Previously on 'A Moment Of Cerebus':
Dave Sim, working with George Peter Gatsis, has remastered the first two collected volumes of Cerebus to restore details and quality in the artwork lost over the thirty years since they were originally published (as detailed here and here). After Cerebus'
original printer Preney Print closed its doors, Dave Sim moved his
printing to Lebonfon in 2007 as at that time they were still capable of
working with photographic negatives and making printing
plates as Preney had done. And then Lebonfon switched to digital
scanning and printing - a technology which struggles to faithfully
reproduce Cerebus' tone without creating moire patterns (as detailed in Crisis On Infinite Pixels).
Dave Sim continues to work with Lebonfon to ensure the print-quality of the new Cerebus and High Society editions (as detailed in Collections Stalled). Now read on...
(by fax, 4 February 2014)
Bonjour Patrick!
Thank you for your phone message yesterday. I'm sure all the other stakeholders
join with me in welcoming your most gratifying news that Imprimerie Lebonfon's
president, Monsieur Auberge, will be taking a personal hand in our discussions
here at A Moment of Cerebus.
With my fax machine still not receiving faxes and with my having no Internet
access, M. Auberge is welcome to either send me his comments in a letter by
escargot mail -- which I will post on receipt (fortunately Tim's is one of the
fax numbers my machine is still able to access as is your own) -- or he can just post
it here himself and I'll download it on Friday when I download -- and respond to --
all of the comments from last Friday's Update.
As I indicated earlier, structurally, I'm just going to be a week behind everyone else.
Please assure M. Auberge that Tim runs a very tight ship here and that he
will be welcomed with all the decorum and respect due him. It would be a rare
stakeholder -- fan, reader, collector or comic store owner -- present here who have
not purchased a comic book printed by his company at some time in the last ten
years.
Also please extend my personal felicitations. Although Imprimerie Lebonfon is not
the giant engine of the Canadian and International economies as are, par example,
Bombardier, Aldo Shoes, Heroux-Devtek (which built NASA's lunar modules'
landing gear), Cirque du Soleil, Lassonde, (the aptly named) Power Corp.
Quebecor, Delardlns and Banque Nationale, METRO, Couche-Tard... his company
has been of infinitely greater importance in the long and -- as he knows better than
most -- often troubled history of comics self-publishing and the small press.
Merci, Patrick!
Toujours,
Dave
Help finance Dave Sim to complete 'The Strange Death Of Alex Raymond'
by making a monthly donation at Patreon or a one-off Paypal donation.
by making a monthly donation at Patreon or a one-off Paypal donation.
Originally serialised within the pages of the self-published Glamourpuss #1-26 (April 2008 to July 2012), The Strange Death Of Alex Raymond is an as yet uncompleted work-in-progress in which Dave Sim investigates the history of photorealism in comics and specifically focuses on the work of comic-strip artist Alex Raymond and the circumstances of his death on 6 September 1956 at the wheel of fellow artist Stan Drake's Corvette at the age of 46.
6 comments:
We need to start a Kickstarer campaign to get Dave a new fax machine.
I withdraw my call for a pitchfork and torch campaign at this juncture. Perhaps M. Auberge can explain the reason why he feels he shouldn't have to share in the cost of correcting unacceptable material. No sarcasm intended, I would be interested to see what he has to say.
Yeah, I agree. Let's wait and see what the bigwigs at LeBonFon have to say. Still, probably a good idea to at least put a bug in Wilf's ear, Dave. (Wilf being Dave's attorney of long standing, for those who don't remember the shoutout to Wilf in issue #300.)
I'll buy Dave a new fax machine. Dave, if you see this, and you want me to, just let me know somehow.
Welcome! As an aside, it may also be well worth noting how many store owners, publishers, readers, etc. know of Lebonfon because of Dave Sim and Aardvark-Vanaheim. I don't think it out of the realm of possibility that a self-publisher looking to publish his or her work would have thought to use the same printer used by one of the oldest and most successful self-publishers in the industry; the same publisher who also pioneered the concept of the trade paperback in the comic book industry with High Society and Cerebus. Lebonfon is, after all, mentioned in the Cerebus Guide to Self-publishing.
True, Eddie, but let's remember that almost all of Cerebus, right up to the end, was printed by Preney Press. They went out of business when they no longer had Dave's business (IIRC, they were already out of business by the time glamourpuss began being printed). Thus, Lebonfon was Dave's fallback printer.
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