bookbinding – Doctor Comics

GOING DEEPER INTO PRODUCTION MODE! In this progress report on production of the third issue of my artist book/comic Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics, Chapter 3, The Chthonian Turn (subtitled The Cats’ Revenge as it starts heading in the direction of a funny animal comic) I am approaching the mid-way point in completion of the artwork, averaging one page per day but it’s been a bit of a struggle to maintain this rate.

Title page for Chapter 3–© 2014 Michael Hill.

Serial production, wherein things are developed over a period of time, offers the opportunity of revisiting the work at some future date and the temptation to make changes. With the benefit of hindsight, the opportunity to rework things and even to add new material seems both attractive and viable and, one hopes, would improve the material. But this won’t happen till after I have published a first edition.

Sorting out page numbers and doodling–© 2014 Michael Hill.

About half of this issue is being hand-printed and painted and that is the section that I have spent most of the time working on. The remaining half will be digitally printed. Most of the page numbers are being stamped, some directly onto the page, others scanned then printed.

Sample of hand-printed pages–© 2014 Michael Hill.

Following a sustained effort over the past month I have now completed the artwork and printing and the finishing stages of the labelling, stapling and bookbinding. I started out stitching the sections together but found that I lacked the skills to do the job properly and so abandoned this approach and switched back to stapling. I shall endeavour to master the stitching technique in future.

Page from Chapter 3–© 2014 Michael Hill.

It looks interesting as a volume being half hand-printed and half digitally printed with the varying pages shuffled together at stages. In addition to adding pages of colour and print-made texture this method has facilitated a shorter period of production.

Two of the handprinted pages from Chapter 3–© 2014 Michael Hill.

The cat characters continue to assert themselves, altering the generic pattern from auto-bio to funny animal comics although the following scene is not so humorous.

Double page hand printed spread from Chapter 3–© 2014 Michael Hill.

Notice of publication will be posted on this blog around the end of the month. It is intended take place at a comics event in Germany, however, we’ll have to wait and see about that.

My hand-made artist book, The Grafik Guitar, has recently undergone a wonderful transformation by virtue of being creatively bound and covered by Imogen Yang. The result: it’s art!

The Grafik Guitar artist book, front cover-bookbinding design by Imogen Yang. (Photo-© 2013 Michael Hill).

The Grafik Guitar artist book, endpapers. (Photo-© 2013 Michael Hill).

The book consists of 38 prints on the theme of the deconstruction of elements of the guitar. The images were carved in lino and wood following the Japanese creative print (sosaku hanga) approach using Japanese knives, gouges and chisels and printed on Chinese 2 ply paper with Dr. Ph. Martin’s water colour ink and some sumi.

The Grafik Guitar artist book, pages. (Photo-© 2013 Michael Hill).

Imogen emboss-printed the guitar strings block onto a strip of kangaroo skin for the front cover and had me add my signature chop. Her use of 6 thick binding strings to the front and back cover boards echoes the guitar’s 6 strings and I can’t explain the stitching pattern she has employed to bind the pages together. As an iteration of the cover design she has used my separate guitar strings prints for the endpapers. Wow!

The Grafik Guitar artist book, cover and stitching, bookbinding design by Imogen Yang. (Photo-© 2013 Michael Hill).

The book is currently on display at the Art Gallery of NSW in the 16th annual exhibition of the Australian Bookbinders. The exhibition runs from 7th November to 14th December in the Research library and archive.

The Grafik Guitar artist book on display in the Art Gallery of NSW.

THE MAKING OF MY The Grafik Guitar ARTIST BOOK The following post shows some of the linocut prints I produced in the construction of the book. My artist book The Grafik Guitar consists of 38 monoprints on the theme of the deconstruction of elements of the acoustic guitar, namely the machine head, tuning pegs, fretboard, strings and sound hole. The separate elements were carved in lino or wood then overlaid in various combinations and intensities to form composite monoprints. The Japanese creative print method (sosaku hanga) was adopted as part of the approach to this project using Japanese knives and chisels. The blocks were printed on Chinese paper with water colour ink, sumi and additional hand colouring.

A design application of the work was made in the form of a poster, program cover and published conference proceedings cover for an international popular music studies conference in Sydney, IASPM 1999.