Colliding obsessions

My squeal-inducing find of the day was the blog of Todd Klein, who has been working for ages as a letterer for comic books, and producing outstanding work. It's a bit inaccurate to say that his site is just a blog: he's mostly using the blog format to pull together a vast body of writing about comics and letters, peppered here and there with other things that catch his fancy.

The blog -- and in fact his entire site -- is packed with gorgeous images (the images of original paste-up art, like the ones shown above, get me especially giddy), and a lot of insightful commentary and analysis. This entry alone, which gathers links to all the posts specifically about the logo designs for a wide variety of comic titles, is the gateway to enough research material to start a research degree on the subject. Todd Klein, I salute you, sir!

Wise words on film

This sums up my gut reaction about a lot of movies I've seen — particularly of the rom-com and slice-of-gay-life genres — but manages to put the feeling into words far better than I've ever done:

As I find myself watching fewer and fewer movies, I'm becoming convinced that filmmakers should approach each movie like it's a scientific publication. 'What am I adding to the literature', they should ask.

— from Rotten in Denmark

Root canal!

So much fun, right? Who doesn't love a nice root canal now and then? Well, maybe it;s not the most pleasant way to pass the time, but it sure beats the hell out of an infected broken tooth that flares up into incredible pain whenever you get on an airplane. Which I tend to do a lot. (Aside: It's a good thing I don't have kids or a car and that I recycle diligently, because all the flying I do eats up all my carbon offset points.)

Having a root canal was a lot more pleasant with Teen Dentist back at the NYU Dental School than it is with the NHS. There, you get discounted versions of thorough, cutting-edge dental treatment performed by eager, cute (and thankfully smart and capable) youngsters. Here, my dentist sees me for 20 minutes and explains exactly what corners are cut if you pay NHS fees instead of the exorbitant private-practice fees, and then leave you to ponder how much you;re willing to pay for your vanity. It's grim.

(And since I am employed but poor, I'm in that uncomfortable middle-range where I still have to pay but can only afford ghetto treatment. Be sure to ignore my silver molar next time you see me, or I'll cry.)

The Lasagna Sandwich

Oh, for fuck's sake. I try to quietly accept that my aversion to most British food is just a matter of a cultural adjustment that I can't make. Regularly, though, I'm pushed to the brink and I have to lash out at the culinary monstrosities I encounter, especially at lunchtime, which has become the most stressful time of the day for me since moving to England. As if things weren't bad enough already at the Tesco near where I work, there's a new contender for most soul-destroying approximation of food — the lasagna sandwich.

Now, I'm not automatically opposed to the idea of a lasagna sandwich. In fact, I'm intrigued. Until I remember this isn't something from a great NY deli, something that involves a crusty roll and hot, fresh-made Italian food. No, this is the British take on it:

Between two thick slices of white bread, you'll find a generous filling of diced beef in a tangy tomato and herb sauce, layered with cooked pasta sheets and finished with a creamy cheddar, ricotta and mayonnaise dressing.

I think I'm sick already. It's bad enough that cheddar cheese is a common ingredient of Italian food here, but I've been trying to adapt to that. And their idea of "thick" white bread is nothing of the sort. It's just clammy and tissue-like. The fucking mayonnaise, though! Ugh. I can't even bear to think about it. Tesco regularly offends me (and leaves me with little to eat at lunch besides hummus and bread) with their generous use of mayonnaise on unlikely foods — cheese salads, Southern fried chicken, sushi — and it seems that this madness has no end in sight. The writer of that article about the lasagna sandwich gives a pretty good indication of what horrors lie in wait, but as he points out, there's a market out there for even the unlikeliest concoction.

I just want a decent grilled cheese and bacon. Is that so much to ask?

Glyphs on film

One of the intrepid designers who have purchased a license for Sodachrome (perhaps you recall me mentioning that lovely typeface designed by the talented Ian Moore and me?) is my pal Todd Macfie, a designer in Vancouver who I got to know at Type Camp India last December. After seeing some of the early print samples of Sodachrome when we visited our screenprinter in Chennai, Todd thought it would be a good fit for a project he was developing about self-reflexive literature and hybrid forms of the book. At last, he finally sent me a quick video of his completed prototype book, which features many pages of big, vibrant silkscreens of Sodachrome.

[You know, you can get a license for Sodachrome, too, if you like. Just get in touch.]

Bear hug!

Not to pander to a certain demographic or anything, but you can now get that little graphic — based on an idea from Mr Moore, using his typeface Leyton (which you should buy) — from the Pink Mince t-shirt store, on a grey or brown shirt.

Mincing

I really do like an old-fashioned photo booth. And the booth that took these — at Cargo in Shoreditch — is still cheaper than the shitty passport photo booths you find everywhere. And more fun.

Apprenticize!

There don't seem to be any details online yet but since this was officially announced at the Pen to Printer seminar in Ditchling this weekend, I suppose I'm free to spread the word.

The Wynkyn de Worde Society is funding a five-week apprenticeship for a type designer to work with Jeremy Tankard at his studio in Cambridge for two days a week. The apprenticeship comes with a £500 bursary to cover the five weeks, and it's due to start in September. If you're interested, contact Jeremy by 14 June to get the full details and submisison requirements and such.

But for now, a little more info from the flyer I was given:

The Type apprentice will be a creative individual who is passionate about type, its history and future, who understands the need for observation during their work and willingness to take time to get it right.

They need to:

• have a typeface design under development and at the early stages of digitisation on which to work

• be able to understand, operate, and draw in Fontlab Studio 5

• have a working knowledge of the process of type design

• have their own laptop and licensed copy of Fontlab Studio 5

During the contact days the typeface would be developed together with Jeremy, sorting out problems and discussing relevant issues. During the non-contact time it would be expected that the candidate continues to develop their typeface for the next meeting.

The position is not for a technical person. It is not about scripting or corner cutting. Jeremy mostly does everything manually as he prefers this route.

So there you have it. Sounds like a cool thing if you've got the time to devote to it. For someone just finishing up with school, it sounds like a good way to avoid losing momentum on your typeface at a critical stage.

Oh yeah, Pink Mince

For the past year or so I've been working on this little side project that I've been meaning to write more about -- a zine called Pink Mince. I was waiting to see how it went, and whether or not it would be something that I'd stick with for a while. Now that it's been a year and I've cranked out 4 issues, an offshoot line of 4 mini-zines, and have the next couple of issues well underway it seems safe enough to declare it'll keep going for a while. Besides, I've just invested so much on printing and reprinting that it has to or I'll be up shit creek.

It's mostly gay stuff, but it's also a lot less straightforward than that. The standard tagline is that Pink Mince is "for the confirmed bachelor of exceptional taste", but I've also described it as "a journal of contemporary typeface design illustrated with pictures of dudes". My pithy mission statement from its Facebook page says: "We aim to delight, titillate, amuse, provoke, and inspire. (That is to say: we feature jokes and blokes, possibly with a point behind it all.)" It's also about wanting to make something that tactile instead of just another image on a screen. And it's about getting to feature contributions from a lot of amazingly talented other people. It's a lot of things, but mostly it's fun to do.

But like any print publication, it can be hard to seduce people into taking a gamble and coughing up a bit of coin to check it out. But trust me: there's something real nice about holding it in your hands and taking it slow. Try it.

So yeah, I actually have a lot more to say about what it's been like to do all this, but that will take a little more reflection. For now, though, word continues to spread and interest continues to bubble up, so why don't you check out the awfully kind things that these other gentlemen have had to say so far: Gym Class Magazine, Sturtle, SUNfiltered, We Made This.

Ultra Monster Art

And then just when I had almost recovered from the startling awesomeness of those Arabic Superman comics, Sean draws my attention to these even more incredibly mind-expanding, soul-enriching examples of incredible illustrations done by Takayoshi Mizuki between 1965 and 1972.

I love all of these so much I might actually weep.BEHOLD THEIR MAJESTY!