Wednesday 5 November 2014

Pages, Pages, Everywhere Pages

Sean Michael Robinson:

Greetings everyone,

I'm afraid I'm out of time to do the promised post on up-scaling, as I'm swamped with last minute High Society work and finishing up the CANT bonus prints.

However, there is one piece of news I can relay -- the Cerebus Art DRAGNET is continuing to capture pages.

This week's contributions came from Jeffrey Lorenz (a great page from Flight), Rodney Ascher (another great page from 112/113, of Cerebus finding the gold coin in the ruins of the hotel), and another page from prolific collector/illustrator/Cerebus Dragnet Contributor Dean Reeves!


Dean's page is from issue 53, early Church and State. Which is rather timely, since we'll be starting into that book as soon as the Kickstarter donations have cleared. You'll notice that none of the fold lines on her dress are intact in the original printing, and the dark hatching on her arm and beneath her dress have filled in.

The other thing on the horizon? Sending out the first round of Finder's prizes for the Dragnet! So please, keep them coming. Every original art scan helps!

See you all next week!


Sean

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have the eighth printing of Church & State I, and it is pretty faithful to what you have scanned here. The lines are slightly lighter, but I figure that's necessary for the smaller size.

- Reginald P.

Sean R said...

Hey Reginald,

Interesting! My copy is a tenth printing. Specifically what I'm seeing is the fine lines of the dress are broke rather than continuous, along with fill-in in the shadows. (Of course, it looks broken a bit on screen here-- not the case in the full resolution file). Could be a difference in the print run as well. (Different types of plates have varying life spans, and fine line information tends to be blunted over time over a long run. This was particularly painful in the pre-photography era, when plates were made of even more fragile materials. Poor Phiz, Dicken's long-suffering illustrator, would etch a new copy of his illustrations every time the plates would wear out. Later on, he actually etched the copy the same time as the "original" so two sets of plates could be generated.

Sean R said...

Meaning, he made two "plates" simultaneously, on the same actual piece of copper. They were printed together and then split and tipped in separately into different copies.

gsquared said...

Hi,

I have a framed page from issue 79 - one of the pages that Cerebus is stuck in the wall talking to Bear. I want to help with this project but I'm not sure how to unframe the page or find a big enough scanner to lay it on. Any advice?

Thanks

Sean R said...

Hi G2!

A frame store will be happy to de-frame and re-frame if you can't do it yourself. Though depending on how it's framed, it can be as easy as turning a few pieces of metal, pulling out the backing, and then reversing course :) We can reimburse for any expenses related to this-- email me at cerebusarthunt at gmail dot com.

As for scanning the page, it's probably easiest to take it to your local copy center (i.e. Staples, Office Depot, etc). Most modern copiers can make A3 scans on their bed. Just take a thumb drive with you when you go!

If you email me, I'll be happy to send you further details and assistance. We'd love to have your page! :)


Best,

Sean