in the footsteps of blab!

if it weren’t for the beautiful people at chennai-based blaft, the indian publishing scene would be as dour today as it has been for decades. this is because the beautiful people at blaft do what few publishers now do — they take risks. the obliterary journal is, to cut a long review short, a gorgeous addition to any bookshelf. it’s well-edited, refreshingly eclectic, well-produced and a joy to peruse. the nicest thing about it is its complete lack of pretence, its ability to jump from manga to photography and what can only be described as surreal fiction without so much as a by-your-leave.

precedents to this sort of work exist primarily in america. take, for instance, blab!: the anthology edited by chicago-based graphic designer monte beauchamp, which has been making a lot of readers smile for over two decades now. or hi-fructose, the seven-year-old magazine that, in its current volume, features drawings by aron wiesenfeld, interviews with street artists trustocorp, wooden sculptures by gehard demetz and also ‘explores decay with the uneasy houses of ofra lapid.’ both products take their cue from the underground visual art movement of the seventies referred to, rather condescendingly, as lowbrow.

if there’s one quality underlining the work that falls into this genre, it is probably humour. there’s a fair amount of it on display in the obliterary journal (‘dedicated to wiping literary fiction off the face of the earth’) from slapstick to the bizarre. street and sign painter s venkataraman’s work adorns the unpretentious cover, as well as what can only be described as the ‘contents wall’.

inside are excerpts from stupid guy goes to india by mangaka yukichi yamamatsu, indian mathematician bhaskara ii’s treatise on mathematics (lilavati, illustrated by somdutt sarkar), photographs of street art from suriname by tammo schuringa and paul faber, as well as a chapter titled ‘danger taxi book post: a gallery of hand-lettering’ among other exotica. it’s also the only place that showcases puducherry-based artist malavika.pc’s thoroughly enjoyable collaboration with a kitchen appliance (durrrrk mixer grinder serial no. 30277xm03) on 23 pieces of microfiction.

there are a few missteps, such as the panels from subrata gangopadhyay’s nowhere to run — dull, insipid and rather awfully written. for the most part though, the work here is fresh and exhilarating. it’s an introduction to artists who never, sadly, get to go on book tours. they should. i look forward to volume two.

— the obliterary journal: volume one, blaft-tranquebar, rs 695