Cumulo Libris is a small publishing company based in the United States. We publish comic books and graphic novels, as well as other books and toys. Our books are available online through Amazon and Lulu.com, and our toys are available through Etsy.
Comic Books
Four blank “manga” inspired blank comic books that read left-to-right. Each book is 30 pages of dynamic layouts (plus a blank front and minimal back) in the US standard 6⅝ x 10¼ size, designed to inspire and challenge artists of all ages.
Book 1 follows a “modern” comic book format, offering a mix of block and diagonal designs, with both exposition and action panels to challenge your creativity and design skills.
Book 2 references the shouju (“girls”) manga style with many open and multi-page panels suitable for either broad action or sweeping exposition scenes that show off the character or scenery to the reader.
Book 3 is inspired by shounen (“boys”) manga style and features a “tight” and dynamic layout that inspires constant action and movement.
Book 4 is based on pre-1970 manga and comics. It features closed cells and a traditional grid-based design with vertical and horizontal layouts.
The four books are offered here as a set. Each book is 32 pages with a blank front and minimal printing on the back. They are designed to be read left-to-right (“western” style) and are printed in the US standard 6 5/8 x 10 1/4 format.
Solved: Pentominoes
Modern pentominoes were formally described by Solomon W. Golomb at a talk he gave to the Harvard Mathematics Club in 1953. However, though Golomb gave them a name and a mathematical definition, at least one pentomino problem was published by Henry Ernest Dudeny in 1907 in a book of puzzles called the Canterbury Puzzles. Even this puzzle is not technically a "pentomino puzzle" because it includes a single tetromino in the definition:
"The Broken Chessboard" is considered the oldest of the pentomino puzzles and is presented as a story (reproduced on the next page): The dauphin of France and the son of William the Conqueror were playing chess when the dauphin threw the chessboard at his opponent. The son retaliated by breaking the chessboard over the dauphin's head, resulting in thirteen pieces (twelve pentominoes and one tetromino) that had to be put back together.
The 12 Pentominoes
Take five identically-sized squares and position them so that each square shares an edge with one or more of the others. Repeat until you find all such arrangements. Then eliminate any shape that is the same as any other, turned or flipped. In the end, there are 12 distinct pieces: Pentominoes.
The Solutions
This book contains several popular pentomino puzzles, including the four "basic" rectangles: 6x10, 5x12, 4x15, and 3x20. Every unique solution (excluding flips and rotations) for each puzzle has been included: Some puzzles have only a single solution, while others have hundreds or even thousands.
There are many more puzzles and solutions all over the internet, in academic articles and children's books, in university textbooks, and in the book Polyominoes by Solomon Golomb: Polyominoes, Princeton University Press; 2nd edition 1996, ISBN 0-691-02444-8.
I hope you enjoy this book of "solutions" to the Pentominoes "problem"! If you enjoy the concept, you can easily make your own set out of paper, wood, or any other material - or buy online.
Solved: Tic-Tac-Toe
The game of Tic-Tac-Toe, also known as naughts and crosses or Xs and Os, has been a popular children's game since at least ancient Egypt where examples of game boards have been found as early as 1300 B.C. Given the simplicity of the rules and ease of play, it is reasonable to assume that this is one of the earliest “board games” invented.
This book includes every possible move in a game of Tic-Tac-Toe starting with the “X” player, as is traditional. There are nine sections (as only nine total moves are possible in each game) alternating between X and O. Within each section, every unique board configuration is presented on a page. Only unique board configurations are included.
Cumulo Libris Toy Theater
The Cumulo Libris Toy Theater is a children’s toy inspired by the Victorian fashion of Paper Theaters. Although this style of play has fallen out of fashion in recent decades due to the popularity of public movie theaters, television, computers, and mass-printed books, it was once a popular pastime for adults and children alike. Toy theaters allow you to be your own storyteller, acting out scenes from popular media or writing your own from scratch. Provide your own dialog and sound effects or use your phone or other media player!
The toy is a flat-pack toy theater made from corrugated cardboard and laser-cut on demand. The kit includes a 15”x15” frontispiece with an 8” stage opening, plus well as a “curtain”, wings, and theater floor. You or your children can decorate or draw on any or all of the included pieces.
The theater structure is made out of sturdy cardboard, and you aren’t limited to the characters and props we give you. Experiment with dolls, marionettes, toy soldiers, or your own cardboard cutouts.