THE COMPLETE WORKS from LOST & FOUND TIMES 1979-2005 Introduction by Jack A. Withers Smote - Compilation and Afterword by C. Mehrl Bennett

by Blaster Al Ackerman

Fiction. Poetry. Art. Edited by C. Mehrl Bennett and with an introduction by Jack A. Withers Smote. Luna Bisonte Prods is proud to offer (alas, posthumously) this vast testament of humorous ramblings and scramblings by none other than one of the 14 Secret Masters of the World!, Blaster Al Ackerman, as well as works he wrote under eighteen different pseudonyms. This anthology includes the complete works of Blaster Al from LOST & FOUND TIMES, 6/7 through 54, 1979-2005. It includes every appearance of his inimitable column, Ack's Wacks, and all of the Ack's Hacks published in the magazine, in which he created poems and other works using as source material poems by John M. Bennett and many others. His processes for doing these works were lunatic, wonderful, and constantly varying and unpredictable. Many of these accounts are included as they are often as interesting and hair-brained as the results. The anthology also contains many drawings, paintings, poems, texts, and wide swaths of other material from an acknowledged master artist, mail artist, writer, and prankster; one of the great minds of our times.

Genres: Poetry

384 pages, Paperback

First published June 13, 2013

Reviews

[Marc]

Alas, I made it almost halfway through this collection... It's just... dare I say it... too much Blaster Al. His prolificness works against him. I would say this book is definitely for the completists/collectors of his work, but it's like five thrift stores combined into one. Definitely, his Acks Wacks columns stood out as the most enjoyable to me (and I'll probably read the rest of these). Some of his poetry hacks are interesting (he uses a kind of dadaist/situationist approach and creates sort of formulas for merging either his own writings with that of others, or just the poems of other writers to create new poems---these mashups can be comical, confusing, silly, enlightening, etc.). But by and large, I think it's hard for a reader to wade through too much of this type of writing at any one time. It begins to feel like the literary equivalent of a junkyard.