John & Belle Have A Blog

'Tis the season!

For updating the blog!

Surely it should be an annual affair, at the least. In this case, the occasion is remaking last year's Christmas book. The layout wasn't right before. Now I have made it perfect!

That is to say, 'tis the season for making books. So if you'd like to buy Squid and Owl and/or Mama In Her Kerchief and I In My Madness - A Truly Awful Christmas Volume as nice PDF's, specially optimized for iPad reading - why, you simply go here! Honestly, they look great! (And the price is very reasonable, I say.) In the past I've tried to sell them as POD products, which was ok. This is more sensible. The higher resolution on an iPad makes a difference. I read a lot of comics on my iPad these days.

So I've been thinking about this eBook business. The devices are lovely. The fact that my iPad has a somewhat higher resolution than my mac screen makes a significant difference for reading. But, basically, Epub (or EPUB or epub or EpUb or however you capitalize it) and Kindle are bad formats.

Squid and Owl - The Book: Take Two!

Let's try that again. Hey, you can buy Squid and Owl as a book! Perfect for the person on your list who would like a copy of Squid and Owl. And now with a cover that doesn't include the stuff that's supposed to print on the spine!

Squid and Owl

By John Holbo

Book Preview

OK, here's the thing. I think the book should be fine. The cover and all the pages now look good in WYSIWYG preview. That is, they all look right, apart from the low-res. And I followed the Blurb instructions scrupulously, making the thing. So there shouldn't be any garish colors besides the garish colors I intend to be there. But: I haven't actually laid hands on a physical copy myself. But: it's X-Mas, with a few days left in which to place an order that will arrive in time; so if anyone wants to order a copy - with the caveat that the author-publisher himself hasn't seen it himself, to verify quality ... well, you are most welcome! I will announce this glorious publication with more zeal and confidence when I actually get hold of the thing.

In other news: the move is mostly over, except for the crying. That is, the unpacking. But our new place is fab-o. Belle should tell you about it. Either that or we should change the name to: 'neither John nor Belle really has a blog. But check out the archives!' Or something pathetic like that. That, or I could start updating regular-like.

Squid and Owl - the Book! (& a couple last pages)

A couple more S&O pages, and - da, da, da, DA! I made S&O into a book you can buy from Blurb! Buy Squid and Owl for the person on your list who would like a copy of Squid and Owl! I haven't actually seen a copy yet but I've made several picture books with blurb without a hitch, so I assume the quality will be well-controlled!

UPDATE: I'm going to take down the Blurb link for a bit. To judge from the preview, I think the spine on the book may be running onto the cover.

But you can still the next two pages:

And now: Belle and I are moving house! The movers will be here in, like, 15 minutes!

Three Tschichold-inspired S&O Pages

I see that commenters are starting to inquire, politely, whether we are still alive. Probably a sign it's time to feed the blog, eh? News, news? Belle has been busy. I have been busy. We have all had colds, been traveling, returning, been grading papers. That sort of thing. I just reviewed a book about the typographer Tschichold for my colleague Axel's new literary thingummy. In honor of all that, three new pages of S&O:

And:

And

I'm in the process of planning to make S&O into a book, finally. It's a bit hard to know how to do so best. (Thanks to those of you who have been politely inquiring after the product.) The problem, really, is that the only way to print it in a cost-effective way is in large volumes ...

But I've got tenure. Some people have got REAL problems, or so I read in the newspaper every day.

How The Tiger Got His Stripes - page 5

Final page of our Just Not So story:

How The Tiger Got His Stripes - Page 4

Next page. (A bit easier to read this time.)

And, in other news, I finally finished some useful teaching resources for the Plato book. Namely, a handy-dandy set of mcq questions about Euthyphro, culled and collected and extracted from my years of writing exams. If you are interested in that sort of utilitarian teaching product, check it out.

And, in other news, Mei Mei is in the emergency room. Again. Barfing. Can't keep down food or liquid. Some sort of flu bug. Doesn't seem too serious, however, and - after leaving wife and child there just a few minutes ago, after spending the first hour with them - I confidently predict that child and wife will be home by 3 AM, armed with rehydration this-and-that. I'm home with Zoë and might as well post this post while I wait.

Here are some fairies Zoë drew last week. They are stewardesses for Fairy Airlines. They have very nice uniforms.

How The Tiger Got His Stripes - page 3

Next page:

How The Tiger Got His Stripes - plus Zoë commentary

Another Just Not So story. I'll start us off with two pages: 

And:

Now I've just got to finish the story.

Zoë and Mei Mei are sick (what's new), but Zoë managed to complete some other art projects recently:

That's an episode from Roald Dahl, The Witches. And:

Zoe does literary criticism. These are summaries of her home readings that she does for school. The "Salt Is Better Than Gold" one is very nice - the book, I mean. I bought it so Zoë could appreciate the illustration:

We are currently seriously addicted to "Kitchen Princess". We have read all the way through volume 3.

Oh, and apparently search engines will like it more if I link to my book while clearly identifying it as a book about Plato! Plato! Plato! (Just a little experiment in shameless SEO, there. Science advances, it truly does.)

88 - Owl is deeply vexed to learn ...

This one may be too abstract to be amusing. You be the judge.

In case that isn't entertaining enough, some fantastic Zoë art. She has done a series of portraits of animals in their own homes, with portraits of the animals themselves on the walls. With food. I think you'll get the idea. Gerbil:

 

And turtle:

 

And cat:

 

The cat is actually our new neighborhood kitten find, known as Smallspice. That is a fairly accurate representation of the tail-shape, which is indeed a bizarrely wonky affair.

More Squid and Owl - Three Fresh Pages

I drew a few more pages to celebrate the fact that Reason & Persuasion is finally not just listed on Amazon but in stock! You can buy it and get it, like, two days later. (Hint, hint.)

Right, back to Squid and Owl.

This first one was supposed to go with some others - way back when round about number 65 (the Hemulen Vicar and the Fez-Topped Mystic and friends in the drawing room).

And two more, that go together:

I don't think I quite like Owl's meaningfully droopy eye in this one yet. Needs some clean up.

I think it would be fun to make a whole novelty deck. (But I don't think I quite have the time to work that out, let alone draw it all.) Now Squid and Owl are going back on hiatus for a while. But I'll try to post more regularly, or maybe get Belle to get back to it. Wouldn't that be something from the old days?