~BRANDON JOHNSON . . ‘THEE ALMIGHTY & INSANE’ / WOODWARD BAZAAR, APRIL 8, 2018
ALMIGHTY . . FLASH-BACK !!
BRANDON JOHNSON, at the ‘WOODWARD BAZAAR’ . .
an informal, friends+artists+craftspeople . . . pop-up in a small 2nd floor apt in Ridgewood, Queens.
Brandon had brought his his first (truly) self-published book, ‘Thee Almighty & Insane’.
BRANDON JOHNSON, ‘Thee Almighty & Insane’ / ‘Chicago Gang Business Cards From the 1970s & 1980s’
Hard Cover, Clothbound, 96 pages, Full Color
5.5 x 8.25 in / 14 x 21 cm
Second Edition 2017
published by his own imprint . . ALMIGHTY AND INSANE BOOKS
$30 – available online
image via ALMIGHTY & INSANE BOOKS
this one, is . . mine !!!!
it’s a very sweet design, and it has a real nice . . feel, and weight.
the first few pages, are text & cover the history, and his own collecting background, which . . is of a really nice personal nature / his dad had a collection of them in a cigar box . . “up in the attic of our house in suburban Chicago”.
and then, you turn the book horizontal, and get to see the archival cards . . in large full page format !!
“History, aside, this book serves as an ode to Chicago compliment cards: the hand-drawn-graphics, the blackletter typefaces, the outlandish names and clever slogans. intriguingly cryptic to the uninitiated, learning to read the cards gives insight to how they interrelate. For example, an upside-down symbol or name is a sign of disrespect.”
“Acronyms ending with the letter ‘K’ meant mean ‘killer’ . . .”
one could imagine entering a 1970s barbershop, or liquor store & see one of these lying around, and you would think – twice. It was – no hollow note.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH / unless otherwise noted