BY: ANDREW COLTRIN

Of all the books available on the ins and outs of silk screening, Microcosm Publishing’s new release Do-It-Yourself Screenprinting by John Isaacson is easily one of the most immediately usable.

In my own experience, I have picked up books on screenprinting several times, only to quickly put them right down again. Many are text heavy, or several decades old. While they obviously contained the pertinent information, I just wanted to make some t-shirts as fast as possible. Impatience being one of my virtues, I resorted to following the rudimentary instructional pamphlet that came with a kit I bought on the internet.

If I’d had John Isaacson’s new “instructional graphic novel” at my disposal, my initial print run might have come out with ten decent prints out of a dozen attempts, rather than six. The first section of Isaacson’s book is very much a comic book accompaniment to that same pamphlet I used. His illustrations show you exactly how to set up your screen, how to hold your squeegee, and how quickly you need to rinse out your screen when you print with acrylic ink. (If only I’d known!) There are also some wonderfully expressive renditions of the narrator reacting to those inevitable moments in the process when things go wrong.

In the second section, Isaacson gives a somewhat fictionalized, but realistic rundown on what it’s like to sell your shirts as a street vendor. It’s based on his experiences hawking his shirts on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley, but could be applicable to any sidewalk sales environment. It begins with our intrepid home entrepreneur explaining to his housemates why freshly printed t-shirts are draped over every piece of furniture, and goes through the process of facing countless empty promises from potential customers who say they’ll ‘be back later.’

The third part of the book, appropriately entitled “Do-It-Together Screenprinting” takes things to a higher level of complexity. Isaacson’s narrator gets a summer job as a pre-press technician at a t-shirt printing shop. The larger print runs handled in the shop require a bit more delegation and coordination to get things done. The process is essentially the same as what our hero executed in the first section, only now there are color separations, industrial strength equipment and mind-altering solvents involved. This section also provides a fascinating glimpse inside a workplace full of people doing something they love (and hoping to sneak in some work on their pet projects while the owner isn’t looking).

Throughout the book Isaacson peppers the narrative with so many useful tips and techniques it makes me want to call in sick to work so I can try them out. Now all I need is some new screens and a photo-emulsion kit and some ink and anything with a surface I can print on.

Visit John Isaacson at his website, UNLAY.

Andrew Coltrin has spent the past three months substitute teaching. When he isn't busy battling wills with 7th graders, he is either working on the next issue of Bony Landmarks, or watching Gilmore Girls DVDs with his family.