So I've almost completed the art for Apartness, the book I'm making. And so I'm starting to try to figure out how I want the book to be laid out, what size it should be, the physical qualities of the thing.
Today I printed out the first eleven pages at home on the ol' LaserJet, because there's nothing quite like seeing something in person.
One thing I learned is that standard 8.5"x11" letter sized paper is actually a very good size and format for this work. My largest art is 14"x10" (standard proportions for half-page Sunday funnies) and this reduces well to 8.5"x11". Moreover, the 13"x4" daily strips look good on a letter-sized page as well. This is all good news: since 8.5"x11" is a very common size, it should make my first foray into book making a bit easier.
The other thing I leaned is that making books is frustrating and time consuming but SO COOL! It's extremely gratifying to finally see this thing that I've been poring over for months come alive in print form. Until now it's all been in my head. But now I have a much better idea of what it will look like, and that has energized me to get this thing done.