Eugene "Gene" Bilbrew was an African-American vocal group singer, cartoonist, and "bizarre art" pioneer. As noted in the biography, GENE BILBREW REVEALED: The Unsung Legacy of a Fetish Art Pioneer, he was "the first black career fetish artist in history." Starting in the mid-1950s, he was among the most prolific illustrators of fetish-oriented pulp book covers. In addition to signing his work under his own name, he produced art under a range of pseudonyms, including ENEG, Van Rod, and Bondy.
Darcy Megan Stanger, better known by the pen name Dame Darcy, is an alternative cartoonist, fine artist, musician, cabaret performer, and animator/filmmaker. Her "Neo-Victorian" comic book series Meat Cake was published by Fantagraphics Books from 1993–2008. The Meat Cake Bible compilation was released in June 2016 and nominated for The Eisner Award July 2017. Vegan Love: Dating and Partnering for the Cruelty-Free Gal, with Fashion, Makeup & Wedding Tips, written by Maya Gottfried and illustrated by Dame Darcy, was the Silver Medalist winners of the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2018.
Adam Parfrey was an American journalist, editor, and the publisher of Feral House books, whose work in all three capacities frequently centered on unusual, extreme, or "forbidden" areas of knowledge. A 2010 Seattle Weekly profile stated that "what Parfrey does is publish books that explore the marginal aspects of culture. And in many cases—at least back when his interests were almost exclusively transgressive—he sheds light on subjects that society prefers to leave unexplored, carving a niche catering to those of us with an unseemly obsession with life's darkest, most depraved sides."
Lowbrow, or lowbrow art, is an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California area in the late 1960s. It is a populist art movement with its cultural roots in underground comix, punk music, tiki culture, graffiti, and hot-rod cultures of the street. It is also often known by the name pop surrealism. Lowbrow art often has a sense of humor – sometimes the humor is gleeful, impish, or a sarcastic comment.
Jorge Ernesto Guzmán Rodríguez is a Mexican luchador enmascarado, or masked professional wrestler, actor and political activist, best known under the ring name, El Hijo del Santo. Guzmán is the youngest child, out of eleven, of Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, better known as El Santo, a professional wrestler, film actor, and Mexican folk hero. Jorge Guzmán's son made his debut under the name "Santo Jr.", the third-generation Guzmán to use the name "Santo". Jorge Guzmán's uncles, Miguel "Black" Guzmán, Jesús Guzmán and Jimmy Guzmán were also wrestlers. Axxel, Jorge Guzmán's nephew, originally wrestled as "El Nieto del Santo" but Jorge Guzmán owned the rights to the "Santo" name and objected. Guzmán has also followed in his father's footsteps, as he has starred in several lucha films.
Jodi Lynn Picoult is an American writer. Picoult has published 28 novels, as well as short stories, and has also written several issues of Wonder Woman. Approximately 40 million copies of her books are in print worldwide, translated into 34 languages. She was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003.
Feral House is an American book publisher founded in 1989 by Adam Parfrey and based in Port Townsend, Washington.
Scott Benzel is an American visual artist, musician, performance artist, and composer. Benzel is a member of the faculty of the School of Art at California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA.
Quill & Quire is a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. Quill & Quire reviews books and magazines and provides a forum for discussion of trends in the publishing industry. The publication is considered a significant source of short reviews for new Canadian books.
Process Media is an independent publishing house started in 2005 in Los Angeles by Adam Parfrey of Feral House and Jodi Wille of Dilettante Press, and headquartered in Port Townsend.
Father Yod, or YaHoWha, born James Edward Baker, was the American cult founder and owner of one of the country's first health food restaurants, on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. He founded a spiritual commune in the Hollywood Hills known as the Source Family. The Source Family was heavily influenced by the teachings of Yogi Bhajan and the astrological age of Aquarius. The Family practiced communal living in Southern California and later in Hawaii. He was also the frontman of the commune's experimental psychedelic rock band, Ya Ho Wha 13.
Semiotext(e) is an independent publisher of critical theory, fiction, philosophy, art criticism, activist texts and non-fiction.
The fourth season of CSI: Miami premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005 and ended May 22, 2006. The series stars David Caruso and Emily Procter.
Jodi Wille is an American film director, curator, and book publisher known for her work exploring American subcultures.
Earl Kemp was an American publisher, science fiction editor, critic, and fan who won a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 1961 for Who Killed Science Fiction, a collection of questions and answers with top writers in the field. Kemp also helped found Advent:Publishers, a small publishing house focused on science fiction criticism, history, and bibliography, and served as chairman of the 20th World Science Fiction Convention. During the 1960s and '70s, Kemp was also involved in publishing a number of erotic paperbacks, including an illustrated edition of the Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. This publication led to Kemp being sentenced to one year in prison for "conspiracy to mail obscene material," but he served only the federal minimum of three months and one day.
Sylvère Lotringer was a French-born literary critic and cultural theorist. Initially based in New York City, he later lived in Los Angeles and Baja California, Mexico. He is best known for synthesizing French theory with American literary, cultural and architectural avant-garde movements as founder of the journal Semiotext(e) and for his interpretations of theory in a 21st-century context. He is regarded as an influential interpreter of Jean Baudrillard's theories, among others.
Andrew Berardini is an American writer known for his work as a visual art critic and curator in Los Angeles. Described as "the most elegant of all art critic cowboys", Berardini works primarily between genres, which he describes as "quasi-essayistic prose poems on art and other vaguely lusty subjects."
El Alebrije is a Mexican Luchadorenmascarado, or masked professional wrestler, currently working for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) under the ring name Kraneo. He best known for his work in Asistencia Asesoría y Administración, where he worked for 12 years as El Alebrije, along with his Mini-Estrella companion Cuije. He has also played the role of Máscara Sagrada II after the Original Máscara Sagrada left AAA. El Alebrije's real name is not a matter of public record, as is often the case with masked wrestlers in Mexico where their private lives are kept a secret from the wrestling fans.
Domingo Antonio Edjang Moreno, better known by his stage name El Chojin, is a Spanish rapper and songwriter. He is the current Guinness World Record holder for most syllables rapped in one minute.
Hedi El Kholti is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles. He is co-editor of Semiotext(e) alongside Chris Kraus and Sylvère Lotringer. He was partner at the now defunct Dilettante Press and currently edits Semiotext(e)’s ‘occasional intellectual journal’ Animal Shelter. He is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design.
United States