Litho Proofs are Ready

The proofs for the first print to promote the book are ready today. The awesome folks, led by master printer Phil Sanders (pictured in red had below) at Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in Manhattan are hand printing (2 plate lithography) an edition of 175 of these.

completed prints on drying rack

Phil Sanders, master printer for RBPMW

images for making the litho plates

litho plates set on printing press

pre-trimmed prints drying themselves

Internationalisticness

BangArt magazine from Italy has a feature on my crash series. I can't read Italian - so I hope what they said inside isn't mean.

BEASTS! has been published in Chinese, for, uh, CHINA! See the freshly designed cover below by the editor and hugely talented designer Jacob Covey, below (Frantagraphics art director - the best name in comics publishing).

 My contribution for BEASTS! was The Loathly Worm:

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....and finally, my crash drawings will be featured in the March 2010 issue of a Russian glossy magazine focusing on "toys for men" (I'm assured that it isn't naughty - but instead translates more closely to "fancy cars for rich men").

 

Poster - line art (pre color)

This is the poster I designed for the book, which is going to given away to the "raddest" American bookstores in (those that are independent, cool, and sell McSweeney's lit). We were originally going to do a crappy color copy poster, but then we thought, "yuck." Next we thought producing a glicee print. But since I'm a complete snob and not too down with computer/ink-jet prints with fancy names, we thought - SILKSCREEN! But then I remembered I'm friends with Phil Sanders - the master printer for the venerable Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. They primarily work with etching and hand-pulled lithography. I'm a sucker for fine-art printing - I studied litho and etching in undergrad and grad school - and my dad used to deal in antique prints. So we went with 2-color lithographs - in an edition of 150, and maybe an alternative edition with different colors of 100 after that.

It'll be in newsprint-colored paper, made to look kind of blue-printy - in blue ink, while the title in the center will be a bright, emerald green. That little scroll on the bottom of the frame is left blank because I plan on writing the name of each store inside of it. I think we are also going to make a special edition of 12 with gold ink for contest winners (or something along those lines - Charlie Bucket-esque). The particular frame for this one is an alternate one that I drew for the back cover:- but didn't use because my initial measurements for it were wrong, wrong, wrong. Duh, me.

Last Crash Drawing for a While

This will likely be the last crash drawing for a while (too many other things going on) - but positively not the last one in the series. I feel like I'm just getting started with these (waterolor - ink - graphite). Anyhoo - this is the last one of many to be included in The Agriculture Reader 4, where I will be the featured artist. It is really a highly polished, beautifully produced poetry and literature hand-bound magazine/zine with letterpress covers by the same publisher, x-ing books, who published my Alphabet City series.

Ad for the Believer

This is kind of an advert/score card that will be in an upcoming issue of The Believer Magazine for The Clock Without A Face.

Drawing an ad for a magazine that the amazing Charles Burns is a regular contributor to is pretty intimidating. This isn't in color yet - but it will be. The score card part of the insert (which will be printed on the opposite side) will be explained once the book is released in May - though suffice it to say there will be genuine treasre(s) involved.

Last Drawing!

I finally completed my last drawing for the book, The Clock Without A Face (to be released in May 2010 and published by McSweeney's). It's for the back cover. That dark spot in the center is where some sort of teaser text will be dropped in before it goes to press.

Below is the text description from a pre-order page on Amazon (mine and the other two author's names aren't on it because it's supposed to be the actual note/sketch book of Gus Twintig, the narrator in the story). [I'm told that the McSweeney's site is a way better place to order the book once it's out in Spring - because Amazon kind of gouges the publishers (and authors).]

This is true: 12 emerald-studded numbers, each handmade and one-of-a-kind, have been buried in 12 holes across this fine land. These treasures will belong to whoever digs them up first. The question: Where to dig? The only path to the answer: Solve the riddle of The Clock Without a Face. The call comes in from the shadowy Ternky Tower: 13 robberies, one on each floor, all the way up to the penthouse, where obnoxious importer Bevel Ternky has been relieved of the legendary Emerald Chroniker, his priceless, ancient clock. Readers must conduct their own investigations, scouring detailed illustrations for hidden clues and knotty puzzles. All the answers can be found within these 13 floors: whodunit and how . . . and where they are now. Twelve treasures sleep in the soil. The race is on!