Title: Phooka!
[$20 (out of stock — but I could make you one by special request) ] “Phooka” was an amazing zeen that came out years ago in several issues. One really caught my eye (but they all were pretty sweet). I wanted to try my hand at making an art edition of a book. So I got permission from the clever Clint Marsh of Wonderella Printed (https://wonderella.org) and made a small pile of nifty art books based on an issue of “Phooka.”
What’s “Phooka”?
Why, it’s the Journal of the Overland Mallet Club. “Founded in 1891, the OMC sought out members who shared three very distinct interests: overland croquet, hard liquor, and the natural history of the Fairy Kingdom. Overland croquet is an odd combination of the traditional game and other sporting endeavors like polo, rugby, and small game hunting.”
This is clever writing in the vein of Stephen Potter’s dry take on British sportsmanship (promoted elsewhere in OYB, and nowhere else).
To me it forms something that could resemble the backbone of the true culture behind golf. Overland croquet…just think of it. I think of Scottish golf the way it used to be played, the way it should be played. Head off over hill and dale on a devilishly crafted course, armed only with a map of all the wickets and your wits, your tools, your pack and supplies to last the journey.
My dad plays a lot of golf so this is my effort to show that I appreciate the heart of his sport.
I think of this issue of “Phooka” as a high-level contribution to the art of golf.
And not even in a roundabout way. OK, maybe in a roundabout way. But roundabout is what it’s all about, in a way.
It has the true outdoor game spirit.
It’s also about camaraderie and the club lodge.
This issue has a goodly dose of winter content, too—along with a passle of hot drink recipes, by the by.
Here’s a little dose of what’s in store. The booklet starts…
When winter’s chill begins to creep around the glens and crags of Wales, the country King Arthur once called home, it is time for me to fulfill one of my more pleasurable duties as chapter president—the maintenance of the Monmouthshire Lodge. Here I play host to hearty club members who spend the coldest days of the year diligently working at the true sport of croquet. There are beds and facilities to house a dozen players, but most men aren’t able to stay long, so I often find myself alone at the lodge. It’s a good time to work on writing and other projects I’ve put off…
One of the main tales, told by another character, starts this way:
Once I played me the course of Jenkins Stoat. He’s a madman of some repute what set up a course across the whole of this county, except you plays it all by your lonesome, with no one but you and the Lord keepin’ score. Anyhow, Stoat gave me this map he made of the course— you know it’s an armful just this map, and probably isn’t right anyway, seeing as how he’s mad—and he said, “You go out and do it, Dwight, cause you’re the best man I ever seen playing our particular breed of croquet.” So I said, “Sure I’ll play it, but what if I don’t come back? There’s some pieces of land here what don’t look healthy, they look like the kind of spots a man could go into and never come out!” “Oh sure you can,” said the old fool, “I’ve got my man out there watchin’ everyone what plays this secret course of mine, and he keeps you in one piece as much as he keeps you straight.” Well, I never heard of such a thing, but seeing how I was young and a sort of apprentice madman to this Stoat and hadn’t anything better to do with myself that winter I went ahead and did it.
Being as cold as it was I had to take lots of extra blankets and camping stuff onto the trail with me. […] Well I took off the next morning, wavin’ back at the lodge and the rest of me boys laughing at me somethin’ fierce. “See you in hell, Dwight!” shouted Stoat, but I just doffed me cap and went straight for hoop number one, just down the first bank in the forest.
Each little booklet is about 50 pages long, about 5″x6″ in size. I made them up out of several fancy kinds of paper. The green covers are hand-made paper. Liner pages are marbled blue (used on the cover of a couple copies). Interior paper is stout, flecked cotton.
I only made 7 of these. They took a couple hours each to put together (and many more hours to select materials, scan and lay out the book). Whew. If people like them I might make a few more.
I learned about book-making from the following websites. It really isn’t tough. That said, these art editions don’t look like Taschen produced them. They’re DIY, zeenish, but extra-nice. But not perfect.
To make your own books, if you’re computer-based you need software that will bookletize your text layouts. Then you need a papercutter and some flexible glue. Then a few heavy books to clamp your project will do the trick. Some clamps can help. If you’re doing thicker paperbacks and more of them then a simple press with guide-boards for keeping things aligned would be good. A special paper guillotine would also be sweet to have (stack cutter, $200).
nomediakings.org/doityourself/doityourself_book_press.html
www.andrewseltz.com/2006/05/26/do-it-yourself-book-binding
www.hamishmacdonald.com/blog/?p=151#comment-1483
www.persistenceunlimited.com/2006/03/fun-and-easy-how-to-guide-to-
binding-your-own-paperback-books-at-homefast/
