A Blog of Bosh

Rush to Barnacle Press to enjoy the full run of The Explorigator, one of the most original, and nonsensical, comics of all times and meet a crew on a par with the one that set out to hunt the Snark.

Lew Stringer posts on Hunt Emerson’s comic strip adaptation of Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat.”

If anyone has scans of the complete three-page story I would be interested in getting them (I can’t find The Beano here in Italy.)

After the success of his two Topsy-Turvys, Peter Newell published A Shadow Book (New York: The Century Co., 1896) in which after looking at a picture, e.g. of an Arab leading a camel,

you turn the page and place it in front of a light source, so that the image you now see represents something else, [...]

If you enjoyed my previous posts on Peter Newell’s toy and toy-book patents, you cannot miss these on War Games from the Boer War and War Games from World War II from Steve van Dulken’s Patent Blog at the British Library.
Here, by the way, is another “Educational Toy” patented by Newell in 1921:

This invention relates [...]

In the early months of 1815 London was swept by reports of a pig-faced lady living in Manchester Square:
In the earlier part of this century, there was a kind of publication in vogue, somewhat resembling the more ancient broadside, but better printed, and adorned with a rather pretentious coloured engraving. One of those, published by [...]

Nancy Hill, a photographer and writer as well as old time fan of Edward Lear’s nonsense, has a new site showcasing her photographic work. Of particular interest are two portfolios: Fools and Limericks.

I did not know that orecchio acerbo, who published my Italian translation of Peter Newell’s Slant Book last year, had also produced a short booktrailer which you can see on YouTube:

You can also download a pdf of the Italian edition of the whole book from orecchio acerbo’s site.

No. 1
“It seems to me it orter work,”
Said Farmer Hiram Beggs,
“By feeding Hens on Easter dyes
To deckerate their eggs.”
No. 2
And sure enough for several days
The eggs were many-hued
With stranger markings on the shells
Than Beggs had ever viewed.
No. 3
He peddled them about the town
And found a brisk demand.
He sold a dozen lovely ones
To Mrs. Cyrus Bland.
No. [...]

In the second half of the nineteenth century the west shows a sudden interest in images that can be seen upside down. There are several examples, the most famous being probably Peter Newell’s Topsys and Turvys (New York: The Century Co., 1893), followed by a second volume in 1894, and Gustave Verbeek’s comic strip, Upside-Downs [...]

Here is a previously unpublished letter by Edward Lear which was offered some time ago on eBay. It includes one of his delightful self-caricatures representing the painter watching the swallows.
15 Stratford Place,
Oxford Street, W
4 Sept. 1865.
My dear Mr. Ashton,
You are right about me & the swallows - for I AM here still. You see the [...]