Glog

Glenn Fleishman Interrogates the Past

Cartooning

Cartooning

Snot-Nosed Kid Tries To Teach Cartoonist about Internet in 1994

Back in 1994, the internet had existed in some form for years under different names, but commercial use had just been allowed in 1993, and I started a web hosting company in mid-1994. Because I was snot-nosed kid, however, I liked to write famous people, like Dan Perkins, a.k.a. Tom Tomorrow, who penned one of my favorite alt-weekly strips. He replied politely in February 1994, and wrote back:

> Something you may be interested in on the Internet is this new 
> distribution system for information called World-Wide Web (WWW). It 
> allows the integration of different media: sound (live and stored), video 
> (live and stored), text, graphics, etc. all through one interface. People 
> are using this progam called "Mosaic" (developed by the NCSA: National 
> Center for Supercomputing Applications...why they're doing PC 
> applications? For scientists to use to access supercomputers, apparently) 
> on

Bookselling

Seattle Times Q&A on How Comics Are Made

In advance of the June 3 release date of How Comics Are Made, a new printing of my 2024 book, Rebekah Denn interviewed me for The Seattle Times about how the book came to be and my interests! It’s exciting to appear in the local newspaper. Andrews McMeel Publishing acquired the book last year after I shipped my edition, and as happy as I was with the printing I arranged and oversaw, I am equally squealing over this edition—mine was a softcover with french flaps; the new one is hardcover with a dust jacket and endpapers! Due to advantages of scale, its list price is just $40, which seems very reasonable in today’s market.

To celebrate the book’s availability in stores worldwide, I’m doing a release event at Ada’s Technical Books & Café in Capitol Hill (Seattle) at 6 pm on June 3! If

Bookselling

How Comics Are Made in Bookstores June 3

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

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!

Bookselling

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

My currently active titles.
My currently active titles.

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
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.

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

Bookselling

A Tense Change in My Book

Wait, tense as in the time indicated by the verb—not as in the action! My book How Comics Were Made has been acquired by Andrews McMeel Publishing and will be issued in a second printing, shipping in June 2025. My Kickstarter edition—which remains for sale while copies last—is a laminated softcover with French flaps. The Andrews McMeel retail version will be a hardcover with a dust jacket—a nice contrast. It will also be sold under the name How Comics Are Made with a refreshed cover to which I updated design elements.

The new cover of the “trade” edition, available in bookstores in June 2025
The new cover of the “trade” edition, available in bookstores in June 2025

The new printing will have almost exactly the same content but reach a far broader audience. Among other things, Andrews McMeel has international distribution directly and through partnerships, so if you live outside of North America, you’ll be able to get

Cartooning

Bonus: How Comic Books Were Made

During a conversation recently with former DC Comics president Paul Levitz, he mentioned something I’d never heard of: the World Color Press Day comic book from 1977, published by World Color Press, the biggest comic-book printing firm in the country. The company got permission from the major publishers to include versions of Superman, Archie, Spider-Man, and many others—unheard of!

After finding a low-res incomplete scan online, I purchased an affordable copy off eBay, which I scanned and turned into a PDF you can download here.

The comic shows many aspects of comic-book printing, most of which are identical to comic strips, but with certain optimizations or standards used for the “floppy” comic-book format. As the booklet was distributed to the public in 1977 without the copyright notice required at the time, it is in the public domain.

Books

How Comics Were Made Ships!

It seems like I only started talking about How Comics Were Made a few months ago, but I’ve been thinking about it for years. It coalesced in 2023. I almost leaped into the project then, but was committed to a client’s massive effort, Shift Happens, which needed full attention for months. Crowdfunded in March 2024, How Comics Were Made started shipping today! The huge batch of Kickstarter pledges and pre-orders since then will head out in the world over the next week. You can order a copy right now while they last!

Copies ordered starting today will ship in about a week, and after that will ship within a day or so of order.

I’ve also made available for purchase a special letterpress print that incorporates a Zippy the Pinhead comic in re-created mold (mat or flong) format. This limited-edition item, printed in a quantity of no

Books

How Comics Were Made: Foreword and Forward!

My book How Comics Were Made is off to the printers! I uploaded about five gigabytes of files today and should have proofs shortly. Then it’s off to the races—the press! I chose a nearby printer so that I could go “on press”: being at the printing plant while the book is underway, viewing pages as they come off the press, and approving them when they’re tweaked to perfection. Update, Sept. 22: It goes on press on Sept. 26! Nearly done!

The full cover: french flaps (left and right), back cover (left of center), spine, front cover (right of center)
The full cover: french flaps (left and right), back cover (left of center), spine, front cover (right of center)

I’m also happy to share that Michael Chabon wrote the foreword to my book! He is lifelong lover of comics and comic books, his grandfather was a typesetter, and he enjoys design, typography, and industrial history. A perfect choice! His book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier