Scrapbooking has change a lot over the years, gone are the rough grey paged scrapbooks from my childhood, in are the fancy decoupage laden photo journal type thingies which don't really feel the same even though they may look prettier. Digital technology has played its role too allowing you to have a digital scrapbook using social media tools like Pinterest so everything is slick and easy to pin. You can't really replace the original scrapbook though in my eyes, you found things that interested you, cut them out and pasted them in using gloopy glue. This is my scrapbook from 1975, you can find a lot of influences that shaped my humour and way of thinking.
Firstly was the most obvious scrapbook item for boys, monsters and superheroes so the first page is not surprising really.
It's only as you turn the pages do you come across the almost obsessional way I clung on to puzzles and quirky ways of thinking. On this single page you can find a wealth of imagination, from Batty Bookshelves full of wicked book names like End of the Week by Gladys Friday to Nutty Notices, puns, visual trickery and the endlessly endearing Grimerick, grim limericks sent in by readers all of which I still love to this day.
I also pasted in great comic strips I loved, Fun Fear shown here was a great example of slightly twisted amusing strip where every thing was loaded with a dark humour. Great stuff for kids, food for the imagination.
What I particularly loved though was the surreal side, often shown in a small cartoon called Little Monsters, it combined a moment in time or a single event and added a weird surreal twist to it all. Just in this small square you have boundless imagination with clock time machines, visual jokes and word play, I looked forward to this even single week and often used to create my own Little Monsters strips.
I found this scrapbook in the midst of a pile of old comics where it had lain over the years and just like in my childhood I found myself sitting quietly content surrounded by them as I thumbed hallowed pages appreciating them as one would a fine wine. Then a strange thing happened, I lost myself, really, really lost myself and for a brief moment I became an eight year old captured in a serene world of imagination, it was quiet, calm and delightful.
I must visit there more often.
Pass me the scissors and glue I have an urge to cut and paste the traditional way!
www.petersmithcollective.co.uk Home Of Foreverbunny and the Impossimals
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