Horrendous DC Golden Age Reprint/Restoration

I don’t see any grey suit. I see a green suit

 

Should I post more examples, or maybe you can peruse that site?

 

I just don’t see any grey suit, can you identify it to a specific panel?

 

All of them.

 

Let me increase the saturation
IMG_8912.JPG
Still don’t see grey, it’s a green suit

 

I see gray.

But either way, your conclusion is what? There's almost 1000 complete issues of DC scanned on those sites. Are you suggesting all are traced reprints? Or all but issue 27 is original? Neither option is likely.

My conclusion is that they are scans of originals. At least the ones I've looked at.

 

My conclusion is this. The scan I was presented is not sourced from a 1939
Detective comics 27

 

I will remain unconvinced until presented with an image of what you think it was sourced from.

 

Ok

 

Where do you think all the other issues on those sites are sourced from?

 

I haven’t done the research on that question and will not comment until I do

 

It is not from the original comic.* It is the second trace job, which first appeared in the Famous 1st Editions tabloid circa 1973. It is sourced from a microfiche release of the comics which came out in the nineties, which is why it is murky in appearance. The microfiche release was mostly scans of original comics, but in the case of Detective 27 they clearly did not have an original copy, so they used the FFE trace job. This is evident from comparing the production proofs to the various printings of trace job #2.

*The site does have a scan of page one of the story from the original comic, source from heritage auctions. Then it features the entire story in microfiche form, scanned from trace job #2.

 

I did notice the two versions of that page and had assumed the brighter one was a trace job. But if you are familiar with the reprints to which you refer then I will trust this.

Have you looked at other DC issues on those sites? What could the older issues #1 through #26 be sourced from? The do seem similar in quality to the scans of #27.

 

Perhaps this or something similar is the source of the scans: OLD COMICS ARE CHEAP - ON FICHE

The may even be available at the Library of Congress, with the option of scanning: Comic Book Fiche - Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room (Serial and Government Publications Division, Library of Congress)

 

Issues 1-26 would have to be sourced from photos of the original issues, since (with the exception of issue #1) none of the pre-Batman issues of Detective have ever been traced for reprinting. And the trace job of #1 (for the Millennium Edition) came out after the fiche, I believe. Most of the fiche-sourced comics out there online are photographed from the original issues. Detective #27 appears to be a notable exception, presumably due to the value of that issue relative to the others around it. As I said, it's clear from comparing the fiche version to the available scan of page 1 and the production proofs of pages 2-6 that the fiche version is sourced from trace job #2, the FFE version.

 

i gotcha czeskleba

here's a comparison i whipped together!

 

Didn't they actually destroy an Action #1 back in the 90's for some kind of "perfect" transfer? I though it was a stupid idea, regardless of how good the results were.

 

what!! seriously!! i got to look into this!!

 

Here's another comparison to illustrate the point. The first image comes from a scan of page one of the original printed comic (taken from a coverless copy of the issue that was sold on Heritage Auctions). The second image is a scan from the Famous 1st Edition trace job. The third image is from the microfiche on the website we're discussing. And just for fun, the fourth image comes from the earlier (less accurate and censored) trace job that was done for Detective #387 (and also appears in Batman From the 30s to the 70s and Archive Volume 1).






Note that in the original printed comic, some of the horizontal panel border lines slightly overlap the vertical ones (in the lower right corner of the panel and in the lower right corner of the caption box there are slight overlaps). Whereas in the FFE trace job, all the panel borders are clean with no overlapping of lines.

Also notice there are some color errors in the original comic. The red color of the curtain on the left slops up into the caption box, and the portion of the curtain below Bruce Wayne's left shoulder is mistakenly colored yellow like the floor rather than red. In the FFE trace job, these errors are corrected. Also, notice the subtle linework on the lamp in the lower left corner of the panel, which is reduced to a black blob in the trace job.

In all these instances, the fiche exactly matches the Famous 1st Editions trace job rather than the original comic, so that clearly was its source.

 

thanks czeskleba. once again irrefutable evidence

​

 

I have done some searches but can’t find this 1990s transfer project the resulted in the destruction of a action comics 1. Has anyone else found anything about it?

 

I’ve been experimenting with selected thresholding to isolate the line work on page one. It is very time consuming but can achieve great results. I’ll post my progress once I get a row of panels done

 

I'm skeptical that happened. The process of Theakstonizing (bleaching a printed comic to remove color so it can yield black and white pages suitable for recoloring) has been done to lots of old comics, but I've never heard it being done to Action #1, and I can't believe it would be done. I doubt DC just had a file copy of Action #1 lying around in the 90s, and as early as 1992 it was selling for $86,000 so it's not like they could just go buy one.

 

I've been following DC since the 1980s and have never heard of them destroying Action #1 for the purposes of an archival scan. That has happened for less valuable comics.

 

Very nice. This clarifies somewhat. Too bad we can't compare frames from this page of original print to the production proofs being discussed. And we can't compare any of the five production proofs to the original print. It would be interesting to see the changes made by the coloring.

I know the thread title refers to the "golden age reprint", but we haven't seen examples from that, have we? Aren't they the most recent reprints? I'm think of getting one. Should the quality be same between the hardback omnibus and the trade paperback versions? Is it possible these are straight copies of the original print?