If, upon leafing through this month’s edition of The Syncopated Times, you notice a few differences from how the paper has appeared in previous issues, there’s a reason for that.
From the time I took over The American Rag from Publisher Don Jones in 2016, I continued to use the same printer in Fresno, California. I was still blundering my way around with layout and other arcana of periodical publishing, having no idea how to proceed but persevering nonetheless.
Shoveling my way through a blizzard of postal forms and regulations, struggling to meet the requirements of the four-color web press, grappling with subscriptions and invoices, reinventing the (square) wheel through open source (i.e., free) word processing and desktop publishing programs, I had a precipitous learning curve. It could hardly be called a curve. I needed a Sherpa, though none here were willing to climb that rock face, either.
My personal Everest was made somewhat navigable with the invaluable aid of my Fresno printer, Terry Willems, and his staff. If the paper looked acceptable in those early months of publication, Terry and Jennifer Turk and the rest of the Willems crew deserve the credit. I was learning my craft on the job as the boss, which is the severest form of education. I had no option but to work for myself, even knowing myself as well as I do. My associate editor sees me clearly as Captain Qu
