July Update

Hi everyone,

I have been pretty quiet recently – my apologies for that! Mostly, I have been extremely busy with the binding of Frozen Hell for Arete Editions, but there have been a few other things too. 

The Numbered editions of Frozen Hell are out in the world now and the Roman editions are progressing. The Roman copies are massive and, with them being all white, I have to be super, super careful with them during production. This makes the binding process extremely slow going. Here’s a couple of photos of some Numbered copies and some of the illustrations. The fold-out paintings in these books are absolutely amazing and huge (artwork by Greg Manchess who did our Dorian Gray and Wizard of Oz). It seems like a bit of an understatement to say that a lot of work went into the creation of these book blocks. The way that all of the images are tabbed in has been extremely time consuming but has, I think, meant that we have created something quite special and quite different.

After Frozen Hell, the binding of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for Arete Editions will begin. This is a much more straightforward binding job and so it shouldn’t take too long at all in comparison!

Simultaneously, I have been designing and prototyping Brave New World, also for Arete Editions. This has been a wonderful experience as it has meant that I have been able to collaborate and work alongside the British Pop Artist, Allen Jones (RA). A long time ago, as a young fine art student, I would never have believed something like this could happen! Quite the honour. Allen has provided a huge number of paintings and drawings for this edition, many of them very bright and colourful, and it has been my job to try and create bindings that work in harmony. This will be a very cool book and one that is EXTREMELY rich with artwork. Please sign up to the Arete mailing list or give them a follow on social media if you are interested in this title. I believe they will be releasing details about it fairly soon. As always, please direct any questions about it to them and not to me. I am the binder and designer of this one, not the publisher.

I have also been prototyping and designing the editions of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. This is the next title to come from Lyra’s (Press). I will be sharing some of Gary Gianni’s wonderful artwork for that in the not-so-distant future, but here is a small snippet. The plan is to do the pre-order for this title towards the end of the year, probably October. There will be three editions for this one – Lettered, Numbered and Standard.

As far as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz goes – we are still on track to deliver this by the end of the year so don’t worry about that. We will begin the binding fairly soon and I will then start to share photos and videos of some of the processes involved once we get going. We are just waiting for the last of the printing and the rest of the materials to arrive and then we can start. Freya has already finished making all of the marbled paper so unfortunately there will be no video for that this time!

Below, you can see some of the colour proofs for Oz printed by Hurtwood. They look fantastic! Also, a few of the original sketches drawn by Greg for the lettered editions. 

I will also take this opportunity to announce our next Lyra’s Classics title. We have experienced some delays with The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, so we have pushed another title forward. This will be Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, illustrated by Abigail Larson. Carmilla is a seminal work of Gothic literature and vampire fiction, pre-dating Dracula by 25 years and serving as a foundational work for many later vampire stories. It was quite a daring book for its time, exploring female sexuality and making seduction and the erotic tension between the two main female characters a central element of the story. This novella was an influence on other authors like Henry James, as well as Bram Stoker and has had a lasting impact on modern vampire literature and media.  

Abigail Larson is an American illustrator, known for her mixed media artworks in the dark fantasy genre. She works primarily with pencil, ink, watercolour, and Photoshop, creating unique illustrations inspired by fairy tales, folklore and ghost stories. She has illustrated for several major publishing and production companies, including DC, Dark Horse Comics, Netflix Animation and Disney Books. She won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist in 2016. Below is an example of her work. This is not for Carmilla but it would most certainly fit!

So, in brief, there’s lots to do as always! I will share more details on The Alchemist and Carmilla in due course. We need to get Oz wrapped up first and I can’t wait to get that one into people’s hands! The Lost World is a bit of an ongoing saga so it’s entirely possible that there will be another Classics title before it. We will have to see what happens, but it is coming at some point!

In other news – we are expecting a visit from our pal Tony Geer of Conversation Tree Press in a few weeks so I’m very much looking forward to finally meeting after all this time! I foresee beers and book talk galore. Please check out his website if you’re not familiar with his work. Tony publishes beautiful books, all of which are bound here at our bindery in Ludlow.

I hope you’re all doing well!

Cheers,

Rich @ Lyra’s Books