"Jokingly, of course. Although no joke is ever completely untrue."

 

The First 28 Years of Monty Python, by Kim “Howard” Johnson.

This 1999 book covers the British comedy classic, who the creators and performers were, what they did before and after Python, summaries of episodes of the show itself, the movies, and the various Python’s associates and friends who aided and abetted them. Illustrated with many, many photos from both on and off stage. Much easier to have all this information in one place than having to go mucking all around the internet, eh? And it tells you things you DIDN’T know or think to go looking for. Quite an amazing invention, books. I hope they’ll catch on. I had no idea what Monty Python’s Flying Circus was; I’d flicked by it once and by incredible chance it was on what looked to me like a circus act (probably the Amazing Mysto and Janet) and concluded it really was about a circus. I remember we finally watched an episode of Monty Python because the TV guide said it was going to be about flying saucers. It turned out to be about Scotsmen and a Blancmange from Andromeda, and we were hooked on the unprecedented satirical humor. Plus, you could occasionally see nudity!

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Television. Humor. History. Softcover.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Book). Produced by Mandarin Offset (Printing House)

A 1993 reprint of a 1977 book containing the preliminary film treatment or proposal and the final script with revisions and deleted scenes. Lots of photos both behind the cameras and from the film, full-color lobby cards (?), and Terry Gilliam’s concept sketches. When the movie ran on PBS during the 70’s we knew we had to have it and recorded it in the only way available to us at the time: on cassette tape. We played those tapes over and over until we could recite huge swathes of dialogue flawlessly, except for instances where we had a hard time deciphering the English accents. There were inevitable little bits missing when we had to flip the tape over. Other movies recorded thusly: Jaws (at a drive in movie theater), Count Dracula (off of TV), and Bakshi’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (over at Monroe Jr.’s house - they had cable and we did not; I recorded it but could not keep the party going on in the other room from drowning out the recording sometimes, and could not shush the people who were allowing me to record). I suppose the point I’m getting at here is that before we had VCRs we went to great lengths to have our favorite movies in some form to ourselves.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Filmscript. Softcover.

Time Bandits: The Movie Script, by Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin.

I bought this not long after the movie came out, in some San Antonio bookstore in a mall if my memory serves me correctly. I love this movie and was pleased to get the book. It contains many black and white stills and color pictures; has corrections, notes, deleted scenes, and Gilliam’s pre-production drawings. In short, it is its own experience beyond the movie. Hard to believe I have had it for almost 40 years now.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Filmscript. Fantasy. Softcover.

The Complete Ripping Yarns, by Michael Palin and Terry Jones.

“Ripping Yarns” came in the wake of Monty Python, and we had been sort of expecting more of the same, but it was a whole other kind of animal. Still hilarious, of course, but more cohesive. It always reminded me of the MP episode “Cycling Tour of Cornwall”. A series of satirical parodies on the boy’s adventure books of old, each episode spoofed the tropes of different genres, from school stories to murder mysteries to daring exploration. Perhaps the best was “The Curse of the Claw”, which tore away the façade from the sexual subtext of the horror genre. This book contains the scripts and stills from the show to illustrate them. The next best thing to having the DVDs. I had the books of the scripts of all the MP shows for a while, in two volumes, but getting the DVDs was a more complete experience, and I sold them. If I got a DVD of “Ripping Yarns”, would I eventually sell this book? Hard to say.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: TV. Scripts. Humor. Softcover.

Neil’s Book of the Dead, by Nigel Planer and Terence Blacker.

When “The Young Ones” came out on MTV in 1985, it was one of the shows me and my friend Alan Peschke bonded over as we worked at Gatti’s. Our favorite character was the hapless hippie Neil, with his good-natured but dim-witted mysticism. When “Neil’s Book of the Dead” came out, I had to have it. A loving parody of the mushy New Age affectations that were melding with the old Flower Power pretentious philosophy to sell rocks, growbags, and lentils. As amusing as Neil’s mindless rambles are, however, they sometimes seem to reach a kind of mind-freeing, absurdist sense. “Farmer Giles of Ham: It contains all the essential wisdom, mythic folklore etc. etc. of Lord of the Rings but is only a few pages long so it’s much easier to finish. Recommended.”

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Humor. Softcover.

The Book of the SubGenius: The Sacred Teachings of J. R. “Bob” Dobbs (The SubGenius Foundation); Revelation X: The “Bob” Apocryphon (Translated by The SubGenius Foundation); The SubGenius Psychlopaedia of Slack: The Bobliographon, New Revelations from J. R. “Bob” Dobbs (Edited by Rev. Ivan Stang).

Is it a religion? Is it humor? Or is it a mind-bending combination of both? I only know that when I read it, the last remnants of my Jehovah’s Witnesses brainwashing fell away, like a rusty lock shot by a .44 magnum. I bought the book, as I recall, at the San Marcos Hastings, in a bit of an act of bravado to impress my friend Alan with my willingness to be ‘hip’. The one true false religion; they tell you so right up front, even urging you to ‘kill Bob’ to keep you from falling into conformity. Sacred rants, double-talk explanations of the failure of Church prophecy, and a hoodoo history woven from the creamy spewings of the prophets of a thousand cults and cheap advertising mascots, the SubGenii adhere to the philosophy that, holding that there is no absolute truth, will at least free you from billons of lies that seek to masquerade as truth, and grant you Slack. Must be read to be disbelieved. Lavishly ‘illustrated’.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Religion? Humor? Softcovers.

Three-Fisted Tales of “Bob”: Short Stories in The SubGenius Mythos, Edited by Reverend Ivan Stang.

The best stories here might be Stang’s own “The Third Fist”, Michael Peppe’s “The Real Story”, K. De Vries’ “Pilgrimage”, and Waves Forest’s “‘Bob’ and the Oxygen Wars”, but it also contains contributions from Robert Anton Wilson, Mark Mothersbaugh, and William S. Burroughs. The SubGenius aesthetic demonstrated in a surreal kaleidoscope of viewpoints, like the blind men trying the describe a smiling, pipe-smoking elephant.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Short Stories. ‘Humor’. Anthology. Softcover.

High Weirdness by Mail: A Directory of the Fringe, by Rev. Ivan Stang.

“Mad Prophets, Crackpots, Kooks & True Visionaries”. “A 1988 book dedicated to an examination of "weird culture" by actually putting the reader in touch with it by mail. The book is divided into sections—"Weird Science," "UFO Contactees," "Drug Stuff," and others, and each section contains a variety of mini-articles describing organizations. Each organization article concludes with a mailing address (and in some cases, phone numbers), with many entries referencing publications and (in some case) merchandise that at the time of the book's publication could be requested free of charge or for the cost of postage.” – Wikipedia. Apparently the SubGenius Foundation has posted updates on some of the organizations mentioned within who now have websites. Progress! Black and white illustrations.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: High Weirdness. Directory. Softcover.

Everything is Under Control, by Robert Anton Wilson, with Miriam Joan Hill.

“Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-Ups”. An illuminating directory of outlawed and fringe belief, Wilson not only outlines some incredible claims, but also points out facts that might indicate that they might not be completely incredible after all. A browser, and an examination of the nature of belief. Government cover-ups, satanic panic, and extraterrestrial mystery abound.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: High Weirdness. Reference. Softcover.

Is Nothing Sacred? and “…And Then We’ll Get Him!”, by Gahan Wilson.

Gahan Wilson was a macabre and hilarious cartoonist who was lurking around all my life, from “Matthew Looney” to “The National Lampoon” to “The Twilight Zone Magazine” to “Playboy” (which I only read for the cartoons) to illustrations for James P. Blaylock’s “Pilot Light”. He passed away just last year in 2019. A wicked wit and a dark satirical humorist, I will have more to speak on him later. These are two collections of his cartoons.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Comic Collections. Softcovers.

Gahan Wilson’s America, by Gahan Wilson.

Another treasury of Wilson’s one panels and illustrated commentaries, this one themed on life in America. Best, perhaps, is the section called “Kids”, with its look at common childhood beliefs that bedeviled us all.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Comics. Collection. Softcover.

Gahan Wilson’s Monster Collection, by Gahan Wilson.

A chunky little treasury of hilariously macabre cartoons, Wilson’s single panels are often miniature short stories in themselves, of fantasy, horror, or science fiction. “Genuine weirdness combined with wit and intelligence,” as Stephen King says on the cover blurb.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Cartoons. Collection. Hardback.

Nuts, a Graphic Novel by Gahan Wilson.

I really enjoyed these strips when they appeared in The National Lampoon. “Nuts” is a play, of course, on “Peanuts”, on how crazy childhood was, and on the tough parts of life you had to learn to digest as you were growing up. It is only a Graphic Novel by courtesy, though it is tied together by theme and character and there is a sort of development, if no denouement. “They [National Lampoon] wanted me to do something absolutely horrific … I thought about being a kid … That is the one big challenge we all go through … It all goes back to that – to try to figure out or make some kind of sense of this absurd situation you’re in as a little kid, and it’s impossible. And in that instant I knew that I’d do a realistic strip about what the little bastards go through.” – Gahan Wilson.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Comics. Graphic Novel. Hardback.