Print

As a mass-produced novel, the printing process for Champion isn't the most interesting.  There isn't strenuous, painstaking work put into it from assembling type to be printed.  The most common method is using a web press, which is a machine that is fed a continuous roll of paper, generating many pages in a seamless stream.  Most machines even include parts that cut and fold the paper, augmenting the binding process greatly.  Essentially, once the book is written and formatted, the only work that much be done is to ensure that the press has the supplies it needs.  Then someone can simply oversee it as the press pumps the books.

Personally, I've never done the type of printing that occurs for bookmaking, though I have done other forms of printing in the Printmaking class that Marshall offers.  I took it my freshman year and here are my favorite products of the course:

The one on the left is a tri-color monoprint of the logo of what I believe was a body jewelry company... But I may be incorrect on that.  I just know it was an image I found in an dvertisement in Alternative Press magazine during the class one day.  I then made an enlarged sketch of the logo and went from there.  The process is pretty simple.  I traced the drawing onto a large piece of glass, then rolled yellow ink onto it.  From there, I removed the ink in the areas that I wanted to remain white.  I then put it through a press so the yellow transferred onto paper.  I repeated the process with red ink, except that time I removed the red in the places where I wanted both the white and yellow to remain solitary.  Then once more with the blue, which I obviously mostly just retained for outlines. This is definitely my favorite piece of the entire semester. 

However, the one on the right was also a lot of fun.  The process was about the same, but I used oil pastels instead of ink and I hand-selected the exact regions I wanted to color instead of having to put the color everywhere and remove it.  This process, however, was more of an experiment, and the resultant image was much lighter than I anticipated. Once of my classmates remarked that it reminded him of the "pictures" people find in food.  Which instigated my addition of the pancake in the picture.  Though that was simply watercolor and involved no printing processes.  

All in all, though, I think monoprinting is a very fun process and I highly recommend trying it if you're ever presented with the opportunity.  You can create some fantastic art with little knowledge or experience, which is very rewarding, as well as very encouraging for further pursuing the art form.  If I get the chance, I'd definitely take another printmaking course.

http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/printing/g/webpress.htm