Glog

Glenn Fleishman Interrogates the Past

Books

In the Works for a Flong Time

Books

In the Works for a Flong Time

I’m happy to announce the launch of my latest book, Flong Time, No See! This book is a collection of reported work and essays I’ve written over the last seven years about topics as disparate as how a New York Times printer had a job for life for over 50 years, when magazine publishers thought they could replace typesetting with typewriters, how to find and eradicate type lice, and how boilerplate transformed from a literal piece of metal into a metaphor.

The book comes in print and ebook editions (simulated previews)
The book comes in print and ebook editions (simulated previews)

There are over 12 stories in all, including the flagship essay on flong, a printing mold used to cast metal plates that helped speed up print production, leading to newspapers with more pages and more editions, and which was a driving force in comic strip syndication.

For more information, take a look at the campaign page, which

Special Edition of Shift Happens for Sale

Books

Special Edition of Shift Happens for Sale

You might remember that I worked for years with Marcin Wichary on his book set Shift Happens: three volumes, over 1,300 pages, shipped in a slipcase! The edition sold out in early 2024. However, Marcin has given me permission to sell a few unopened copies with unique extras that were offered in the highest tier of the crowdfunding campaign. (Marcin’s kindness in letting me sell these gems stems from my upcoming surgery, the cost of it, and lost income; you can read about that here, in A Heart-to-Heart.)

I have three of these sets, two of which I sold on eBay, one at a time. If you’re interested in the third set, you’re welcome to get in touch. (The third set sold in December.)

Books

Dig into iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 with My New (Beta) Book!

Every year, Take Control Books releases two ebooks early about Apple’s upcoming operating systems, and year is no different!* Joe Kissell’s Take Control of Tahoe (macOS 26) and my Take Control of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 have just shipped! Even though those operating systems are still in beta testing, we know many readers have installed the public betas while others want to know more about what to expect.

Both books are 1.0 versions; at no cost, all buyers get the 1.1 release on the “day and date”—the day when Apple ships the production versions of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 Tahoe in September. (That date isn’t yet known.) You also receive free all future updates to this title, too.

Each book is $9.99, but you can purchase the two together for $14.99—25% off! (Use that link or code

Books

New Edition of Six Centuries Ships

The second edition of Six Centuries of Type & Printing is shipping! This revised edition contains numerous updates from the last few years of my printing research through site visits and primary document reading. Produced by Hemlock Printers in Canada, it’s offset printed (making it far more affordable than the previous letterpress edition), and bound in green cloth with foil stamping on the cover and spine, and a cheery red set of endpapers. The book is 64 pages in print, bundled with an extended ebook that contains a full index, end notes, and bibliography.

I’ve built a separate website with full details, including a sample of the ebook and a chapter of the audiobook. You can order the print/ebook bundle or get the ebook or audiobook by themselves. The audiobook is also available as a discounted add-on when you purchase the bundle or ebook.

Tutivullus is the demon who makes you spell things incorrectly.
Tutivullus is the

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.

Advance Copy of How Comics Are Made

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!

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
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

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.

Cover of How Comics Were Made
Cover of How Comics Were Made

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

Books

Book Him

In the latest in what feels like a surreal sequence of events in my working life, my name appears prominently multiple times in an essay in the just-released issue of the New York Review of Books. The foreword that Michael Chabon wrote for How Comics Were Made was picked up by the NYRB as a standalone essay for its Holiday Issue, which is already online. (You can register at no cost to read a single article.)

I thought the foreword might be rewritten a bit to detach the context from my book. However, the editors made the connection even stronger, with the book’s title appeaing repeatedly! I’m looking forward to snagging a couple of copies in print. The issue shipped to subscribers last week and should appear on newsstands sometime before its Dec. 19, 2024, cover date.