The Balloon Newspaper No. 1-12.
Ray Johnson sent Futzie numerous mail art correspondences. In one correspondence, Johnson asks Futzie (who he called “Footsy Noodles”) to put Babar in Balloon....stating, “I would shit in pants if you reproduced in bloon my BABAR drawing submitted below.” Babar is reproduced in the above issue but not as a copy of Ray's Babar but as drawn by one of the Balloon collaborators.
The Balloon Newspaper No. 13.
The Balloon Newspaper No. 13 backside.
1968-1972
Artist magazine.
Offset printed newspaper of black and white pen and ink drawings. Folded single and some double sheets, variable sizes. Complete set which includes No. 13 as a single unfolded offset black and white drawing on a heavier cardstock. Variable sizes.
$ 900
Inquire
The Balloon Newspaper was a collaborative publication spearheaded by 2 men originally from Ohio and one from California: Bruce Kleinsmith (Futzie Nutzle), Victor Harlow (Spinny Walker), and Phil Silvert (Henry Humble). In the late 1960s the three joined forces at Balloon, a complex of architecturally improvised sheds on undeveloped land in Santa Cruz, California. All three were making art at the time and they began to collaborate together on single sheet pen and ink drawings. The drawings had predetermined themes and were grounded on honest humor and paired down, mostly wordless images. From this collaboration, in 1968, the three lauched The Balloon Newspaper. The newspaper had a 4 year run with the last issue being published in 1972.
The Ballloon Newspaper had the makiings of a transitional object, of a springboard into a clearer artistic style and vision, as well as toward a wider public. It documents an intense collaboration––and the first flowering–– of artitic minds coming into their maturity._____In Numbers/ Serial Publications by Artists
