The artwork measures 8½×11 inches (22×28 cm) and is printed on handmade paper with a deckled edge on four sides. The paper, called Novelette, was created in a special larger-sized batch by its makers, Porridge Papers of Lincoln, Neb. The print comes with a small ink-jet–printed card describing the comic's context.

The work of art, printed by Jessica Spring of Springtide Press in Tacoma, Wash., in design collaboration with Glenn Fleishman, uses this Zippy the Pinhead cartoon with the permission of its creator, Bill Griffith. (Please note that the print is unsigned.) The print is limited to an edition of 50.

The piece features a hand-debossed (downward pressure) version of the comic strip, made with a magnesium debossing die to simulate the effect of printing mats used by syndicates and newspapers in the hundreds of millions to reproduce comics. Below that is a letterpress print made from the same die, the same kind of printing process used for books, routine work, and newspaper printing from the 1450s to the 1980s—and which survives as a vibrant craft medium today.

The October 14, 1991, episode was triggered when Griffith learned his longtime copy shop had switched from traditional xerographic copying to scanner-based copying, producing a pixelated effect on his original artwork. Griffith turned that dismay into a week of comics, of which this is the first of a sequence of five, in which the artwork is repeatedly photocopied, degrading until it is illegible, with only the dialog remaining readable.

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This unique letterpress-printed work on handmade paper, suitable for framing, showcases a 1991 Zippy the Pinhead comic strip by re-creating the cartoon on a single sheet as a historic printing mold (a “mat” or “flong”) and as a letterpress print. It also features printed handset metal type identifying the work, its letterpress printers, and Zippy creator Bill Griffith. The edition is limited to 75.

Ships by November 1, 2024.