Restoration Roundup! Turtle Turmoil! Alliterative Idiocy!

Sean Michael Robinson:

Howdy folks!

Paper to Pixel to Paper Again is off this week, as—

a. I have a bunch of things to update you all on!, and

b. PTPTPA is really fatiguing to write, even as we're rounding the corner (two-thirds of the way done with the series? more?) and I can use another week off from it.

So! How about a light and frothy restoration roundup?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Scans

See that there comic book over yonder? We (Benjamin Hobbs and myself) are looking for a good (600 ppi or higher! 1200 ppi would be excellent if possible) color  scan of the cover image for, uh, purposes. It doesn't have to be your precious first printing copy, only a scan of the full image from an original Mirage printing that featured the cover. The IDW printing of this issue won't work, for...reasons.

If you have such an item, please let me know! Email me at cerebusarthunt at gmail dot com with info or the scan. And we'll mention you in the...ahem...document...where the scan will appear.

Thanks everyone!

[edit: Just got another email from Benjamin. Call off the hunt—target secured!]

Jaka's Story Restoration

I've now completed more than 400 pages of the Jaka's Story restoration. There's no hurry on this one, as Diamond has plenty of copies, but I'm still doing my best to get it concluded and in the can in as timely a manner as possible. After I'm done with this stage, I'll be OCRing the text pages and sending the resulting document to Jeff Seiler for proofreading, and then back to Dave and myself for final approval on the edits, and making any hand-lettered edits suggested as well.

As for the actual restoration, I think this book will be as dramatic of a change as Going Home and the Cerebus Volume One (which came out this January!) restorations were from previous printings. There's so much fine texture that just never made it to the page before. Every page is much lighter and finer, pushing the final result even more in the realm of the early-twentieth century pen and ink illustration it so closely resembles.

A minor but interesting example—

On page 29 of the trade volume, we see Missy for the fourth time in as many pages, perched on Jaka's childhood vanity. What wasn't necessarily clear in previous printings—the vanity is reflecting the new morning sun breaking through the window from across the room.

It wasn't very clear before because the effect was created with the aid of reverse white screentone, an effect that can be hit and miss because of the low contrast presented by the white (now yellow) tone and the (mostly) clear carrier. (Readers with long memories might remember Gerhard and I discussing the first time he used this trick in his Comics Journal interview back in 2011. That page also used white tone, albeit with a coarser screen, to create the effect.)

Take these (maybe minor) additions and add them all together over thousands of panels, and the difference on the book is quite pronounced.

Cerebus in Hell? Mini-series

Cerebus in Hell? #3... in your local comic store as of last Wednesday! Other than having the wrong cover price and one other minor cover oddity, looking bitchen! Cerebus in Hell? #4 continues the pile-on. Already at Diamond HQ for delivery to your LCS on...?

Cerebus in Hell? One-shots

In an effort to avoid the delivery wonkiness the Cerebus in Hell? mini-series experienced, we're attempting to prep and get in the can approximately a million (a dozen?) Cerebus in Hell? one-shots at once. Four are already in the can and ready to print, with more on the way, pending a deal with the current (or future) printer. Will keep you all updated. One thing I can say as the guy who only has to read 'em and put the final images together... the series gets funnier and funnier. If you haven't read it recently, give issue #3 a try.

Jaka's Story... Font?

Another oddity that you all might find interesting...

Jaka's Story used a very distinct font for the title of the book and for all of the headers. 

I knew intellectually that this was a commercially-available Letraset font, either used in sticker/transfer form or purloined via photocopier and placed on art boards by hand. But what I didn't really consider was that there was likely a digital version of said font available!

Didn't consider, that is, until, in the same month that I realized some of the Jaka's Story titling was MIA and would need to be recreated, I received a San Diego Zoo catalogue in the mail that used the font throughout for headers!

Weird. 

Anyway, a quick visit to the harried graphic designer's favorite service, the Font Squirrel Matcherator. and I had my answer. The typeface is called Boyle, and it's commercially available for less than $20. (There are free versions available as well, but it's unclear to me if the face is actually in the public domain for some reason, so I'll refrain from linking to them. If someone has any additional info about the face that indicates PD status, I'll put a free link up as well).

[edit: A very helpful comment from Delwyn Klassen:

Sean et al.,
A note on the Boyle font: I found in a quick search that it (the designer has been making (converting?) type since the early 80's) looks just like Psychedelia HM (designed in 1964 (?) by Humberto Mondaca); I found the 'free' version when I was replicating the Jaka's Story logo while learning to use my design program better (2010 or so).  Not sure from the 'Net which is more legal: Boyle has a lot more of the letters with extra bits in, while the Psych. HM is the basic keyboard set.

As I mentioned in a previous restoration update, I believe that, like clothing design, typefaces are un-trademarkable, even though the particular digitizations/digital files can be under copyright. Short version? I still don't know who designed the original face (it always looked Art Nouveau-ish to me) but here's a good free version of the basic character set. Anyone know what the "original" Letraset catalogue name for this face was?]

Anyway, interested in making Jaka-themed Christmas cards? Thank-you cards? Or want to get started on your unofficial Jaka's Story sequel? Now you've got the goods.

And I've got a title suggestion for you as well...

More Paper to Pixel to Paper Again next week!