Not Safe for Work, or Sane Humans

I first encountered the work of Harry Stephen Keeler a couple of years ago, through the championing of Paul Collins of the Collins Library. To get the flavour of Keeler's mad world, visit this page. Here's a sample extract from the plot summaries there: "A man is found strangled to death in the middle of a lawn, yet there are no footprints other than his own. Police suspect the "Flying Strangler-Baby," a killer midget who disguises himself as a baby and stalks victims by helicopter. (X. Jones of Scotland Yard, 1936)"

In learning more about Keeler, I came across Ramble House, a (then, at least) one-man operation dedicated to bringing all of Keeler's works back into print. The owner, Fender Tucker, printed the books individually and then bound them in his kitchen with a hot glue gun and an iron. As Ramble House expanded to reprint the work of other forgotten, misguided writers, most of the printing and binding now seems to be done via Lulu. At first this might suggest that some of the magic is gone. But then you take a look at the cover designs of Australian artist Gavin L. O'Keefe, and you see that Ramble House is fulfiling a unique niche in publishing. Mere words cannot do these things justice (though I note that O'Keefe is as at home with photography and Photoshop as he is with more traditional artist's tools).

My brain, it is now broke.