Mimeo Mimeo Has Not Forgotten You

And to prove it here is a complete run of John Perreault's Elephant, an unjustly overlooked mag from, what is for me, one of the sweet spots of the Mimeo Revolution:  the Lower East Side from 1964 to 1966.  Forget geography.  The golden age of mimeo is 1964 to 1966, be it the LES, SF, the UK, Germany, Detroit or Cleveland.

Elephant is a rare specimen that roamed wild in the Secret Location.  It has become a tough beast to track down.  The first issue is down and dirty mimeo in the spirit of the early issues of Blazek's Ole. The inking is gloriously atrocious with offsets on the back of nearly every page.  Elephant 2 approaches extinction.  I have seen only two copies over the years and both were worse for the wear. The cover is by Perreault and is a great one.  The format shifts to the standard 8.5 X 11 side staple job that Fuck You made iconic.  Like the first issue's inking, the second issue's stapling leaves a lot to be desired.  In the words of Chief Brody, you are going to need a bigger staple.  It is extremely fragile.  I believe the third issue is professionally printed and it is a step-up in terms of production values, durability, and integration of text and image.  Not that this is a positive development.  I much prefer issues 1 and 2.  Do not let issue 3's good looks fool you.  Some of the symptoms of a terminally ill mimeo mag are additional pages and a better design.

I plan on curling up with Elephant tonight and listening to what it has to say about the good old days. An Elephant never forgets even if it has been forgotten.

JB