@#$%&*! grawlixes

This is the cover of the zine Autosomatix: programming with grawlixes, by Marc van Elburg. You can read an on-line version here.

Grawlix is a term invented by Mort Walker in 1964 to describe the symbols used to replace swearing in comics.

Marc explains some of the history of grawlixes, & where they sit in the broader categories of maladicta & indicia. He suggests that the shapes typically used as grawlixes are logical representations of an urge to swear which is suppressed. Further, he connects his ideas about symbols in comics to his earlier work in treating his body as a programmable drawing tool. Examples of Marc's earlier experimental drawings are at his blog.

Snake Skin Subtext, by Brian A. Kenny

Here are the first 5 pages of Brian A. Kenny's graphic novel Snake Skin Subtext.

It's distributed by A Raven Above Press, & available here & here.

The symbolism reminds me of Tarot cards & Egyptian mythology, & has a ritualistic feeling. The narrative feels like an internal, psychic drama rather than events occurring in the outside world. It's abstract inasmuch as it doesn't rely on drawings of consensus reality.

Like no other book I can recall. (A distant cousin would be Italo Calvino's The Castle of Crossed Destinies.)