News From All Over

A longer break between posts than we usually take, all because of Oddballs. The colophon was printed, the sheets sent to Red Deer for Jim to sign, and then returned to HM. We carried on with the last few pages of printing. The end is in sight. Meanwhile, a few things of interest that have come our way lately...

Wicked Bugs: The Louse that Conquered Napoleon's Army and Other Diabolical Insects was released in May and has received extensive media attention. This is a sequel to Wicked Plants, written by Amy Stewart and featuring reproductions of original etchings by HM fave Briony Morrow-Cribbs. The New York Times site features a slideshow of seven illustrations from the new book, and there's even a Youtube clip of Briony and Amy talking about the project. Happily, unlike Wicked Plants, the publisher seems to have resisted the urge to incorporate additional illustrations (dull in comparison to BMC's) by a second artist in the new book.

Speaking of Briony, it's subscription print time: for the past three years, she and her partner at Twin Vixen Press, Helen O'Donnell, have offered a set of two original etchings to subscribers at a very reasonable price (2010's are shown above and below). Details for this year's offer can be seen at the TVP site.

Still speaking of Briony, check out this miniature etching press her mother Buffy recently made with at Bill Ritchie's Emeralda Works in Seattle. While even larger tabletop etching presses have poor reputations for printing ability, Ritchie's miniatures apparently are the real deal.

The gang at Shakman Press have just published a "small specimen of typefaces designed by Emil Rudolf Weiß, bound by Sarah Creighton in dashing pastepapers. The typefaces used all come from the spectacular collection of the Druckladen of the Gutenberg Musuem in Mainz. Weiß's designs—Antiqua Kursiv, Antiqua Fett, Kapitale, Lapidar Halbfett and Kapitale Halbfett—are reproduced in two colors and printed on mould-made Zerkall paper." The edition is just 25 copies in English, 10 in German, printed letterpress on a Korrex cylinder press. All that and a Sarah Creighton binding for just $60, it seems a steal.

Stumbled across "a blog about fine press books" called The Whole Book Experience written by one J. Davis. Might be of interest to people whose tastes run toward the genre's more conventional traditions and subjects.

A significant new addition to the HM handpress library is expected to arrive later this week. Watch this space...