Comments on: Type specimen printed in author's blood

Type specimen printed in author's blood

joeclark — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:59:30 -0800

Fraktur mon amour: Ruud Linssen's Book of War, Mortification and Love is a collection of "essays on voluntary suffering" that works as a specimen of the Fakir blackletter typeface issued by merry pranksters Underware. Bored already? Well, try this on for size: It's "printed in the author's blood."

By: Drastic

Drastic — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:02:48 -0800

Use a pen, Sideshow Bob.

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:06:57 -0800

This is such a mind jerk, he should've used his sperm instead.

By: jedicus

jedicus — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:09:59 -0800

It's 96 pages and they've made 2000 copies, or 192,000 pages. This Chemical & Engineering News article suggests it takes about 20µL of ink per page. An A5 page isn't the same size as a typical journal or magazine, but we'll call that close enough. That works out to 3.8L or just about a gallon of blood, which is quite a bit more than one person can spare at once. Assuming he parceled it out blood donation style it would take about 17 months to produce that much blood. So that at least theoretically fits within the 2 year production time frame mentioned in the link. Or he cheated and put a token amount of blood in standard printing ink. I know which theory I find more likely.

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:12:58 -0800

Also, at € 24.50, this is surprisingly affordable for a limited, numbered edition, never mind one printed in such an...er...unusual medium. I smell something, and it sure ain't blood.

By: !Jim

!Jim — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:17:44 -0800

Seriously? RHCP? Really? That's the most hardcore music he could find?

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:37:26 -0800

Also, IMHO, obtaining the volume of blood needed would be the least of the printers' worries. To keep the blood from congealing in the machine, I guess that it'd have to be dosed with blood thinners. Then, you'd have the problem of getting it to dry on the paper. Printers' ink has been developed over centuries to dry just right. Finally, after an eventually successful printing run, you'd have to clean up the whole bloody mess. And wait until the Health & Safety people hear about the idea: isn't blood classified as a biohazard?

By: Cookiebastard

Cookiebastard — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:49:04 -0800

I remember when KISS did this same gag for their Marvel Comic.

By: Shepherd

Shepherd — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:53:35 -0800

Marvel Comics´KISS comic was printed with Real KISS Blood, and (conveniently mentioned in the same article) Mark Gruenwald had his ashes mixed into a printing of Squadron Supreme after he passed on.

By: mfoight

mfoight — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:10:23 -0800

There are movies on the making of the book and the ink...

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:55:20 -0800

There are movies on the making of the book and the ink... OK, now I'm impressed. To put it shortly: It isn't actually printed in blood (as I guessed, there are a few technical problems with that), but neither is this a KISS-style "drop of blood in a sea of ink" stunt. The oil-based ink actually uses freeze-dried blood as pigment. That's damn clever.

By: gilrain

gilrain — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:43:39 -0800

This seems like it would be a good investment, even if one were not expressly interested in the project and writing themselves. Isn't this the sort of thing book collectors will pay out for, in a few years? Is it limited, or are they leaving multiple print runs open?

By: Phalene

Phalene — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:39:04 -0800

I wouldn't mind a copy of this, not for the resale value, but because it'll look nice as decorative art as my secret kink themed decor. But yeah, don't buy this if you expect to resell this for more money later. Chances are, it'll end up in a second hand book heap or a landfill, not an auction.