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Lou Beach's new book: 420 Characters, exclusive preview

Mark Frauenfelder at 4:56 pm Mon, Dec 19, 2011

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Illustrator Lou Beach has a new book, called 420 Characters. I like Jonathan Lethem's blurb about it: "Holy Shit! These are great!"

After the jump, some sample stories and art from the book (some of the art is not in the book; consider it a bonus).

I OPEN THE CAN, press the oil out of the tuna with the lid. I recall sandwiches you made, just the right amount of mayo, onions, celery, sourdough with lettuce, or, if you were happy, alfalfa sprouts. In my reverie I don’t notice that I’ve sliced my thumb with the lid and blood mingles with the oil and flows down the drain and pipes to a processing plant and to sea, to finally wash up on a beach where we once fished.

THEY CUT off Spiney's left leg. 'Cuz of the sugars,' he said. Asked what he carried in his guitar case besides his instrument, he said: 'Picks, a blade, and Clark bars.' The blade was a pearl handled straight razor, the bluesman's Swiss army knife, a train engraved on the shiny metal. He stropped it for years on his left boot, but since the loss of his leg it had gone dull. He was disinclined to strop on the right.
Blink
OS20073
Elephant Milk

FABLE 2
Fiyo
Haden

Him
HOLY MOLY
Insomnia

Kamikaze Surfin' USA
Mystical Lure Of The Desert
SEER

Spring!
The Danish Purse
The Police

Tiger
Weather Report
World of Men C

World of Men C

More samples here

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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  • TheGussBuss

    4:20 would be the perfect time to read this book

  • allium

    Is that Bullwinkle’s driver just below his sternum?

  • teapot

    Seems the stories in this book are all 420 characters or less (owing to the fact they originated as FB status updates)… and here I am thinking the book is titled 420 for another reason.