R.I.P. 1999-2001

The Pick Pocket Books were mini-chapbooks of poetry, fiction, comics and art by underground writers and artists, hand-made with lots of love (wait, is that me talking or the rubber cement?) and a rock and roll soundtrack. Printed on selected papers with the acclaimed quasi-knopf binding process and designed with a passion for the craft of bookmaking on a budget so tight, it's criminal... and read cheap!!

"Not only are they put together with style and integrity, but their list of authors is like a small press who's who." -Kevin Sampsell

 

Arlene Ang - A Perfect Night for Bloodless Love

like a Faustian game of cards, Arlene Ang's poetry weaves through vice and temptation without hesitation or fear of abandon, an abstract and sensual monologue that challenges the forbidden. with illustrations by Ang Kiukok

32pps . ISBN: 0-9676660-7-4 . pub. date: 2000

Joi Brozek - The Luckiest Girl

"Constantly waiting for her life to happen," Andrea waits tables in a tiny Japanese restaurant and subjecting herself to the owner's wife's "Behavior Management Plan." Until she hears the voice of God and realizes just how lucky she really is... with illustrations by Greg Oakes

32pps . ISBN: 1-930935-14-5 . pub. date: 2001

JJ Campbell - Just Add Water

scathing poems, portraits of the artist in all his depraved glory, where nothing is sacred... brutally honest, JJ writes because he has to, and that is evident in his concise words that rip through the facade of bullshit poetics... cover by G. Tod Slone.

24pps . ISBN: 1-930935-04-8 . pub. date: 2000

Alan Catlin - Under the Volcano

if you want forgiveness, go see a priest... for the truth, ask a bartender... poems from the other side of the counter. Cover by G. Tod Slone.

24pps . ISBN: 0-9676660-5-8 . pub. date: 2000

Stan Coldrum - Girlfriend Dada

Poems about an ex-girlfriend, desperation, roaches, a disheveled existence, waiting for the parade and bloody fingerprints on a keyboard. Cover by James Kelewae.

24pps . ISBN: 0-9676660-4-X . pub. date: Sept 1999

after the break-up, before the departure, there was Las Vegas... and poems about smoking, drinking and fucking. Oh, and the bar where it all started... cover by G. Tod Slone.

24pps . ISBN: 1-930935-02-1 . pub. date: 1999

Arin Greenwood - Pork Bellies and the Saki Bottle

story of a young American woman trying to get cheap language lessons from a suave, freeloading French Satanist she met in a London bar and their tumultuous evening at a Chinese restaurant... illustrations by Claudio Parentela.

24pps . ISBN: 0-9676660-1-5 . pub. date: Feb. 2000

John Grey - The Bum on Your Avenue

poems by the prolific John Grey, stretching the globe from Cairo, South America, the US and Australia. Powerful and captivating images of a life no less expansive... cover by G. Tod Slone.

24pps . ISBN: 0-9676660-8-2 . pub. date: Nov. 1999

with illustrations by Blair Wilson

a narrative poem by S.A. Griffin, fast-paced joyride through one man's psyche as he comes face to face with "the bad thing" while walking alone on the streets of Los Angeles in the middle of the night... illustrated by Blair Wilson.

32pps . ISBN: 1-930935-12-9 . pub. date: Sept. 2000

a sampler of short comic strips by this new orleans artist, featuring stories about bar life, discovering other peoples’ secrets, a talking pussy and being a 30 year old service employee.

32pps . ISBN: 0-9676660-6-6 . pub. date: Feb. 2000

with illustrations by Lindsay Wilson

very few writers are able to pull off what so easily flows in Laura's words... poetry with teeth, not spoken but spit out... vicious, but without betrayal.

32pps . ISBN:0-9676660-3-1 . pub. date: June 2000

with illustrations by Mike Tolento

the infamous small press poet Catfish McDaris teams up with the equally infamous comic artist Mike Tolento for a collection of poems, short stories and artwork that'll leave your jaw stinging from the fierce perspective these two depict.

32pps . ISBN:1-930935-09-9 . pub. date: April 2000

reading Todd Moore is like looking down the barrel of a shotgun... you need guts... beyond the simplicity of modern gore, these narrative poems will take the reader closer to the grit of a life full of holes than any other hypothesis on the down and out.

24pps . ISBN: 0-9676660-2-3 . pub. date: Dec. 1999

LA poems by the indisputable C. Mulrooney, with a wrap-around cover and illustrations by Heather Lowe... already in its third printing with new artwork.

24pps . ISBN: 1-930935-03-X . pub. date: Oct. 1999

Joe R. - The Salvador Dali Toylet

with illustrations by Michael LaBash

Joe R.'s unique style, a somewhat literal transcription of a phonetic slur, screams "welcome to my sick, perverted reeeeal world."

40pps . ISBN: 1-930935-07-2 . pub. date: March 2001

David Rowe - As The Day Is Long

A collection of eight poems with an intriguing interpretation, both personalized and highly imaginative, of the long-standing tradition of Walt Whitman.

24pps . ISBN: 1-930935-00-5 . pub. date: Sept. 1999

Mark Senkus - Under An Abusive Sun

poems by the most underated poet in the small press that hit like a 2x4 right between the eyes... with inkspot illustrations by Harland Ristau and cover photograph by T. Kilgore Splake.

24pps . ISBN: 1-930935-01-3 . pub. date: Oct. 1999

G. Tod Slone - Diversionary Vacuousness

Hard-hitting poems that attack academia, factory poets and America from the incorrigble poet of Walden, Mass.

24pps . pub. date: Dec. 1999

Jennifer Stanley - Read Me?

More a question than a demand, this collection of poems and drawings attacks the social misconceptions of feminine restraint without sacrificing optimism behind an otherwise cynical facade.

24pps . ISBN: 1-930935-11-0 . pub. date: Feb. 2001

Paul A. Toth - Fizz

with illustrations by Donald Hash

experience "Ray Style" in this hilarious tale of a deranged and inebriated loser, his raucous joyride in search of "cool" and eventual fall from delusion... illustrations by Donald Hash.

24pps . ISBN: 0-9676660-9-0 . pub. date: March 2000

Joseph Verrilli - diary of a bootlicker

with illustrations by Norman J. Olson

introspective poems, perversions otherwise hidden behind a facade of civility, come to the surface as the world's forgotten piss boy stakes his claim... illustrations by Norman J Olson.

24pps . ISBN: 1-930935-05-6 . pub. date: April 2000