The Art of Japanese Paper Theater / Nod Away

Issue No. 118

BEFORE ANIME, JAPANESE PAPER THEATER ENTERTAINED 1-MILLION KIDS A DAY

Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater
by Eric P. Nash
Abrams ComicArts
2009, 304 pages, 8.6 x 9.2 x 1.1 inches

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Manga Kamishibai tells and shows the fascinating history of Japanese paper theater, a lost storytelling form and the link between Edo-era Japanese ukiyo-e prints and modern day manga and television. I say “and shows” because this art form combined the spoken word with compelling visuals in uniquely Japanese storytelling performances and this book is rich with many wonderful reproductions of the hand-painted artwork.

Picture this: In devastated post-WWII Tokyo, a man stops his bicycle on a street corner. On the back of his bike is mounted a large, sixty-pound wooden box. The man flips a few panels around to reveal a stage-like picture frame. He noisily clacks together two wooden sticks, hiyogoshi, to call the neighborhood children. As they gather to see and hear the free show, the man sells them home-made penny candies, including a not-too-sweet taffy that’s pulled and stretched using a chopstick (like today’s movie business, the real money is in the profitable concessions!). The paying customers get a front row seat to the performance. The man slides a sequence of large, colorful panels in the frame “screen” as he tells adventure stories, quizzes the audience, and weaves tales of suspense, all with character voices and sound effects. As the story ends on a dramatic, to-be-continued cliff-hanger, the man packs up his two-wheel theater and pedals away … until next time. They are all but vanished now, but these performances date back to the 1930s when 2,500 kamishibaiya in Tokyo alone entertained 1 million kids a day.

Any fan of manga, anime, as well as comics in general will devour this book. The reproductions of the lurid images of action heroes, monsters, villains, and damsels in distress in the stories embody a potent mix of influences: Japanese ink brush work, movie posters, silent film and cinematic design, and plenty of Western references. The army of artists that painted these panels freely borrowed from many genres, from Betty Boop to folk tales. In turn, kamishibai set the stage for the manga and anime that took its place (many of the same artists moved along with them). As the advent of television made these live street performances obsolete (television was first called denki kamishibai, or “electric paper theater”), the artists lifted from popular TV shows for their dying art form. Holy copy-cat, Batman!

You’ll enjoy the witty captions, wide–ranging historical references and the clever writing style. This book also shows and tells how kamishibai was used to disseminate news, spread propaganda, illustrate war survival techniques, and fight prejudices. In a parallel to the congressional hearings and criticism by Wertham of the U.S. comic makers, kamishibai also was investigated and regulated. You’ll read (and see) other interesting facts, like the technological and historical reason why comics have always been an important media form in Japan. (Hint: what if your language doesn’t suit itself to using Gutenberg’s movable type?). Manga Kamishibai is a real treat for any fan of Japanese pop culture (candy not included). – Bob Knetzger

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TWO SCI-FI TALES RUNNING SIMULTANEOUSLY LAUNCH A NEW 7-VOLUME SERIES

Nod Away
by Joshua Cotter
Fantagraphics
2016, 240 pages, 7.8 x 10.2 x 0.8 inches

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Sometimes the most abstruse and esoteric dilemmas are best considered in the abstract, as if by not directly looking at things somehow makes them more clear. Zen masters speak in koans, Nietzsche wrote in aphorisms, and poets immerse themselves in metaphors, all of them trying to communicate things in a manner that steps outside of the constraints of language. So it is with Joshua W. Cotter’s new book from Fantagraphics Books, Nod Away.

Nod Away is the first of what Cotter promises to be a seven-volume series. Ostensibly this first volume is a sci-fi story that circles around issues such as the human desire for exploration and connection, the power structure inherent in gender politics, and the gray area created in the intersection between science and morality, but, as the book unfolds, the reader feels there is something more complicated occurring in the periphery. Cotter is exploring profound questions of consciousness itself by creating a story that asks them indirectly.

Densely detailed and tightly packed, Cotter’s pages pull and push the classic nine-panel grid layout, opening up or staying regimented as the emotional beat demands. His layouts control the reader’s experience explicitly and play with expectations in order to keep things just off balance enough to force engagement and demand active reading. Just when things start to coalesce, though, Cotter blows them apart.

Two stories run simultaneously in Nod Away. The first, tight and traditionally told in the sci-fi/horror genre, posits strong statements and allows for gradual character reveals. It is in the secondary tale, though, one of a damaged man traversing a desolate environment, that Cotter enlarges his art and permeates it with surrealistic and totemic imagery that presses the reader to observe and to pause and to ponder.

Nod Away stands at the verge of a much longer journey, reassuringly beckoning the reader to follow and promising something incredible to be discovered at its end. – Daniel Elkin

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Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

05/19/26

Book Making

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 190

Best bookmaking guide

Making Handmade Books

While traditional paper-book publishing declines, personal paper-book making ascends. Books have gone from industrial commodity to precious hand-made artifact. There’s a renaissance of handcrafted book-making by enthusiasts and Alisa Golden has played a key role in documenting and teaching this makers’ art. I have a number of book-making books, and this one by her is by far the most complete and thorough. Her diagrams and instructions are very clear. This hefty how-to manual gives directions for creating over 100 different types of books, book bindings and book-ish things. It incorporates her previous two how-to manual, adds new material and will guide anyone through the process of making a paper book by hand. Even better, it will prompt you to experiment with your own book-making designs. — KK

Top: Watercolor pencils
Second row: Colored waxed linen, natural linen thread and bookbinding needle, beeswax, binder clip, Japanese screw punch
Third row: Bone folder, archival superfine black pen, pencil, stencil brush, assorted papers, craft knife, awl, scissors
Bottom: Metal ruler; cutting mat under all

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Staple-free stapling

PaperFix

During a trip to Germany almost 20 years ago, I came across one of those slap-of-the-head clever items in an office supply store that I use to this day. When I bought this I was so enamored with it that I actually picked up a second one, thinking that eventually it would wear out and that it would be difficult to find a replacement. Turns out that I was happily wrong on both counts; the extra one that I bought is still in its original plastic display box and a slightly different version (photo below) is widely available. The PaperFix that I’ve owned for all these years is silent in use, completely ecological, and the ongoing cost is zero. I reach for it at least a few times a day and with one firm press of the top can bind about 6 to 8 pages (depending on paper thickness) together.

I find magazines too bulky to carry around when there are only a few articles in them that I actually want to read. Through years of traveling and learning to eliminate weight and waste, I now tear out articles I’m interested in and put them all in a folder labeled “Reading” that goes everywhere with me, and use my Paperfix to bind each individual article.

I prefer the PaperFix over paper clips or binder clips for a number of reasons, the first of which is space saving. If you have ever had 15 paper-clipped articles in a folder and seen how they expand the girth of that folder, you’ll know what I mean. Paper clips and binders have to be put somewhere when they’re removed. Clips of all varieties fall off and have a nasty habit of inserting themselves into every conceivable crack in cars, briefcases and desk drawers.

Once a page is removed from the bound bundle (unlike with a paper clip) it can’t be reinserted, nor can you pull out sheets from the midst of the bundle without disrupting the binding of the bundle. While the PaperFix doesn’t do everything a stapler can (particularly with thicker stacks of paper), for the vast majority of quick binding jobs it’s as good as a stapler, and takes up about a third the room on a desktop or in a drawer. It’s less expensive and uses nothing other than a press on the top to get its job done. — Scott Goldman

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Heavy-duty saddle stapling

Long-Reach Stapler

My theater group always uses these for stapling our programs together. It’s a serious workhorse, big and heavy, and the longer reach will allow you to make booklets out of much, much bigger material than the Mini Booklet Stapler. The stapler has a 12″ reach on it, so you can staple anything up to 24″ wide pre-fold (so architectural ‘D’-sized paper could be used, if you felt like it). And unlike the mini model, it takes standard staples. The staplers we use were old when I got involved with this theater group (about 7 or 8 years ago), and they’re still working like brand new. They are made almost entirely out of steel and are incredibly durable. We mostly use them for programs of no more than 6 sheets of standard paper and a heavy high-gloss cover sheet, but we do several hundred of these programs in a batch every couple of months. We also use them for stapling short scripts, say, 20 pages (long scripts get the three-ring binder). There’s a neat little plastic clip on the stapler (which is nicely graduated) that lets you set the width, which makes lining up the fold on your booklets very convenient; you just push your material to the clip and staple. Great for big batches. — Andy Martin

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Best stapler

Staples One-Touch Stapler

It remains a paper world. Should you ever need to buy a stapler, this is the one to get. By the Archimedean power of levers, one very light push on its head will effortlessly punch a staple through 20 or more sheets. Secures amazingly easily. All staplers should work like this. — KK

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Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

05/18/26

Money wisdom / Learn AI / Find a bra that fits

Recomendo - issue #514

Spending money wisdom

I am a huge fan of Dan Pink’s short pithy advice videos, some of which I have recommended before. His latest one is on an unconventional topic: how to spend money wisely. In a lot of ways, this particular advice is more important to grasp than the usual advice on how to make money, yet few talk about how to spend well. Science-based, no fluff, this distilled wisdom is well worth your 8 minutes. — KK

Interactive AI tutorial for curious minds

Software engineer Rob Ennals wanted his 11-year-old son to understand how modern AI works, but couldn’t find a tutorial that was rigorous without being either hand-wavey or impenetrable. The result is Learn AI Layer by Layer, a free online book with interactive playgrounds in every chapter. It assumes middle-school math. If you want a clear, hands-on explanation of what happens inside an LLM, this is the best one I’ve come across. — MF

Find a bra that fits

This one is for the people with breasts. I’ve been stuck in Victoria’s Secret sizing since adolescence because I could never figure out how to translate my measurements to any other brand. Over the years I tried in-person fittings and indie bra makers, but I’d ultimately go back to the devil I knew. This illustrated NPR guide by a professional bra fitter is what finally got me unstuck. It walks you through how to measure yourself at home and explains the different styles of bras. Once I had my true size, I tried Negative Underwear (worth the influencer hype, in my opinion) and now it’s the only brand I wear. I hope I can finally retire from the search for the perfect bra. — CD

Virtual Fish Doorbell

This livestream of a Dutch canal lock has a virtual doorbell viewers can ring to snap a picture and let the operator know fish are waiting to be let through. It doesn’t really open on demand, but the idea is very charming. If you scroll down you can see all the fish that have been recently spotted. I found it in the Deepculture newsletter, just back from my first trip to Amsterdam where I rented a boat and navigated the canals. It felt synchronistic, like a souvenir from my trip. — CD

Public printer drivers

A friend gifted me a fancy five-color ink-jet printer they were not using. It would be great except for a common malady: the manufacturer no longer supported a driver for it for my computer. This calamity is so common there is a community solution: Gutenprint (formerly Gimp-print). Public minded angels post open-source drivers for all kinds of computer-printer combinations, available for free downloads. Their Mac support is spotty, but older versions can still work. My needed driver was there. One caveat; it only supplies the printing functions, but lacks the maintenance and cleaning cycles. Still, I now have a printer that prints. — KK

Magnetic push pins for stubborn rolled posters

My daughter had a few rolled-up posters that kept springing off the wall — regular poster tack wasn’t strong enough to hold the curl flat, and we didn’t want to poke pinholes through the posters themselves. These Outus magnetic push pins solved it. You push a pin into the wall, lay the poster over it, then snap the included magnet onto the pin from the front to clamp the poster in place. The magnets are strong, and the only damage is a tiny hole in the wall — not in the poster. — MF

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05/17/26

Book Freak #209: Science and Sanity

Why your words are lying to you about reality

Get Science and Sanity

Science and Sanity argues that most human problems stem from confusing our words and mental models with reality itself, and offers a system for thinking more clearly by recognizing that the map is not the territory.

Core Principles

1. The Map Is Not the Territory

Our words, thoughts, and beliefs are maps of reality — not reality itself. When we forget this distinction, we react to our mental representations as if they were the actual world. A map can be useful if its structure resembles the territory, but no map captures everything. The menu is not the meal. The name is not the thing named.

2. Whatever You Say a Thing “Is,” It Is Not

The word “water” is not wet. The label we put on something never captures its full reality. Korzybski warns against the “is” of identity — statements like “he is a failure” or “this is impossible” that freeze dynamic reality into static categories. Reality is always more complex than any description of it.

3. Who Rules the Symbols Rules Us

Humans are uniquely symbolic creatures. Our achievements rest on our ability to use language and pass knowledge across generations. But this power cuts both ways: those who control the symbols — the words, the categories, the frames — shape how we perceive reality. Awareness of this influence is the first step to freedom from it.

4. Two Ways to Avoid Thinking

There are two ways to slide easily through life: believe everything or doubt everything. Both save us from the hard work of actually thinking. Korzybski advocates for a middle path — holding our mental maps tentatively, always ready to revise them when they no longer match the territory we encounter.

Try It Now

1. Notice when you use the word “is” to define someone or something (”she is lazy,” “this is boring”). Rephrase it as “She seems tired today” or “I find this unengaging right now.”
2. Identify one strong belief you hold. Ask: What would I need to see to update this map? If nothing could change your mind, you may have confused the map for the territory.
3. Even when you feel certain about something, add “as far as I know” or “based on my current information.” This keeps your mental maps flexible.
4. Pay attention to who chose the words you’re using to think about a problem. Did you choose them, or did someone else’s framing shape your perception?

Quote

“There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking.”

Book Freak is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run Recomendo, the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Recomendo Deals, Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper, and Book Freak.

05/15/26

Monks Smuggling Weed/Language Books/Abandoned Luggage

Nomadico issue #206

Weed Smuggling is Still Alive and Well

As easy as it is to buy weed legally in so many places now, I would have thought that trying to smuggle huge amounts of it would be a thing of the past. But no. First, Sri Lanka arrested 22 Buddhist monks who were transporting 5 kilos each in suitcases. Then in Mexico, a drug-sniffing dog led police to 1,278 kilos of marijuana hidden in a shipment of eggs in a truck. The smugglers weren’t too bright: the truck didn’t have any license tags. (May be paywalled—Mexico News Daily.)

Good Books for Language Comprehension

My spoken Spanish is not where I’d like it to be since I’m working all day in English and only use it when I’m out, but my reading comprehension is good because of fiction books I load onto my Kindle that are meant for intermediate learners. These try to get you in the habit of not stopping to look up every word you don’t know, but reading at a normal pace to understand most of what’s happening. Then there’s a summary and a vocabulary list at the end of each chapter. I’ve read ones like this (a backpacker travel story) from Lingo Mastery and ones like this from Olly Richards (short stories) that I would recommend. You can find similar ones in other languages.

Abandoned Suitcases at Hotels and Airports

I have often left articles of clothing or shoes behind at a hotel to lighten my load or make room. According to this trend report from Christopher Elliott though, high bag fees—especially surprise ones at the gate—are causing a lot of travelers to leave their whole suitcase behind. Sometimes with their contents still in them. Hotels in Japan are putting up signs that you could be charged for leaving one behind. “The abandoned luggage issue isn’t just about saving a few bucks on a checked bag,” says Zackaria Saadioui, founder of Prked, a peer-to-peer airport parking marketplace. “It’s a sign of fee fatigue.”

How Much Will Spirit Be Missed?

Speaking of extra fees being the entire business model, RIP Spirit Airlines. I last flew them back in the early 2010s and haven’t ever met anyone who professed to be a fan. I have been worried though that their long-expected departure from the market would give other airlines an excuse to raise prices on their routes. But their shrinkage over the past few years during two bankruptcies has made them mostly irrelevant in the overall market. In May 2024, Spirit operated 3.4% of all domestic flights. This month, that number was around 1.1%. Roughly 1 in 91 routes. So you’ll probably pay more if you’re in their former hub of Ft. Lauderdale, but otherwise you can just hop on Allegiant, Frontier, Breeze, or another alternative that’s still holding down fares.

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A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

05/14/26

Your Idea Starts Here / Goatman

Issue No. 117

YOUR IDEA STARTS HERE: 77 MIND-EXPANDING WAYS TO UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVITY

Your Idea Starts Here: 77 Mind-Expanding Ways to Unleash Your Creativity
by Carolyn Eckert
Storey Publishing
2016, 224 pages, 5.1 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches

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Art director Carolyn Eckert originally wrote Your Idea Starts Here for artists and designers who needed a creative boost, but soon realized that the book can actually help any inventive soul. This hardcover pocket-sized book pops with fun images along with 77 exercises to dislodge the blockages that are damming up your creative juices. For instance, Exercise 19 suggests changing up your routine (inspired by a Steve Jobs practice). Exercise 35 says to “Stop Whatever You’re Doing.” In other words, “If you were using blue, use orange. If it’s square, make it round…”

Interspersed between the idea-generating exercises are inspiring stories about inventions (such as the potato chip, Slinky, and windshield wipers) and what sparked them. More brainstorming tool than self-help book, Your Idea Starts Here is fun and simple yet super inspiring for anyone who looking for new ideas. – Carla Sinclair

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GOATMAN: HOW I TOOK A HOLIDAY FROM BEING HUMAN

GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human
by Thomas Thwaites
Princeton Architectural Press
2016, 208 pages, 5.9 x 8.6 x 0.9 inches

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Thomas Thwaites has a curious idea of what it means to take a vacation, at least if the just released GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human is any indication. What started off as a casual observation about how Queen Elizabeth’s dog, Noggin, probably worries a good deal less than his royal master evolved into a quixotic book full of ruminations on ruminants. Animals, Thwaites imagined, live in the moment, free from worry, at one with the land. How wonderful to be so unburdened, he thought. So, after briefly considering becoming an elephant, he decided to try his hand at being a goat.

Along the way, Thwaites learned a good deal about goats. Humans, Thwaites tells us, have been interacting with them since 9000 BCE – from the domestication of bezoar goats somewhere in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains to the mythical, sexual subjugation of goats by the goat-horned, Greek god Pan, as depicted in a rather graphic sculpture discovered under layers of ash deposited on the city of Herculaneum by Mount Vesuvius in the year 79. Much to our relief, Thwaites just wants to be a goat, not to “do” one.

Which is not to say the book is not occasionally disgusting. The section describing the R&D behind his goat suit includes the dissection of a goat named Venus, who died of natural causes and whose skinned limbs, palm-sized brain, and oozing guts are explored in gory detail. I’ll spare you. Suffice it to say that in the end, Thwaites gets his opportunity to clomp about on all fours on the steep hillsides of Switzerland, where he hangs out with a herd of Swiss goats and does what goats do – he grazes. For the record, the green-green grass, he reports, is sweeter than the blue-green stuff, which is bitter. Later, Thwaites makes a meal of the grass he’d been chewing and spitting into an artificial goat stomach, using decidedly non-goat cooking techniques to make it digestible for his human digestive system. The resulting “burnt grass stew,” he confesses, was the “most unappetising meal of my life.” Perhaps, though, if Thwaites had simply spent a few days hiking on two legs instead of four in this beautiful place, he would have had fewer goat concerns on his human mind. – Ben Marks

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Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

05/12/26

What’s in my NOW? — Erik Schneider