Sporting Moustaches by Aug Stone Illustrated by Allen Crawford

Thirteen tall tales about the role facial hair has played in athletics and competition over the years, Sporting Moustaches puts the “ache” in “moustache.” Whiskers are wrapped around sticks, bats, clubs, paddles, chess pieces, and shotglasses, woven into ropes, nets, arrow strings, and even other whiskers. The stories touch on the idea of the playoff beard, superstitions, Movember, The Cleveland Curse, mid-20th century American values eschewing all but the clean shaven, and how in the 1978 Chess World Championship the opponents accused each other of using psychic powers. There are of course more than a few allusions to Burt Reynolds. Packed with puns and pop culture references galore, Sporting Moustaches is a tribute to those who kept their head in the game.

Notices

“Welcome to a world of facial-hair-happy sports and other twisted competitions. Meet characters named Ya-Ya and Cheeks Redbourne, see chest hair shaped like a V, watch stadiums sell moustache-inspired ‘Ba Juice,’ and decide whether the VPM (Very Powerful Mustache) award is as important as MVP. Aug Stone can twirl a tale like Rollie Fingers grooming his handlebar, resulting in stories that are smooth, hilarious, and not at all in need of a trim.”
—Marc Masters, author of High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape

“Puns, double meanings, and wordplay abounds in Stone’s stories of arcane athletic contests whose outcomes are affected by extraordinary facial hair.”
—Jim Ruland, Make It Stop

“These stories are elegant and whimsically cracked and together they form a secret hall of fame for some lost and unforgettable legends.”
—Jim Gavin, creator of Lodge 49 and author of Middle Men

Aug Stone is a writer, musician, & comedian. His 2023 novel, The Ballad Of Buttery Cake ***, was one of Vulture’s Best Comedy Books Of The Year. Aug is also author of the memoir Nick Cave’s Bar and the comedy novel Off-License To Kill, and his journalism has appeared in The Quietus, The Comics Journal, Under The Radar, and many more sites and magazines. Aug was a founding member of H Bird and The Soft Close-Ups, and has played in countless other bands. He performs comedy as absurdist stream-of-consciousness raconteur, Young Southpaw.

Allen Crawford is an illustrator, artist, designer, and writer. Allen wrote, illustrated, and designed The Affected Provincial's Companion (Bloomsbury 2006), which was optioned for film four times by Johnny Depp's production company, Infinitum Nihil. His second book, Whitman Illuminated: Song of Myself (Tin House 2014), is an illustrated edition of Walt Whitman's epic poem. The entire 256-page book was written by hand. It won numerous awards, including a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators, and "Best of Show" in 3x3's International Show No.12. His most recent book, A Wild Promise (Tin House 2023) is an illustrated celebration of the Endangered Species Act.

Location: Lovell Room

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