For one of our first Risograph publications, we were excited to work with long time collaborator Sarah Welch. Endless Monsoon represents a transition in Welch’s writing from pure autobiographical works to original narratives that swing between total invention and real life events. Monsoon takes place in an embellished version of Houston, and chronicles episodes of isolation and adaptation in the face of constant change. This part alt comic, part artist zine features lush illustration and documentation-style photography set to a syrupy pacing.
Envisioned originally as an open-ended series, we are planning to continue this storyline until its natural conclusion, with approximately one volume released per year. Long live these young swamp residents.
For the printing, we began with a paper dummy to estimate the amount of margin creep that this 52 page book would exhibit– with book work, we always recommend trying to construct a dummy or mock of your project. If this step is skipped, it’s far too easy to end up with page layouts that fall off-center or too close to the margins once bindery work is completed. But from there, Sarah took her original water-color and inked page compositions and scanned them in to create a master file for the entire book. Along the way, we had to separate the green and black elements to prepare for this 2-color book, which is something that really helped to make the book a little more special than your standard black and white zine– not to mention that with Riso printing, we were able to add a splash of selective color at a price per sheet that was less than color xerox work.
Produced with an 80# Cover on French Paper’s Smart White, and innards produced on French Paper’s 70# Text Dur-O-Tone Newsprint White. Final book measures 8″ x 5.5″, and was entirely printed, bound, and green stapled by Mystic Multiples.