SURPLUS MAXIMUS...

by Erkuden Sakana, Company Secretary;

"Fatty Jim's Been Working Out"

The countdown to launch has officially begun. With Post No Bilge slated for next week and the Company's departure less than a week later, the Misanthrope Specialty Co. is busily whipping itself into shape. This summer once again promises to be a long and arduous one, full of marathon drives, long nights, road food rotgut and waking up in cornfields.

Noses are being pressed ever further into grindstones in the effort to produce enough merchandise for the next four months.

* * *

Finally, as editing for Hell Hogs Eat Shit and Die winds down to mere tweeking and fine tuning, it dawned on the Company only last week there is an impressive amount of leftover footage. Nearly thirty hours's worth, to be more specific.

How many more films can be picked up off the cuttingroom floor?

Admittedly, the entire Company had its blinders on. With everyone so singularly focused on the production at hand, nobody stopped to consider the whopping surplus of shot footage, much less its implications. Now the Misanthrope Specialty Co. finds itself sitting on a treasure trove of potential 16mm movies already half made. It's a giddy development to say the least.

With a lengthy tour just around the corner, preparations for Post No Bilge and Hell Hogs not quite polished, now is perhaps not the moment to embark on any more film projects. Rest assured, however, that informal schemes are already being hatched. In the meantime, every loose end of film is being diligently catalogued, archived and stowed safely in Bunker vaults until the Company has time to discuss what is to be done with them in the fall.

* * *

EASTER PROMISES...

by Heywood McGillicuddy, Chairman;

Easter dinner, as prepared by Tallulah
(Illustration by the Misanthrope Specialty Co.)

Although it was officially a long holiday week-end around these parts, the members of the Misanthrope Specialty Co. does not take Easter Sunday off. Instead, the Company marked the occasion by convening at the Clubhouse for a little afternoon croquet, followed by an exquisite meal of wine-broiled rabbit with hand-painted eggs before getting down to the business at hand.

* * *

Most of Sunday's drawing session was spent on work for the Company's exciting new bedfellow, letterpress visionaries, Trip Print Press.

Where the magic happens.
(photo courtesy of Trip Print Press)

Proprietor and head compositor Nicholas Kennedy is a master of hand-set type. The Company has long admired the eschewing of typographic trends, his encyclopedic knowledge of antiquated heavy machinery and his distinctly solvent-based scent. Nobody combines salvaged typeface, tint blocks and engravings into
contemporary design the way Mr. Kennedy can. In the small bubble that is letterpress nerdom, he is a punk rock star.

One of the Company's contribution to The Trip Print Press' arsenal of custom stock images.

Now he has enlisted the Company's help in the creation of an exclusive catalogue of custom stock images. A welcome alternative to exhausted clip art and vintage illustration, the Company is creating a fresh pool of contemporary images to compliment an arcane artform. And only Trip Print Press has the goods.

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