Postal pranksters: counterfeit stamps as art

Reason, Jan, 2004 by Jesse Walker

There's also The Stamp Art and Postal History of Michael Thompson and Michael Hernandez de Luna (Bad Press Books, 2001). The duo has had a falling out since the book was published, and Thompson does little stamp work these days, focusing instead on etchings, "kinetic constructions" made from erector sets, and his chief source of income, decorative kites. Hernandez de Luna uses other media too--he paints, he writes, he plays music--but stamps remain a major part of his art. "It's fun," he says.

But there's one line even he won't cross. "When we were putting together that book, we censored ourselves," says Hernandez de Luna. "We'd both used Disney images. I had done a Love stamp with Mickey and Minnie. Mickey was giving Minnie a bouquet of flowers, and he had an erection." That, he feared, would rouse the copyright police, evidently a force more fearsome than any postal investigator.

"If we used Mickey Mouse in the book, we'd get letters from Disney," he explains. "They don't like you monkeying around."

Associate Editor Jesse Walker (jwalker@reason.com) is author of Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America (NYU Press, 2001).