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Angel Bomb ~ Minnesota
(Todd M. Thyberg)
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Todd M. Thyberg Todd Thyberg: “Angel Bomb is the nom de plume and press name of me, Todd Thyberg. After thirty years of graphic design and fifteen years of letterpress printing, I decided to focus on creating books. My artist books contain themes of exploration and discovery mirrored through interactions with book structures, materials and design choices. I have been making books for over ten years and create complex limited editions using science fiction to critique social issues and extend the experience of reading a book to more of the senses through touch, sound, and smell. I write my own stories as well as work with copyrighted material. My books create ever-deepening layers of meaning from the initial structure to the design and illustration choices and seek to take the reader to bygone eras through material and visual choices. “

   

Who Goes There?
By John W. Campbell, Jr.
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Angel Bomb, 2022.
Edition of 250 (50 deluxe, 200 standard).

Deluxe: In a custom-designed bound portfolio containing a triptych of Antarctica with notes and sketches from the expedition and holding five frame-worthy letterpress prints of artwork from the story. Embedded in the cover of the portfolio is a hand-cast, painted resin medallion of the expedition's emblem. Bound in fine Japanese book cloth. Quarter bound in tan goatskin. Nineteen multi-colored illustrations throughout. Printed by hand on a Vandercook 219 onto 100% cotton, acid-free paper. Signed and numbered by Thyberg, the illustrator and printer.

Standard: 11.5” x 8.75” hardcover bound in Japanese book cloth contrasting spine. Wrapped in a letterpress belly band. Nineteen detailed, multi-colored illustrations. Features include blind cover emboss, illustrations, and letterpress printing.

Angel Bomb: “This classic tale of terror and paranoia was first published in the August 1938 issue of ‘Astounding Science Fiction’. Written by John W. Campbell and published under the pen name Don A. Stuart; the story is about a group of scientists at an Antarctic outpost who discover a magnetic anomaly and investigate. They discover a spaceship, buried in the ice for millennia as well as an unfortunate passenger that crawled free and froze. The scientists bring the body back for examination and then the horror begins.

"A film adaptation made popular by John Carpenter in 1982 titled ‘The Thing’ brought this story to a new generation. It’s an amazing tale of a shapeshifting alien creature and humans under pressure to eradicate it before it subsumes them all and spreads to the rest of mankind."

The place stank. A queer, mingled stench that only the ice-buried cabins of an Antarctic camp know, compounded of reeking human sweat, and the heavy, fish-oil stench of melted seal blubber. An overtone of liniment combated the musty smell of sweat-and-snow-drenched furs. The acrid odor of burned cooking-fat, and the animal, not-unpleasant smell of dogs, diluted by time, hung in the air.

Todd Thyberg: “This opening paragraph of ‘Who Goes There?’… is one of my all-time favorites. Those first three words hit you with a slap and you wrinkle up your nose in response. As you finish the paragraph, you first begin to express disgust and by the end, your mouth is twisted into a horrible rictus. Welcome to the story, my friends. Buckle up as nothing is going to get any better from here.

“My first introduction to ‘Who Goes There?’ was stumbling upon John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ on my grandparent’s cable television when I was a kid. I would visit them in the summer and occasionally, rarely, in fact, had the chance to be left home alone to watch whatever I wanted. Without cable at home, this was a blessed event. And on that particular instance, I stumbled upon ‘The Thing’ and have been hooked ever since. The movie terrified me! I watch it at least a few times a year because it hits the nostalgia button for me, for one, but also it takes place in the cold bleak solitude of Antarctica, which I would love to experience.

“As I was thinking of book projects, I began to look into ‘Who Goes There?’ as an opportunity to pay homage to a story that’s been such a delight to me for forty-odd years. It took me three years to find the copyright holder, but I finally did and it became a reality in spring of 2020.”

$735 Deluxe
$165 Standard

Who Goes There? book
Deluxe
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Who goes there standard book
Standard
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The Miskatonic Papers
By Todd Thyberg
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Angel Bomb, 2020. Edition of 125.

9.75 x 12.75 x 2.625" clamshell box housing 50 pieces. Printed on various sheets of French, Glamma, and Mohawk Keaykolour papers plus handmade sheets. Fifty letterpress pieces including telegrams, letters, a handwritten journal, drawings, a broadside and a resin cast piece of the artifact found in the story. Items aged and weathered. Housed in three custom designed and printed folders within clothbound clamshell box. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Todd M. Thyberg: "… an epistolary story written as an homage to H.P. Lovecraft's cosmic horror which gave me much needed escape as a teenager. … You don’t just open the book and read it, you explore and experience the mystery, assembling it from numerous artifacts that have been hidden from view for decades. It’s like breaking open a time capsule and trying to figure out what happened to this expedition over one hundred years ago. Composed of 50 printed pieces, including letters, telegrams, drawings, newspaper clippings, a broadside, burned tatters of found stationery, and a journal that was written by hand and printed by letterpress. All of these – letterpress printed, hand stamped, aged and weathered – comprise this Stygian work of unnameable horrors."

Todd Thyberg, The Miskatonic Papers description: "In 1907 an expedition to the wild steppes of Siberia makes an astounding discovery before going terribly awry. Gathering proof of the discovery and their troubles, a lone explorer travels back to civilization seeking help. But the Old Ones are persistent and their influence spans far and wide. Madness and death follow. These papers, telling the tale, have been hidden for decades and are only now coming to light, exposing us to darkest recesses of the night.

"This book was inspired by the cosmic horror of H. P. Lovecraft and set in the mythos he created. It is about an expedition led by Professor Tyler Freeborn from the fabled Miskatonic University to the Tunguska region of Siberia. The stout party, far from civilization and under great duress begins to suffer from madness, confusion, and violence. It begins eating away at the crew and in order to bring their discovery to light must seek help. Can they maintain their sanity and their very lives until help comes? Will help even arrive in time?

"The story, in three acts, is sealed within three custom designed and printed folders from the dusty shelves of the Miskatonic Archives. The folders have been kept away from prying eyes for decades and are held in a beautiful clothbound and foil-stamped clamshell box, which will keep your edition looking gorgeous and protect the forbidden secrets held within.

"Every piece was designed, drawn, and printed on 1950s era Heidelberg presses at Angel Bomb. There is even an alphabet unique to this book based upon the oldest known Slavic alphabet, Glagolitic. By modifying the letterforms into a style more in-line with story elements, I created Cthulhic, which plays straight into the story line. Glagolitic was created by a Byzantine monk to spread Christianity, while I imagined Cthulhic was used by ancient peoples for darker deeds. The journal is handwritten and the pages have been artificially aged using archival methods to ensure the book will endure the ravages of time."
$535

The Miskatonic Papers book
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The Airship
By Todd M. Thyberg
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Angel Bomb, 2012. Standard edition of 250; deluxe edition of 35.

Standard edition: 10.5 x 7.5"; 12 pages.Printed letterpress in three colors on 100% cotton Crane Lettra. Handprinted on a Vandercook 219 proof press. Handbound pamphlet stitch binding. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Deluxe edition: 11 x 7.75"; 20 pages. Printed on 100% cotton Crane Lettra. Letterpress printed in three colors. Futura Book, Headliner No. 45, and Bubbledot types. Bound in cloth-covered boards with handmade bamboo paper end sheets. Matching slipcase with blind deboss illustration. Signed and numbered by the artist on the colophon. Includes suite of three extra prints relating to the story. Each print signed and dated by the artist.

Todd M. Thyberg: "The Airship is a science fiction story and first in a trilogy of planned letterpress graphic novels. In it, I seek to draw a literary analogy between the dichotomy of using modern day digital design tools to create works that are produced on vintage analog equipment. In this story, set in a fictional past, one of the characters is transported to another dimension in space and time. His attempts to communicate across this gulf are indecipherable to the reader without access to a smartphone. I hope to entice readers into seeing new possibilities for tying two disparate mediums together for a more interactive and unique experience. Readers must use their smartphone to scan QR codes so they can see video messages and explore The Airship."

$150 standard
$350 deluxe

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American Manifesto
By Todd M. Thyberg
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Angel Bomb, 2012. Edition of 250.

5.75 x 8.5"; 12 pages. Letterpress printed in three colors on a Heidelberg 10x15 Windmill. Printed on 100% cotton Crane Lettra Pearl White in Solano, Gotham, and Kaine typefaces. Saddle stitch bound in Condenons So. Wool Red Tartan paper wraps.

Todd M. Thyberg: "With a tip of the hat to printers and activists of the past, American Manifesto calls the United States citizens to action on a number of national concerns—our country’s health, leadership, and environment, to name a few."

Back Cover: "If America really is the best country on earth…why do so many of our people go hungry? Why do our leaders consistently work for corporate interests rather than individuals’ rights? How can our leaders, the media, and we the public still be ignorant to the factual reality of climate change? Why can someone go to prison for a minor drug offense while the people who brought our economy to its knees still receive bonuses? Why are we still taking off our shoes to fly? How can 2/3 of America’s population be overweight when people here and around the world are going hungry? How is it acceptable to make fuel from food? Why don’t we Americans question policies?"

Artist’s Books Unshelved: Activating Tradition
$30


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Angel Bomb SOLD / Out of Print Titles:  
   

2020, A Fiasco.
By Todd Thyberg
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Angel Bomb, 2021.

Dumpster with letterpress printed garbage.

  • The Dumpster: Hand sculpted and cast in resin. Painted extensively with acrylic and oil paints to give it a rusted, worn patina. Decals applied to look tagged by unruly kids. Lids are removable to gain access to the garbage inside.
  • The Garbage: Letterpress printed horrors from 2020. Contents include images of liars and grifters to the wildfires that devastated 4% of California. Each meticulously drawn by hand and contains information about each one printed on the reverse. Includes a small booklet.

Todd M. Thyberg, book summary: " This resin-cast and hand-painted dumpster holds a year’s worth of things that went horribly wrong in America in 2020. If we can’t learn from our mistakes, we’re destined to repeat them. I hope that this book commemorates our failings and encourages us to be better. Complete with letterpress garbage, shredded Bill of Rights, tattered flag, and sculpted dog poo.."

Todd M.Thyberg, more: "This book idea came to me as last year didn’t wind down so much as it came crashing to a finish. It was a major shitshow in which more people died from Covid-19 than nearly all the American combat troops in every war the U.S. has participated in since AND including World War I. By the time you read this in February of 2021, that number will have been exceeded. Let that sink in. The virus that the president suggested could be cured by a bright light, or by taking disinfectant internally, that would just disappear one day has taken more lives than WWI, WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam, the Iraq War, and Afghanistan put together. All in the span of a year.

"Not only that, but the U.S. pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords, dropped funding for the World Health Organization, saw more Black Americans shot by police without reprisal, and saw the financial disparity between economic classes hit record highs.

"If we don’t learn from our mistakes, if we don’t stop the fascism running rampant throughout society, this once great nation is doomed."

And, "I’ve used my modeling and scratch building skills to create this lush representation of the trash receptacle our country has become. Rusty, shitty, and needing a lot of TLC. Let’s get to work and make this place better together."
(SOLD/Out of print)

2020, A Fiasco book
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2020: A Fiasco
By Todd Thyberg
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Angel Bomb, 2023. Second Edition of 12.

5.5” x 3.25” x 3.75”dumpster with letterpress printed items. Shredded paper completes the garbage in the container. French Speckletone Kraft colored stock paper for the garbage and folio.

The Dumpster: Hand sculpted and cast in resin. Painted extensively with acrylic and oil paints to give it a rusted, worn patina. Decals applied to look tagged by unruly kids. Lids are removable to gain access to the garbage inside.

The Garbage: Letterpress printed. Each item meticulously drawn by hand and contains information about each one printed on the reverse. Includes a small booklet.

This is the second edition of “2020: A Fiasco” which was originally editioned in 2021. Thyberg has changed the color of the dumpster to a rusting yellow and the garbage items are printed using colored Kraft paper. Giving a nod to recycling. The book consists of a lidded dumpster and garbage items.

Todd Thyberg: “This 2nd Edition uses a recycling colorway to connote the 2nd and final edition of this book. As a society, we haven't improved much, if at all, since 2020, so I felt it was worth having another look at garbage putting our society in danger.”

"This resin-cast and hand-painted dumpster holds things that went horribly wrong in America in 2020. If we can’t learn from our mistakes, we’re destined to repeat them. I hope that this book commemorates our failings and encourages us to be better.

"This book idea came to me as last year [2020] didn’t wind down so much as it came crashing to a finish. It was a major shitshow in which more people died from Covid-19 than nearly all the American combat troops in every war the U.S. has participated in since AND including World War I. By the time you read this in February of 2021, that number will have been exceeded. Let that sink in. The virus that the president suggested could be cured by a bright light, or by taking disinfectant internally, that would just disappear one day has taken more lives than WWI, WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam, the Iraq War, and Afghanistan put together. All in the span of a year.

"Not only that, but the U.S. pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords, dropped funding for the World Health Organization, saw more Black Americans shot by police without reprisal, and saw the financial disparity between economic classes hit record highs. "If we don’t learn from our mistakes, if we don’t stop the fascism running rampant throughout society, this once great nation is doomed."

"I’ve used my modeling and scratch building skills to create this lush representation of the trash receptacle our country has become. Rusty, shitty, and needing a lot of TLC. Let’s get to work and make this place better together."
(SOLD/Out of Print)

2020: Fiasco book
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Page last update: 01.23.2024

 

   
                                                         
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