The softcover editions of Abyssal Archive and You Died are true collectibles, printed in Italy using the finest paper stocks and production finishes available, but boast gentler price tags compared to their hardcover predecessors.
For a limited time, you can get both softcovers right now for €50 (a €5 discount) if you buy the two-book bundle!
Or buy them individually:
Pre-order Abyssal Archive: The Mythology of Dark Souls softcover - €30 / ~$33
Pre-order You Died: The Dark Souls Companion softcover - €25 / ~$27
A bit more about each of the two books below:
Abyssal Archive: The Mythology of Dark Souls has been called "Glorious... a bible for Souls fans,” by Kotaku and “a collector’s dream” by GamesRadar. A collaboration with Dark Souls scholar Lokey, Abyssal Archive features the most comprehensive fan analysis of Dark Souls' mythos ever undertaken. The book sets out to pay tribute to Miyazaki's legendary game by crafting something that embodies the same care and attention to detail that makes Dark Souls itself such a peerless work of art.
You Died: The Dark Souls Companion is “the definitive Dark Souls book” (Edge Magazine) – a love letter to the original game by FromSoftware and a guided tour of its world. The book leverages interviews with the game's creator, Hidetaka Miyazaki, as well as original analysis to uncover the mystery of what makes Dark Souls so riveting, enduring and influential.
Using 3D map viewers available online to study the game's actual level geometry, he was able to achieve a phenomenal level of granularity and faithfulness to the world you experience while playing Dark Souls.
This special edition of the Map of Lordran is large — 29 inches (width) x 25.5 inches (height) — and perfect for framing. It's printed on heavy (240gsm) premium Munken Pure Rough paper stock, and shipped in a secure poster tube to avoid unsightly fold lines.
For a limited time, it can be yours for 20% off when you use the code MAP20 at checkout. The offer ends January 31st, 2024.
T&F: Can you tell us about your process for making the map?
Judson Cowan: Absolutely! I was aiming to take the style of the Elden Ring map and bring that flare to Dark Souls. It was a long process of carefully surveying the game and using creative license to make it all fit nicely in a square.
I aimed for accuracy as much as possible, but there are a few bits that required shifting or rotating a bit to ensure visibility. I did some rough layouts in Illustrator, printed those out and tiled them at 2x scale, then used that to trace small sections in pencil and lay in detail in ink, then scanned and recombined everything in Photoshop and coloured it digitally in Procreate.
How did you go about leveraging the 3D map viewer online to increase the accuracy of the map geometry?
Oh, the map viewer was an absolute life-saver. I was previously just trying to survey in-game but it was a non-starter. Luckily NoClip.website came to the rescue with an easily navigable map of the whole game where you can turn sections on and off. It made it much easier to get a feel for distances and more accurately recreate the world.
Can you talk about the techniques you used to communicate the relative depth of different parts of the map?
It's all about the shading. Lower areas are generally darker but I'm also using edge darkening and hatching to emphasise cliffs, pits, etc.
What's your personal favourite region of Lordran?
Favourite to draw or favourite to play? For play: I actually love the hell out of Blighttown. The Valley of Defilement in Demon's Souls was one of the most insane experiences I had ever had in a game. So oppressive and terrifying. And Blighttown recaptured that feeling perfectly. Plus the design of it is just so fascinating, tucked up under the eaves of the kingdom, forgotten and cast out. It was, however, a giant pain in the ass to draw. Favourite to draw was definitely Anor Londo.
Anything most people might not notice about the map, but which you would like to highlight?
I think the biggest thing is the general accuracy. Aside from Catacombs/Tomb of the Giants/Ash Lake everything is very, very close to where it actually sits in the game and how it interconnects. All the above-ground stuff, specifically, is game-accurate. It really calls out how well-designed and tightly-knit the world FromSoft created is. There are so many little easter eggs hidden in there. A fun thing to do is see how many bonfires you can spot! Or try to find all the visible boss arenas!
Demon's Souls may have begun as an obscure Japanese action RPG with some inventive online features. But it has since grown into a cult classic, most notable perhaps for heralding the arrival of Hidetaka Miyazaki, a generational talent that would reshape the potential of the video game in the way Tolkien exploded the scope of what was deemed possible in fantasy literature.
Tune & Fairweather is excited to honour this classic game by publishing the most comprehensive excavation of Demon's Souls' lore and universe yet released.
Introducing... Demonic Archive: The Mythology of Demon's Souls.
Get the answers to these questions, and many more, in Demonic Archive. The most exhaustive dissection of Demon's Souls' lore in existence. Authored by Lokey, the scholar behind Abyssal Archive: The Mythology of Dark Souls.
Now available in two stunning editions – a standard edition with board-reinforced die-cut slipcase and the limited Armored Edition featuring a brushed-steel slipcase, which only be available for pre-order until September 30th, 2023.
A Benefactor Tier is also available for a limited time, featuring the Armored Edition of Demonic Archive plus a special name credit in both the physical and digital versions of the book.
We expect to have this book printed by the end of 2023 and arriving to collectors early next year.
Reserve your first-edition copy now... "so the world might be mended."
***
***
- Are there any pre-order bonuses?
Yes. Anybody who pre-orders in the first month of the pre-order campaign, ending September 30th, 2023, will get a FREE digital version of Demonic Archive (€15 value), which will arrive well in advance of the physical edition. We will deliver the digital version of the book the moment the pre-order campaign closes.
- When will physical copies of Demonic Archive arrive?
The print-ready layout will be completed by the time the campaign ends in September so that we can go straight into production. This will allow us to have the final book manufactured this year and delivered at the start of 2024. As with our other projects, we will share production updates along the way so you can follow the progress.
- Do you ship to X/Y/Z country?
Consult our up-to-date Shipping Policy to see if we ship to your country. And be aware that there are no destination restrictions on the digital versions of our books.
***
“Human cultures will pass, given time, of which there is sufficiency. The ivy will snake and unrig our flats and terraces, as it scattered the Roman villas.”
- Robert Macfarlane
***
I have always been enamoured with ruins.
My home country Ireland is full of them, a standing history in ivy-clad stones. That is surely part of what drew me back to this place, my birthplace, after many years away. A connection to the ancient – what author Robert Macfarlane refers to as deep time.
The shot of me above was taken in 2018 during an exploration of the remains of Ballycarbery Castle, perched along the coast of scenic County Kerry. I was so bewitched by the place, the jagged irregularity of its silhouette against the sky, the dense thicket of green blanketing its walls.
Stone balanced upon stone, hanging on for dear life. Buildings are fated to resemble their builders. Buildings possess bones, skeletons, even faces (hence, ‘facade’). Engaging with architecture is interpersonal, deeply so.
Though our previous output has focussed extensively on virtual worlds (namely, the work of Japanese game developer FromSoftware), there is a continuity between our earlier projects and Modern Ruins. Video games are liberally sprinkled with – and constructed Lego-style from – ruins, unlocking for all the opportunity to explore such melancholy spaces. Even those trapped in just-built, copy-paste suburbs, which I was for a time during my teenage years.
In Tune & Fairweather’s debut release, You Died, I wrote, “To spend any time with Dark Souls is to become intimately acquainted with ruins… This is the game’s speciality: provide clues as to the broader shape and leave inquisitive minds to the job of filling in the connective ligament. Dark Souls’ designers understand the power of an artful tease.”
When I discovered the work of London-based photographer Robin Hudson, I knew I had found somebody who not only shared my obsession with ruins, but actively carved out time to photograph them. His urban exploration around the UK and mainland Europe had generated a library of images that set my brain on fire. The symmetry of his framing. The technical ingenuity of capturing vast ballrooms without fish-eye distortions. Naturally, I hoped for the chance to build an equally grand structure in which to showcase them.
And now, in close partnership with Robin, we have. That book, we are proud to announce, is called Modern Ruins. The book’s layout is 100% complete and already winging its way to our printer in Italy for late-summer manufacture.
I value texture – that's why I've devoted my career to print publishing – and the grit of these images deserves a rough uncoated design paper with a bit of friction. The crumbling walls, invading foliage, rusty ironwork, accumulated sand. In short, the recipe for my ideal art book.
If you've been following our work for a little while, you will appreciate that this book is something of a departure for us in terms of subject matter. Our interests have always been promiscuous, of course, and we hope that collectors who appreciate how Tune & Fairweather leverages print as an artistic medium might consider adding Modern Ruins to their own cabinet of curiosities.
As we plan to have this title delivered before Christmas, it would make an extravagant gift for a loved one... provided they own a suitably large coffee table.
Jason Killingsworth
Founder, Tune & Fairweather
***
Modern Ruins is a luxurious large-format art book containing 250+ photographs by acclaimed London-based photographer Robin Hudson.
Part of the urban-exploration (a.k.a. 'urbex') community, Robin travels to remote locations – sanatoriums, hilltop villas, monasteries, hotel hideaways, vineyard farmhouses, decommissioned factories – to document magnificent or historically significant architecture from the recent past that has fallen into decline and sits abandoned awaiting demolition... or possibly renovation. Some of the locations in Modern Ruins have collapsed since being photographed so their memory lives on in this collection. Let your imagination roam as you mingle with the ghosts inhabiting these elegiac, time-forgotten spaces.
***
[Text in above image: "There is something ghostly in all great art... It touches something within us that relates to infinity." - Lafcadio Hearn]
***
- Are there any pre-order bonuses?
Yes. Anybody who pre-orders in the first month of the pre-order campaign, ending July 29th 2023, will get a FREE digital version of Modern Ruins (€15 value), which will arrive promptly at the close of the pre-order campaign.
- Is there any way to sample the book before purchasing?
Yes. There is a digital sampler of Modern Ruins (40+ pages of the book showcasing final layout) that can be downloaded free of charge. We hope this will give you a better sense of the book's content and design approach so you can pre-order with confidence.
- When will physical copies of Modern Ruins arrive?
The print-ready layout is already completed and ready to go into production. Because this book makes such a great gift, we are on track to have the final book manufactured and delivered by December of 2023. As with our other projects, we will share production updates along the way so you can observe the progress.
If you'd like to discuss the Modern Ruins launch announcement with other T&F collectors, join our Discord!
We are pleased to report that manufacturing of Abyssal Archive's first print run is officially complete ✅ 📚
We took great pains to make this set as indispensable as possible and are excited with the quality bar we were able to reach. The clamshell presentation boxes for the limited-edition version posed some unexpected challenges in terms of getting the spot-varnish interior printing right, delaying progress for two or three extra weeks, but we finally got it over the line.
Here's a sampling of the product photography:
Watch the first-look video:
Because our printer is located in Italy, stock arrived at our EU warehouse within just a few days. As a result, a number of customers in the UK and Germany have already gotten in touch to let us know their copies have been received.
It will take a couple weeks before all EU and UK orders have been packaged and dispatched for last-mile courier delivery so don't fret if you haven't received your shipping notification via email with tracking details just yet.
For those of you in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc, your copies will ship from our US warehouse. This inventory is on a container ship heading across the Atlantic as we speak and is estimated to arrive in late July. Then orders will be prepped and sent out as quickly as possible, arriving to pre-order customers throughout the month of August. Keep an eye on your inbox around that time for shipping confirmation emails!
Hope that gives you a sense of where things are. Be sure to jump into the #abyssal-archive-discussion channel in our Discord if you want to chat with other collectors receiving their sets. You might even find a question you have has already been answered there. All are welcome!
Thanks for your support and patience with the development timeline. We are always working to speed up the process and will have exciting news on Blood Echoes progress for you shortly.
All the best,
Jason (on behalf of the T&F team)
]]>I'm just back from the Abyssal Archive "press pass" with our printer in Vicenza, Italy. Printing got underway on March 27th and it was a joy to be there to see the first pages roll off the printer.
The full-colour illustration pages and companion map of Lordran were the first to be printed, as the machines needed to be washed clean before transitioning to the black-and-gold ink combination of the internal text pages.
We were fortunate to be able to have Judson Cowan (pictured above), the artist behind the Lordran companion map, join us for the press pass. He has extensive experience in print production and was an invaluable resource in terms of helping us train our eyes in examining the pages coming off the printer.
At this stage all of the illustrations, maps and internal text pages for Abyssal Archive have been printed and we have given the printer the green light to proceed with binding ✅
During our visit, we also signed off the endpapers and the updated covering material that we discussed in the previous update (Saville Row Tweed - Camel). Everything is looking superb and we are excited to see the final bound result.
We are aiming to have binding completed by the end of May and get books on their way to our warehouses for last-mile delivery soon after.
As always, if you want to discuss the project, you are very welcome in our T&F Discord channel.
All the best,
Jason
]]>***
“Down by the old canal in central Yharnam, past the shambling crows and the groaning, curfew-breaking villagers, there is a window that wriggles with candlelight. You can’t enter. Iron bars and taut chains hold back the city’s tide of filth. But approach in good faith and you may talk to the girl who sits, unseen, on the warm side of the pane. She doesn’t tell you her name... but she does share with you her problem.”
***
So begins Simon Parkin’s Introduction to Blood Echoes, Tune & Fairweather’s newly announced anthology of Bloodborne criticism. It’s a fitting anecdote from the author’s experience with the game, as it so beautifully mirrors the relationships we all have with the worlds created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and his colleagues at FromSoftware.
Miyazaki’s games are opaque but they spark for us a candle of understanding. They are terse in their explanations, but respond eagerly when engaged. They beckon to us insistently from the other side of the flickering glass, parceling out fresh mysteries for us to untangle. A quality just as true in 2023 as on the day of Bloodborne’s release in 2015.
Though you will have no success getting FromSoftware fans to agree on a hierarchy of the studio’s output – hail ye stalwart few on Twitter desperately trying to crown Dark Souls II a misunderstood contender! – Bloodborne is arguably the most singular and cohesive design tapestry that Miyazaki has yet woven for players.
The writers and interview subjects assembled in Blood Echoes would certainly agree with this sentiment. And it shows in the illuminating criticism the game has evoked. There is much to say. Perhaps even more so now, given the all-too-recent years of plague and paranoia and mistrust of institutions (and mistrust of one another). Sequestered away at home, many of our writers returned to Yharnam in search of catharsis, which they indeed found and have documented here.
Blood Echoes is not an official FromSoftware product, nor is it a comprehensive dissection of Bloodborne’s lore. It is very much, however, a testament to the game’s enduring power, and an attempt to understand the strong magic it exerts to this day.
The approach is prismatic, filtering the game through the hard-won illumination of essays published shortly after launch, plus a variety of newer essays and interviews commissioned by our guest editor, Simon Parkin (The New Yorker, The Guardian), exclusively for this anthology.
We are also delighted to have the blessing of Future Press to republish a long out-of-print interview they conducted with Miyazaki for their official Bloodborne guide. We can’t thank them enough, truly, for giving this conversation a second life.
“Our eyes have yet to open… Fear The Old Blood.”
***
- 40+ illustrations by renowned Soulsborne artist Shimhaq, both cover and spot illustrations reimagined in a painterly “blood-smear watercolor” visual style, plus 10 full-color plates of the artist’s most detailed works.
- 16 essays examining Bloodborne, half a dozen of them previously unpublished, by some of the most accomplished and insightful writers covering video games at present. To give a sense of the scope, here are a few examples:
- The long out-of-print interview that Future Press conducted with Hidetaka Miyazaki for its official Bloodborne guide makes an encore appearance in Blood Echoes, with the publisher’s kind permission.
In order to ensure this interview stand out from the rest of the book, we will be using a weighty 170gsm coated paper stock for this one chapter so that it offers a show-stopping interlude in the middle of the book.
We've also employed a 'blood-moon' colour shift to make this 12-page signature feel that much more distinct. The red ink on glossy paper will hopefully achieve the eerily viscous texture we're after.
- 4 brand-new Q&As:
***
- Are there any pre-order bonuses?
Yes. Anybody who pre-orders in the first month of the pre-order campaign, ending March 23rd, will get a FREE digital version of Blood Echoes (€15 value), which will arrive well in advance of the physical edition. We will deliver this in April.
- Is there any way to sample the book before purchasing?
Yes. There is a digital sampler of Blood Echoes (40+ pages of the book with illustrations) that can be downloaded free of charge. We hope this will give you a better sense of the book's content and design approach so you can pre-order with confidence.
- When will physical copies of Blood Echoes arrive?
The print-ready layout will be completed by the time the campaign ends in late March so that we can go straight into production. This would allow us to have the final book manufactured and delivered by December of 2023. As with our other projects, we will share production updates along the way so you can observe the progress (check out this February Abyssal Archive production update for reference).
- Are there multiple versions of this book, as in past T&F campaigns?
To help us produce Blood Echoes in a timely fashion, there is only one version, which comes standard with the decorative slipcase. That said, there is a higher-priced version for those who wish to get a Benefactor name credit printed in the back of the book (including any future reprints).
- Do you ship to X/Y/Z country?
In the past we have tried to accommodate worldwide shipping and it has proven difficult to accomplish in a reliable and economical fashion. In some cases, we have had to cancel orders because there were no courier options to the countries in question, or the shipping cost was extortionate (sorry, Capetown friends!). Check our newly published Shipping Policy to see if we ship to your country. And be aware that there are no destination restrictions on the digital versions of our books.
]]>We stock our books in two different warehouses, one in the United States and one in Europe.
Since the majority of orders originate from the US, we send a larger quantity of newly printed books to that warehouse. The exact split is always a bit of a guess but we're currently in a situation where the US warehouse has enough stock but we're once more out of stock in the EU.
Because we print Soul Arts in Italy and our EU warehouse is in Poland, newly printed books get from the factory to our warehouse in approx. 5 days via truck. This means we're able to restock our EU warehouse much faster than the US one. (US inventory takes 4-5 weeks to arrive at its destination due to the delays of sea freight's long ocean crossing.)
We ordered a fresh Soul Arts printing in mid December, materials arrived to our printer at the end of January, and the print job is already underway. There will be books on the way to our EU warehouse next month!
Well, cost is one issue. International shipping rates are 🍌🍌🍌 – between €50 and €60 to ship a single copy of Soul Arts from the US to a place like Spain or Germany. Big yikes 💀
The second thing is that, because the copy shipping from the US warehouse would be arriving to you from outside the EU (despite T&F being based in Ireland), you would be forced to pay customs and import charges before you're able to receive the book. We don't want that, you don't either.
We know this is annoying and – at the end of the day – you just want the book you ordered. We want the same thing, which is why we're glad there will be more stock heading to the EU warehouse next month.
We appreciate your patience and are working hard to get your book to you as soon as we possibly can. If you have any additional questions, reach out to support@tuneandfairweather.com and our support team (either Daniel or Michael) will do their best to get you answers.
Best regards,
Jason
(Founder, Tune & Fairweather)
]]>Over the past several weeks, our printer in Italy has been sending Abyssal Archive prototypes to the office. No matter how exciting a particular covering material for the book might seem in the abstract, holding it in your hands – in a shape approximating the final printed book – lets you know what’s working... or still needs adjustment.
This back-and-forth requires patience, as each update must be fabricated anew and sent to us for inspection and approval, but it’s essential to making sure the end product hits our T&F quality bar.
We have been making several adjustments to improve the overall quality of Abyssal Archive, which we’ll take you through in today’s update. (Note: the items below are 'work in progress' so granular details, such as the foil blocking on the slipcase and clamshell box, are missing.)
The quality is already at an extremely high standard, however there were some areas which we felt could be improved.
The covering material we initially chose for Abyssal Archive is called Setalux, which the manufacturer describes as “a tissue lined filament viscose with silk appearance”. (For context, we used a pearlescent gold Setalux variant on the spine of Soul Arts and it had amazing texture as well as a premium-grade finish.)
The Setalux cloth, which worked great as a secondary accent, did not work well as the dominant covering material however. Even though it was not the “metal” variant, the regular Setalux cloth had a cold, inhospitable metallic feel in the hands.
Also, the dazzle of light off the silk veneer caused the fine white lines of the cover illustration to disappear in glare while holding the book at certain angles near a direct light source (see photo below for reference). It just wasn’t working.
We are investigating a replacement stock called Savile Row Tweed (Camel) by a different Italian supplier. This option has a more organic feel as well as a distinctly… professorial vibe that fits the academic nature of Abyssal Archive, which offers readers a deep dive into the mythology of Dark Souls.
Unlike the two book volumes that make up the Abyssal Archive set, which are “quarter bound” in Hellkite Drake leather, the folder housing the companion map can only use a single covering material.
Initially this was the tan-coloured Setalux. But this had the same hand-feel issue described above, as well as creating a visual mismatch in the slipcase. The book spines and the map spine exhibited two different materials.
To solve this issue, we asked the printer to create a dummy of the map case using only the Hellkite material. Not only does this allow us to switch the white cover illustration to gold foil, it also gives the map its own identity apart from the books. It breaks up the potential monotony of having all three components of Abyssal Archive looking too same-y.
We also asked the printer to rotate the map 180 degrees so that the “Map of Lordran” emblem with supporting colour text is revealed the moment you start unfolding the map.
Though we love the steel-blue colour of the Wibalin material we’re using, we have asked for a soft-touch lamination to be applied. This will hopefully give a more deluxe overall feel to the set and elevate the first impression.
Also, just for fun, here's the actual photo I snapped of a random, gorgeous door during a visit to Edinburgh last year that inspired the grey-blue shade of the slipcase and clamshell box:
***
We are currently waiting for a revised quote based on the various material upgrades requested. Once we have this back, we should be able to move into final production and get pre-order customers a more concrete ETA for the finished product.
That's all for now,
Jason
p.s. if you have any comments or questions, drop by our Discord and say hello in the Abyssal Archive discussion channel.
]]>Before the full print run of any Tune & Fairweather project kicks off, there is a lengthy back-and-forth with our printer in Italy to nail down the exact materials and specifications. This process culminates in the creation of a single manually assembled prototype (or “dummy” in printer-speak).
Of course, Abyssal Archive is not just one book but a set with multiple components – two volumes and a fold-out companion map, each bound separately with unique cover art. The complexity of this process has been a fun but time-consuming challenge to overcome.
We wanted to share some photos and notes on the process up to this point so you have a glimpse into the book-creation process as well as a sense of the overall progress.
We test-printed a selection of the internal pages on the final paper stock (Munken Pure 130gsm). The printer had concerns that some of the fine lines in our designer’s title-page Darksign motif, as well as in the custom dropcaps, might not register properly. Fortunately everything turned out looking crisp. The metallic-gold ink looks amazing in counterpoint to the black type and illustration linework.
If you want to learn more about the Swedish paper supplier we're collaborating with on Abyssal Archive, check out the mini-doc we made of our visit to their factory last year:
Though we knew we wanted to use premium Setalux cloth for the cover, we were torn between two shades – one lighter, one darker. Since the lines in the cover illustration are to be printed in white, we needed to check the contrast of the illustration against the covering cloth. This confirmed that we needed to opt for the darker cloth, as the white lines all but disappeared against the lighter cloth.
Our printer flagged that the red “Hellkite Drake” leather we planned to use on the spine came in sheets whose pattern made it impossible to create a uniform pattern on each volume. The individual reptile scales vary in size at intervals depending on where the sheet is cut.
We feel the natural variance here will enhance rather than detract from the overall effect, as nothing is perfectly uniform in nature and this will give each copy a unique fingerprint. These spines are going to be such an arresting change of pace on the bookshelf, especially once the gold-foil lettering has been blocked in.
The printer prototyped three different fold-out companion maps for us – 130gsm, 150gsm, 170gsm. We wanted to go with a heavier paper weight to ensure that the paper didn’t tear along the crease lines with repeated use, however we knew that higher-grammage paper means bulkier folding (remember that old thought experiment about a piece of paper folded in half 10x reaches the moon, or somesuch?).
Luckily for us, the 150gsm test landed right in the Goldilocks zone, which is fortunate since stepping up to 170gsm would no longer be capable of being machine-folded and each copy would have to be hand-folded.
***
We’ve been informed that the final dummies should be finished soon and should be with us this month. We’ll follow up with a video of these the moment they land at the T&F office. Provided everything looks good, we can lock in the printing spec and book a slot on press for the final print run.
The original Q1 delivery estimate for Abyssal Archive is looking increasingly unlikely at this stage, however we’ll update the shipping estimate once we get an on-press date confirmed.
More updates to come as progress unfolds!
Jason
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