t - wrote over a hundred small books, the best-known probably being The Gashlycrumb Tinies (an ABC book in which 26 children meet gruesome ends. A digital bootleg us here).
A lot of the late Gorey’s work has been reprinted over the years, but his etiquette-book parody The Recently Deflowered Girl (1965) isn’t one of them (and it doesn’t seem likely to be). Copies go for around $100 on the antiquarian market. Luckily for us, someone at LiveJournal scanned the entire thing, but it was pulled, whether for drawing too much traffic or for copyright violation, we don’t know.
Now it’s mirrored at the “Accordian Guy’s” blog here.
