Peter Koch (b. 1943), editor
Bill Yenne, artist
Bruce Lee (d. 2004), artist
Self-described “artist/collaborationist, designer/printer and publisher,” Peter Koch founded Montana Gothic: A Journal of Poetry, Literature & Graphics in 1974. With input from other creative Missoula friends and international contributors, Koch produced six issues of his cowboy surrealist journal between 1974 and 1977. He also issued a spin-off, Deadstart (1980), which grew out of an essay by Koch from Montana Gothic #2. Deadstart called for a vital approach to both life and poetry, a re-relationing of communication elements, “typographic printmaking.” The archive of Koch’s Missoula-based Black Stone Press, where he published Montana Gothic, is useful in reconstructing the printer's working procedures, containing materials ranging from manuscripts and rough sketches and layouts to mockups and galleys, to finished pieces.
All items from the Black Stone Press records
- Yenne, Bill. Original artwork for masthead, drawn at 200% with printer instructions, [1974]
- Camera-ready paste-up for promotional flyer for Montana Gothic, number two, with artwork by Bill Lee, 1975
- Camera-ready paste-ups with line art for Montana Gothic. Number 1, Fall 1974
- Montana Gothic. Number two, Spring 1975
- Printer’s mark for the Black Stone Press, circa 1974. Black Stone’s ouroboros (a tail-swallowing serpent) was designed by Bill Yenne, who, as with his masthead artwork, was inspired by architectural details on the Atlas Block Insurance Building in Last Chance Gulch, Helena
- Koch, Peter. “Notice … Bureau of Poetic Research,” manuscript (photocopy), undated
