Kickstarter for Letterpress Who Goes There? ends in 3 days

Just a reminder that the Kickstarter for Angel Bomb's Who Goes There? ends in 3 days. Standard version is $150. Selfish reason for posting this - I want them to reach the 30K stretch goal so there is more art. 2 of the goals have already been met. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/angelbomb/who-goes-there-deluxe-letterpress...

Same! I backed this one when it went live, hopefully enough people were waiting till the end of the campaign to jump on and we get those illustrated end papers.

Affordable high-quality letterpress of a classic story with original art - count me in!

Easy pass for me. I'll never back a creator who passes as the judge and jury of a minor who hasn't been tried yet. Much less stick that on Kickstarter as a letterpress/fine press product. Absolutely disgusting.

>4 Objectr:

Hi could you explain further, or maybe link an article?

It looks lovely... Only reason I am not going to get this is because am waiting for Arete's version instead

>5 Jobasha: yeah am curious about this too.. what is this about?

>4 Objectr: Could you please clarify? What exactly are you referring to?

>4 Objectr: Please tell me you're not referring to Kyle Rittenhouse being included in 2020, A Fiasco?

There's a HUGE difference between judging somebody who you don't know for sure committed a crime and, in a recap of political unrest, including someone who the whole world knows murdered two people ...

>9 NathanOv: I don't have any interest in the title but the comment in >4 Objectr: convinced me to chip in $10

>9 NathanOv: "murdered" is a loaded term. Comes across as judgemental to me.

>9 NathanOv: Aren’t you judging the person by saying they murdered two people? I assume in the US people are still innocent until proven guilty?

The videos show the guy running away from the persons who he eventually shot, so not sure why there’s even a trial happening.

In any case, this is why it’s a terrible idea for people, in my opinion, to mix their political views with their work.

To be honest, this is disappointing me a little bit.

For those of you unfamiliar, Fiasco, 2020 was a piece of *political* art from a creator who’s published several pieces of political fine press work.

It’s not a creator’s responsibility to cater to all political beliefs.

>13 NathanOv: True. His is basically a private press and is free to print what he wants, as is >4 Objectr: free to dislike the product on any basis.

>4 Objectr: Thank you for the heads up about this. I cancelled my pledge accordingly.

Not that it would influence my decision about buying a book, but was an accusation of murder made in 2020, A Fiasco? The Kickstarter page said "kids illegally acquire guns and kill people in another state under the guise of self-protection", which seems like a fairly neutral description of the situation. That someone describes as a fiasco a state of affairs where such an eventuality is even possible doesn't seem too controversial.

The bigger controversy, it seems to me, is that 2020, A Fiasco was described as a book but it's publisher, whereas it seems to be a BLOB by the standards of this forum.

The art is political commentary and I don't think that's problematic.

Pretty objectively, whichever side you're on, Kenosha was a disaster. Rittenhouse symbolizes it. Makes sense to me that Thyberg included him. Whatever the outcome of the trial is this week, Rittenhouse still symbolizes the incident. Also not a problem for someone to support or not support the artist based on personal views. Voting with your wallet is a good thing.

>16 ubiquitousuk: I think "under the guise of" lets you know the artist's bias. And I agree...not a book. Definitely a BLOb.

I find it hard to believe book collectors and bibliophiles in good faith consider "under the guise of" and "murder" sans negative connotation.

Vote either way with your wallet -- just don't trudge up your faux moral high ground if others feel differently.

>16 ubiquitousuk: He has been accused of illegally acquiring a gun. That has not been proven or disproven. The "artist" tries to make this a statement of fact. He also, whether purposely or otherwise, lays out a timeline that the gun was acquired and THEN state lines were crossed. That has been disproven in court.

He is, of course, welcome to say what he wants about it. He's also subject to take the criticism when the statements aren't fact and/or there are opposing viewpoints. As you can clearly see above, such similar unfounded bias has influenced the likes of Nathan for better or worse. I don't take it lightly that he's disappointed, but he's also subjected others to his internet flaming when he hasn't liked their prices on Facebook. I'm sure he'll climb over his disappointment in no time.

As ChampagneSVP stated, I'll vote with my wallet. Apparently there are others willing to do so as well. FWIW, I'd vote with my wallet in the same way if someone on the flip side of the coin tried to make a blanket statement of Kyle having no hand in wrongdoing.

We have a process for a reason, and we should follow it with the utmost responsibility.

Cheers

>18 ChampagneSVP: >19 TomsRiverNJ: I agree completely. To be fair to the creator, I do not believe he used the word 'murder,' but he did used the phrase "under the guise of," with its significant denotation (well beyond connotation).

As others have mentioned, I decided to vote with my wallet.

A lot of ado over not very much. This was an edition of 22 - only sold 14 copies and the rest went to institutions. It's actually not that uncommon for letterpress creators to create topical political works nowadays, (typically associated with the left though). I personally wouldn't buy any topical letterpress political work of any persuasion, primarily because it is topical and not a good use of my money IMO. https://www.angelbomb.com/news

"the remainder going to special collections at Baylor University, Furman University, UC Davis, Shields Library, University of Bowling Green, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, and Mills College" - so if one were an alumnus of say, Baylor University (which has an (overall) conservative student body), would you not contribute to Baylor based on their buying this?

Can I just say, having not wanted this to blow up and avoiding sharing the full extent of my beliefs towards that goal, that I am deeply uncomfortable with a user called “ultrarightist” on this board sharing their political beliefs.

I won’t blanket accuse everyone on the anti Fiasco, 2020 (a work I’m sure none of you own) crowd of pushing alt-right politics, but this user has self-identified and I don’t think there’s a place for that.

>23 NathanOv: "Can I just say, having not wanted this to blow up and avoiding sharing the full extent of my beliefs towards that goal, that I am deeply uncomfortable with a user called “ultrarightist” on this board sharing their political beliefs."

Well that seems hypocritical. You let people know what side you're on and so did he. Wish I hadn't piped up earlier at this point but I just don't see the big controversy over an artist (or private publisher) conveying his beliefs through his work.

>23 NathanOv: You can assuage your discomfort by ignoring me, as I shall ignore you.

>24 ChampagneSVP: I kept mine very limited, and simply defended the right of a fine press to publish political work.

I do not know if you are American, but alt-right politics are not a belief system that should be tolerated or allowed in any forum.

I can't believe I just read those two messages.

Actually I take that back. I can believe it. It's shockingly narrow-minded no matter what beliefs anyone holds.

We live in a world where any hint of disagreement is met by particular type of erasure-animosity by fragile people who have unfortunately grown to represent several generations. Dispassionate, rational discourse is out the window in most online debates. It's very sad, but at least most of these type of people are contained to their virtual birdcages.

No one should feel ashamed for not supporting this artist's work, nor any artist who has a particular left- or right-leaning political view.

>21 ultrarightist: Someone used the word "murder" above without understanding the legal definition of the word. It isn't surprising that person is now crowing the loudest in what is otherwise a largely civil discourse.

To lower the temperature here, I just wanted to get an extra illustration!

I think we can all agree that - 1) a publisher can publish whatever they want and 2) consumers can decline to purchase something for any reason. Beyond that, I'm not sure what the issue is. Again we are talking about something that basically flopped. 14 backers on KS is not good by any standard.

>28 TomsRiverNJ: You summed this up better than I ever could. Thanks for that.

>28 TomsRiverNJ: Very well stated.

>29 punkzip: I definitely agree.

>29 punkzip: I appreciate that, and like I said before kept my initial comments pretty limited because I had no intention of raising the temperature either.

I agree with both your points (though wouldn't go quite as broad as "whatever" they want), but I will happily double down on the fact that the presence of alt-right politics on this board is an issue and certainly won't be continuing to interact here if the general sentiment continues to be in support of the individuals expressing those beliefs.

I'm sorry for chiming in as well! My only intention was to point out that artists risk alienating supporters of their work when they venture into politics. There was a long exchange about Dahl in another thread, and it was pretty similar.

>29 punkzip: 14 backers on KS is not good by any standard.

I wonder how much that has to do with Arete doing the same book...

>34 filox: I was referring to Fiasco, 2020 - not Who Goes There? That's doing ok. The general point is that there is too much being said, raising the temperature here unnecessarily, over a project which only had 14 subscribers - almost no one cared about it so why argue about it now?

Hmmm, I may have to rethink my plans about No Reply's upcoming signed edition of "The Art of the Deal"....

Just kidding!

>35 punkzip: Ah I got it wrong, I thought you were saying the Thing isn't going well. In any case, I'm holding out for the Arete edition, I have more faith in those guys.

Re politics: the only winning move is not to play. Ignore and move on.

>37 filox:

Do we know the price range of the Arete Edition?

Also, why do you have more faith? I was under the impression that Arete had not produced a book yet.

>38 Jobasha: no one knows the price range of the Arete edition but I think it is safe to assume it will higher quality at higher cost - also not the exact same text - Arete is the uncut version

>38 Jobasha: The Arete imprint hasn't shipped any books yet, true. But the same set of people have produced lots of very high quality books through other imprints - Lyra's Books and Hand and Eye. Don't see why this new imprint would be of any lower standards.

>39 punkzip:, >40 filox:

This makes things difficult!

I prefer 'Who Goes There?' to 'Frozen Hell' (But only just) and if the Arete version is anything like my Standard Stardust (with a similar price tag) I would much prefer that.

I've realized my main interest in collecting books is in collecting a wide variety of publisher's / printer's work.
Since I have already ordered Arete's Case of Death and Honey / Creeping Man, I'm more excited about Angle Bomb's edition.
Also, I've heard that Angel Bomb's letterpress is impeccable, so I'm excited to get a peak at it.

>36 grifgon: HA! Thanks for that; that made my night.

>36 grifgon: 😂 that made me laugh...

>39 punkzip: I am sure the Arete edition will be higher cost, not sure about quality - which is a bit subjective. I will say, I think the illustrations for Angel Bomb's edition are beautiful


I enjoy supporting small-fine-press, and have high hopes that this will be a real gem at an affordable price :)

>45 astropi: by quality I meant materials - leather bindings and paper for example. I agree that the Angel Bomb version is a very good value - an oversized, illustrated, letterpress book for $150. Good luck in getting that from most presses . I think the fact that the press and the artist are the same keeps the cost down. It's inexpensive enough that buying both this and the Arete version is doable for many. Also, the text is not the same. On the other hand, we can anticipate that the 2 upcoming versions of Dorian Gray - Amaranthine and Lyra's will likely be $600 + each for the numbered, which makes it more of a choice than this.

>46 punkzip: Agreed. I do hope Dorian will be closer to $300 than $600, but of course that will be without doubt a fabulous production :)

Passed 30K today so there will be an additional endpaper illustration. BTW, a prior comment mentioned there were 19 illustrations in the book so far - with the illustrated endpaper that would be at least 20 illustrations. That's a lot for a $150 book, by any standard.

Current update is that we have 18 illustrations!

Here is a peek at the last illustration I'm working on; it's also the last in the book. I've been reworking existing illustrations and fine-tuning them. There are eighteen illustrations in total. Eighteen! I just heard back from the copyright holder after sending them a preview and they seemed delighted. "Exceeds my expectations," were his exact words. So I hope you feel the same once it lands in your hands. There's a little more to do before I can release files for plates, but that's pretty minor. Next update should show you photos on press as well as some video of my Heidelberg Cylinder in action. I'll also include a photo of my early rough sketches. As I read and reread the story, I jotted down ideas that I thought would make good highlights. You can see a very early iteration of the patch on one of the tissues as well. I hope you enjoy,
Todd

The artwork is looking quite nice, and glad to see the book approaching completion. I backed the original publication of Frozen Hell when the manuscript was first recovered, and it's great to see a letterpress edition of this story as well. Since Who Goes There? has been a longtime favorite of mine, I had to back this one too. I hope the editing of the restored text is better in this edition than in the first release of Frozen Hell I backed, that was somewhat slipshod. I'm optimistic this will be a good edition.

>50 Shadekeep: "I hope the editing of the restored text is better in this edition than in the first release of Frozen Hell I backed, that was somewhat slipshod."

It's my understanding that this is the original text, is it not? That would certainly be my preference with the Arete Edition of Frozen Hell coming out and both being must-buys for me.

>51 NathanOv: Ah, yes, you are correct, this is the original text. I've gotten a bit turned around with the various editions of this story lately! I am hoping to get the Arete Edition as well, which would be my first volume from them. I've heard a lot of good things about that press.

>52 Shadekeep: Well they've yet to actually ship a book, but Death & Honey and their other two in progress all look absolutely stunning, and of course they have the proven craftmanship of Richard Tong at Lyra's and Phil Abel at Hand & Eye behind them!

>53 NathanOv: Wow, they haven't shipped their Sherlock books yet?

>54 astropi: Nope, Richard Tong is madly making three hundred hand made books, and it is all taking longer than we anticipated...

Received Who Goes There? today, it's quite nice. The illustrations flow well with the text. Some nice ephemera with it too, including a uncut sheet from the press and two iron-on patches for the Antarctic expedition. Got #24 of the limitation.

>56 Shadekeep: I recieved mine last week and am about 2/3rds of the way through reading it already! I love how heavily illustrated it is and enjoy the style. I also think the printing is overall quite nice.

I think the digital color printing over letterpress impressions (though I may be totally misunderstanding the process there) was a nice thought, but did not come out quite perfectly. However, overall I'm quite happy and excited for Angel Bomb's next few publications as well.

I think Arete version will be much better. Plus, don’t like illustrations and inflated price for a publisher I never heard of

>58 horrorbooks: I found the $175 fairly competitive, but will definitely also be getting the Arete edition and expect it to be more of a typical fine press production. Angel Bomb have been around for a bit with some great previous projects, though.

>57 NathanOv: I believe the illustrations are half tones printed off of photopolymer plates.

>60 921Jack: Ah, I think you're right - I just took a look back at some of the process photos and it does look like multiple runs on the heidelberg to add the color. I had misunderstood the written description of the color being added after the initial printing.

For your viewing pleasures:

Hello fellow book fans,
I wanted to post some news that as collectors of my work, you may be excited to learn. A panel of jurors recently selected me to be one of two Minnesota-based book artists to receive the 2023 McKnight Book Arts Fellowship. It's a great honor to be selected for this and I have high hopes for what it will do to help my career. I've created six books so far and have several more in the works.
You can learn more about it here: https://www.mnbookarts.org/announcing-our-2023-mcknight-book-artist-fellows/
Cheers,
Todd

>63 Angelbomb: Kudos to you and your fellow alliteratively-named winner!

EDIT: Though your name isn't strictly alliterative if your last name was once spelt with a thorn, as I suspect it was.

>63 Angelbomb: Congratulations! It’s very well deserved. I hope it helps you meet your goal of full-time bookmaking!

>63 Angelbomb: Wonderful news! well deserved and congratulations!

>63 Angelbomb: Congratulations!

>63 Angelbomb: well done! That's great, really well done, congrats!

>66 NathanOv: Thank you Nathan!

>69 marceloanciano: THank you kindly!

>68 What_What: Thanks so much!

>67 astropi: Many thanks!

>64 Shadekeep: Thank you Shade!

>75 AlexBookshelfFrog: I’m not sure what specific book you’re going on about as most of us are just trying to congratulate the creator on their award.

However, Vamp & Tramp ships Angel Bomb’s in-print works internationally at publication price.

>77 AlexBookshelfFrog:
Calm down, read the thread and stop swearing.

>77 AlexBookshelfFrog: I get warnings from my Anti Virus program

The only warning I get (from my browser) is that the site does not use https: and therefore isn't as secure as may be. However, there are a lot of reliable sites that are the same and I generally pay the warning no mind and continue on.

>79 AlexBookshelfFrog: Why don't you contact @Angelbomb directly and he can certainly arrange to ship a copy of the book to you in Germany.

>82 AlexBookshelfFrog: Probably for dropping an F-bomb, rather than an Angel-bomb.... ;-)

>83 kermaier: well played

Vamp & Tramp is a wonderful team (now Vicky Stewart and Lindsay Garrett). I get the same "warning" because of their site's lack of http:, but these are extremely competent and efficient booksellers. I wholly recommend buying books from them.

>85 DenimDan: +1 — V&T are great, and they’re happy to work with you if you have questions or want something you don’t see.

>82 AlexBookshelfFrog: Hi Alex,
Feel free to send me an email at todd at angelbomb dot com. I would be happy to ship a copy to you in Germany. I appreciate your interest!
Todd

>87 Angelbomb: wrote you 5 emails now over the last few weeks. Not a single reaction 😵‍💫
I dont live in the USA aswell, but would love to have a copy. I think I will pass now.

>85 DenimDan: they didnt wrote me back on my mail aswell 😅

>88 Ragnaroek: I don't know anyone's personal situation, but people do have lives outside of work and Todd might very well be on vacation - it is summer, many people take a long multi-week vacation. Or, maybe your emails got sent to spam? Just saying that Todd is a good guy and I'm sure he will eventually get to everyone that is reaching out.

>90 astropi: Agreed. Also, it's quite possible the messages never reach them at all. There are a few people that I correspond with who simply never get an email from my account, and I have to talk with them through other channels instead. Never figured out where along the line the emails are being blocked or dropped, but they simply never arrive. I think increased security and anti-spam measures across the digital ecosystem have created some of these "e-maelstroms", from which no electronic correspondence ever emerges.

All true, but I see no way to communicate through other ways.
Probably they never arrived at all.
Where do you live if I may ask ?
@astropi @Shadekeep

>92 Ragnaroek: I'm in Virginia in the US, but I think spam blockers have more to do with your email provider than with your country of origin in some cases. I have several custom domains for my websites and my email goes through those, and I suspect it sometimes gets blocked because the originating domain in the header is the hosting company, not my domains.

>93 Shadekeep:
Hmm so weird. Very disappointing thought 😕

Hello all of you,
I am truly sorry that your emails are not getting through. I have been having trouble with the form on the contact page, so don't rely on that. If you click the email address in the footer, that should work. Or you can try angelbomb.books@gmail.com.
Please call me at the number in the footer of my website,
Sincerrely,
Todd

The form on my website now seems to work, though if you're interested in a book, please call or text. All my information is in the footer of my website.
My apologies for the difficulty you've had in reaching me.
Todd

>96 Angelbomb:
Thank you for the Information. I went with the Arete Edition though.

>97 Ragnaroek: Both are very different concepts presenting different versions of the story.

Angel Bomb’s is more of an immersive horror reading experience, while Arete’s looks to be structured almost entirely around Manchess’ artwork and is a celebration of the book arts as much as of the story itself.

I certainly understand picking one or the other, but if both have caught your interest, they’re far from duplicates of the same title.

>98 NathanOv: Agreed, they are very different experiences and both should be worth having.

Thats true, but I cant afford both and I prefer the "normal " book size from Aretes version.
It's kind of unlucky I would they. I searched all the Internet for Angel Bombs version and found Aretes version at the end 😅
All 4 versions are gorgeous crafted pieces of art nevertheless 🙂
It's not an Book that will sell out quickly, so maybe when my budget isnt so stretched out anymore to so much publicatios. Most people just know the John Carpenter movie "the thing", which is great.

>100 Ragnaroek: Side note, and you may have seen it already on this forum, but even if you don't get around to purchasing Angel Bomb's copy of Who Goes There, you should keep an eye out for their upcoming edition of "The Things," Peter Watt's companion story.

>101 NathanOv: thanks for letting me know 🙂👌

>97 Ragnaroek: I'm very sorry you had such difficulty reaching me. You'll enjoy that Arete edition, I wish I could afford it, it looks beautiful! Feel free to call or text in the future if you have any questions or difficulty in contacting me.
Cheers,
Todd

>103 Angelbomb:
So in general you would ship to Germany or the UK ?

>104 Ragnaroek: I got my edition of Who Goes There? in Germany without a problem.

>105 c_schelle: good to know 😊👍

>104 Ragnaroek: Absolutely. I've shipped to both without issue.