Hello Everyone,

Firstly, I hope everyone is safe and taking the necessary precautions to avoid catching Covid-19. Stay safe and protect
everyone with continued vigilance.

Black Hook Press ships its books worldwide to both individuals and bookstores/shops/cinemas/galleries. The beginning of 2020 was our most successful Spring since we started in 2014 with strong direct sales and super strong sales
to bookstores and comic stores, particularly to West coast USA, with a number of new stores picking up and re-ordering titles. 

And then Covid happened and now lots of businesses are suffering, Black Hook Press included.

Our business model relies on fast, reliable, cheap, international airmail being easily available.
Japan Post is the only service that can offer these things and specifically to publishers (the service is called PRINTED MATTER post and it is immeasurably cheaper than all other services.)

For the last 6 months (since Covid) Japan Post's Printed Matter Service, and also its other international services, have been in constant turmoil. Restrictions and rules have changed on a weekly (and sometimes daily) basis. 
Added to this is the limited amount of air traffic to and from Japan, the increased amount of parcels being delivered internationally, and the time required to send international mail increasing.

Due to these things out of our control Black Hook Press has seen a big increase in returns after shipping, a great number of missing parcels (lost/stolen), insurance claims, and frustrated customers wanting books but not being able to get them, especially in the Americas and other countries with high rates of infection. These things have badly affected Black Hook Press, they have been both financially crippling and time consuming. And as many of you know, time and money don't grow on trees.

While things have been improving (and then again not) I am not sure when the situation will get back to normal but I know that until the turmoil subsides I can't continue to lose money and time as I have done these last few month. I also don't like the continued uncertainty of books not reaching their readers. These uncertainties have made me very anxious and very unhappy these last few months.

With this in mind I am beginning to go through past orders and contact purchasers to find out those that have had issues
 with shipments. I've been  giving full refunds to lost in transits. I am also going to put a hold on all sales until things are back to normal.  I am so sorry if you've contacted me about a shipping issue and my response has been tardy, I'm sorry,  the whole thing has been a complete BALL-ACHE, GODDAMMIT!

Thank you for supporting Indie Publishers and please stay safe!

James,
Black Hook Press

BLAB! #4 Summer 1989. Published by Kitchen Sink Press Inc. Copyright ©1989 Monte Beauchamp. Illustrations copyright ©1989 Daniel Clowes.  
Editor: Monte Beauchamp

​Click the image to go to the interview....

Below are my photographs of this show (which was awesome!) Feel free to use my photographs but please credit Black Hook Press!

Bit of a Maruo festival coming up next month. Bunch of fringe artists, musicians,fashion creators, speakers etc. coming together for a 3-day event. 800 yen admission fee.Big evening session on the 7th May with the director of the the Maruo movie (Torico) and others giving a talk. More info' below. See you there!

Tokyo Art Book Fair had a hiatus last year but it's back for 2019 and with a new date (July 12-15th) , new venue (Museum of Contemporary Art) , and a new pre-book fair fringe/pop edition at Sony Ginza from March 8th to April 14th.  (Here's my review from the show in 2017).

The pop up subterranean venue is ace. It took me about an hour to realize the Ginza edition sits on the site formerly used by the concept store The Parking . The venue is spacious, airy, and in a really good center of Tokyo location. I would do a festival here.

The pop-up consists of week-long artist exhibitions, a permanent Zine's Mate Shop, Live music, and exhibitor booths (weekends only). There are about 30 exhibitor booths over 2 of the floors  and they are open from 12pm to 8pm (!) on  Saturdays and Sundays. The exhibitors are different each week.

I had a good walk around the fringe show and I like this format (in this venue). I am looking forward to the big Tokyo Art Book Fair in July and hope it gets back some of the vibe and groove it had when it was located at Kyoto University of Art & Design at Gaien Campus.

Tokyo Art Book Fair 10th Edition 10th Edition Jul 12-15 2019 at Museum of Contempory Art Tokyo - https://tokyoartbookfair.com/en/

Ginza Edition on until the 14th April !

Beams Japan X Bonten Taro Gekiga Works Collaboration- exhibition, books, and goods at Beams Japan Flagship store , Culture art, 4th floor, Shinjuku 18th - 30th January 2019 - Release launch of BADASS BABE! book by BHP.
I was invited to talk this evening about Bonten and why I publish him by Kunisawa-san (Bonten Gekiga Works) at Beams Japan, Shinjuku, but I have influenza. DOH. Ryan Holmberg (@mangaberg ) will be talking for #blackhookpress instead (thank you Ryan). He helped edit this book for which I'm truly grateful I'm gutted I can't do the talk but happy that Badass Babe! Public release is at Beams Japan, thank you Kunisawa-san. If you've already ordered this it's on its way to you. If you haven't ordered this already then be quick and you might get one of last signed (hanko'd) copies left in the store. Limited. Thank you Udagawa-san, Kato-san, Asakawa-san, Shinjiro-san, taiyo-shuppan , printpac, Feargal South, Alex Einz, Lelezard noir, and all you lot for your continued support!

Go see this show at Beams Japan, its pretty awesome.

 , 
Beams is a monolith in terms of Japanese mainstream curation fashion and Beams Japan is it's flagship store.  If you are visiting Japan and are a shopaholic then you'll probably end up in here at some point, you'll most likely end up marvelling at what can be purchased at this branch.It's cool. It's a temple of modern consumerism. It's not so cool that your mum will be confused. They have their fingers in lots of pies an are good at shining a light on, and guiding consumers towards understanding the Japanese consumer landscape. Sorry, I still have influenza so this write up is a little out there. Here's
 a map below to the location and here's a link to a better article here,
​"Shinjuku “BEAMS Japan”: The Best Shop For Made-in Japan Souvenirs! (Inside the Store)''