Beastly Distractions

This week we've pulled out the drawers of lovely 18-pt Perpetua, cast by Dan Jones a dozen yeas ago, for a quick distraction with Jim Westergard.

Last year Jim created 11 engravings to illustrate a book by Jon Evans, titled Beasts of New York. The book, which will be published by The Porcupine's Quill this spring, is a parable about a Central Park squirrel coping with various evil events and forces, all in animal form. While the engravings will be reproduced offset in the book, Jim printed each of the blocks in an edition of 25 copies. Seeing them posted on his site last fall, HM suggested he consider issuing some portion of the edition as complete suites, an idea he liked well enough. (He did something similar with his series Wee Beasties, in the early 1990s.) So, before Oddballs takes over the press for a few months, this week we're printing a title page, descriptive colophon (setting copy & design shown above), and paper chemise for a total of 10 sets (numbers 16-25 from the edition) of Beasts of New York. Each set will also include an original drawing by Jim, a sketch for one of the beasts.

Each suite will be wrapped in the printed paper chemise, and put into a custom slipcase. They will be available for purchase directly through Jim's Web site (but HM will post purchasing details when they are finalized, in a week or two).