Gig Posters Volume 2

by Clay Hayes
Quirk Books, 208 pp., $40 (paper)

Periodicals today direct their readers to the Web. GigPosters.com steps off the Internet and down to the printed page with the same purpose in mind. Stacking 101 artists and/or design collectives from around the world (though mostly U.S.) into an 11-inch-by-14-inch miniposter folio, Gig Posters Volume 2 suffers from static, two-page layouts: four to six smaller images on a stats page (rambling influences, print methods), then a full-page tearaway. “Most gig posters you see out in the world are limited-edition screenprints that only end up in the hands of a few,” writes GigPosters.com proprietor Clay Hayes. Meaning we should liberate the perforated reproductions from Volume 2 just as we were instructed to do with 2009 bookend Volume 1? Comic-book superchicks from Houston’s Anville not so much, but the paper-cutout flourish of Fort Worth’s Chicken Billy will probably force me to rip out its lion. Austin represents (Clint Wilson, Erick Montes), with the arresting femininity of Farley Bookout of Empire Press (her design for Spoon on Austin City Limits, 2010) nestled among the book’s best. Ben Wilson’s Rankin Bass-type whimsy and kook versus the cartoon-spook cool of Tom Bagley make for easy eye munchies, while Jim Mazza’s mescaline visions (Blue Meanie Grinderman), John Howard of Berkeley, Calif., taking 1960s Fillmore art forward, and psilocybin moss on Marq Spusta scramble third eyes. A Polish poster lean to Chattanooga, Tenn.’s Nick DuPey’s work and Rich Kelly’s woodcut-looking detailing go against all of metal’s skeletons (New York’s Mark McCormick). Can’t tack the Web to your cubicle wall.

This article appears in December 16 • 2011.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.