WHAT IS "Blab!"? A better question would be: What is "Blab!" not? "Blab!" is neither a compilation of the best emerging talent, nor the conventional showcase for eye-candy images. "Blab!" is certainly not the kind of book most art directors would refer to in their search for a safe illustrator for an assignment. If anything "Blab!" is all about excess. Each annual volume, now up to No. 17, is a unique selection of cutting-edge images that combine the kitsch, the unexpected, the underground, and the politically incorrect.

"It's like a party on paper" says Monte Beauchamp, its publisher for more than a decade. It's the perfect venue for both artists and readers to indulge themselves in a world where everything is permitted, and here such artists as Gary Baseman, Peter Kuper, and Mark Landman expose their deepest thoughts and fantasies.

"Our process," says Beauchamp, "is sort of a visual alchemy. We don't ask for preliminary sketches or layouts. That would dilute the work."

Right on! It's as if we were back in the 60s or even better, the 70s, when such explicit imagery was a major means of traction for rebellious self-expression; an existential reaction to the post-war social and cultural restrictions brought about by the Comic Book Code, which effectively put comic book publishers out of business by the mid-1950s.

"Blab!" Is packed from cover to cover with talent both fresh and raw. This year's roster includes Greg Clarke, Peter Hoey and Maria Hoey, Geoffrey Grahn, Steven Guarnaccia, Sergio Ruzzier, Michael Dougan, Tim Biskup, Amy Crehore, Drew Friedman, Esther Pearl Watson, Mark Todd, Ryan Heshka, and, for the first time, SHAG. Garbage Pail Kids artist John Pound makes his Blab! debut, and Sue Coe and Judith Brody explore the destruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Monte Beauchamp, the man behind "Blab!" is a multiple New York Festival of Advertising award-winner. He worked as a senior art director in Chicago's advertising world until one day he decided to go solo and focus full time on publishing. In the last few years Beauchamp has added individual 'Picto-Novelettes' to his list, including "Striking Images: Vintage Matchbook Cover Art" (Chronicle Books), "The Devil in Design" (Fantagraphics), "The Life & Times of R. Crumb" (St. Martins Press), and the latest, "The Magic Bottle" by Camille Garcia. Over the past decade, Blab! has quietly claimed its position as America's leading alternative comics anthology.

In a recent email exchange Monte talked about his work philosophy. "I'm trying to keep my head above the water doing this type of work," he said. "Every morning I rise early and can hardly wait to arrive at the studio. That sort of enthusiasm towards work is something money just can't buy."

The Blab! Show, featuring original drawings from the latest issue of the leading anthology of illustration, found graphics, and sequential art, runs through October 21 at the CoproNason Gallery, in Santa Monica. Blab! 17 will be in stores in November.

"Blab! 17" cover by Jonathon Rosen

DART contributor Fernanda Cohen is a Brooklyn-based illustrator.