Sarah Morean was raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she read a lot of Garfield comic collections before getting super into show choir, thrift stores and diners.

Life was basically ho-hum until the discovery of independent comic books launched her into a creative frenzy and transformed her early 20′s into a tireless cycle of trips to the art supply store, copy shop and post office. She gradually stopped making comics in her late 20′s and is now content just to read and discuss them.

Sarah enjoys the Internet and has many, many blogs including a podcast review site, a catalog of food cravings, a fansite for her joke band and an alternative fashion blog where she writes about her dumb outfits. In the real world she likes beer, zines, stand up comedy, talking to people and organizing events.

If it were possible to marry a city, she’d propose to Minneapolis.

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Caitlin Cass studies visual arts at the University at Buffalo in New York. For many years she has been working on her intelligent, fun series of handmade books “Great Moments in Western Civilization.”

Each issue highlights a person or occurrence from recent history and is illustrated by Cass and narrated with her lovely, chaotic handwritten text.

The books are beautiful, varied, entertaining and educational. Each book feels very much like an art piece and is often numbered as part of a short-run edition of 80 or less. Each book is fully silk-screened and hand-bound or folded, putting her visual arts and bookmaking skills to good use. Visually and technically each issue presents a creative challenge for the artist. They are very much an exercise for Cass to stretch her bookmaking and storytelling abilities.

Volume 2 Issue 11 features an 8-page summary of the life and accomplishments of Thomas Midgley, Jr., the inventor of leaded gasoline. His work has gained him a bad reputation for its negative environmental impact, but it seems he contributed more inventions that may redeem him for readers. Important work on refrigerators and, tragically, a piece of adaptive technology that did take his life. The book uses a sort of French Fold and is fully screen-printed in two colors.

“Great Moments in Western Civilization Volume 2 Issue 11″ is available for $3.50 + shipping and handling from the author’s web store: http://www.greatmomentsinwesternciv.bigcartel.com/

Learn more about Caitlin Cass, her comics, art and find more “Great Moments in Western Civilization” on her website: http://www.greatmomentsinwesternciv.com/

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Sarah Morean began self-publishing zines and comics in 2005. She organized three years of the Twin Cities Zinefest and is the co-founder and director of the Minneapolis Indie Xpo, a festival that celebrates independent comics and cartoonists.

She is the former Mini-Comics Editor of The Daily Cross Hatch and co-founder of the annual event International Read Comics in Public Day. Sarah is an obsessive blogger with a variety of interests and hobbies and you’ll find more of her work when you visit smorean.com