Look, Ma, I’m making porn!

…um – tasteful, classy, sex-positive, feminist and respectful porn. That I’m not in. That makes it PC, right?

Get ready for some really elegant smut:

I’ve finally started printing and binding these little beauties! I’m doing a limited printing of 100, they measure 5.25×8.25in (13.3x21cm), and are done on 24lb recycled ivory parchment paper. 34 pages, including a handmade paper end sheet.

During the most recent trip to a local paper shop, I found this AMAZING matte black paper: I wish I knew what it were called – it’s smooth, pitch-black and …. rubbery? Kind of smooth like that. I turned it into protective casings for the books by simply folding, cutting holes, and corseting up the back with red embroidery thread, the same thread used to bind the books.

So yesterday, at the copy shop, I sat down at one of the self-serve computer/printer stations, arranged and collated my sheets according to whether they’d be printed in black/white or color, and happily plodded away on my own for about half an hour (for just the first 10 copies). Afterwards, after asking the sales associate for a receipt, he balked a little at the quantity of printing I’d done and asked what on earth I was doing. “Making books,” I said, proudly.

“We can do that for you. It’d save you a lot of time, and a little money – just bring it in in one file next time and you can just drop it off and pick it up later!”

Of course I imagined that was the case, but even I am a little too shy to let someone else print these. Also, I enjoy being able to handle the printing myself. I then went over to their slide-cutter (3 pages at a time – MAX!) to cut and trim all the sheets. After about half an hour of this, said associate comes over, amused, saying that, you know, we could cut that for you for, like, six bucks. “No, you don’t understand – this is what I do for fun,” silly.

So, at Daniel Smith the other day, upon checkout, the super-friendly and helpful sales guy tried to sell me on a rewards card: “Are you a student?”

“Nope”

“part-time?”

“Nuh uh”

“…Teacher?”

“Uh, no”

“On an arts committee?”

“No, uh, maybe I should be.”

Man, I feel like such a slacker. It’s kind of irking that you can’t get discounts when you’re simply an artist. And also weird to no longer technically fall into the “student” category.

I’m so happy with how the print job came out! It’s glossy and saturated.

(photo of the print job)

These books are available in the etsy shop. 🙂 You know you want one.

Virgin Project Vol. 2 Release! (and an excellent weekend)

Nick and I spent the weekend in Seattle to celebrate the fresh-off-the-press release of the Virgin Project Vol. 2!! Get yours here: Virgin Project 2!

Kevin and Grace threw an awesome book release party full of friends, family, Caribbean food and free-flowing wine. I got to meet some great people including Donna Barr, creator of the Desert Peach series, who wrote a wonderful review of the book here.

Kevin and I hosted a workshop at the Seattle Erotic Art Festival on Saturday, talked about the processes of story-collecting, editing, publication, and the social implications.

Later that evening we attended the Cartoonist’s Northwest Toonie Award Banquet.

“Authors KD Boze and Stasia Kato were honored to be recognized as Cartoonists of the Year for The Virgin Project at the annual awards ceremony of Cartoonists Northwest on May 1. They shared the Golden Toonie Award with Mark Monlux of Stick Man and Comic Critic fame . The Virgin Project also was named the Graphic Novel of the Year. And KD Boze also received the 2009 Best of the Northwest Award for individual cartoons. Thanks to all of our CNW friends!”

2010 Creative World of Design

My design has been included in the 2010 Creative World of Design Competition special edition of the Korean magazine <Design>!

(Mine in the lower right)