I’m a morning person. That’s why I didn’t mind waking up even earlier than usual to get some shots for the upcoming issue of Block Club. Silo City and Allentown are beautiful places to visit when the sun is just coming up.

- Steve

Writer, illustrator, collagist, and all-around witty contributor Margaret Finan pulled out all the stops for her Brief Encounters column in Issue 31: Quality/Quantity.

Finan’s take on the theme brings us to the world of magazines (a familiar territory here), specifically the feminist/post-feminist/post-post-feminist/pre-post-feminist/pre-pre-post-feme-yougettheidea genre.

Hey Girl magazine is her ode to all the editors and writers, most of whom are professional, pre-millennial women, who are getting feminism wrong in their female-empowered publications. She uses flippant language that imposes a routine belittlement and self-degradation on readers who are looking for everything from makeup tips to workplace ambition to dating tutorials. Her headlines work beautifully, not only for laughs but for the truth in their editors’ ignorance. You’ll wonder if these headlines are jokes or not.

Finan’s collage work is also telling, hitting a perfect note on the ongoing (and likely always-to-be ongoing) Photoshop debate. Why even use real models, one could ask, if photos of real women are going to be distorted to the point of disbelief. The quality of body image is subjective, of course, but you wouldn’t know that based on how the ideal is being sold to the masses.

Pictured above are five of Finan’s drafts for what ultimately made it to the page. Each one captures elements on this dialogue in entertaining and intellectual ways. Great work, Margaret!

-Ben

I have not worked with ink in quite some time. I picked it back up over the holidays while working on some beer coasters for a friend. So I decided for Issue 31 of the magazine I was going to switch it up and use that medium for my illustrations.

Sketching and brushes and ink and scanners and photoshop.

Love the process.

-Tim

We recently began working with Max Collins, the talented photographer who’s been raising eyebrows with his wheat pastings around town. (Sit at Pano’s and just try to defy those glaring eyes across the street.)

Max’s work will be featured in our Conversationalists column, the subject of which for this issue is artist Adam Weekley, who discusses art that makes him uncomfortable.

Max submitted three concepts, each of which brought to light a different facet of Adam’s thoughts on discomfort and creation. We made our choice because of Adam’s particular physical discomfort, manifested in his necktie fidgeting.

We’re excited to see where Max takes this portrait in future Conversationalists features. Stay tuned for more inside BCM30: Comfort.

-Ben

BCM30 is out and about! The topic of our 30th issue is a big one. It discusses the emotion of comfort; the need to use it joyously and warmly, but also judiciously and responsibly. On the other side of our most comfortable comforts are crutches, awaiting our need for more.

We approach this in a civic sense to understand that we can’t grow as a people, community, city or region without stepping outside of our comforts. That said, we all have relative needs for comfort; some need it to live, and some “need” it to be “happy.” Navigating both ends of this word helps us to prioritize the things we should keep holding onto, and the things we need to let go of.

However you come to the word, find yourself a copy soon (if not at one of our distribution points around town, then online), curl up in that sweet blanket you’ve been hibernating in all season, and find what makes you comfortable. Take account of your crutches, while you’re at it.

This issue’s photo series and covers reflect the origin of our attachment to such things. Surely, you’ll recognize a keepsake from your past (or present).

Stay tuned for more posts in the coming weeks featuring elements from our conversations, stories and design. There’s more comfort coming your way…

Best,

Ben

Here is the series we shot for the covers and pause pages of Issue 28.

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Old/New

The pristine cake is cut up, consumed, discarded. 
Candles are lit, wished upon, extinguished.

It was satisfying, but now it’s too much. The second, third bites make you smile, but by then you’ve tasted it all. The frosting begins to harden; there are crumbs all over the floor. It’s time for some water and bed.

Just like that, the new has become old.
And another year begins.

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The issue’s debut just happened to coincide with our fifth birthday. Cake anyone?

-Brandon

BCM29 cover shoot. Get ready, October.

-Ben