Attempted Bloggery: Palookaville

Showing posts with label Palookaville. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Sight Unseen: Palookaville No. 21 With an Original Drawing by Seth

A copy of Palookaville No. 21 offered by Hourglass Books caught my eye on line. Priced at $50 with AbeBooks, it offered the promise of an original drawing by Seth, albeit of a hat and a lit cigarette. I like Seth's graphic work almost as much as I dislike cigarettes. On hats, I'm personally indifferent, but I admire those men who can project a personal sense of style to the world. The hat and cigarette, I readily surmised, were a stand-in for Seth himself. There was no image of the drawing, alas, but I took the plunge and bought it anyway—sight unseen.

As much as I like Seth's graphic novels, I can't say I've ever read Palookaville. It is, give or take, an annual forum presenting the artist's work in progress. This one was published in October 2013. From the two gentlemen on the cover, this book evidently contains some material from Clyde Fans. The bookseller confirms this.

Seth
AbeBooks listing

Seth
AbeBooks listing ended June 15, 2026

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Palookaville-%2321-Seth-Drawn-Quarterly-Montreal/14768924842/bd

Seth
AbeBooks item description

So, you may well ask, how did it go? Well, the bookseller searched high and low for this one, he wrote me, but he was unable to locate it. Perhaps he sold it previously and lost track of it. He was as nice as could be, refunding my money for this book as well as for another book by Seth, George Sprott (1894-1975), that I ordered and that he did indeed have on hand, although perhaps in imperceptibly lesser condition than advertised. So, no complaints on my end, except that I can't show you the drawing in Palookaville No. 21 as I proudly add the book to my library. When I started this post, I didn't intend for it to end so anticlimactically, but that is sometimes the nature of these Sight Unseen musings. Perhaps I'll have something better to show off when that copy of George Sprott arrives . . . any day now.

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Friday, September 19, 2025

Allison's Copy of Clyde Fans: Part One by Seth

Clyde Fans: Part One (2000), collects issues 10 through 12 of Seth's comic book Palookaville in which the story was serialized. Seth was to continue to work on the tale in installments through 2017. The completed opus of five books was published in 2019.

One Allison's copy of the book was personalized for her by the artist in 2001. In it Seth made a drawing of the fan salesman Abe Matchcard smoking his cigar and walking.

Seth
eBay listing accessed September 14, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/376548470964?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m164380.l178264&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=c2ffcfc4f52843cc9f5034eb88853c19&bu=43186000575&ut=RU&exe=0&ext=0&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20250914013633&segname=11021&recoId=376548470964&recoPos=1

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Thursday, August 24, 2023

Best Copy: Seth's Palookaville #22

In Palookaville, the comic artist Seth (born Gregory Gallant) publishes his graphic works in progress, and some of them are later collected in complete form. Palookaville #22 was published in April of 2015. It includes the longer form Clyde Fans Book Four (of an eventual Five), Crown Barber, and the autobiographical Nothing Lasts Part Two. A copy signed by Seth in 2015 with an original self-portrait was offered for sale on eBay last week. Bidding would have started at $29.99, but the book was purchased at the Buy It Now price of $39.99.

Seth
eBay listing accessed August 18, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166284182080?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m43.l3160&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=3bcdb378f5e042b7a1a38e94f40a2f92&bu=43186000575&ut=RU&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20230818013633&segname=11021

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Saturday, September 18, 2021

Seth's Clyde Fans: A Lonely Place

Abe Matchcard visits his estranged brother Simon's emotionally desolate home in a preliminary page from Clyde Fans, Seth's tragic take on capitalism and human failings, to oversimplify just a bit. The page, which embodies a sense of isolation and spiritual emptiness, is unified by the klop klop of Abe's shoes on Simon's floor and the stench of his cigarette smoke in Simon's house. In 2015, the rough art sold on eBay for a respectable $429.64. The finished art may be seen in Palookaville #21 (2013) on page 55, and in Clyde Fans (2019) on page 344.

Seth
Preliminary art
Clyde Fans, part 4
Palookaville 21, September 2013, page 55
Clyde Fans (2019), page 344

Seth
eBay Listing Ended September 28, 2015

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SETH-Palookaville-21-p55-Preliminary-ORIGINAL-ART-Clyde-Fans-/400999188891?hash=item5d5d6a099b%3Ag%3ATQ4AAOSwyQtVtsN9&nma=true&si=Zv4PhLp6HocGRC23iqci2JeQ2LI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Seth
eBay Item Description

Seth
eBay Bid History

The bidding gets serious in the last eight or nine hours and the winning bid is placed only in the final twelve seconds.

Note: Sorry, I have no scans of Seth's finished art today.

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Friday, September 17, 2021

Seth's Clyde Fans: "That Woman"

Back in 2013, Seth was working through Part 4 of Clyde Fans, continuing to publish installments of his magnum opus in Palookaville, by then his hardcover comics magazine. A page of preliminary art depicts the disillusioned salesman-turned-business owner Abe Matchcard avoiding his wife Vera—"that woman"—who is waiting for him to open the front door for her. It was sold on eBay in 2016. The finished art appeared on page 44 of Palookaville 21 and eventually on page 333 of the complete five-part "picture novel" published in 2019. Comparing the rough with the finished page gives some insight into Seth's working technique.

Seth
Preliminary art
Clyde Fans, part 4
Palookaville 21, September 2013, page 44
Clyde Fans (2019), page 333

Seth
eBay Listing Ended September 5, 2016

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SETH-Palookaville-21-p44-Preliminary-ORIGINAL-ART-Clyde-Fans-/401179210670?hash=item5d6824f3ae%3Ag%3AdGoAAOSwgmJXxLZV&autorefresh=true&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Seth
eBay Bid History

Seth
eBay Bid History
Six bidders, eleven bids

[End of eBay listing]

Seth
Clyde Fans, part 4
Palookaville 21, September 2013, page 44

https://thecribsheet-isabelinho.blogspot.com/2014/07/pamphlets-and-graphic-novels-seths_24.html?m=1

Seth
Preliminary art
Clyde Fans, part 4
Palookaville 21, September 2013, page 44
Clyde Fans (2019), page 333

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Saturday, April 3, 2021

Seth's Clyde Fans: Abe? I love you...

Much of Seth's preliminary art shows him working through the narrative flow of each comic page. In the example shown here, though, the artist takes great care with the design of a single important panel from Clyde Fans, part 4, of Abe Matchcard's wife Vera. Seth deftly uses one-point perspective with all lines emanating from the center of Vera's face, so that she appears radiant. Then he doubles down with the diagonal top rail of the staircase also leading to the vanishing point.

Seth
eBay listing accessed May 8, 2018

https://www.ebay.com/itm/401534424295?ul_noapp=true

Seth
eBay item description

The panel was conceived to serve as the central image on the following preliminary page, apparently, replacing an image of the younger Vera:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/418975571579146952/

That rough of the younger Vera was not discarded; it was put to use elsewhere:

https://drawnandquarterly.com/clyde-fans

Note: For some reason back in 2018 I did not follow this eBay auction to its conclusion. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who knows the selling price.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Clyde Fans Picket Line

From the Scott Eder Gallery in Brooklyn comes this original preliminary artwork to Clyde Fans, Book 2 by Seth (Gregory Gallant). For this page, the factory's owner is silhouetted within his car and faceless, while Seth has chosen to linger over the faces of the picketing men.