Rex Howls At The Moon

The most recent Fiji Island Mermaid Press Book of the Month club mailing was a bit different from the typical "book". On the envelope was a linocut of a howling dog, with "Rex Howls At. . ." in pencil. The envelope contained another linocut, titled "The Moon". This is my 13th year of sending out little books. That's kind of nuts. This was the first one that really wasn't a book, but it was a little narrative sequence of sorts, so I guess my subscribers will forgive me. Another thing they seem to forgive me for is my chronic tardiness. The Book of the Month club has never actually succeeded in sending out a book every month. Ever. But I always do send people 13 books over the course of their subscription, so I guess that's ok too. I'm thinking of changing the name to the "FIMP Something or Other in the Mail Once in a While Club".

Barnabas Google, Thespian

For my most recent book, I unearthed images documenting Barney Google's early career as a Shakespearean actor, before he had his big break in the comic strips.

Here's Barney Google as he is more widely known:



And here are a couple of images from the book:





You can see the entire book online, along with a growing archive of older FIMP books.

"Fleeting Pages" and FIMP on Flickr

I am participating in "Fleeting Pages", a great project taking place next month in Pittsburgh. Fleeting Pages describes itself as "taking over (taking back?) a space, left empty by a failed big box bookstore, for one month, starting MAY 7th, and filling it with independent & self-published work of all kinds, book arts, workshops, and events. All revolving around written self-expression."

The location is the former Borders bookstore in East Liberty. There are currently more than 100 small press publishers, writers, and artists who will be participating, with more coming in all the time.

You can learn more about the project at their website:

Fleeting Pages

And if you are (or know) an artist making books, or a writer writing books, or a publisher publishing books, there's still time to submit work to this event.

I've also been busily uploading FIMP's archive of tiny books to Flickr - you can see all of the artwork from 25 of the tiny books at:

FIMP's books on Flickr

Eventually I'll have the majority of the 106 (and counting) books available online, so you can browse the complete results of a misspent decade at the Fiji Island Mermaid Press.

The Day Before His Great Fall

These are the color collages for "The Day Before His Great Fall", FIMP book #11 from 2001. I'm slowly putting the FIMP archive up on Flickr - you can see (at this point) 24 of the books here.

I made this dopey little book 10 years ago. . .

So I'm heading into year number 12 of making these little eight page books. I try to make one each month, and I mail them out to subscribers to the FIMP book of the month club.

I'm slowly posting the artwork from these books on Flickr, figuring that if I'm going to spend more than a decade doing something I might as well get it out there. Here are the
first 19 (out of 105) FIMP books that I've uploaded so far.

Here is this month's book, How To Be A Stand-Up Comic In Three Easy Steps.



I tried to model it as closely as possible on a book I made in 2001, How To Be A Magician In Three Easy Steps.



I used to do a lot more collage of the cut it out and glue it down sort back then. These days much more of it happens in the computer. My dopey sense of humor hasn't changed much in ten years, though. My standards for how the books have to look have gotten higher. Or at least, a bit more labor intensive - doesn't necessarily make for a "better" book. I guess you could be the judge of that. Sometimes I like the polish, sometimes I like the ragged edges. . .

Zinery!

If you happen to be in St. Louis tonight for the Southern Graphics Council Conference, I'll have a few of my books available at Zinery, a mini exhibition and build-your-own-zine buffet by Winners Press!

How To Be A Better Person

Neither Baffled Nor Amazed

This little book is contrary to the FIMP tradition of presenting "How To" books that really teach you nothing useful about the subject at hand. In this case, you have a magic trick that you can actually perform for anyone under 10 or so and actually fool them! Patter included!

What I enjoy about "Neither Baffled Nor Amazed" is the attempt to actually perform a magic trick in a little book. A huge success, in that I successfully perform the trick and make the coin disappear. On the other hand, of course, it fails, in that the slow step-by-step illustration of the trick allows you to clearly see where I palmed the coin and placed it in my shirt collar (you did catch that, didn't you? Don't try this trick wearing a t-shirt).

But, of course, I didn't palm the coin. It's a bunch of drawings. I just didn't draw the coin, and so it "disappeared".

But, the drawings are of an event that could actually take place, in which if you did drop the coin on the table, you could easily palm it and tuck it into your shirt collar.

There's a part of our brain that wants to follow along with the sequential images and "believe" that what we see there is actually "happening". It's fun to play with that part of our brain.

So, it's a failure as a trick, but perhaps it succeeds in tricking you into thinking that some sort of event took place that resembled a magic trick.

It's February's Book of the Month!

Subscribers to the Book of the Month Club should start watching their mailboxes for "What Birds Want".

If, instead of reading, handling, enjoying, and passing around amongst your friends a satisfyingly handmade object signed by the artist, you would rather just see all of the images from the book online, you can find them right here on Flickr.

The Revolution, revisited

"The Revolution" was a book-of-the-month back in 2007, but I thought I would bring it back in light of the recent awe-inspiring events in Egypt. There has been a lot of attention paid to the important role social media has played in recent events (with some dissenting views as well), so I thought I would bring back my ill-considered exploration of the subject. This book, of course, has nothing to do with the incredibly brave people who actually take to the streets and overthrow dictators - it's more about some of us who watch.

I guess I was unaware of Facebook and Twitter at the time - and look, it's the original judges from American Idol! Proof once again that a FIMP book is a poor place to find meaningful or useful information about the world around you.

Do You Recall?

Here's the latest book from the FIMP Book of the Month Club." So you thought Rudolph was the only mutant reindeer that isolated herd at the North Pole produced? Think again!

Red Sky At Night

Subscribers to the FIMP Book of the Month Club (which, by the way, makes a wonderfully eccentric holiday gift) will find "Red Sky At Night" in their mailboxes any day now. This book explores and expands upon the wisdom of sailors.

Where Are They Now?

Tinseltown is a tough place to be a robot. So many of our mechanical stars have their one huge role, and then never catch the eye of another casting director. October's Book of the Month asks the question "Where Are They Now?"

Where Are They Now? R2D2 and C3PO

One of the few robots to continue to find work in the theater, R2D2 is currently performing as Vladimir in an Off-Off-Broadway production of Waiting for Godot.



C3PO performs as Paul in "Meet The Re-Peatles", a Beatles tribute band.

Here's a clip from "Star Wars", the film that introduced us to these consummate performers:

Where Are They Now? Computer

Computer was really the robot's robot. Highly respected amongst her peers, but receiving little recognition from the broader public for her groundbreaking work in the original "Star Trek" series. She can be found these days doing voiceover work for several GPS companies.

Computer in a moment of hair-raising drama from "Star Trek":

Where Are They Now? Gort

Gort currently is filling in for the vacationing "Big Tex" at the State Fair of Texas, a nice break from his regular gig of holding a giant muffler in front of an auto parts shop.

The world was first introduced to this stellar talent in "The Day The Earth Stood Still".

Where Are They Now? Hal 9000

Sadly, Hal 9000 has abandoned his career as a performer. Despite his astonishing and moving performance in 2001, he was unable to find more work in Hollywood, and has returned to his hometown of Urbana, Illinois. He is currently working as a red light camera. He refuses all interview requests.

Here's a clip from 2001:

Where Are They Now? Robot

Unable to cope with life after "Lost in Space", Robot has had a rough time, having been in and out of rehab many times over the years, battling his inner demons. These days he is working as a grocery bagger, just trying to stay clean and sober, taking it one day at a time.

Here's Robot in better days:

Mr. Anteater Stars in the 100th FIMP Book of the Month

Here's the cover to September's Book of the Month. Back in 2000 I mailed out A Short Short Fairy Tail Tale to a few folks. I never suspected I'd still be making these tiny books ten years later. This month's offering is the 100th book in the series.

How To Draw Ernest Hemingway, FIMP's 3rd How To Draw book

"How To Draw Ernest Hemingway" will be arriving in FIMP Book of the Month Club subscribers' mailboxes in the next couple of days - it went to the post office this afternoon.

"How To Draw Ernest Hemingway" is the third of FIMP's "How To Draw" books, which have included "How To Draw Jean Paul Sartre (With Genuine Human Dignity)" and "How To Draw Sigmund Freud (And Your Subconscious Reasons For Doing So)".

My standard disclaimer is, of course, that you will learn absolutely nothing useful about drawing by reading these books.