Glenn Fleishman Interrogates the Past

How Comics Are Made in Bookstores June 3

Cover of How Comics Are Made , the Andrews McMeel Publishing edition

Last year, I published How Comics Were Made, a look at the whole process from an newspaper cartoonist’s hands to the printed page, under my own imprint after a very successful Kickstarter campaign. It sold well over 2,000 copies, and the whole process was delightful. After the Kickstarter campaign, Andrews McMeel Publishing was in touch about acquiring future printings and editions. My self-published version sold out in March, and a very slightly different new printing appears in bookstores as How Comics Are Made on June 3! You can pre-order the new printing from bookstores worldwide; I’ve assembled a list of links to indies and chains alike.

To celebrate the book’s release, I’m having an event with two syndicated cartoonists at Ada’s Technical Books in Seattle. Georgia Dunn of Breaking Cat News and Brian

Books

New Week, New Work: Six Colors, Take Control

This week I made two big changes in my career that I’m happy to share.

First, I’ve taken the title of Executive Editor at Take Control Books, a publisher I’ve worked with from their launch in 2003 by Adam and Tonya Engst and since 2017 for Joe Kissell and Morgen Jahnke. Over that time, I’ve written so many titles I can’t remember them all, partly because of updates, mergers, and splits of books into new works.

As executive editor, I will take on more editorial responsibility, particularly with editing books, but also in updating titles where the author has opted to move on to other projects, such as iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, a series updated each new operating system revision for many years by Josh Centers. To help Take Control Books expand, I’ll be consulting with Joe on how to find new readers

Podcasting

The Talk Show: Episode 420

I appear on the latest episode of John “Daring Fireball” Gruber’s The Talk Show podcast. John and I talked tariffs, hegemony and colonialism, and mother loving iPhones on mother loving cargo planes. Also about typesetting, printing, and crowdfunding.

Bookselling

Testing Out New Kickstarter Features

Kickstarter has had long periods in which it has changed little about how to build, run, and manage post-campaign details. These lulls have been punctuated with major changes. When I got ready to launch the campaign for Six Centuries of Type & Printing earlier this year, I noticed that the company had added and tweaked lots of features. Some may have been in place for a year or more, but I believe only one was available when I launched How Comics Were Made in February 2024.

I started using Kickstarter to fund my book and art projects about 15 years ago. Six Centuries was my 11th! My 9 successful campaigns have ranged from raising $3,000 to over $165,000. I also managed the project for Shift Happens, which brought in $750,000 in its crowdfunding stage. I’m always looking to see what I can test and what I

Last Week for Six Centuries Kickstarter

Update! The goal of $35,000 was reached on April 16 and the project finished far above its target, with three stretch goals unlocked for extra things (an audiobook, extra ebook, and custom bookmarks) for existing reward tiers. You can still get in on the campaign via Late Pledges, a Kickstarter feature to enable additional support/quasi-preordering.

I am entering the last week of crowdfunding for the new, affordable edition of Six Centuries of Type & Printing, my look at technological evolution from before Gutenberg to the present day! You can back the campaign to get an ebook, print/ebook bundle, and special higher tiers.

Six Centuries of Type & Printing (first edition shown)

With some optimism about meeting the goal, I’ve added two stretch goals: at $40,000 (about 115% of the goal), I’ll record and release an audiobook that will be free to all backers at the

Bookselling

Advance Copy of How Comics Are Made

My publisher, Andrews McMeel, just sent me a few advance copies of the upcoming bookstore edition of How Comics Are Made, which hits the shelves June 3, 2025. I did a modest unboxing so you can see the new cover components and the great job their printer did on this mass-market edition. I’m quite pleased in every regard!

You can snag a copy ahead of time by pre-ordering from many fine bookstores of all sizes. I’ve provided a list of pre-order links for a range of from local stores up to international behemoths. The book will be available June 3 in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and in the rest of the world either in June or early July!

Bookselling

Books in a Time of Trade War

Update April 2, 2025, and noted where that’s the case.

I didn’t set out to print books in Canada to stake out a political position, although it’s indirectly become that.

A few years ago, when I was obtaining bids for my client-author Marcin Wichary (Shift Happens) to print his books, we checked in with Hemlock Printers in Burnaby, B.C., Canada (adjacent to Vancouver). This was 2021 and then 2022. The Canadian border had been closed for a while. The future of the COVID pandemic’s direction remained unsure. And we had wanted to go on press—to be there while the book was printed. Hemlock came highly recommended but their pricing was somewhat above the printer we chose, Penmor Lithographers in Lewiston, Maine. We felt that in a pinch, we’d be able to get to Maine and possibly not to Vancouver.

When I was planning

Books

Six Centuries of Type & Printing: a New Edition on Kickstarter

Today, I launched a Kickstarter campaign for a second edition of Six Centuries of Type & Printing. The book briskly tells the story across 64 pages of the evolution of type and printing, starting with early documented efforts and surviving artifacts from China and Korea, and introducing Gutenberg and his innovations. It then takes you through each generation of increasing sophistication in metal and relief printing until the abrupt 20th century shift into flat offset printing, which was made possible through photographic and digital improvements, and phototypesetting and digital composition.

Six Centuries of Type & Printing ; second edition will closely match these photos of the earlier letterpress edition

If you have been following my adventures for a few years, you might remember the 2019 project, The Tiny Type Museum & Time Capsule. Collaborator Anna Peterson created over 100 hand-crafted wooden cases, and I collected and commissioned thousands of type and printing

Bookselling

Take Control Sale + Upcoming Bookstore Edition of How Comics Are Made

An extended Pi Day sale is currently underway at Take Control Books, an ebook publisher where I have nine active titles. You get 31.4% off all titles; if you own existing books, that discount applies to upgrade pricing, too! No coupon is needed, and the sale lasts until Monday night.

How Comics Are Made , coming June 3, 2025

Last week, I finished out sales of my 2024 book How Comics Were Made, a look at the history of newspaper comics production and reproduction. The book was acquired in late 2024 by Andrews McMeel Publishing, which has a new printing (same contents) hitting bookstores June 3, 2025, around the world! You can pre-order a copy today under its new title, How Comics Are Made, from independent bookstores and large ecommerce sites, alike.

History

Two Upcoming Comics History Talks

I’ll be presenting two online talks in early February derived from my research for How Comics Were Made. Both talks are free to attend—one will be recorded and have a more general bent; the other, live only and more academic in focus. Both require advance registration to receive the information needed to watch. (Updated with link to recorded Feb. 4 talk.)

February 4: Newspaper Comics Production in the Era of Mechanical Perfection

Watch the recorded video of “Newspaper Comics Production in the Era of Mechanical Perfection,” New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium: event occurred February 4 at 4 pm PST/7 pm EST. I’ll be talking about how many mechanical processes came together to create a complicated but routine way to print newspaper comics in the metal and mechanical age. The long-running weekly symposium is a great source of past and future insight into comics and storytelling

Bookselling

O, Canada, Discount on How Comics Were Made

Update, February 2025: There’s now a coupon-less discount on the website—click the link below to see it.

A couple of weeks ago, I began offering a 10% discount off the print edition of How Comics Were Made, my comics history book that traces cartoons from an artist’s hand to the printed newspaper page—or digital display. This was partly as a post-holiday sale, and partly out of the concern the incoming administration would impose tariffs on all goods entering from Canada, where my book was printed and remains warehoused. Those tariffs are apparently “under study,” but I’ve decided to extend the sale.

Use the code OCANADA at checkout for 10% off the price, no matter where your books are going—including within Canada 🇨🇦. This sale will continue for the indefinite future.

Books

2024 Year in Review

Every year, I like to recap what I did professionally in the previous one. This year built on work and events already planned and in progress, so I have less to report in volume despite having a quite busy twelve months.

How Comics Were (and Are) Made

The most significant thing I did in 2024 was to crowdfund and publish How Comics Were Made, my book digging into the production and reproduction of newspaper comics from the 1890s to the present. I took the book to Kickstarter in February, where it raised more than enough funds to proceed and then shipped it in October, the promised month! Between March and October, I sold hundreds of additional copies and I’m on track to sell out in early 2025 of remaining copies in this first printing.

You can buy a copy of this edition and

Latest

February 4: Newspaper Comics Production in the Era of Mechanical Perfection

How Comics Were (and Are) Made