Fall into Books
The big news of my autumn is that How Comics Were Made has shipped! The book took years to conceive fully, and I was in intense stages of writing and production since the February/March Kickstarter campaign this year. It was printed in late September in Canada and partially shipped this week. The remainder of books ordered ship early next week.
It was professionally meaningful and a lot of fun personally to head to Canada for the press check at Hemlock Printers. I posted a detailed account of my 12 or so hours on press—a seemingly short stint compared to the 100 in 2023 for Shift Happens—with photos and videos as part of a Kickstarter update you can read.
You can order the book and have it shipped within a couple of days. The ebook edition is now available, too, as a standalone item or as a discounted bundle with the print book. (If you bought just the print or ebook edition and want the other, get in touch for a crossgrade coupon.)
With the campaign rewards fulfilled, I’ve added two special items to the online store as “a la carte” purchases: a specially made Zippy the Pinhead print licensed by creator Bill Griffith that combines letterpress printing, a re-creation of metal printing molds used from around 1900 to the 1980s (called mats or flongs); and unique historic sets of four of Peanuts 1970s color comics in mold or mat format. The Zippy print is available in a single, handprinted short edition. The Peanuts molds are rare, come with a great story, and are going fast. Both items would look great framed!
Take Control Updates
With new Apple OS updates come updated and new titles in the Take Control Books series to which I’ve contributed for over two decades so far! My latest books, including a summer release, are:
Keep Safe Using Mobile Tech: A new title that looks into Apple and Google mobile tools (and a few desktop ones) for personal and device safety, particularly while out and about.
Take Control of Your Apple Account: With Apple renaming the old “Apple ID” to Apple Account, my previous book required a full overhaul. The latest version keeps up with all the other changes in this centerpiece of our interaction with Apple stuff.
Take Control of Securing Your Apple Devices: We expanded a book on Mac security to incorporate iPhone and iPad security as well. This book offers comprehensive advice on configuring your devices for the greatest security for data on them and transferring to and from other places. (We discontinued Take Control of iOS and iPadOS Networking & Security as readers were finding it less useful while it also had become massive due to its scope, and thus hard to update.)
Take Control of FaceTime and Messages: This substantial update covers significant improvements in the Messages and Phone apps, as well as how Apple Intelligence affects transcription and automatically composed replies.
Take Control of Find My and AirTags: With the improvement of anti-tracking features across Apple’s existing Find My ecosystem and Google’s newly released one, the book is updated both for new operating systems and for all the interactions you might see from unwanted tracking.
Other titles: I’ll be releasing an update to Take Control of Calendar and Reminders soon (Apple made substantial tiny changes requiring recapturing all screenshots). Take Control of Untangling Connections (insight into all your cabling and ports) and Take Control of Wi-Fi Networking and Security received significant updates in the last year.
Sixteen Six Centuries
Just 16 copies remain of my letterpress-printed book Six Centuries of Type and Printing. If you were waiting to get a copy, the time is ripe!
What’s Next?
I do keep having people ask me: “You’re always so busy! What’s next?” With copies left to sell of How Comics Were Made, I’ll be working on getting those sold, as well as finding any promotional opportunities, like speaking engagements (in person or remote). I’ve got several ideas I’m bouncing around for next books, and need to hunker down to write up more details proposals (for myself or a publisher) before the end of 2024.
I also hung out my shingle as a book editor and crowdfunding consultant early this year after completing my work in both capacities—and as print supervisor and logistics manager—for Shift Happens. I have several people I’m talking to to about their projects, and hope to shepherd a few of them into crowdfunding in 2025.
As always, I appreciate you for taking any interest in the work I create, whether artistic, technical, or how-to. It’s tough to make a living at this particular odd point in the history of journalism, art, and non-fiction writing, and I’m only able to survive and sometimes thrive through the purchases and patronage of you and others like you!
Thank you so much,