CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 4/27/2014

Pirate Nightmare Vice Explosion: Inherited Remnants of an Amateur Dadaist’s Library

In the late 1990s, comic artist Michael Kupperman bought a stack of vintage men's magazines from an old-timey store near the Port Authority. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that their original owner had modified them to create his own hybrid magazines. Kupperman writes, "I was instantly captivated by this bizarre goldmine and took most of the restructured collection; more than three hundred magazines, filling several boxes. Back at my apartment I took them apart again, putting the most interesting pages and all of the covers in clear plastic-sleeved binders, so I could have them available for study and easy reference. In a way I was continuing the cycle that the original owner had started; but I have got a lot of use out of them. I've mined them for visual reference, imitated the ads, parodied the language, been inspired by the contradictions; they've become part of my vocabulary as an artist. The remaking that the original owner subjected them to gave me license to become more intimate and casual with them than I would've otherwise felt comfortable with. Which, of course, eventually resulted in this book." Pirate Nightmare Vice Explosion launches Thursday, May 1 at Desert Island in Brooklyn.