About
Surely
Not
The book measures 102mm
x 202mm.
Stiched binding, containing 8 pages, a central gatefold on orange card
with an orange card cover.
Surely
Not was produced in a limited edition of 7 (Now in its second edition).
This book was inspired by the notion that, when looked at closely, smoking
a cigarette is a strange activity. The Bob Newhart monologue 'The Introduction
of Tobacco to Civilisation' is a case in point. Smoking is not a basic
need such as eating or drinking but rather a skill that, once the fundamentals
are learnt, requires practice and patience to develop.
The "believe-it-or-not"
strategy was based loosely on Ripley's regular feature in newspapers
and collections from the 'fifties, but the images were developed from
cigarette advertisements from the U.S. between 1938-72 and then redrawn
to place emphasis on the absurdity of the activity. Grubby marks on
the illustrations were enhanced to give the feel the images are 'dirty'
as printed.
I wrote the text in a style aiming to satirise the short-snappy
'Amazing Facts' tone of children' comics or encyclopedias. Texts aimed
at younger readers often seem to convey the anxiety that the reader
will tire of a subject should the copy spread to more than 5 lines.
I have made sure that the concepts in Surely Not jump breathlessly
from theme to theme at high speed never allowing the reader to dwell
on one story for long.
The font chosen was one resembling a style often employed in comics
to give the feeling that the text had been hand written. 'Comic Sans'
is heavy and stolid but its informal structure tries desperately to
imply jollity.
The central gatefold shows the Smoking Beagle, hopefully reminding the
reader of the vast number of beagles that were used to test cigarettes
(to public outrage in the late eighties). The gatefold was designed
to sit on orange heavy weight paper, along with the cover. The main
pages were printed on 130g cartridge paper. The orange and white colours
are reminiscent of the colours used in marketing a regular cigarette
of the period.