Blaster Al Ackerman (born William Hogg Greathouse Jr.; November 27, 1939 – March 17, 2013) was an American

mail art Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the postal service. It initially developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence Schoo ...

ist and writer. Ackerman had been active in various subcultures since the early 1970s. Heavily influenced by post-war pulp writers like

Theodore Sturgeon Theodore Sturgeon (; born Edward Hamilton Waldo, February 26, 1918 – May 8, 1985) was an American fiction author of primarily fantasy, science fiction and horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 sh ...

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

and

Fredric Brown Fredric Brown (October 29, 1906 – March 11, 1972) was an American science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer.D. J. McReynolds, "The Short Fiction of Fredric Brown" in Frank N. Magill, (ed.) ''Survey of Science Fiction Literature'', Vol. 4 ...

(with whom Ackerman corresponded as a young person) as well as by modernists like

Ray Johnson Raymond Edward "Ray" Johnson (October 16, 1927 – January 13, 1995) was an American artist. Known primarily as a collagist and correspondence artist, he was a seminal figure in the history of Neo-Dada and early Pop art and was described as

Francis Ponge Francis Jean Gaston Alfred Ponge (; 27 March 1899 – 6 August 1988) was a French essayist and poet. Influenced by surrealism, he developed a form of prose poem, minutely examining everyday objects. He was the third recipient of the Neustadt Inter ...

and the

Oulipo Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works ...

, the name Al Ackerman is a pseudonym most likely alluding to the science fiction editor and collector

Forrest J. Ackerman Forrest James Ackerman (November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008) was an American magazine editor; science fiction writer and literary agent; a founder of science fiction fandom; a leading expert on science fiction, horror, and fantasy films; a pr ...

. Al Ackerman's writing has dealt playfully, if obsessively, with themes of madness and weird phenomena. His visual work is also in the tradition of

black humor Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

, often including a trademark character, the

hebephrenic Disorganized schizophrenia, or hebephrenia, was a subtype of schizophrenia prior to 2013. Subtypes of schizophrenia were no longer recognized as separate conditions in the ''DSM 5'', published in 2013. The disorder is no longer listed in the 11th ...

, with a wide upper lip and two protruding teeth. His voluminous

output was anthologized in ''The Blaster Omnibus'' and given a one-man show at the Chela Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland. Other books include ''Let Me Eat Massive Pieces of Clay,'' ''I Taught My Dog to Shoot a Gun,'' and ''Corn and Smoke''. Over the past twenty years, he has been mostly frequently published '' The Lost and Found Times'', published by frequent collaborator

John M. Bennett John M. Bennett (born 1942, in Chicago) is an American experimental text, sound, and visual poet. Personal life Bennett was born in 1942 in Chicago. After World War II he spent three years of his childhood living in Japan, where his fathe ...

, and in the Shattered Wig Review published by Rupert Wondolowski, although his massive body of work is difficult to track due to his regular use of a variety of pseudonyms (which he relates to his childhood love of pulp fiction), including Eel Leonard,

Luther Blissett Luther Loide Blissett (born 1 February 1958) is a former professional footballer and manager who played for the England national team during the 1980s. Born in Jamaica, Blissett played as a striker, and is best known for his time at Watford, ...

(a reference to the

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

of the same name), and Swarthy Turk Sellers among many others, as well as regular anonymous and collaborative works. His influence in the 1980s was strongly felt by

neoism Neoism is a parodistic -ism. It refers both to a specific subcultural network of artistic performance and media experimentalists, and, more generally, to a practical underground philosophy. It operates with collectively shared pseudonyms and ide ...

founder

Istvan Kantor Istvan Kantor (aka " Monty Cantsin", and "Amen!") ( hu, Kántor István; born August 27, 1949, Hungary) is a Canadian performance and video artist, industrial music and electropop singer, and one of the early members of Neoism. Life Kantor was ...

, performance artist

Andre Stitt André Stitt (born 1958 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is an artist currently based in Cardiff, Wales, where he is a Professor of Fine Art at the Cardiff School of Art & Design. Background Stitt's family moved from Belfast in the 1960s an ...

, photographer

Richard Kern Richard Kern (born 1954) is an American underground filmmaker, writer and photographer. He first came to prominence as part of the cultural explosion in the East Village of New York City in the 1980s, with erotic and experimental films like ...

(who published Ackerman's writing in his magazine ''Dumb Fucker'') and musician

Genesis P-Orridge Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson; 22 February 1950 – 14 March 2020) was a singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmissions arti ...

who used one of Ackerman's letters as the text of

Throbbing Gristle Throbbing Gristle were an English music and visual arts group formed in 1975 in Kingston upon Hull by Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson, and Chris Carter (British musician), Chris Carter. They are widely regarded as pi ...

's song "Hamburger Lady." Many of his stories have been made into videos by Steve "Sleeze" Steele, and one, about a man who gives his life over to the creation of a garment made of Vienna sausages, was given feature-length film treatment by Chet Pancake under the name ''The Suit''. In 2005 a long playing record of his spoken performances, titled ''I Am Drunk'', was issued. His latest book entitled ''Misto Peas: Tiny Special Stories'', was published in 2009 by Luna Bisonte Productions. The book contains rewordings or "hacks" of poet John M. Bennett's writing. He read from this new book at Shattered Wig Nite hosted by Rupert Wondolowski at Baltimore's 14 Karat Cabaret in November 2009. He was a frequent contributor to the Shattered Wig series of performances and publications. He died in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

in 2013.

References

External links

Artwork image

Spoken word mp3s

Biographical article

YouTube playlist of "Slease" Steele videos of Blaster stories
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ackerman, Blaster Al 1939 births 2013 deaths People from Nueces County, Texas American artists American short story writers American non-fiction writers