When I first got to MOCCA, I walked in about five tables and found the Buenaventura Press table. I spent all of the money I had allowed myself to spend that whole day at that table. (Naturally I justified my need for buying books to keeping the blog going and wound up at an ATM a half an hour later.) The first book that grabbed me was this one, Elvis Road, which is a 25 foot long accordian style book filled to the brim with tiny crazy cartoon scenes creating an enormous landscape. I like the way Ginko Press describes this book on their site by listing the drawings you’ll find- “8,433 characters, 3,546 vehicles, 1,847 buildings, 763 cartoon icons, 526 corporate billboards, 189 religious figures, 25 parade floats, 1 super-dildo, a junkyard purgatory, a porno strip-mall, and more. . .” This book really is that wild. Every inch has a little senario. So many artists (Brian Chippendale or Kevin Hooyman for example) are making work this detailed and obsessive but it still amazes me every time I see drawings like this. The duo behind this creation are Swiss artists Xavier Robel and Helge Reumann (also known as Elvis Studio) whose actual artwork you can buy here. I remember their work from the last couple of Kramer’s Ergots. Pick up a copy of this book here. It’s hours of entertainment.

© Julia Rothman 2007