Affectionate Nostalgia

The first issue of "The American Bystander" has begun arriving at Kickstarter supporter addresses, and the one update to their original plan is that they did print more copies than just for their initial supporters.

It's an odd but appealing project, explained best by publisher Mike Gerber in the Kickstarter video. The goals were modest, to launch a humor magazine with some significant talent, including Roz Chast, Jack Handey, Terry Jones and Julia Wertz, and others whose names you can quite possibly read on this contents page.

Which leads to a pair of disclaimers:

A. My Fault: These are scans from an intact issue of a 130-page perfect-bound publication, and would be much clearer and sharper if I had razor-cut the pages out so they would lay flat. Consider it a compliment to the American Bystander that I didn't want to do that.

B. Firefox's Fault: For reasons known only to the collective Mozilla brain, Firefox embiggening does not include scroll bars nor does it show the entire piece. You should use Chrome, Safari or just about any other browser when you want to blow stuff up so you can read it. (UPDATE: See comment from Mark Jackson)

Now, back to our show:

While Gerber talks of updating the old-style humor magazine, what strikes me most about the finished project is how little it is updated, and the deep sense of nostalgia for those days of the National Lampoon.

And he's right that such things won't make it as advertiser-supported newstand publications in the current market, a point hammered home in a full-page introductory editorial, the middle leg of which is here.

However, I think he's being at least a little ironic and is hoping that we'll be charmed, and I don't have a problem with that: If each issue is pre-subscribed, that might work.

And if, instead of publishing on a regular schedule, they announce when they're about to launch another, I'm okay with that, too.

But where I really want to disagree with him and can't is where he suggests that the nostalgia for National Lampoon and Spy is more nostalgia for the stage of life and not for the material itself.

I think it is, which brings me straight to my very mixed feelings about this project, but note that, if I didn't like it, I'd ignore it or, at best, dismiss it with a quick paragraph.

Let's go over the good parts, first:

This is a very sharp, quality reproduction. The layout is retro, which is another word for outdated, but the project is self-consciously retro, so there ya go. It adds to the vibe.

And the cartoons are quite good, some outstanding.

Wasn't surprised by this, the first half of a two-page spread by Julia Wertz, and one that mixes her penchant for self-analytical brooding with her love of urban exploration. 

There's also an eight-page spread of "John Wilcox" cartoons and this is outstanding stuff. If you add up these major graphic pieces, which also include Roz Chast, Mimi Pond and ... well, go back to that contents page ... they're worth the price of admission, especially if you go for the $5 PDF instead of the $25 print version.

And the individual cartoons are good, though I kind of have a feeling that Bob Mankoff may have seen several of them before we got to.

There is, in fact, a bit of the "Let's Put On A Show In The Barn" feel to this. One of the goals was to pay contributors, which is certainly a good thing, but, while some of the stuff is terrific, there's a sense with others that they weren't risking their A-material on a new venture.

I also note that the "advertisements" are a combination of spoofs like this and serious full-pagers for material by some of the contributors or their allies, and I suspect some trading went on, which is fine with me.

After all, I took the free classified ad that was offered to all Kickstarter patrons.

It's in the prose pieces that the nostalgia begins to cloy a bit for me. I'm just not sure long-form deadpan satire holds up, a point Gerber even made in that editorial.

On the one hand, Art Buchwald was a master of this stuff, but that was 40 years ago. Today, Andy Borowitz throws up a gag in a graph or two, and the Onion keeps things to a few hundred words. 

On the other, Garrison Keillor fills hours on public radio with long-form, deadpan parody and when he goes on location, the tickets are gone as soon as the announcement is made.

So it's hardly a dead format.

Still, it reminds me of an experience around 1980, when I wrote a three-act commedia in the style of Carlo Goldoni and showed it to a drama prof at Colorado College for his response.

He complimented me on capturing the style, but then said, "But why would I produce this, when I can produce an actual play by Goldoni or Moliere or Machiavelli?"

And I didn't have an answer, particularly since producing the original plays also exposed his students to the classical authors.

In the case of American Bystander, there is the defense that material in those Seventies satirical magazines was timely and the references to pop culture and thinking of the moment fall flat a few decades later.

And, despite the affection we may have for the writers of that time, they're more Robert Benchley than Moliere.

Which I say as someone with a lot of affection for Robert Benchley.

So imitating the concept but building on contemporary topics is perfectly valid. The problem is, it doesn't raise the form beyond that sense of nostalgia. 

Bottom Line? I'm glad I backed the Kickstarter, and, if they come out with another issue, I'll probably buy it.

But that editorial is pretty right-on: This is an exercise in affectionate nostalgia.

I wouldn't buy it for the articles, but, then, I don't understand the appeal of "Prairie Home Companion."

Your mileage may vary and I hope it does because I wouldn't mind seeing more of the comics.

Last I heard, they were still tinkering with PDF formating, but you can get a print copy and at least get on a wait-list for the electronic version here.

Comments

[Mark Jackson]

The treatment of popups by Firefox is annoying, but only mildly so. Instead of left-clicking on the image, bring up the context menu (right-click on Windows) and select Open Link in New Tab. The embiggened image in the new tab comes with scroll bars, etc.

[Bookworm]

Thank you, Mark. It also works to click on the image, maximize the new window, and use the arrow keys to scroll. But your way is cleaner.