Hello Slate Readers:
We are pleased to welcome you. If you could see us now, you would note that we are blushing. It is not our custom to host links from sleek and prestigious online magazines. With any luck, you’ll enjoy your visit. With any luck, the site won’t crash beneath the collective weight of you.
Josh is making plenty of weighty pronouncements over on the mothership, so we’ll aim to keep this light.
We’re Matthew and Robbi, writer and illustrator. We’re married and spend a lot of time together. Most of the time, we live in the hayloft of a barn in Chestertown, on the eastern shore of Maryland. We run a small press called Idiots’Books that distributes illustrated books (and other book-like items) by subscription (six installments a year).
For a month or so each summer, we live on the Alaskan tundra fishing commercially for sockeye salmon (mostly to have a good excuse to wear rubber pants).
Here’s what we look like:
And here’s what we feel like:
The nod to John and Paul is not accidental. We’re so humbled and demoralized by the thought of following them in Josh’s series that we have decided to debase ourselves at their feet—pointy boobs, knobbly hands, and all. Let us be clear: the similarity ends with the fact that there were two of them and there are two of us. They were splendid. We are Splenda.
These are our kids, Alden and Kato. This picture sums them up: Kato’s sunshine, Alden’s pensive scrutiny.
This is our fancy-ass dog, Iggy. She has a heart of gold but no self esteem.
This is where we work.
And this is where we live.
Here are a few links that should give you a sense of what we do:
You can use our nifty online Flash-reader to browse one of our most popular books, The Baby is Disappointing, imagined as a satirical baby announcement when our daughter Alden was born.
Or take a look at the very first volume in the the Idiots’Books series, Facial Features of French Explorers, the exhaustive research for which was done in fifteen exhausting minutes on Wikipedia.
And a handful of our other books are available to read online.
You can play with our exquisite corpse-inspired make-your-own story Flash feature (developed by our good pals at Malloc Media) which enables you to recombine 10 narrative/story pairs in 10,000 ways.
You can try to wrap your mind around one of our most ambitious projects (creating a set of 81 completely interchangeable illustrations for Cory Doctorow’s novel Makers):
Or you can behold the entire history of the written word, neatly summed up on our Six Degrees of Francis Bacon poster. (For a closer look click here.)
If you’re intrigued, you can subscribe to Idiots’Books. For $60 a year, you get the next six books we make, sent to your house in the mail with an amusing letter. In general, we observe that our subscribers are gratified, fascinating people, and we like to think we have something to do with it.
If you are a publisher or award-winning journalist, you can download our press kit then promptly hire us to write a critically acclaimed blockbuster or feature us on the cover of your magazine.
If you’re interested in in joining an ongoing conversation about the strange magic of creative partnership, join the Creative Pairs Facebook page, follow Josh on Twitter (@joshuawolfshenk) or tweet #creativepairs. They can also join Josh’s mailing list, read his previous work, and contact him at www.shenk.net.
Or you can keep on reading below and see what we talk about when we’re not showing off for the readers of Slate. Generally, these pages split time between books and the rest of our lives, with ample foolishness and plenty of stories and photos of me jumping over famous monuments.
Like Devil’s Tower, for example.
Or Mount Rushmore.
Both of which I bested on a recent family trip to the Badlands. They say you can learn a lot about a person by the way he spends his vacation.
If this is true, what conclusions can we draw about Robbi’s chosen South Dakota pastime (comments welcome below)?
With that, we’ll leave you. If you want to hear from us again, join our mailing list in the right sidebar on the main page and we’ll keep you updated on future adventures. Or follow us on the twitter. Yes. We tweet (@idiotsbooks)! But only when we have something to tweet about.
Today counts, for sure.
You guys are brilliant. I’m really glad Slate led me to something else that somehow is actually entertaining and actually human.. all that McSweeney’s has started to get under my skin.
Good luck today! You’re going to have a hell of a lot of Beatles fans landing here.
Julie:
Actually human? That’s the kindest thing that anyone has ever said about us!
Seriously, though, thanks so much for the props. Coming from a Beatles fan, it means a lot.
Best,
Matthew
Robbi, you wussed out on giving Matthew the pointy boobs. I’m disappointed.
Otherwise, I LOVE the drawing. It’s a true family portrait with the devil in the details.
As for the Slate article, it rocks! There is so much to talk about. I will probably have to get back to you on the real substance of what he’s written, because for now, I am distracted and thrilled to see that my recently purchased “I Suck” onesie is featured. This not only makes me feel smart that I ordered it when I could, (and yes, I am saving it for future grandchildren, not expected for another decade at least), but also validates my instincts about what is truly cool and wonderful. Those kinds of ego boosters go a long way for those of us closer to being grannies than hipsters.
Looking forward to more about the Idiots! Thanks for sharing.
Hello Clare (and everyone else):
Thanks so much for the kind words. If you are inspired by the project, we welcome your ideas as to how we should be further examined. Josh is interested in further study of the Idiots as he continues thinking about collaboration (all of this will culminate in a book a few years down the road)
So fire up your creative powers and let us know how else you’d like to see us tested, measured, and explored. No idea is too shocking! Comment at the bottom of the Slate piece to get the conversation started. Someone has to throw the first pitch.
Matthew
I can confirm that I am both gratified and fascinating. I am also impressed.
Clare – wussed out? Look at that photo of me I let him post at the end! That’s even worse than pointy boobs. It’s just the sad, sad truth. Also, we have long known you are smart and hip. You’re a subscriber, after all.
April – I know you are not easily impressed. You are a woman of God, after all.
Julie – the mere idea that we be mentioned in the same breath as the Beatles is, perhaps, the coup of the century. Please don’t tell Paul. Because I love him.
Robbi,
It occurred to me after reading the article (with all that stuff about sharing each other’s space, etc.) that when it comes right down to it, your boobs are Matthew’s boobs. One set between the two of you is more than enough.
You are my new favorite people. Man, you guys are good.
When good things happen to good people- how refreshing!
this is for josh (because Login is Required on the slate site and here i only have to answer a titchy math problem)
would anything become any clearer if we classify the idiots as obligate symbiotics? as in lichens
Just finished reading the third part on you guys and wanted to say WOW you are really brave for participating in this!
Ditto what Jessica said.
You are brave, but then it sounds like you both come from adventurous parents. And that must have something to do with your willingness to make a go of a life in the arts. Cuz it is risky business, but certainly easier to pull off as a team.
My husband and I talk about this a lot. How much what we do hinges off who we are together. How lucky we are to have that.
Thanks for sharing.