Ever wanted to make your own t-shirts? Ever thought that it would be way too complicated and/or expensive to even try, so you gave up right away? This book will prove you wrong. It’s a step by step instruction guide for how to make your own shirts whether you have access to state-of-the-art materials or not, or even (potentially) if you don’t even have electricity. All of that is well and good, you may be saying, but what about the comic itself? Is it a good read even if you have no interest in making your own shirts? Well, sort of. There is a LOT of technical jargon in here (it’s basically an instructional manual, after all), but John and the people around him always seem like real folks, and he does an excellent job of never talking down to the reader while still not taking for granted that you know everything every step of the way. There’s a section in the middle of this book where he details a day spent being a street vendor trying to sell his shirts (I used probably the only pratfall from the whole book for the sample instead of one of the many pages with useful information on them) that is a great introduction to that sort of thing. How DO people convince strangers to stop and check out their stuff? Or prevent themselves from being robbed? As for the technical information, I honestly believe that I could at least fake my way through making a shirt after reading this, and I have NO aptitude for this sort of thing. I’m probably overstating and would most likely maim myself if I ever did try to make a shirt, but I could at least answer a few questions about the process and there’s no way that would have happened before. At any point in this manual where John thinks he might not be explaining something thoroughly enough (or when he thinks that somebody else might have better information than he does) he liberally sprinkles websites around and other sources of information so you can check it out for yourself. As just a comic this would be a bit dry if you had no interest in the source material, but his teaching of the material is so engaging that you might well end up having an interest by the time you’re done reading it. That seems like a pretty good recommendation to me. And it’s only a measly $9 for this hefty thing!
Posted by Kevin 
