Fall 2018

Fall 2018
$60

FWY is the follow-up book to photographer David Black’s acclaimed and out-of-print 2016 monograph, Cerro Gordo. It is a surrealist portrait of a population stranded in an endless traffic jam.

Black portrays the striated landscape of Los Angeles as an energy vortex; imag-ining the freeways as the central circulatory system through which the city’s energy flows. Joan Didion famously described what happens to participants of the city’s freeways, “The mind goes clean. The rhythm takes over. A distortion of time occurs, the same distortion that characterizes the instant before an accident.” The drivers and passengers in Black’s photographs stand hypnotically on bright steel hoods and in rivers of asphalt. Reyner Banham wrote in Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, “The freeways become a special way of being alive … the extreme concentration required in Los Angeles seems to bring on a state of heightened awareness that some locals find mystical.”

In FWY, Black expands his investigation of Los Angeles’ complex existence between light and dark and its role in our modern mythology. Stylistically, Black pays homage to Los Angeles urban theorists, disaster genre films of the 1980s, and the daily secular communion all Angelenos share.

my car’s an absolute necessity in this city of cars where
you come to know people best by how they maneuver on the freeway
make lane changes or handle off-ramps.
— Wanda Coleman

FWY will be released in limited and trade-editions in the Fall of 2018 on Hat & Beard Press. The trade edition is available for pre-order now.

$65

Hardcover, 192 pages
9.5 × 11.75 in.
24.13 × 29.845 cm.

The first ever career retrospective of Los Angeles photographer George Rodriguez.

Since the 1950s, Rodriguez has quietly documented multiple social worlds—in California and beyond—that have never before been displayed together, a rare mix of Hollywood and Chicano L.A., film premieres and farmworker strikes, album covers and street scenes, celebrity portraits and civil rights marches.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Rodriguez, raised in South Los Angeles, led something of a double life as a photographer. He worked for film studios, record labels, and magazines like Tiger Beat, processing film for Hollywood photographers and shooting countless photographs of the era's biggest music and film stars, while also photographing the social movements and protests that were exploding on the streets of Los Angeles and throughout the country: the East Los Angeles Walkouts, the Chicano Moratorium, the United Farm Workers movement, the Sunset Strip riots, among others.

Double Vision explores both of these worlds alongside the many other urban scenes Rodriguez has shot over the years, from L.A. gang graffiti and boxing to early hip-hop. A student of Sid Avery and a contemporary of Dennis Hopper, Rodriguez is one of the great visual documentarians of Los Angeles and of the cultural complexities of Mexican-American life.

Assembled by Rodriguez himself, in conjunction with scholar and writer Josh Kun, this book will be an invaluable addition to the way we understand identity, popular culture, and civil rights in American life, and a visual biography of one of the country's most important, yet unsung, visual historians.

Edited and with texts by Josh Kun
Forewords by Dolores Huerta and John Densmore
Designed by Brian Roettinger
Hat & Beard Press #12

*SPECIAL OFFER! The first 500 books ordered direct through our site will include three exclusive prints:
- 11 x 17 inch United Farm Workers "Boycott Grapes" reproduction
- 8 x 10 inch "Mothers of Invention/Frank Zappa" print
- 7.625 x 5 inch photograph from inside Rodriguez' studio of the infamous NWA backdrop, taken by Josh White

$20

Softcover, 160 pages
4¾ × 7½ in.
12.065 × 19.05 cm.

Poetry, when encountered unexpectedly, can be unexpectedly loved. One might love it accidentally.
—Mandy Kahn

Using the ancient Japanese art form of haiku as his weapon of choice—author Johnathan Rice dissects and disrupts, blasting our collective feed with razor sharp socio-political satire and insightful culture commentary. From the chaotic state of American politics to the labyrinthine emotional landscape of a Tinder date—his debut book of poetry addresses all the vacuous ennui of the modern world.

A singer-songwriter signed to Reprise Records in 2003, Rice has been recording and producing music ever since. In 2016 a shift in his life led him to move from a leafy home in Laurel Canyon to a rougher, weirder existence in Echo Park.

Spending hours on the Instagram app, Rice eventually came to see it as a form of social hieroglyphics. This ignited a personal creative experiment, as Rice began populating his feed with words, all on an app usually reserved for images.

The result was a series of what he dubbed his "dystopian haikus,” and what became a cathartic, therapeutic method of using humor and poetry to comment on what he feels may be a disintegrating culture … and his own complicity in it. 

Farewell My Dudes is a specially curated selection of Rice’s 2016-17 Instagram posts, each of them a 3 line, structured syllabic wonder. Sly, witty and unexpectedly poignant—Rice’s dystopia is simultaneously insightful and hilarious, an assortment of keenly observed statements about life, music, art, social media, brunch and of course—love.

Edited by Jessica Hundley & J.C. Gabel
Introduction by Mandy Kahn
Designed by Taylor Giali
Hat & Beard Press #11

$45
LTD $200

Hardcover, 224 pages
7½ × 10¾ in.
19.05 x 27.305 cm.

Acclaimed biographer and Bradbury scholar Sam Weller spent more than a decade interviewing Ray Bradbury, who admitted, “Sam Weller knows more about my life than I do.” Revealed in Weller and Bradbury’s conversations, collected in Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews, is a vivid portrait of the author. A creative genius, an opinionated and occasionally contrarian thinker, “and a nostalgic futurist,” Bradbury longed for yesterday even as he looked toward tomorrow.

During the process of conducting research for the book, noted Los Angeles photographer Zen Sekizawa photographed Bradbury’s home and decades of his accumulated possessions. Her photographs present an alternate portrait of Bradbury—one that is more poignant now that his personal possessions have been sold at auction and his home of more than half a century razed.

Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews is the definitive collection
 of interviews with this American icon, illustrated with Sekizawa’s stunning color photographs (including previously unpublished images). Originally issued as a paperback in 2010 by Stop Smiling Books and Melville House Publishing, Listen to the Echoes is now available as a full-color, larger-format hardcover edition with a new final chapter by Weller about Bradbury’s legacy since his death in 2012, and dozens of new photographs from the Bradbury archive. Also new to this edition are essays by Margaret Atwood and Frank Darabont.

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012), the poetic and visionary author of such classics as Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man, was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Bradbury’s sway over contemporary culture is towering—Mikhail Gorbachev, Alfred Hitchcock and David Bowie all counted themselves as fans, to name only a very few.

Limited Edition
The limited version comes in an edition of 300, is printed on silver foil and wrapped in a clear poly book jacket. It includes a “library card” signed by contributors Margaret Atwood, Frank Darabont, Black Francis, and Sam Weller.

Edited by J.C. Gabel
Foreword by Black Francis
Afterword essays by Margaret Atwood and Frank Darabont
Designed by Benjamin Woodlock
Original photography by Zen Sekizawa
Hat & Beard Press #10

*Pre-orders of the regular edition ship mid-November. Pre-orders of the limited edition ship in December.

$65

Softcover, 352 pages
7.25 × 10 in.
18.415 × 25.4 cm.

Xerophile: Cactus Photographs from Expeditions of the Obsessed is the first book of its kind. A selection of over five hundred photographs of arguably the rarest and most spectacular plants on earth, photographed in their natural habitats over the past 80 years by a global cadre of obsessed cactus aficionados made up of both the amateur and the professional—from Ph.D. botanist to banker, art teacher to cancer researcher.

Fueled by whispers of ancient plants on forgotten hilltops in Brazil, legends of fields of living fossils deep in the arid deserts of Chile, these explorers’ relentless drive to find and document succulent plants in some of the most remote landscapes on earth has created an extraordinary collective body of photographic work, one which has rarely, if ever, been seen by the general public.

Compiled by the proprietors of the Cactus Store in Los Angeles—Xerophile is not a field guide or taxonomy. Neither is it a book of photography in the traditional sense. Rather, it mines the space between science and art, between gravity and levity; a space in which plants that by many measures should not exist, and may very well cease to, live on in the darkness of dusty slide carousels and forgotten old hard drives of those who have devoted their lives to searching, writing, gossiping, thinking, dreaming and, if they are lucky—after weeks of false turns, stuck jeeps, and steep mountain paths—laying their eyes on the plant they have so desperately been seeking.

Edited by Cactus Store
Designed by Help.Ltd
Hat & Beard Press #9

$45
LTD $120

Hardcover, 168 pages
7½ × 9¼ in.
19.05 × 23.495 cm.

An unofficial history of Jamaican dancehall music told through its graphic design, Serious Things a Go Happen brings together more than 100 original posters and signs from the early 1980s through today, drawn from the poster collection of Jamaican film and television producer and director Maxine Walters. Jamaican dancehall emerged out of reggae in the late 1970s and brought with it a new visual style characterized by bright colors and bold, hand-drawn lettering. One-of-a-kind, hand-painted posters advertising local parties and concerts have become a ubiquitous part of Jamaica’s landscape, nailed to poles and trees across the island. Over the past three decades Walters, who has been called “the queen of Jamaican dancehall signs,” has amassed a collection of some 4,000 of these street posters, advertising local “bashments” held at bars, on beaches and in primary schools. Treated by most Jamaicans as simply a fact of life, the dancehall poster has until recently received little careful, critical attention; this volume begins to rectify that with essays by Vivien Goldman, and others, alongside the posters themselves, reproduced one to a page in full color. The book also includes text and interviews with Rory Stone Love & Mikey Bennett, Denva Harris, and Tony Winkler, author of The Lunatic.

Limited Edition
The limited edition of the book includes a six-color screenprinted reproduction dancehall sign on quarter-inch plywood, along with a two-inch nail for hanging. Approximately 12¾ × 12¼ inches. Edition of 25.

Edited by J.C. Gabel and Vivien Goldman
Introduction by Marlon James
Designed by Taylor Giali
Hat & Beard Press #7

[SOLD OUT]

Hardcover, 96 pages
9 x 12¼ in.
22.86 × 31.115 cm.

Cerro Gordo is a photographic study of Los Angeles, California, created over the span of a year. Inspired by how the city of Los Angeles was captured in motion pictures of the 1970s and early 1980s, photographer and director David Black explores noir themes that cut through L.A.’s sunshine veneer—crafting photographs that examine the complex existence between light and dark, and its role in our modern mythologies. Cerro Gordo visually apprehends Los Angeles’ archetypes and identity in popular culture and exposes the city’s paradoxical bent as a land of dreams and disillusionment.

David Black is a Los Angeles-based photographer and director noted for his work with musicians such as Daft Punk, Cat Power, and Kendrick Lamar. His photographs can be seen in The New Yorker and Rolling Stone, among other publications.

Limited Edition (Out of print)
The limited edition, with orange cloth-bound cover, includes an 8 x 10 inch black & white fiber print signed by David Black. Edition of 50.

Edited by J.C. Gabel
Designed by Brian Roettinger
Hat & Beard Press #6

$20
LTD. $30
DLX. $40

Hardcover, 88 pages
6½ × 5½ in.
16.51 × 13.97 cm.
2016

I'm Bored Standard Edition $20

I'm Bored Limited Lenticular Edition $30

Deluxe I'm Bored Bundle $40
1. Limited Lenticular Edition of the book, I’m Bored
2. An assortment of I’m Bored embroidered character patches
3. I'm Bored 21.5"x18" Indigo Print Now What? Poster

I’m Bored: a whimsical cartoon variety show from beloved illustrator and artist: Jess Rotter.

“Jess Rotter is an incredible artist that recognizes and explores the in-between spaces, the important moments that are not regulated by simple cause and effect. Her work inspires and challenges us to create from within and to search for inspiration in the quiet and personal realm of experience.”

—Kate and Laura Mulleavy (Rodarte)

A wizard paddles on a lonely sea, his flag proclaiming “I’m trying.” An ostrich hitchhikes in the desert, holding up a sign with her destination—“Bliss.” A walrus in an AC/DC shirt looks calmly at the viewer beneath a permanent refrain of, “I’m bored.”… Part art book, part comic book compilation, and a skeptical but loving take on “Successories” motivational posters for the office, I’m Bored features the whimsical, wonderfully whacked-out work of artist and illustrator Jess Rotter.

Informed by a deep knowledge and love for the world of 1970s rock ’n’ roll, Rotter was first inspired by her father’s vinyl covers and comic books growing up. She describes her early aesthetic influences as—“Part Peter Max, part Fritz the Cat”.

Rotter launched eponymous T-shirt label, Rotter and Friends in 2006, resulting in collaborative capsule collections for The Gap and Urban Outfitters, and official band merchandising for acts such as the Grateful Dead, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, Sly Stone, Rodriguez, Big Star, Mavis Staples, Kurt Vile and more. Her art and illustrations have appeared on everything from public murals to album covers (Best Coast, Wooden Shjips, Country Funk Volumes I & II just to name a few).

She’s collaborated with everyone from Jack White’s Third Man Records (This Record Belongs To) to Light In The Attic Records and on projects for clients including Other Music, Converse, Focus Features, Red Bull Music Academy, and Indiewire. Her cherished “Songbird Stories” column is currently featured bimonthly in Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letter. “I created these scribbles initially from the struggle of being jaded by overstimulation” explains Rotter of the inspiration for her first book, “it’s about how we seek daily salvation but always have a refresh button in the back of our minds…”

Designed by the artist and with a foreword/toast by Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte, I’m Bored is a Gary-Larson-meets-The Muppets variety show, a terrific trip composed of recurring illustrated characters—ranging from walruses to wizards to life warriors—who are all, like the rest of us, seeking their daily salvation.

Foreword by Kate and Laura Mulleavy
Hat & Beard Press #5

[SOLD OUT]

Hardcover, 220 pages
9 × 12 in.
22.86 × 30.48 cm.
2016


Belladonna of Sadness, the final film in the adult-oriented Animerama trilogy, is one of the great forgotten masterpieces of Japanese anime. Loosely inspired by Jules Michelet’s 1862 history of witchcraft and the occult, La Sorcière, Belladonna of Sadness tells the story of a young woman who makes a pact with the devil to exact revenge after being raped and driven from her home. This brief synopsis, however, does no justice to the visual spectacle of the film, which proceeds as a series of still images flashing onscreen. Spectacular watercolor paintings, by Kuni Fukai, marry the art nouveau artifice of artists like Aubrey Beardsley to ’60s psychedelia; the film’s North American distributor, Cinelicious Pics, describes it as “equal parts J.R.R. Tolkien and gorgeous, explicit Gustav Klimt-influenced eroticism.” A legendary cult classic, Belladonna of Sadness has never been officially released in the United States—until now. This publication accompanies the restored film’s North American release.

Beautifully produced in a colorful, large-format edition, this volume provides an indispensible companion to this incredible animated masterpiece, including script excerpts, stills and other ephemera from the film, a text about the film’s painstaking restoration and interviews conducted with the film’s illustrator and composer, and director Eiichi Yamamoto.

First printings ONLY of the regular edition of the book will include a Blu-ray disc of the 4k restored version of the feature film Belladonna of Sadness (1973, dir. Eiichi Yamamoto), with Bonus Features including interviews with the director, composer and illustrator of the film, original trailer and more. Once the first printing of the book is sold out, the Blu-ray will not be included with any future printings—so order now.

Limited Edition (Out of print)
The Limited Edition includes the Blu-ray release of the restored feature film by Cinelicious Pics; the official U.S. theatrical one-sheet 27 × 39 inch poster; an alternate theatrical poster featuring artwork only available with the limited edition, a Belladonna enamel jewelry pin; and a promotional postcard.

Edited by Jessica Hundley and J.C. Gabel
Designed by Morgan Ramsey
Split release with Cinelicious Pics
Hat & Beard Press #4

[SOLD OUT]

Softcover, 496 pages
8¾ × 11¾ in.
22.225 × 29.845 cm.
2016

The legendary punk and new wave alternative weekly magazine Slash was founded in Los Angeles in 1977 by Steve Samiof, and published a total of 29 print issues before its demise in 1980 (though it had a second life as the punk label Slash Records, which was eventually bought by Warner Bros. Records in 1999). In its brief run, Slash defined the punk subculture in Los Angeles and beyond with the comic strip Jimbo by Gary Panter and photographs by Melanie Nissen, the co-founding publisher and longtime photo editor. Writing by Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Chris D., Pleasant Gehman and Claude “Kickboy Face” Bessy explored reggae, blues and rockabilly in addition to punk and new wave.

Slash diagnosed the nascent punk scene’s challenge to the music industry and established its own oppositional voice in the editorial of its very first issue, staking a position against disco, Elvis and concept albums, and declaring: “Enough is enough, partner! About time we squeezed the pus out and sent the filthy rich old farts of rock ’n’ roll to retirement homes in Florida where they belong.”

Slash: A Punk Magazine From Los Angeles, 1977–80 pays homage to the magazine’s legacy with facsimile reproductions of every cover from the publication’s run and reprints of some of the magazine’s best articles and interviews. These are interspersed with new essays, reportage and oral histories from Exene Cervenka, KK Barrett, Gary Panter, Vivien Goldman, Richard Meltzer, Cali Thornhill DeWitt, Chris D., Bryan Ray Turcotte, Chris Morris, Ann Summa and Allan MacDowell, among others, telling the story of this critical chapter in the history of American media.

Deluxe Edition [SOLD OUT]

The deluxe edition includes the special "fluorescent orange cover" version of the book, one of the remaining copies of our custom 3-panel folder containing 77 Los Angeles punk fliers from 1977 to 1980 (featuring such bands as the Germs, Screamers, Weirdos, The Bags, X, Catholic Discipline, The Zeros, The Go-Gos, and many more), and a 1:1 reproduction of SLASH Vol. 1, No. 1.

3-panel folder is from a previous edition of 100. These fliers are offset printed reproductions, not originals.

Edited by Brian Roettinger & J.C. Gabel
Designed by Brian Roettinger
Hat & Beard Press #3

$40

Hardcover, 148 pages
9 × 12 in.
22.86 × 30.48 cm.
2016

Pheromone Hotbox, the first monograph from Los Angeles–based photographer Amanda Charchian (born 1988), brings together work shot by the artist between 2012 and 2015. Working around the idea of the “Pheromone Hotbox” that occurs when a woman photographs another woman—a title Charchian lent to a 2014 group exhibition at Stephen Kasher Gallery in New York—Charchian photographs her female artist friends nude in dramatic locations across the globe, including in Iceland, France, Costa Rica, Morocco, Israel and Cuba. Simultaneously dreamy and erotically charged, Charchian’s photographs capture the intensity and intimacy of the interaction between artist and model. In addition to exhibiting her fine art photography in galleries internationally, Charchian is also well known for her fashion and commercial work, which has appeared in numerous international publications, including Vogue, Huffington Post, i-D, Interview, Garage and Purple.

Edited by J.C. Gabel and Jessica Hundley
Designed by Brian Roettinger
Split release with Dilettante Paper
Hat & Beard Press #2

Spring 2018

Spring 2018

During his first major sit-down with the music press in 1977, between claiming all his songs were about guilt and revenge, Elvis Costello casually remarked, “I don’t really listen to Lou Reed’s records, but I never miss an interview with him.”

Indeed, for all his publicly expressed loathing of the press in general and music journalists in particular, during his long career as a rock artist, Lou Reed was never less than entertaining in his dealings with the Fourth Estate. In fact, one could go so far as to claim that, for Lou, the press became as much an implement of expression as singing, composing, and playing music. In a style at times very much informed by his mentor Andy Warhol, Reed could play the media like a Marshall-amped Stradivarius.

To the majority of his fans, the apotheosis of Reed’s relationship with the press, and most prominently regarded to this day, was the series of combative tête-à-têtes between Lou and the late great music journalist Lester Bangs, published in CREEM Magazine during the 1970s.

My Week Beats Your Year: Encounters with Lou Reed features 30+ interviews spanning his solo career, from the golden era of print rock-journalism, to the first online blogs. The compilation is one fan’s humble attempt to move beyond the Bangs canon, and delve deeper into the distance and intimacy, cactus and mercury, that constituted Lou’s post-Velvet Underground public media image.

This anthology will be an intimate portrait of Reed who, in addition to being notoriously prickly (to put it mildly), was also intelligent, articulate, and deeply passionate about what was important to him, both as a person and as a creative artist.

Edited and with texts by Pat Thomas
Compiled by Michael Heath
Foreword by Luc Sante
Designed by Philippe Karrer
Hat & Beard Press #13

Fall 2018

Hardcover, approx. 220 pages
8 × 10 in.
20.32 × 25.4 cm.

Where modern literature met modern art: classic New Directions book design by Alvin Lustig, Paul Sahre, Rodrigo Corral and more.

In 1931, the young aspiring poet James Laughlin asked Ezra Pound for career advice. Pound ruled Laughlin’s poems hopeless, and advised him to graduate school and do ‘something useful’ with his life. In 1936, Laughlin founded the groundbreaking independent publisher New Directions. Just five years later, Alvin Lustig designed his first jacket for the press, a cover for the 1941 edition of Henry Miller’s Wisdom of the Heart. Lustig worked with New Directions Publishing from 1941 to 1952, and each of his cover designs was different from the last. In 1956, Laughlin looked back on their collaboration: “opening each envelope from Lustig was a new excitement because the range of fresh invention seemed to have no limits.” In many ways, Lustig’s designs helped New Directions establish its visual and literary identity: modern, distinctive, bold, cutting edge.

The collaboration between Alvin Lustig and New Directions Publishing is now the stuff of design legend. But Lustig is just one giant in a storied history full of them: Andy Warhol designed covers for New Directions before he was famous, as did Ray Johnson and Milton Glaser. And New Directions was the first US publisher of Jorge Luis Borges, W.G. Sebald and Roberto Bolaño, among many others.

Edited by J.C. Gabel with New Directions publisher and editor-in-chief Barbara Epler, Designing Modernism: The Visual History of New Directions surveys the publishing house’s remarkable history of bringing together groundbreaking literary modernism with indelible, iconic art and design. Lustig’s revolutionary covers from the 1940s and 1950s are, of course, included, alongside original work by Paul Sahre, Megan Wilson, Charlotte Strick, Rodrigo Corral and John Gall, among others. Designing Modernism also includes the reflections of more than 40 working designers from around the world discussing their favorite New Directions covers of all time, proving the continued influence of these formal experiments more than half a century later.

Edited by J.C. Gabel and Barbara Epler
Designed by Rodrigo Corral

Winter 2019

Hardcover, approx. 180 pages
7 × 10 in.
17.78 × 25.4 cm.

He inspired a Broadway musical and several films. But when Fela Kuti, the incendiary activist musician and creator of Nigeria’s Afrobeat sound, discovered the art of Lemi Ghariokwu, a self-taught local teenager, he knew he had met his visual match. Afrobeat Art: Lemi Ghariokwu's Visions of Fela Kuti views Fela’s turbulent journey through the lens of Lemi’s sleeves, from 1974 to 1993; and is written by Fela’s trusted chronicler, Vivien Goldman, using fresh information from Fela’s family, musicians and friends, as well as Lemi’s own intimate observations.

Lemi’s vivid, dramatic, witty multi-media album sleeves illustrated Fela classics like “Zombie,” “Beast of No Nation” and “Alagbon Close,” that spoke of Nigeria but grabbed the attention of a larger world. The combustion between the two mens’ artistry gave an identity to a generation dealing with the brutality and corruption of successive military governments as Nigeria emerged from colonialism. In so doing, Lemi and Fela created a fresh visual vocabulary: AFROBEAT ART.

By Vivien Goldman
Edited by J.C. Gabel

Spring 2019

Spring 2019

The literary incarnation of the legendary essay film by Thom Andersen, Los Angeles Plays Itself, is “a continuation by other means,” as he puts it, of his phantasmagoric account of how movies have represented and misrepresented the city of Los Angeles. Andersen continues and extends his assault on the mythologies of Los Angeles and its movies, casting a keen gaze on many movies not analyzed in his film, such as The Wild Angels, The Fast and the Furious, Crash, Collateral, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Teenage Doll, Mulholland Dr., Inherent Vice, The Black Dahlia, Ask the Dust, The Player, A Single Man, Dusty and Sweets McGee, and even San Andreas.

Edited by J.C. Gabel
Designed by Brian Roettinger