Horrendous DC Golden Age Reprint/Restoration

By golden age reprints I am referring to golden age stories that have been reprinted. Specifically DC27

 

Finally found a photo of the original for comparison. Top is from production proof, bottom is from an original DC27:

 

ok here's the first panel



Yeah, that took 23 minutes. Was it worth it?

You tell me

 

It's bad. What's the source? It's not from a production proof is it?

 

woah, awesome! can you post a link

 

Detective Comics #27 (DC, 1939) Condition: Coverless and Missing | Lot #91027 | Heritage Auctions

 

its from this page:


since a production proof for page, one hasn't been published

 

Idk, how I could make it better while still maintaining original art

 

That's from the same auction as just linked and has all the Batman pages.

 

Thanks!

(Man, I am terrible at this sometimes)

 

I think restoring from the production proofs is a good idea and would add detail.

I'm not sure what to do about the missing first page. Either use a scan of the original and try to improve it, or trace it, as has been done before.

And what's up with the gray pattern of the uniform? I know nothing of the coloring techniques used. Was the pattern added for the production proofs but for coloring they reverted to an earlier work without the pattern? Or did the coloring overwrite the pattern?

Or did the photo blend the dot pattern to a solid gray appearance?

 

I know a little about analog printing. If this scan is indeed a original detective comics, then one of two things could have happened.

1) the crosshatching would be painted out with white paint before the printing plates were made: this most likely

2) the crosshatching was physically removed from the printing plates after they were made

 

But on a scale of one to ten

How bad is it really: cause I just did two more panels

 

I’ve finished all but one of the panels. I hope they will turn out

 

The latter. The gray effect on Batman's uniform is done via zip-a-tone. The combination of poor printing in the original comic and the blurriness of the scan makes the dot pattern reduce to a gray effect in the scan.

Regarding your earlier question about reprinting... to my knowledge, the production proof pages have never been used to create a high-quality reprint of this story. I'm not sure whether this is due to laziness or concern that the discrepancy in quality between the first page and rest of the story would be too jarring. Looking at comixology, DC has two different digital versions of this issue available, and they are derived from the two familiar trace jobs we've discussed. So I would bet that any recent reprinting features one of these two trace jobs:

 

I can add two more reasons why they haven’t use’d the proofs yet

1) They didn’t have the rights to use it

2) The trace jobs were done before the proofs were discovered

 

I'm sure rights would not be an issue. The images on those proofs are the property of DC Comics. They would not need the actual proofs, just high-res scans. And in the unlikely event that the person who currently possesses the proofs was not willing to provide access to scan them, there are decent fairly high-res scans already available on heritage that they could use.

As you say, the two trace jobs were done long before the proofs were discovered in 2011. But that doesn't prevent them from upgrading for more recent reprintings, like the 2015 Batman Omnibus. It would be analogous to what Marvel did with Spider-Man... when the original hardcover Spider-Man Masterworks were published, they used a photostat of Amazing Fantasy #15. Subsequently, the original art for the issue was discovered (and donated to the Smithsonian) and so when they printed the softcover version of the Masterworks they used the original art to upgrade that one story. There's no reason DC could not have done that too.

 

Well at least we are getting that now, as I have decided I am doing a full restoration on the 6 pages of Batman’s story in DC27

 

Well, I wish you luck, but I don't think it's possible to remove the color from a scanned page of a printed color comic and have it look decent (or even as good as the original page you started with). It's like trying to turn a mono recording into stereo... you might get something that sounds sort of okay, but it won't sound as good as real stereo, or even as good as the original mono.

 

I have isolated the line work on first page using the selective threshold method. It looks ok, maybe 7/10

But then I made a discovery. The page is was working of was significantly higher resolution than the final page.

So when I scaled it down the Anti Aliasing kicked in and...

It looks better!

Here’s hoping that the color, paper and ink textures make it presentable

 

...I do seem to recall that, specific to DC's relishes, the first generation of HC Masterworks had overly coated/glossy paper. And revolting. Recent relishes seem good to me.
Unfortunately, I have ABSOLUTELY NONE WHATSOEVER! of my childhood comics.

 

That’s very unfortunate

 

...I meant " exploring ", not " revolting ".....
.

..I know it's sad. Other stuff gone too...........

 

It's certainly possible to do but it's a matter of having the image editing skillset, a good scan of the original in a high enough resolution, some time and lots of patience. I wouldn't use threshold tools - they're a bit too crude if you want to do a good job.

Just for grins I spent about 20 minutes in photoshop and did this using the image in post 107. For you photoshop users out there, I used the magic wand, adjusting tolerance depending on the section being worked on. To avoid the jaggy edges, I used feathering on the selection for a softer edge.

It's certainly not perfect but decent I think. There are some stray bits of color along some edges. I didn't do all of the word balloon and I skipped the jacket with that busy pattern. You need a lot of time and patience to do that jacket.

Also I cannot emphasize enough that you need a high resolution source. The one posted in post 107 is not detailed enough IMO, especially if one wanted to tackle removing the color from the jacket.

 

Can you repost, I can’t see it