Hazmat: Hut

For several years I volunteered as Photo Editor for a small-press poetry magazine called the HazMat Literary Review -- HazMat for short. The name stands for "Hazardous Material," and bespeaks Editor-in-Chief Norm Davis' poetic proclivities.

What do Photo Editors do? Well, the short answer is they select photos and prepare them for publication. You know -- pick and choose editorially suitable images, collaborate with layout, crop, and then make sure color and tonal ranges match standard web-offset press capabilities -- that kind of thing.

One day while sifting through submissions, Gerald Wheeler's photo of a little greenhouse in Katy, Texas (right) caught my eye. A bit further back in my head, something about "People who live in glass houses..." began to rattle. Hmmm...

Since I knew Norm was a "stone thrower" as a matter of editorial policy, I contacted the photographer and got Gerry’s permission to “do whatever.” Then I took his original straightforward shot and transformed it via Adobe Photoshop into an explosive grayscale statement for the cover of HazMat volume 6, issue 2 (left).

Everybody liked the result. This cover was later featured in the writeup on HazMat printed in the 2005 edition of Poets Market.

Y'know -- there's just something about seeing the potential of an image and making it happen that really appeals to me.

Hazmat: Birthday Girl

The usual lifespan of a small-press poetry magazine is about that of a popsicle at the beach on a hot summer’s say. They just don’t last. So, after ten years-plus, HazMat is an anomaly.

Editor Norm Davis’ secret of long life is that if he doesn’t have enough good stuff to publish, he doesn’t! And then again, even when he does, he’s not in any particular rush. Call it truth in labeling. HazMat's a “periodical,” right? So what did you expect?

Contributors and subscribers put up with this because the results are worth the wait. Yet, it also explains how, after a full decade, you only get a “5th Anniversary issue.” -- HazMat volume 5, issue 2. It's a joke, sort of.

In any case, at left is my cover. The original photo, right, was taken in 1947 by Mary Lou Scott, mother of young Janet, the girl with the cake, who was a childhood friend of the Editor.

Graphically, there are a few subtleties worth noting -- not just disappearing the wound on her forehead (bicycle injury) -- I also changed the name on the cake from "Janet" to "Hazmat," and the number of candles from three to five. Janet, still gorgeous and now a retiree, further insisted all her candles be well "lit."

How'd I do?

HazMat: Shaman

As doubtless you've noticed by now, there's a definite tendency towards tilts and other weirdness in my HazMat cover art.

It's on purpose, of course.

Not just because it matches the edginess of the contents. It's because any cover displayed on a newsstand has two important jobs: first, to get the publication noticed, and second, to entice the customer to pick it up. The rest of the magazine only come into play once it's in hand.

Well, true fact: I used a small focus group to see which variant of the cover art worked best. You see only the winners here.

For instance, at left is the cover I did for HazMat volume 6, issue 1. The original photo, right, was taken by Kristy Swanson.

At first, Kristy -- who, by the way, is also HazMat's Art Editor -- was not especially fond of the twisted-bubble effect I chose for her "Shaman" cover. However, in a side-by-side comparison with other, more rectilinear versions, she herself had to agree: it was definitely a better attention grabber.

Case closed.

When you've really got a better way, it sometimes helps if you're able to prove it!

Hazmat's Monster Truck

Here's Norm Davis, HazMat Literary Review's Editor-in-Chief, behind the wheel of a Monster Truck named "Hazardous Material!" Don't that beat all?

I found this jacked-up beauty hanging around Vesa's, a local auto body shop. Kristy Swanson snapped this particular pic, which I later doctored in Photoshop to put Norm inside the cab.

But, later on, Norm actually did get to take the wheel!

The owner of Vesa's, who also owned the truck, was all too happy to show it off. We set a date and the whole Hazmat staff got rides! Families and friends, too. Can you imagine our collective joy? Fun, fun, fun!

Ah, well... I suppose it's just as well these things aren't street legal.