THE DAILY MONSTER® TAKES OVER THE SF CHRONICLE AND CHICAGO TRIBUNE

For one day. On one page. As part of McSweeney’s THE GOODS. But the headline was already too long to hold additional nuance. Be with me here.

Good evening. As you may remember from last week’s HEADS UP post, the good people at McSweney’s honored me by including one of my little Daily Monster fancies in their excellent, illustrated newspaper adventure, THE GOODS. Particularly, it was the good people Mac Barnett, creator of the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, who  invited me. He edits THE GOODS. You should call the features editor of your local paper to request it by name.

Well… I finally have my printed samples and can share some images with you. First off, here’s the full piece, also featuring AWWWW CRUMB-STEAK! by Shawn Harris, HERO MILK by Eric Wolfinger & Mac Barnett, and a spelling game by Brian McMullen. As always, please feel free to click on the image for a bigger view.

Obviouslty, I’m a big fan of high end printing, but there is something so excellent about getting art on newsprint. I got my start making ads for a smalltown paper back in the Old Country. I’d put the second color on hand-registered tracing paper, with hand-registered trapping to match. Back then 4-color newspaper printing was nothing more than an insane glimmer in Arthur Sulzberger’s brain. Those were rough days, kids! The reason I’m telling you all this is to explain why I will now geek out about the excellent printing on this piece. Ready? Here we go.

The printing on this piece is fantastic! Particularly in the Chronicle edition. Look how beautifully the details came out!

Here’s a close-up look at the legal copy. My Monster triangle is one big image file, so that’s a bit of plate-by-plate nerdery, to counteract Photoshop’s default of making all black a 4-color mix even when you type in 0.0.0.100. (Silly application, don’t you know that that won’t work for type on paper?)

Look at the precision on those pinstripes and those shoes!

Oh, I’m sorry… is that not impressive to you? Let me try again. How about now?

And at the risk of starting an West Coast vs. Lake Michigan Coast print battle, look at the Chicago edition (left) compared to the San Francisco edition (right):

Whaddup, Chicago? Gust of wind knock your plates out of alignment? … Come on. You know I’m just yankin’ your chain… Your weak-on-the-magenta, out-of-register chain. Ha! (Let’s make peace when I come to town for the Society of Typographic Arts in August.)

For now, let me close by giving you one more full view of this latest out-of-town Monster, by saying “Thank you, McSweeney’s!” and by reminding you once again that 344 LOVES YOU