Summer Round-Up

It has finally happened: the high temperatures later this week will dip in to the upper 50s, pumpkin-flavored everythings are available with irritating regularity at coffee shops and bakeries city wide, and citizens everywhere are discovering orphaned gloves and single cough losenges in newly aired-out jackets. Summer is over and fall is settling in!

We here at Monkey-Rope Press are settling back into a long-overdue work flow after a heartily enjoyed summer hiaitus, but that's not to say that we've been without news:

• Earlier this month, Chicagoist and Gapers Block picked up on our CTA Announcement print series. Any and all publicity that hilariously modulated voice acting can get, the happier we are! 
• The first chapter of Monkey-Rope Press's first graphic novel, In the Sounds and Seas, is now available at both Quimby's here in Chicago and at Comix Revolution in Evanston. If those are too local for you, the book is also available on our etsy store.
• Last but by no means least, we printed wedding invitations for beloved pals, fellow nerds and sociology PhD candidates this summer. I offered to print their invitation before I knew what they wanted, and couldn't have been more tickled or excited by their idea. Who needs cherry blossoms and cursive script when you can have gigantic robots destroying the Las Vegas strip?

This brown, cream and metalic-bronze linoleum block print was printed on Cream Cordtone Speckletone French Paper on a Vandercook 4 proof press at Evanston Print and Paper Shop. Unfortunately, Las Vegas was not damaged in the production of this print.

Looking forward into the coming layering seasons, we look forward to adding new prints to our shop page, publishing small experimental comics and settling into Chapter 2 of In the Sounds and Seas. Now it's time to put on a kettle for tea and settle in to business. Happy autumn, one and all!

Mark your calendars!

Monkey-Rope Press couldn't be more thrilled to announce our participation in the Friends of Transit Print Invitational. As a part of the constellation of city-wide events during Chicago's Artists Month, Transit Residency worked in conjunction with I Am Logan Square to host an invitational print show celebrating our community's love of travel and forms of transportation of all kinds. The Friends of Transit Print Invitational exhibition will be up at the new IALS gallery October 1 — 30, 2011. The exhibition reception with be held Friday, October 7th, 6–8:30pm; mark your calendars and be sure to stop by and say hello! 

In the Sounds and Seas: Volume 1

Monkey-Rope Press is proud to announce that our labor of love, In the Sounds and Seas: Volume I, is now available for sale. You can purchase a copy for $15, or subscribe to receive each volume as it is produced for $72 (discounted at $12/copy). In the Sounds and Seas was printed in a limited edition of 175; the cover was letterpress printed from two hand-carved linoleum blocks on a Vandercook proofing press, and the text block was offset printed by Salsedo Press in Chicago, IL.

This 22-page mini-comic is the first volume of a six-part, wordless narrative about obsessive creative production and failure. Volume 1 frames the future volumes, as 3 storytellers sing the tentative world of the rest of the story into existence.

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Thanks to Salsedo Press for their beautiful work printing the text block and finishing the book; to Evanston Print and Paper for their open studio access and help accommodating last-minute press needs for printing the cover; to Julie and Andy at Letterform for your enthusiasm and technical expertise; to Sarah at Slow Industries for inspiration, encouragement and regular venting of built-up steam; to Sophie, Furu, Joe and Jennifer for your critical feedback when this project was just a few rough paragraphs on a page; to my parents Lori and Jerry for your unwavering support; to all of my friends and family for being patient with me these last 6 months as I've turned down social events and cut short conversations to keep working in anxious isolation on this project; and finally, thanks to my husband Tom, for literally everything.

Printing the Cover

Linoleum block relief carvings for both the cover pattern and text

The first color: half and half black and sliver ink for a muted-metalic grey, on French's Dur-o-tone Steel Grey paper

First color printed...and look at what's on the wall! Way to go!

(Many thanks to Evanston Print & Paper for accomodating our last-minute press needs.)

Metalic silver ink for a popping title

The first trimmed-down mock-up of the cover of In the Sounds and Seas (vol. 1 of 6).

This afternoon I drop off the cover stock to Salsedo Press, who is offset printing the text block of the book and folding/coallating the press pages. For the first time in 6 months, this project will be out of my hands. I reckon that means it's time to get started on volume 2 this weekend!

Sequential Art at the Arc Gallery

Two 3-page sequences from Monkey-Rope Press's upcoming book are on display at the Arc Gallery on 832 W Superior Street here in Chicago. The opening last night had a wonderful turn out, and I am honored to be in a show with talented artists in such a wonderful space.

The show is up until June 18, 2011. It is a great group show: if you find yourself in that part of town, definitely stop by!

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In related exciting news, the book project (from which those illustrations are sampled) will be released serially as I finish each chapter as stand-alone chap books, untill a more "deluxe" finished edition can be published. More news to come soon, but I anticipate having a finished object to share by early July.

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone!