Jess: O! Tricky Cad and Other Jessoterica

Without realizing it, I said one "reads" the images in "Jess: O! Tricky Cad and other Jessoterica" Jess: O! Tricky Cad and Other Jessoterica whoooo--what a title! That's what I'm doing: Like a cartoon but with a peculiar narrative, one reads "JESS's" images. The images have shifts in scale and subject matter in the same page. Like one image which at first appears to be a hat on closer inspection turns out to be the dials of a safe! Changes in scale and subject matter jumble images and words in visual image poems and absurd word images.You don't have to know art history to enjoy these absurd comics and poems. But it helps to know what Surrealism and Dada were. Both tried to find the truth in the juxtaposition of things that normally didn't go together: poems that have no literal meaning and are beautiful. But I'm being so serious and "Jess:" is fun. I'm not reading it in order--you don't have to read it in sequence. At the first are several chapters of Dick Tracy turned into "Tricky Cad." For several years he made Dada collages out of Dick Tracy. That means it doesn't make sense like Dick Tracy but has a new meaning that was made by "jumbling up" Dick Tracy=Tricky Cad.All throughout are single page images and short cartoons. There are long cartoons. It is pleasing and satisfying. I look forward to reading it all and browsing it again because with Jess's technique you are sure to miss something the first time through. But don't miss the pamphlet in the pocket on p. 57. The publishers went to the trouble to show you what a Jess "book" might look like. "Jess: O!" collects rare little books and obscure publications in this rich bargain of a book. It is just loaded with pictures and "discover why men like you have PUMPKIN PATCH GARGOYLE"One special treat: not only does the dust jacket serve as a bookmark, it unfolds into an large poster which is about 6 times the size of the book and you could frame it because it is art!

Love the work, love the book.

For anyone who has encountered the rich, humorous, wonderfully surreal work of Jess, this volume is a must. It's a terrific mixed bag, collecting all his extant cases of Tricky Cad in one place at last -- these being visual & verbal reworkings of Dick Tracy strips that transform them into delightfully weird & non-logical stories of existential dread & absurdity; a complete reprint of his magazine "O!" in its own tipped-in pocket; his hilarious "When a Young Lad Dreams of Manhood" which is both unabashedly homoerotic & a deliberately "naughty" parodic vision of homoerotica as well; many of his word collages, which are as much Surrealist poetry as they are visual art; and of course a generous selection of his paste-ups & assemblies, which are so richly detailed, filled with classical, alchemical, and pop cultural references, as to demand repeated viewings. Overall, you get a sense of a wickedly mischievous but ultimately gentle wit & a warm love of life -- as you might expect from someone who went from working on nuclear weapons to suddenly abandoning his scientific career & becoming a very Bohemian artist in San Francisco & the life partner of poet Robert Duncan. It was clearly the right & only choice for him; and it was a lucky choice for those of us who admire & love his art.Most highly recommended!

"These seldom reproduced works by Jess are brave and defiant productions, perhaps not his “mature” works but so much the better for the dreaming young lads of the world. Although O! Tricky Cad does not attempt to be a definitive catalog of all of Jess’s work, and does not even feature notable works like the iconic Narkissos, it succeeds quite impressively in presenting the odds and ends of an artist who made an art of odds and ends."--Anthony Leslie reviews "O! Tricky Cad and Other Jessoterica"Read the full review here:[...]