Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box

Fantagraphics Books, which was founded in 1976 by Gary Groth and Michael Catron, has always been one of the most creative and unique publishers of graphic novels, manga, comic strip anthologies and alternative comics like the Hernandez brothers’ Love and Rockets and Jay Disbrow’s The Flames of Gyro. The focus of the company has always been comics and graphic art but occasionally a one-of-a-kind anomaly will pop up in their release schedule such as Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box by Jacques Boyreau, which first appeared in their Fall 2009 catalog. With its oversized VHS box design complete with slipcase and fetishized detail, right down to the FBI warning and reminder to “Keep out of direct sunlight,” Portable Grindhouse is a must-have collectible for any movie buff.

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Payback is a Bitch

We’ve all heard the famous quote “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” which came from the 1697 play The Mourning Bride by William Congreve, but what are the options for the discarded one? Shame the perpetrator in public? Internalize the rage? Become detached? Laugh it off? In Hollywood, the idea of the scorned woman bent on revenge is usually depicted more along the lines of Jessica Walter in Play Misty for Me (1971) and Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction (1987) but you really don’t have to wield a knife and go berserk to redeem your self-respect. Instead, you can be creative, unpredictable and non-threatening in appearance like Emily (Geraldine Chaplin), the protagonist of Alan Rudolph’s Remember My Name (1978).   Continue reading