Sean Michael Robinson:
Well, hello, you lot! Long time no type...
I'm here today to drop a bit of information on you regarding the long-delayed-but-finally-happening Volumes 4 and 5 of the Cerebus Restoration Project!
Yes, Jaka's Story is now fully-restored, in print, and available from your local comic store of choice!
And it looks (ahem, no false modesty here) amazing. Which, you might have noticed, can be difficult to communicate on a computer screen but is night-and-day clear in person.
Let's give it a shot anyway. Here's a single tier from a page about halfway through, selected because I've always liked the acting of this particular sequence. The first is how the page appeared in my 4th printing of the book, the latter as it was restored from a scan of the original art board (which, this page having no tone other than the border tapes, was exceptionally light work).
You can see that there are two general problems with the original printing. There's a tremendous amount of fill-in present in the line work, especially in the white-on-black areas of the background. Secondly, several areas are blown out from the original photography, the balloon borders and the lettering being blown out most likely for slightly watery application of ink, and the hair feathering and facial details being just too fine to be caught by the photography that day.
Here's a close-up so you can see it a little clearer.
This is much more drastic a difference in print, and there is this level of difference on literally every panel of the book. Combine that with lovely cool-white paper and sewn binding, and you have a radically different reading experience. As super-retailer Menachem Luchins told me, seeing the work in this level of detail can be like looking at the work of different cartoonists.
So, what to do if you've already picked up your copy of Jaka's Story and you're ready for more? Well, you're in luck. Church and State II is currently being solicited from Diamond in a fully-restored, special signed-and-numbered edition! You have about three weeks to order your own copy, so please head on over to your local comic store now and beg and plead until they accept your demands. Or, if you'd rather order by mail, contact Escape Pod Comics in the US or Page45 in Europe.
And coming next week — a Church and State II bookplate contest! WIN random production items from the Cerebus Restoration Project! (press tests? blank dummy hardback books?? unattached covers??! tune in next week!)
There just might be a few more EXTREME CLOSEUPS in your future!
8 comments:
Your pal and mine: Sean Michael Robinson!
Why's he MY pal? 'Cause now I don't have to do a post...
Why's he YOUR pal? I dunno, has he bought you a donut or something recently?
Matt Dow
(The law of reciprocity? He's MY pal, so that makes him YOUR pal? Why are you over analyzing this? You have issues...)
I have issues too.
But only periodically.
Steve
Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.
So, Steve, what you're saying is, one week out of four, we should go out and live in the shed out back?
My signed bookplate copy of the restored Jaka's Story arrived on Saturday morning and I spent most of the weekend reading it. Sean's dead-on when he says the art has never looked better. Treated with this degree of care, Dave & Ger's work emerges as the truly stunning achievement it is. Just gorgeous.
Reading the full story in a single volume was much more satisfying than reading it it in the original monthly instalments - which is the only way I'd read any of Cerebus until these remastered volumes started coming out. I've found that with all the remastered volumes so far, and it's one more excellent reason to buy them if you've relied only on individual issues so far. The only slightly frustrating thing is that they've had to come out in the wrong order, but I understand the practical and commercial reasons that make that unavoidable.
I took a break from reading Jaka's Stpry over the weekend to catch up on The Handmaid's Tale, watching the season 3 episode where Aunt Lydia viciously beats Janine at the party. Both Aunt Lydia's personality (fake solicitude concealing an iron fist) and her appearance immediately twinned her with Jaka's nurse in my mind. I can't think of one without the other now.
Ada Talbot was a relatively simple person who was hired to raise the highly conflicted young Jaka in the manner in which the Tavers family expected the scion was to behave. Nurse Talbot, unfortunately was not around when young Jaka was molested, but she tried her best to teach Jaka how to grow into a true princess.
For her troubles, her efforts, she was imprisoned and executed. Jaka's realization of who was imprisoned in the cell next to hers was emotionally heart-rending, but was, ultimately, just another example of Jaka's *stunning* level of narcissism.
"I belong to old Palnu; What's the matter with Palnu?"
Two damaged people, making their last connection.
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