Week 4 Study Questions

I was not present in the class this week due to illness. Seems like I am always getting ill these days, but that is not relevant. I have been looking over some of the study activities for this week and the thing that looks most interesting to me this week is the bookmaking interlude. Very intrigued by the prospect of the pamphlet stitch. However I think this was looked at in class this week. Damn being sick!!But anyways moving on. I had a look at what a block book is, and the advantages and disadvantages of the block book.

A block book is a book where each double page opening was printed from a single block of wood. The advantages to this process were the fact that it was possible to integrate text in a way that was not available in other forms of printing. Also once a series of blocks were created books could be printed to order until such times as the blocks deteriorated. However there were some disadvantages to Block printing. The process of cutting the blocks was time consuming and therefore expensive, with a separate block being required for every page. It was also difficult to cut even and well aligned text.

I was quite interested by the prospect of the Block Book having some impact on the introduction of the comic book. However when I actually compared the two I came to the conclusion that even though there may be people that think that the Block Book was the precedent for the comic book, only the layout is similar between the two mediums. Maybe the idea of the layout did come from the Block Book, however the idea of the sequential narrative can be related to other artistic objects from later in history.

Skimmed over some of the other study guides as well, and I had a look at Printing with Movable type. Some of the elements that were needed for print technology to be adopted were that there needed to be type, a press and a large assortment of other elements. I found it interesting looking over the steps that are undertaken to create a printed book. I didn’t realize until now how much effort really had to be put into creating a printed book. There was the composition, imposition, and the binding just to name a few. Amazing to think how little effort there is in bookmaking now, save for the artists books and whatnot. Truly interesting.