I have a new book on the way called SUPERMAG! It’s published by Adhouse Books. I worked with Adhouse Books previously on Afrodisiac and Notebook Drawings. It’s in the current issue of Previews, which means:

If you prefer to buy your comics at your local comics shop — you may want to pre-order this book. And those pre-orders are due soon. The Diamond order code is MAR13 0766.

UPDATE!!! SUPERMAG is now available for pre-orders on Amazon.

Here is the solicitation for it:

SUPERMAG
by Jim Rugg & Various.
Published by AdHouse Books

SUPERMAG is Jim Rugg’s latest print project… a glossy, magazine-format collection of “narrative collapse.” It showcases his interests in genre, irreverent humor, graphic design, drawing, and typography. SUPERMAG features new work as well as collecting the best of his recent anthology contributions.

details:
56 4C pages
8.5 ” x 11 “SC
$9.95 US funds
ISBN 978-1-935233-22-0
Shipping May 2013
Diamond Order Code:
MAR13 0766

View a PDF preview of SUPERMAG at Adhouse Books by clicking here and a few other pages can be seen at Fonts In Use.

If you want to keep up with all things SUPERMAG, you can follow me on Twitter @jimrugg, Facebook, and/or Tumblr. You can also subscribe to my newsletter here.

Thanks!

Thanks to Soundcloud for hosting Boing Boing’s podcasts!

This is episode 3 of Boing Boing’s newest podcast, Tell Me Something I Don’t Know. It’s an interview podcast featuring artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people discussing their work, ideas, and the reality/business side of how they do what they do.

In this episode Jim, Jasen, and Ed interview Eric Skillman, a Brooklyn-based graphic designer at the Criterion Collection. He also does freelance design (Comics Journal 301, The Playwright, Leaping Tall Buildings) and writes crime comics including the anthology Egg, the graphic novel Liar’s Kiss, and the webcomic, Suckers. You can see more of his work here and here and follow him on Twitter @EricSkillman.

It’s produced and hosted by three talented cartoonists and illustrators:

Jim Rugg, a Pittsburgh-based comic book artist, graphic designer, zinemaker, and writer best known for Afrodisiac, The Plain Janes, and Street Angel.

Jasen Lex is a designer and illustrator from Pittsburgh. He is currently working on a graphic novel called Washington Unbound. All of his art and comics can be found atjasenlex.com.

Ed Piskor is the cartoonist who drew the comic, Wizzywig, and draws the Brain Rot/ Hip Hop Family Tree comic strip at this very site, soon to be collected by Fantagraphics Books.

Follow TMSIDK on Twitter

Subscribe to the Tell Me Something I Don’t Know podcast | iTunes

Episodes from Tell Me Something I Don’t Know: Season 1 can be found here

In episode #2, Jim, Jasen, and Ed interview Faith Erin Hicks (Tumblr), who writes and draws comic books for a living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her comics include Demonology 101, The War at Ellsmere, Brain Camp, and Friends With Boys.

She is the co-writer and artist for Dark Horse Comics and Naughty Dog Games’ comic book,The Last of Us. A print edition of her web comic,The Adventures of Superhero Girl, was recently released by Dark Horse Comics. And her forthcoming graphic novel (with Prudence Shen),Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, is currently being serialized online. The print edition will be released by First Second in May 2013.

TMSIDK is produced and hosted by three talented cartoonists and illustrators:

Jim Rugg, a Pittsburgh-based comic book artist, graphic designer, zinemaker, and writer best known for Afrodisiac, The Plain Janes, and Street Angel.

Jasen Lex is a designer and illustrator from Pittsburgh. He is currently working on a graphic novel called Washington Unbound. All of his art and comics can be found at jasenlex.com.

Ed Piskor is the cartoonist who drew the comic, Wizzywig, and draws the Brain Rot/ Hip Hop Family Tree comic strip at this very site, soon to be collected by Fantagraphics Books.

Subscribe to Tell Me Something I Don’t Know podcast | iTunes | Listen to previous episodes | Twitter

Episodes from Tell Me Something I Don’t Know: Season 1 can be found here

Boing Boing has a new podcast! It’s called Tell Me Something I Don’t Know, and it’s an interview podcast featuring artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people discussing their work, ideas, and the reality/business side of how they do what they do.

It’s produced and hosted by three talented cartoonists and illustrators:

Jim Rugg, a Pittsburgh-based comic book artist, graphic designer, zinemaker, and writer best known for Afrodisiac, The Plain Janes, and Street Angel.

Jasen Lex is a designer and illustrator from Pittsburgh. He is currently working on a graphic novel called Washington Unbound. All of his art and comics can be found at jasenlex.com.

Ed Piskor is the cartoonist who drew the comic, Wizzywig, and draws the Brain Rot/ Hip Hop Family Tree comic strip at this very site, soon to be collected by Fantagraphics Books.

In episode #1, Jim, Jasen, and Ed interview Gary Groth, the founder/publisher of The Comics Journal and Fantagraphics Books. His influence on the state of the contemporary American comics industry and on the art-form itself is difficult to overstate. As a publisher, Fantagraphics’ list of works include such celebrated comics as Charles Shultz’ Peanuts, George Herriman’s Krazy Kat, the Complete Crumb Comics, the Hernandez Bros.’ Love and Rockets, Dan Clowes’ Eightball (includingGhost World and the original appearance of Ice Haven), Chris Ware’s early Acme Novelty Library (including Jimmy Corrigan’s original serialization), Charles Burns’ Black Hole series, and literally dozens of other significant comics from the last 35 years. Meanwhile, as the founder of the Comics Journal, Groth established and maintained levels of journalistic standards and critical writing never-before-seen in the American comics industry.

Follow TMSIDK on Twitter

Subscribe to Tell Me Something I Don’t Know podcast | iTunes

Episodes from Tell Me Something I Don’t Know: Season 1 can be found here

Mike Mignola returned to monthly comic books with Hellboy in Hell (December 2012). He hasn’t drawn a regular Hellboy series since The Island in 2005. I enjoy his storytelling, drawing style, humor, and design so I was excited when Hellboy in Hell #1 hit shelves. I can not remember the last time I went to a comic book shop to buy a new comic book on new comic book day. This was going to be great!

Except, it wasn’t.

I was a little disappointed but couldn’t figure out why because Mignola’s drawing and storytelling were great as usual. When I spoke to Jasen Lex about it, I learned he thought the new comic was fantastic. After a brief conversation, I realized that Lex had read a digital copy (on his beautiful Mac display) while I had read a print copy.

We decided to compare his digital copy and my print copy page by page, panel by panel.

I found the digital copy stunning in comparison. The subtle palette’s warm and cool colors complimented Mignola’s immaculate compositions and storytelling in ways I had missed on my readings of the print edition. *(It should be noted that the digital copy also lends itself to zooming in and out of the artwork and focusing on individual panels, as a fan of Mignola’s compositional choices and drawing, this definitely adds to my enjoyment.)

I had to take back all the negative thoughts I had been sending Dave Stewart’s direction. Each panel and page looked great.

But the print edition now looked even worse compared with the digital copy.

Hellboy in Hell #1, page 8: digital (left), print (right) – notice how dark/low-contrast the print version is, particularly the underwater creatures

I believe that Scott Allie and Mike Mignola are great at their craft and committed to this work. Dave Stewart is widely regarded as one of the best contemporary, mainstream colorists.

So what’s up?

The function of print has changed dramatically in the last decade. I speak to many people who produce or want to produce printed editions because they are stuck in a 20th century mindset when print was a commercial or mass medium. A printed edition represents a certain validation or sense of a “real” object. This desire often supersedes any consideration of the nuance of printing as part of the creative process or for its expressive possibilities. We fell in love with print comics, and that’s what we want to make (yes, I include myself in this camp).

Hellboy in Hell #1, page 13, panels 1-3: digital (top), print (bottom) – in panel 1, Hellboy’s arm tends to merge with the “BOOM” sound effect in the print version which has a flattening effect since the sound effect is in the background; panel 3, print version is dark, low-contrast

Media guru Marshall McLuhan suggests that when a medium is no longer considered mass media, it needs to redefine itself or it becomes obsolete. I heard Art Spiegelman apply this notion to comics as “Comics now either will probably become an art form or disappear.”

When creating a printed document many choices must be considered in order to create the most complimentary presentation of the content and the best experience for the reader/consumer.

For one, print is not as precise as digital. A copy of a digital file can retain 100% of the information contained in the original, while every printed copy is going to be unique with the degree of variation based on factors such as printing process, paper, moisture, ink, etc.

In the last couple of years, as I’ve learned more about print making, I’ve learned to adjust levels of contrast, brightness, and specific colors for print depending on where and how a file or piece is being produced.

For Afrodisiac, I looked at a number of paper samples and talked to Adhouse Books’ Chris Pitzer about our options. Ultimately I chose a matte coated stock that I thought would be perfect. When copies arrived, I found the uncoated end pages more attractive and changed paper stocks for subsequent editions.

Hellboy in Hell #1, page 25, panel 2: digital (left), print (right)

DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Fantagraphics, IDW, and every other publisher have had varying degrees of success when it comes to printing and reprinting comics. One of the archival collections I thought was well produced in the last few years was Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibi. The paper used in this reprint was the result of a printer error. However, that error resulted in what the late, great Bob Ross would dub “a happy accident.” When the topic was broached at a panel at San Diego Comicon in 2007, the crowd actually applauded in regards to this paper stock.

The reason for the varying degrees of archival reprint success stems from paper and coloring. In the past colorists developed styles and palettes based on printing on web-presses (lots of slipping) and how ink looked on newsprint, which absorbs ink only slightly less than a paper towel, causing a dulling effect of the color. When low-quality newsprint is replaced with glossy coated paper (like the initial Marvel Masterworks) the result is drastically different than the original printing. I’m not going to argue about whether individual results are better or worse, that depends on the readers’ opinions. The important note is that colors will vary depending on the paper stock.

So why is the print edition of Hellboy in Hell #1 so different from the digital edition?

Compared to print, today’s digital displays are extremely subtle, capable of displaying millions of colors. I assume Dave Stewart colored Hellboy in Hell #1 digitally. Then digital proofs were shared with and ultimately approved by Scott Allie and Mike Mignola. These are probably the versions we see in the digital copies of Hellboy in Hell #1, and they are striking.

I think this might be where one problem occurs. It’s like riding a bike. When you learn to ride a bike, it is almost impossible to unlearn it. And after you’ve spent hours staring at an image (on screen, paper, or canvas – it doesn’t matter), like the cartoonist, colorist, and editor presumably have, it’s hard to approach it with fresh eyes. Heck, after I looked at the digital edition of Hellboy in Hell #1, I was able to appreciate some of the details I had missed in the print edition because I knew where to find them.

Furthermore, if you get a copy of the print book a few days or week before the book is hitting shops, would anyone besides Chris Ware destroy the print run because the contrast is a little less than perfect?

Another possible explanation for this issue’s appearance is that print changes. The way different paper and ink is manufactured can change from batch to batch. Printing processes and software continue to evolve. What worked great a year ago, might not even be an option today.

Hellboy in Hell #1, page 26 (detail): digital (left), print (right) – I failed to notice the face in the torso before I saw the digital version

The three components of the print process that can be adjusted are printer, paper, and palette (in this instance, palette refers to the actual colors in the digital file that is sent to the printer). For the sake of practicality, I’m going to focus on paper and palette.

Here are a few strategies that I thought of based on my own work and limited experience:

1. Adjust levels. This is the easiest, though possibly not the best solution. If printer, paper, and palette stay the same, I would guess this would improve the clarity of the printed book to an acceptable degree. This would basically enhance the contrast. I tend to do this step with my own work because I’ve noticed that what I have on screen loses contrast and appears darker when printed. Assuming I have the image right where I want it on screen, I will usually raise the shadow input level by 5-10 and reduce the highlight input level by 10-25. This requires some experimentation and will be unique to the creator’s preference, their monitor, and the output device. Since Hellboy in Hell will probably be printed by the same printer on the same paper, this is a solution that might work fairly well.

2. Paper and printer. There are a lot of great papers out there. Sadly, better paper may add to production cost. But it’s possible that it wouldn’t and may be worth investigating. I personally would love to see some experimentation with spot varnish on the pages – either on the panels or on the gutters surrounding the panel. A lot of photography books and art books use this process to enhance the dimensional quality of the printed work. I think it could be interesting with Mignola’s work, but would definitely add cost and require a bit of experimentation. I would also be interested in seeing Mignola’s work presented on an uncoated stock. I think a little more tooth would add a complimentary textural quality to his pulpy subject matter.

I want to call attention to another recent comic book – Prophet #29. This book achieves stunning results with a limited color palette. I can’t tell what the difference is in printing and paper. But considering how effective the value range is in this example of grays, I would be curious to know the entire production/printing process of each book to see if there is a production difference or if it’s something in the palette. The blacks also appear to be different.

Prophet #29, pages 8 and 9

3. Palette. Another solution that I find intriguing is to create a separate palette for the print edition that features fewer colors and relies less on subtle gradients. Once the digital version is approved – the print edition, a simplified, exaggerated version could be produced and approved separately (maybe with a paint-by-numbers approach using an intern).

I would love to see a Mignola Hellboy story that uses a limited palette  – think of those old Marvel monster comics, but with a carefully designed palette of colors that print well on coated paper! Richmond Lewis’ incredible Batman: Year One coloring is an examples of this. The original comics were gorgeous and used the limited palette of 25% screens that was common through the majority of comics history into the early 90s. When the comic was reprinted on higher-quality paper, she recolored the story.

Batman #405, pages 10 and 11 (top); Batman: Year One, pages 34 and 35 (bottom)

Anyway, as a collector and fan of printed matter, I was disappointed in the printed edition of the first issue of Hellboy in Hell. Mignola’s storytelling is as good as ever though, and fortunately the digital edition is beautiful. Hopefully the printed editions will catch up.

If you’d like to read more about Hellboy in Hell #1, I recommend David Brother’s insightful critique. Brother focuses on the way Mignola uses atmosphere and humor to great effect. And if I’m not mistaken, his review is based on the digital edition.

I interviewed Mike Mignola at HeroesCon in June 2012 for my podcast Tell Me Something I Don’t Know. We discussed his return to monthly comics and Hellboy in Hell:

Foxing Quarterly, volume 1, number 1 is now available. I served as the art director for this edition and provided artwork for the front and back cover.

Foxing Quarterly is a Print-Only Creative Space for Writers & Artists. Their Kickstarter is over, but this video is a good description of the journal:

Daniel Mejia, one of Foxing Quarterly’s editors, contacted me about doing the cover for their inaugural issue this past summer.

As we worked together, my role expanded to art director. I studied design in school in the 90s, and were it not for comics, design is probably the direction my career would have taken. So I was excited when this opportunity arose.

Daniel’s initial idea for the cover was something between a library poster, you know the ones that say “read” in bold letters on the top, and my cover for Cinema Sewer #5.

I think the back cover is closer to the library poster.

Once the covers were done, I started working on the interior.

I like doing different types of projects because it gives me an excuse to research. For example, I realized pretty early on that I have a lot to learn about typography. I picked up a few books on the recommendation of the Fox Is Black.

I approached each story and poem differently to create visual interest and an incentive for the casual browser to look at the book longer than if each typeset page was formatted the same. For visual art and comics, I avoided any stylization, deferring to the artwork.

This story references a newspaper article:

This one reminded me of an old sci-fi story:

This story features a spinning Puppetro, so I flipped every other letter in the title as if the letters were spinning:

I based this layout on a flier for a children’s event I saw somewhere:

I found this graph paper in my in-laws attic:

I laid out the contributors pages at the end of the book to resemble newspaper personal ads:

A lot of the ideas for the layout are based on the “print-only” format of Foxing. I wanted to emphasize paper and print in the design, and scanned quite a few different papers for textural elements.

Besides typography books, I also looked at a few design books such the Last Magazine by David Renard, Fresh Dialogue 7: Making Magazines by James Truman, Emigre No. 70, it is beautiful…then gone by Martin Venezky, Fanzines by Trill Teags. Here’s a tip for budget-conscious artists if your library doesn’t have the book you’re looking for – I purchased a used copy of the Last Magazine on Amazon, with shipping it was less than 5 bucks.

After I finish a project, I like to go to book stores or comic book shops and wander around. When I’m working on a project, I tend to focus on it to the exclusion of almost everything else around me. So when I finish, I usually have less time pressure in terms of deadlines. After finishing Foxing 1, I found a David Carson art directed issue of Ray Gun at Half Price Books for 50 cents.

You can order a copy of Foxing Quarterly here.

You can also pick up a copy of Foxing from me at Copacectic Comics this Saturday night (December 1st, 7 – 11 pm). Details here.

And I’ll be in Philadelphia on Sunday, December 16th at Locust Moon Comics Festival. More info here.

If you’re a writer or artist interested in submitting work to Foxing, here are some guidelines.

Some unused logo ideas:

Here’s the original art from the front cover. If you’d like to hang it over your mantle this holiday season, email me.

I’ve been thinking about letter columns and editorials. Recently Ed Piskor posted a scan of an unbelievable editorial from Raphael #1 on BoingBoing. I’d recommend everyone take a few minutes to read it. It details the licensing build-up to the release of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toyline and cartoon.

Another favorite letter of mine came from someone on Facebook a few years ago (I can’t remember who posted it there and was unable to find it with a cursory search). It took some digging, but eventually I tracked this letter down to Punisher 19 – y’know the issue, the one where Frank goes to Australia and rides a…camel?

In explicably, there’s a reference to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creators on page 15:

Anyway, the letter column spread looks great. Check out Dolph Lundgren! I’m sure this version is better than the one with John Travolta:

The letter in question is this doozy. Read this paragraph first:

Then the beginning:

Another one of my favorites is GIJoe 24, which I wrote about before. It’s the follow-up to the famous silent issue, GIJoe 21, and it’s also the first appearance of Zartan!

If you have any recommendations for good editorials or letter pages, please share them in the comments section below.

Germanbo
In other news, I spent the morning re-lettering Rambo 3.5 for a German edition. I’m not sure what to say about this really. I don’t speak German, but it seems like there could be something lost in translation. I’m pretty sure this edition will be the weirdest comic I’ll ever produce:

Last but not least — we made a video!
New Dimension Comics in Ellwood City opens up their basement to the public twice a year. It houses half a million comics in alphabetical order for $1 each. Ed Piskor, Tom Scioli, Jasen Lex, and I went there to investigate with documentary filmmaker, Julie Sokolow:

You can read more about it on HTMLGIANT.

The sale is Saturday, September 25.

Jasen Lex and I made a zine. It doesn’t have a fancy-pants name or even a cover (I tore those off).

Over the last year, I’ve been inspired by:

• Jason Karns – a cartoonist who makes some of the best designed/produced comics I’ve seen in a long time using an inkjet printer (here’s a link to a Comics Journal interview with Karns)
• Tom K.’s Uncivilized Books and workspace – a cartoonist/publisher who started out publishing beautiful mini-comics using simple office hardware like a black and white laser printer (photo below from Dustin Harbin’s flickr stream)
• Ryan Cecil Smith’s limited edition 3-part mini-comic series, SF Supplementary File #2 – a hand-drawn, hand-written reproduction from Matsumoto Leiji’s 1979 science fiction manga series Queen Emeraldas (risograph-printed in color & hand-assembled) as well as his beautifully designed and printed stationary and invoice (talk about attention to detail)
• John Pham’s stunning Scuzzi – 2-color risograph printed ode to 1970s and 80s computer imagery and advertising
• a trip to Family (where I found the aforementioned Scuzzi)
• and talking zines, printing, and publishing on our show with Koyama Press’ Anne Koyama, Drippy Bone Books’ Keenan Marshall Keller, Encyclopedia Destructica’s Jasdeep Khaira, and Ker-Bloom’s Art Noose

All of these things fueled my interest in making a new zine, and after kicking around ideas and talking shit with Lex, we decided to put together a collection of comic book ads. The ads are from the 1940s – 2000s, and the idea developed from Jasen Lex’s isolated comic book panel Tumblr and my interest in advertising. Before long, we settled on a format – 32 pages, saddle-stitched, 6 5/8 x 10 1/4, same as a comic book.

It seems like many of the comic book stores and conventions I visit are dumping their back issues. I prefer the original comics to collections because I like the format as well as the extra content that usually does not get reproduced (mainly advetisements and text pages). Many of the ads were produced by comic book artists, yet when I think of cartoonists like Todd McFarlane, Jack Kirby, Jack Davis, C.C. Beck, Neal Adams, Charles Burns, I often overlook this part of their body of work. I also find the politically-correct tone changes through the decades fascinating – one cast member of a Tootsie Roll ad series from the 40s was named Fatso and another ad shows a family shooting a BB gun indoors! With all that in mind, here is how we made this zine.

1: RESEARCH
The first thing we did is look through 1000s of comics to assemble a Murderer’s Row portfolio of ads for a high-noon showdown-style InDesign competi–uh, collaboration.

2: FUN
At our initial layout session, we whittle down approximately 150 ads to less than 50 and make a rough PDF. The file is not finished, but our ability to process the ads dulls after staring at them for a couple of hours.

3: FIND SOMEONE YOU KNOW WHO KNOWS MORE THAN YOU KNOW AND TAKE NOTES
I make an appointment with Jasdeep Khaira at the Encyclopedia Destructica Studios. E.D. has made a number of books using different paper and printing techniques. We look at the PDF and talk paper*. The last time I was here, Jasdeep showed me some newsprint with a smooth surface and perfect weight. With her help, I find said paper at a U-Haul store?!? I also inquire about the cast iron guillotine nearby and its availability.

4: FUN AGAIN
Lex and I go through another round of revisions, more or less finalizing the layout. We figure out which ads need which paper and try to compose the most effective spreads within these parameters (when you print a saddle-stitched book, the first page and last page are on the same sheet of paper and so on and so forth, and the stock needs to match the content – if an ad appeared on coated paper originally, we try to reproduce that).

5: THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM, i.e. PAPER
Chances are, if you’re a zinemaker, this is going to be a pleasant, happy step – the magic moment when you find the paper most capable of representing your idea in the physical plane.

The newsprint I use is from an 18 x 24 pad and from U-Haul. I cut these by hand using a large straight-edge, utility knife, and piece of Masonite (the uncut sheets of paper are too large for my cutting mat).

666: THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS

When I started making mini-comics a decade ago, I found reddingk and Highwater Books’ Guide to Reproduction. It features how-to advice on screenprinting, scanning, xerography, and offset printing by Jordan Crane, Brian Ralph, David Choe, and Ron Rege, Jr. It’s so great, that younger me created a hard copy so I could always have it nearby (this was before smart phones, people!).

The Guide mentions drinking beer as part of the silkscreening process, it’s a message other printers have repeated to me over the years. Their point is clear – printing is hard.

I print at least 50 sheets before I work out enough kinks to print more than 1 sheet at a time. These prints take about 10 minutes each. Through trial-and-error I determine the right quality and ink settings and discover that I can avoid some jamming issues if I curl the front edge of each piece of paper slightly.

The color ink cartridges I use cost $25-45 new. Each cartridge prints about 35 pages (front and back). Each zine is 9 double-sided 11 x 17 pages. To produce an edition of 40, I’d need approximately 10 color ink cartridges for a cost of $250-$450 depending on which cartridges I purchase and where I purchase them. That means I’d have like $10 in each zine just for color ink. That’s too expensive. I can’t do these kinds of projects if they lose money.

I look into refurbished or refilled cartridges and end up buying 15 cartridges from Overstock.com for $60 (this includes a little for faster shipping). These cartridges show up 2 days later and work as well as new ones – same quality of color and quantity of pages printed. It lowers the production cost by between $190 and $390 (again, costs vary depending on particular cartridge and source of sale).

I spend the next two weeks printing.

For the cover and coated pages, I turn to a friend at Kinko’s. After some samples, I decide the cover works on their glossy text, but that paper is too heavy for the interior coated pages. I keep looking. After searching online, I consider defeat. I can’t find a glossy or coated stock that is lightweight enough to satisfy me and that I can print on my inkjet. I’ve noticed that ink from color laser printing often has an almost glossy quality. So Sunday morning, while everyone is at church, I print out a couple of samples (24# laser) at Kinko’s. It works. Now I just have to find a way to get 45 or so of each of these without breaking the bank ASAP. SPX is 6 days away. I try an even lighter-weight paper from BestValueCopy.com, a printer I used for Rambo 3.5. The prints arrive 2 days later. They are the best version I have seen so far (about 6 different samples in all). Printing cost is $34, the 2nd day shipping doubles that for a total of $68. Next time I need to plan better, to avoid unnecessary shipping fees (greater foresight would have saved me about $45 in shipping).

7: COLLATE

8: CUT ME, MICK
Jasdeep is only available to trim the zine on Wednesday. I have about 15 copies ready Wednesday, so the rest I have to trim by hand the next day after I finish assembling them.

9: THINK ABOUT IT
I have 22 copies bound, folded, and trimmed. I put some weight on them to flatten their spines, and go for this week’s distance run (SPX messes up my usual running schedule). I need to figure out how to number and finish them. I love running when I’m trying to work out some kind of problem. Repetitive physical acts are the best way I know to find answers – running, doing dishes, showering, walking, etc.

I think of doing a price tag for the edition number, and putting each copy into a yellowed, musty, aged, mylar comics bag. I shave 2 minutes off of last week’s time and rush home to find this vintage price tags collection for reference. After printing a test, I get the tags lined up, print them, trim them, rip off the covers of the book, and stuff the zines into bags.

Despite a couple of avoidable mistakes, ink and paper cost around $200 to produce this edition of 40 zines**. Better scheduling on my part could have reduced this cost by about $45. The plan is to sell 20 – 30 of them, and to give the remaining copies to fellow zine-makers, a few zine collections, and a couple of people whom I trust for feedback. If the plan works, it means the edition pays for itself and my only loss is time. Not ideal, but this was something I wanted to do for my own entertainment and as research for future printing projects. I often think about the value of free work – exposure, experience, experimental, or fun. If I get a few of those things out of it, I consider it worthwhile.

Hopefully this post will fill-in a missing piece of your production puzzle or if you have any suggestions on how to do this better – leave a comment.

If you’d like to purchase one of these zines, Lex and I will be at the Pittsburgh Zine Fair Saturday, September 22nd*** or you can order a copy online here. Thanks.

*Sad foot note, a paper store she told me about in glowing terms is no longer in business.

****Happy footnote, John P. reminded me of a comic he did from King-Cat Comics and Stories No. 70 (order a copy here) about one of the ads in the zine – Pete Duncan – “Dropout”. He gave me permission to post it, so here’s the ad, followed by John’s story, (Do the) Pete Duncan. Thanks, John!

I’ll have a few copies of this zine available at SPX. BE WARNED: Extremely limited quantities. Stop by and flip through it. I’m sitting with Adhouse Books and we’ll also be selling the last copies of the Notebook Drawings collection.

On Sunday I’m hosting a panel about drawing featuring the amazing Katie Skelly, Michael DeForge, Hellen Jo, and Theo Ellsworth. Details:

>> SUNDAY
>> Drawing Energy
>> 3:00 pm | White Flint Auditorium

I can’t wait to hear about their approach to drawing!?! If you have anything you’d like me to cover, feel free to comment below, ask me on Twitter or Facebook, or at SPX before the panel…