"ISBN? No Thanks and Other Notes Before Starting a Publishing House" - A fresh new Public Collectors booklet from Eric Schierloh of Barba de Abejas! Eric drops tons of wisdom in this generous list of thoughts, positions and ideas. Just $6.00 from: halfletterpress.com/isbn-no-than...

My Lexus! (Not actually mine)

Be sure to turn the sound up for this great field recording from Lincoln Park. (OH MY GOD)

A selection of drawings by Dwayne Hollingsworth that I acquired from an auction last month. Many were part of a series called The City that he seems to have envisioned becoming a book. I've been trying to track him down but have had no luck so far. See ALT text for more background and questions.

Chicago! Come hang out with Josh MacPhee and I this Friday, June 12th, 6:30 - 8:30 PM at Walls Turned Sideways to listen to and discuss records of music recorded in Midwestern jails and prisons. FREE! Details in the ALT text.

PUBLISHING ACCOUNTABILITY BLOG: Tomorrow a new Public Collectors booklet is due to arrive from the printer: "ISBN? No Thanks, and Other Notes Before Starting a Publishing House" by Eric Schierloh. I'm also almost ready to start printing the next booklet after that. So, two new publications in June.

Free band name: TEEN TAKEOVER. For extra fun, people could keep start multiple bands with the same name and have them playing in different parts of Chicago on the same night.

The Brooklyn-based group Secret Riso Club makes awesome work. When they wanted to carry some publications by Half Letter Press, we just said, 'why don't we just barter instead, and sell each other's stuff?' So we did! Check out the Signs and Artifacts books: halfletterpress.com/search.php?s...

I saw Backrooms today and I enjoyed it, but let me tell you, the price of popcorn at City Regal North? TERRIFYING!

I always just publish whatever I want and have little sense of what will take off and what won't. This Public Collectors booklet on back views of newspaper file photos had a small run (220 copies) and I think it looks great. It could use more love. Just $9.00. halfletterpress.com/news-photo-b...

For those with institutional access, my Public Collectors publication series Hardcore Architecture has been fully scanned for the RILM Archive of Popular Music Magazines. They did a fantastic job! rapmm.rilm.org/en/pages/col... See also: Hardcorearchitecture.blog

A full hour of footage of Slayer in 1986: practicing Reign in Blood stuff in front of their beer-drinking buds, and nerding out in a cemetery doing an interview. I saw slivers of this on MTV when it aired and now we get the rest. So fun! youtu.be/BpYM0tOa484

This is my new favorite squirrel.

Weird question but I'm trying to track down a person in Los Angeles and I'm not positive that they are still alive. There are so many scammy looking people finding websites. What's the best way to confirm if someone has died in California?

I'm seeing lots of people cheering because Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks berated a couple MAGA losers and told them get the fuck out of his concert. This is great. But a lot of people are still clinging to MAGA losers as friends. What are you doing to tell them to get the fuck out of your life?

With the internet and AI and shit, kids today will never fully understand the joy of the ESL lyrics we got out of Voivod in the mid-1980s: Raise the forceful fist Forge ahead with fun As long as I live I will cross our weapons To heat up the steel It's time for an ovation. youtu.be/IJqF_RjoVeo

We thought the Temporary Services photo booklet "Abandoned Signs" was long out print but Brett found about a hundred more pristine copies in storage. Woohoo! Still $7.00 as usual. halfletterpress.com/abandoned-si...

My tiny chihuahua/dachshund is accepting of a neighbors' recently-adopted gentle giant ex-racing greyhound. Today the greyhound checked out my dog's ass, like they do, and my dog wanted to do the same, but he just looked up at that greyhound ass and saw it was way too high up. I felt bad for him.

It was a truly beautiful day in Chicago and so many neighbors were out walking around with their kids and dogs. I had so many conversations with neighbors. It's really good to see people wanting to know each other. It's never too late to meet someone you've lived around the corner from for 12 years.

Oh fine. Introduce yourself with 10 artists you've seen perform live: James Brown Fushitsusha Laughing Hyenas Crash Worship Metallica (with Cliff Burton) High Rise Sodom Death (the Florida guys, Leprosy tour, 2x) Suicide Michael Jackson

PUBLIC PUBLISHING ACCOUNTABILITY POST (cc @prisonculture.bsky.social): May has been very busy with travel and a visit from my mom, but I'm a short ways away from sending something new to print. It will be ready in early June. I may have two zines in June, or three if I figure something else out.

Chicago! I'll have a half table of Public Collectors photo booklets for sale at this great event. FOTOmercado will be held from 11am to 6pm on Sunday, May 24, 2026 at Chicago Art Department at 1926 S. Halsted Ave in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. I might bring some other collectible goodies as well.

AOC: This is what drinking water in Georgia looks like after Meta began data center construction in the community.

I had to get a tooth extracted today, which was not fun. Before he removed my tooth, I asked the doctor if I could keep it as a souvenir. He seemed startled and said, “No! That’s biomedical waste.” I bet he kept it.

Menards sells 6 Kale seedlings for $2.99 but only about 2 seedlings per carton were healthy so my mom had the idea to stand there and break them apart to get the best set of Kale seedlings and just put the shitty ones in other cartons. Fun times with mom in Chicago!

Last night, after celebrating my father-in-law's 88th birthday with my mom in town, I decided I should still try to see the Finnish metal geniuses Oranssi Pazuzu at Reggies. I called and there were 6 tickets left. I live 8 miles away. I hauled ass, got there, and bought the very last ticket.

A fun self-publishing/distribution thing that happened last weekend is a participant from China brought my work (from Chicago) to the LA Art Book Fair in Los Angeles. Is this practical or efficient? Not really. But is it sweet to have your work show up like this when you aren't there? Sure it is!

Peanut chompin’!

I've added my data and notes from three fairs in the last three weeks, including last weekend's Seattle Art Book Fair. Anyone else up for contributing? I'd love to read about people's experiences in Los Angeles at the LA Art Book Fair and more.

Chicago! AVONDALE! Avondale is one of the few neighborhoods in the city that does not have a Chicago Public Library branch so a petition is going around to push for one. If you live here or nearby, please sign and share! We need this so badly.

Back from the Seattle Art Book Fair, which was great, and finished with travel for a while. Totally wrecked from taking a Red Eye (Red Why?) and really not glad to have been sitting near two people who kept coughing their heads off the whole flight. Hopefully I didn't catch Orange Fantavirus.

Usually I worry more about the white recluse.

Seattle! You're next on my random Spring tour of places (Syracuse! Madison! Ann Arbor! Seattle!). I'll be at the Temporary Services / Half Letter Press table at the Seattle Art Book Fair on May 9th and 10th. I'd love to see you! I'll have Public Collectors stuff too. www.seattleartbookfair.org

When I die in the line of [publishing] duty (hopefully not for a long time), please do not mourn me by wrapping trees all over my neighborhood in colored plastic.

Sound up! New ASMR video just dropped of our dog getting the last bits of peanut butter mixed with antibiotics that we added to stave off a possible tooth infection (it seems fine now, we are just finishing up the dose).

If you know people in NYC, can you please help us to spread the word that Black Zine Fair is on Saturday and that they should register to come? pools.events/event/WFzHwJ... - It's free but donations are always appreciated. We have 4 days to let folks know about it.

Zine, artist book and comix publishers: How about some more additions to the Art Book Fair / Zine Fest Public Sales Transparency form I created so we can all better understand the economics of this stuff? I just added another fair I was part of. Tinyurl.com/artbookfairsales

This weekend I was in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti, last weekend I was in Madison, and the weekend before I was in Syracuse. Next weekend I'll be in Seattle and then I'm done for a while. I have no idea how bands do this shit. It's been fun though! Also I have about 40 mail orders waiting for me.

I made a new Public Collectors postcard! The text is extracted from something I posted here about 6 months ago. The design came to me in a dream (or night of bad sleep). Mail them to friends who need a creative nudge to self-publish. They are 4 for $3.00 from halfletterpress.com/leave-a-reco...

For no particular reason, I'd like to remind you, or tell you for the first time, that "Shatter Your Day" by Flag of Democracy is one of the greatest works of art to be created in Philadelphia or its nearby outlying areas. youtu.be/2JXGDsD1rQo

Michigan! I'll be in Ann Arbor on Saturday and Sunday, May 2-3 for the Paper Paper Art Book Fair. Find me at the Temporary Services / Half Letter Press table with lots of Public Collectors stuff too. 11 AM -5 PM at Cluster on 307 N. Main St. FREE! More info here: www.paperpaperartbookfair.org

I'm still trying to wrap my head and ears around Bill Callahan's discography which is like 30 albums, that I discovered 30 years late. This song is about as achingly beautiful as music can be. youtu.be/1OtGrh9jiR8

I had some time yesterday, and had a partial ream of thrift store yellow cardstock, so this happened. 140 more copies of the original design of "Why Self-Publish Under Fascism?" Lovingly handmade and just $3.00 as before. Purchase link here: halfletterpress.com/why-self-pub...

There is a massive new generation of people discovering the joy of making zines and self-publishing. If some of them make one thing and decide that was all they wanted to make, that's totally cool! But I'm curious about the future lifers and how their work will evolve over many years.

It has taken not just years, but DECADES to develop an audience for the publications I make myself as Public Collectors, or with Temporary Services and Half Letter Press. Sales and distribution would not be as good as they are now without constant and steady work over the long haul.

I try hard to avoid battling with shitty people online, but if I indulge myself, my one rule is that me fighting with them should result in me becoming closer friends with other people who think my oponent sucks, or making new friends with new allies because of the fight. Yesterday I did both.

In my experience, self-publishing only works really well economically if you are willing to connect with your audience, build community and friendships with readers, book stores, other publishers, and distributors, and generally give time and thought to people and not just your writing/publishing.

Postcards! I recently found a hidden box of these LOSERS ATTACK OUR LIBRARIES postcards AND I recently discovered that I accidentally made them invisible in the webstore. Oops! Still 10 postcards for $3.00 plus shipping. No reprint planned so get em while you can. halfletterpress.com/losers-attac...

Zinesters! Publishers! Don't forget to add your stats to the Art Book Fair / Zine Fest Public Sales Transparency spreadsheet. It helps others learn and set expectations for fairs they thinking about participating in. For my part, I just added Madison Print & Resist. tinyurl.com/artbookfairsales

Madison Print & Resist at the Mifflin St. Madison Public Library runs until 4 PM today. Come and get it!