I just got my contributor's copy of the beautiful Blab! art exhibition catalogue.
Organized by the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State
University, BLAB!: A Retrospective features the work of 46 alternative
comics artists, illustrators, graphic designers, printmakers, and painters
from BLAB!, the annual anthology of visual art produced by Monte
Beauchamp. Began in 1986 as a self-published fanzine devoted to
MAD magazine and other ECComics publications,
BLAB! has evolved into a significant outlet for contemporary artists
andhas made meaningful contributions to the blurring of boundaries
between
alternative graphics and mainstream illustration.The accompanying 128-page catalogue, designed by Beauchamp, contains 84
color illustrations and includes a range of essays that should be of
interest to unfamiliar readers and aficionados alike. Bill North's "This
Thing Called *BLAB!*: Notes Toward an Understanding" surveys the anthology
from its inception in 1986 to the present. In "Blabbing about BLAB!" Mark
Frauenfelder considers Beauchamp's methods as an art director from the
perspective of the artists featured in BLAB!. David A. Beron "BLAB!:
A Visual Journey" is a reflective recollection of his personal experience
with BLAB! and the ways in which the anthology has informed his work as a
scholar. Finally, Matt Dukes Jordan's extensive, in-depth interview with
Beauchamp provides a frank and revealing glimpse into the mind of BLAB!'s
creator.
