Clifton Meador has something to say about offset printing.

Offset printing, let’s face it, is not something many people have something to say about. For most it is a boring means to a much more exciting end. Meador, on the other hand, embraces the process and makes it the focus of his artist’s book Bad Printing. The thing is that he loves the aesthetic that comes about when something goes wrong: when the ink drips from the knife; when the blanket isn’t clean and the page gets a wash of color; when the alignment is off and colors separate. It’s like he says in Bad Printing: “These smears and vague blobs are just the record of a bitter struggle with a printing press.”

We at the Gute have had many a bitter struggle with a printing press. And we have always loved the remnants of battle that remain on the page—maybe your copy of the second issue has a red thumbprint on page eight. Or maybe it has a watery black ink spot or the shadow of an illustration from another page from when the ink was still too wet to stack the pages together. And even if you don’t know it, your copy might contain the blood from one of the thousands of paper cuts incurred during the printing of a single issue. So you can see how the Gute and Meador might get along.

Bad Printing in part takes a stab at the cliched methods and rules of art-school printing and book making. Of the art-school mindset he says, “Bad artifacts seem like errors rather than evidence of something real,” and he covers the pages of Bad Printing with this bold sans-serif statement. Here’s “something” spanning two pages:

Interspersed throughout is smaller text that lays out how he feels about it all (for example: “There is no natural reproduction./ There are no rules of versimilitude,/ No right or wrong way to represent.”):

And pages awash with the artifacts of bad printing:

Please please please look at the whole thing here—you can zoom in real close.

– Laura

While browsing at Book Zoo a couple of weeks ago, I picked up a copy of Aaron Cometbus’s Mixed Reviews (published 2005), a collection of short stories that play with the genre of review.

Topics include movie theater escapades, NY hijinks, coffee inhalation, the open road by way of thumb, introspection, and library romance. One of my favorite lines is, “But as my mom used to say, ‘Soup without a base is all flavor and no taste.’ In other words, you can’t live on seasoning alone, a fact further proven by my poor pal Rick when he ran out of food for a week and was forced to live on leftover condiments.”

Also look out for his long-standing zine, Cometbus, and especially Cometbus #51 The Loneliness of the Electric Menorah, published September 2008. Electric Menorah documents, in a light and clever fashion, a history of book stores and record stores on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley. A must-read for anyone who has spent more than a minute on Telegraph.

… you should imagine Comic Sans’ response.

Thanks to McSweeney’s “Short Imagined Monologues.”

Exciting news (and comics!) on Susie Cagle’s blog, this is what concerns me. According to her latest announcement, Susie will be guest blogging for a bit at Curbed SF, her old editorial stomping grounds. Keep it up Susie!

August Notebook: A Death

- serena

Check out Dust magazine featuring local B&W photographers. They’re on their third issue too! Dust stands for many things, but mainly refers to the pain and joys of printing from film. You just can’t seem to get rid of it.

Photo by documentary photographer Theo Slavin

Photo by fine art photographer Mark Quines

Photo by the up-and-coming Anastasiia Sapon

Shout out to Dust magazine co-founder Irwin Lewis, keep shooting and keep printing.

- Matt

In 1968, Richard Brautigan published a marvellous little book of poems on seed packets called “Please Plant This Book.” It looks more like a pamphlet, but sure enough we call it a book since, well, Richard called it one.

Check out this digital version of the book–the poems are really something:
http://www.pleaseplantthisbook.com/

- Matt

ready, set, fire.

-azeen

Barret reads his article from Issue 3, "Transcending Thoreau."

Mellow Souls' Alex Gair zombies out on the gee-tar while Book Zoo's Ramona chows down on a popsicle.

Laura & Matt emcee.

Gutenshwag. Posters still available!

Michelle from Glass Cake croooons.

- laura&matt

Welcome welcome, let’s get this show on the road.