Sunday, December 30, 2007

Things I Have Shouted At My Computer, And Other Catchy Phrases








Bob, Charles, and Lana loved that last post, so I thought I'd add a few others from my folder called Pulp Fiction, a catch-all for book covers, videos, movie lobby cards, and, oddly, ads for the 1964 Plymouth Wildcat. Bob mentioned all the books he had to toss back in the day, and I can only imagine a literary career of knocking out 140 page novels about craziness. Hopped up on the goopy gop and Kickapoo Joy Juice, the latter a now-defunct drink in Kentucky (the state that also still gives us Laughing Cow butter pats), and writing things that made no sense past the moment the words were manually typed. But hey, the book titles were cool, and I'm certain the writers had fun knocking the books out Zebra and Pinnacle style, only with less pages and thus less crap to clomp through. (I am of course excluding books by Sid Williams and the Usual Suspects, even THE BREEZE HORROR had its moments). I had more titles before my hard drive crashed in September, like LOVE CAMP ON WHEELS, THE NEIGHBORS SUCK AND SO DO WE, BAYOU GIRL, and THE DEAD DARLING. Quite a few of these I picked up at the long gone Bookseller's Row, across from the Red Lion, after PULP FICTION was released in theaters. They had a sign in the window that pretty much said WE HAVE YOUR REAL PULP FICTION RIGHT HERE! And, as stated in my blog title, you can likely pick out the phrases I call my computer, hissing under my breath like a guy ready to pull the trigger. Oh, an aside here, I was interviewed once and mention a phrase, "Skull Carpenters", which I made into a story that appeared in WITH WOUNDS STILL WET. When the interview saw print in LACUNAE#8, the book was transcribed as THE GODS ATE CANDY. I can only imagine what the hell readers thought I had in my library...BUDDHA EATS PASTA, GANESHA'S COTTON CANDY ADVENTURE, HORTON EATS A HO-HO...Wayne

4 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

"The Gods Hate Kansas" is my favorite here. Of course, it's not much of a surprise considering that it's...well...Kansas.

James Robert Smith said...

Ah, Kickapoo Joy Juice. My dad carried that in his grocery store when I was a wee, tiny lad. I recall the bottles vividly, because they were green glass and the logos and artwork (yes! artwork!) were somehow etched or raised on the cool green/yellow glass. It had art, my mother explained to me, by Al Capp who drew the L'il Abner strip I enjoyed.

Sidney said...

My old man was a grocery salesman but I don't know that he ever moved any Kickapoo Joy Juice, though he could sell Chocolate Soldier along with the best Canada Dry so he might have.

Apparently the stuff is still around:
Kickapoojoy.com

Steve Malley said...

I *love* those old pulps, though they do waken a latent schizophrenia between my writer-side and my painter-side!