btw,
during quick search over Internet I have found some 8052 devices with built-in IEEE1284 controller (wow! :)
For example, TUSB5152 from Texas Instruments:

This controller provides bridging between the USB, the dual-enhanced UARTs, and the IEEE-1284 bidirectional parallel port. This device contains all the necessary logic to communicate with the host computer using the USB bus.
In addition to the USB host interface, the device contains a 5-port hub that can be used for USB expansion. The internal 8052 microcontroller contains 16K RAM that can be loaded from the host. All the device functions, such as the USB command decoding, UARTs/1284-port setup, and error reporting are managed by the internal microcontroller unit (MCU) firmware.

I think there are another devices you may use.

Regards,
Oleg