This serious, though not humorless, encyclopedia of personalities, places, objects and artifacts pertinent to camp has juicy illustrations, intelligent, pithy writing, and an incredible bibliography, and gets bonus points for including both obvious and obscure references in equal measure in a successful attempt to articulate a vision of camp sensibility which encompasses a lot more than the standard drag queens/retro furnishings/”bad-movies-we-love” concept. No “camp-lite” here. MG

Publisher: Plexus
Paperback: 212 pages
Illustrated

The first of two stunningly designed volumes offering an extensive overview of the publishing phenomenon known as “pulps”—the thousands of paperback serials, novels and anthologies which became a mainstay of the book trade from the turn of the century up to the late 1950s. The American public’s fascination with murder, mayhem, vice, twisted sex, adventure, fantasy and science fiction made best-sellers out of authors such as James M. Cain, Jim Thompson, Charles Willeford, Dashiell Hammett, Sax Rohmer and scores of lesser-known but equally compelling writers [including some now-famous ones, such as William Burroughs, who wrote under assumed names), whose works became the prime inspiration for the film noirs and B pictures made in both the United States and Europe. Also documented are the astonishing cover illustrations of the period, most of which were eye-poppingly gorgeous and chock-full of lurid detail, despite the fact that pulps were meant to be read once and then thrown into the dumpster [hence the term “pulps”]. The author profiles the cover artists, mostly unheralded until now, and accords them a respect that is long overdue. MG

Publisher: Chronicle
Paperback: 108 pages

The second of two stunningly designed volumes offering an extensive overview of the publishing phenomenon known as “pulps”—the thousands of paperback serials, novels and anthologies which became a mainstay of the book trade from the turn of the century up to the late 1950s. The American public’s fascination with murder, mayhem, vice, twisted sex, adventure, fantasy and science fiction made best-sellers out of authors such as James M. Cain, Jim Thompson, Charles Willeford, Dashiell Hammett, Sax Rohmer and scores of lesser-known but equally compelling writers [including some now-famous ones, such as William Burroughs, who wrote under assumed names), whose works became the prime inspiration for the film noirs and B pictures made in both the United States and Europe. Also documented are the astonishing cover illustrations of the period, most of which were eye-poppingly gorgeous and chock-full of lurid detail, despite the fact that pulps were meant to be read once and then thrown into the dumpster [hence the term “pulps”]. The author profiles the cover artists, mostly unheralded until now, and accords them a respect that is long overdue. MG

Publisher: Chronicle
Paperback: 108 pages

Lengthy diatribe on the “perverse” influences of artistic Modernism and Postmodernism in popular music. Surely one of the most prudish, misguided, shallow, reactionary, bitter and, yes, perverse (she likes Warhol but despises McLaren?) books ever written about popular culture by an obviously intelligent person. But at least she hates U2. Fun reading. MG

Publisher: University of Chicago
Paperback: 453 pages
Illustrated

The 40-year history of Disneyland is that of a feudal dictatorship riddled with gore, and though the author goes out of his way to try and give an evenhanded account of the park, the truth wins out and the evidence for Disneyland as a dystopian Circus of Death is damning. How else to account for the insidious People Mover (or “remover” as dubbed by employees), which at a deceptive speed of 2 miles per hour has managed to crush several skulls in half or cause numerous injuries resulting in multiple foot and toe amputations? Or America Sings, which ground 18-year-old hostess Deborah Gail Stone into paste between two counter-rotating theater walls?
But the rides are not the only malevolent entities: Disneyland seems to bring out the worst in people, or at least make them criminally stupid. Otherwise, why would employees ingest alcohol-spiked punch, pot brownies, and guacamole laced with PCP at a potluck birthday party and then operate the Matterhorn (which has been known to eject patrons under the best of circumstances)? And what goes on in the minds of those patrons who decide to squirm out of their lap bars and stand up in the middle of Space Mountain?
On the lighter side, mishaps which don’t end in death or disfigurement usually result in ugly lawsuits, like the sexual-harassment suit filed against one of the Three Little Pigs by an obese female midget who claimed that the alleged horny hog tweaked her breasts and squealed “Mommy, Mommy.”
And then there are the occasional riots, like the one staged by the Yippies in 1970, who stormed up Main Street chanting “Free Charlie Manson” and held a “Black Panther Hot Breakfast” at Aunt Jemima’s Pancake House. Add to this already Bruegelesque scene the multiple shootings, stabbings, drownings, bomb scares and Tongan vs. Samoan gang wars, and one can only conclude that Disneyland is an encumbered minefield straining its boundaries as its minions work at constant breakneck pace to stave off terminal devastation. MG

Publisher: Bonaventure
Paperback: 239 pages

An important book that unearths the suppressed history of pre-’70s black cinema, a diverse artistic legacy as old as film itself. Most of the films synopsized here are near-impossible to see (many no longer exist), but the gorgeous posters (with evocative titles like “I Crossed the Color Line,” “The World, the Flesh and the Devil” and “It Won’t Rub Off, Baby”) are completely satisfying in themselves. MG

Publisher: Noonday
Paperback: 168 pages
Illustrated

Some serious lapses in judgment (or taste?) here, like why are people like Hall and Oates and Mariah Carey included while Rotary Connection and the Three Degrees are missing? And most of the pictures suck, but it’s well written, and there’s some good dirt. Did you know that low-down Miss Millie Jackson ran away from home at 14 and worked as a “model” (read: HO!) in New York? MG

Publisher: Da Capo
Paperback: 344 pages

Collectors of negrobilia (hello, Whoopi Goldberg), take note. This compelling visual history charts the development of Western stereotypes of black people over the last 200 years and examines how caricature, humor and parody are used as insidious instruments of oppression in commerce and advertising. Read it, then throw out that box of Darkie toothpaste! MG

Publisher: Yale University
Hardback: 260 pages
Illustrated

Check out the hyperdelic life and times of Von Dutch, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Robert Williams and other Kustom Kar Kommandos in this thoroughly researched and lavishly illustrated exhibition catalog. Read superb essays explaining how the cultural ephemera of Southern California’s hotrodders, beachcombers, surfbums, beatniks, bikerboys, cholos and glue-sniffing suburban hobbyists coalesced into the Kustom aesthetic. Gape at page after page of amazing scratch-and-sniff icons such as Ed Roth’s Rat Fink, a puke-green, humunculoid rodent speed-demon. Ponder over intriguing bits of trivia (did you know that Robert Williams was raised by a lesbian couple?). And ignore the occasional pathetic or inappropriate artworks by latecomers to the genre (Judy Chicago?). The editors are also to be commended for refusing to wallow in pointless “high” versus “low” culture arguments. All in all a pretty great thing, but where is Erich Von Zipper? MG

Publisher: Last Gasp
Paperback: 95 pages
Illustrated

Dubbed “the world’s prettiest photographer” in 1953, former pin-up model Bunny Yeager decided to step behind the camera, and in the process, became a pioneer in the almost exclusively male world of cheesecake photography, as well as one of the best. She’s known mostly for her exceptional work with Bettie Page, but all of Bunny’s pictures have the same sense of relaxed glamor and intimacy that’s uniquely hers, and she had an great eye for “talent.” A few of the ‘60s shots are a bit scary though, mainly because of the squalid nature of the clothes, hair and makeup (think how Jayne Mansfield looked around that time… ‘nuff said). MG

Publisher: Taschen
Paperback: 160 pages
Illustrated