Well, here we are, my 50th scan of a public domain book for either the ABPC newsgroup, GAC, or DCM! Actually, I’ve scanned a lot more for my old Golden Years site, but often I would just scan one story at a time as needed, not the whole book. Before we get to what I’ve actually scanned for this occasion, here’s a little bit of my scanning history.
Inspired by Bill Nolan’s Pure Excitement Comics, my first scanning efforts were the full issues of Target Comics vol.7 no.5 and Black Terror #16 for the “library” page of The Golden Years, which was primarily a Golden Age cover gallery site at the time. This was July, 2000, and these early scans were VERY poor quality, just 75dpi. My biggest concern was upload/download speed. My only image software at the time was Ulead’s PhotoImpact, which had no auto color correction, no "levels" controls, and painfully primitive tools compared to what I have now in Photoshop. Plus, I was only 16 years old at the time, and was learning as I went (both about scanning/image editing, and Golden Age comics). By August I was amassing a “large” collection of scans from other places online that I wanted to share on my site, so I borrowed Bill Nolan’s idea for an online reprint book and created “All-Amazing Comics” as a vehicle to share those stories. For the second issue I started incorporating my own scans, which helped spark my collection of Golden Age comics.
In 2001, I “borrowed” another idea from Bill Nolan, and began creating and selling CDs of comics besides posting my free online books. This caused me to upgrade my scanning practices, saving 150 dpi “master scans” in addition to what I used for AAC, and my other online books. I also had some better software, Corel Photo-Paint.
It wasn’t until about 2002, after a hard drive crash, that I began to scan full books rather than just a story at a time (although I still did that too), and more importantly, that I began backing up my master scans to CD. In 2003, I started sharing some of the books I scanned on the alt.binaries.pictures.comics newsgroup. Many of these would later wind up on GAC, and now here.
Eventually, All-Amazing Comics and my other books became too much. Prep. work wasn’t too bad, but I was having issues finding good storage space for the books online. I’ve drifted in and out of scanning since then, but it’s always been a love of mine. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for this site, and everybody who contributes to it. I’d love to have time to contribute more, but I’m just happy to be a small part of it, and share the books that I can.
Now, just one last item of business before I announce my 50th scan, a checklist of the first 49 “srca1941 Scans” (TM). Collect ‘em all!!!
* indicates the date first posted online. All other dates are dates the books were scanned.
1. Black Terror #16 (bet. 8/27/01 & 7/19/02)
2. Super-Mystery Comics vol.4 no.4 (bet. 2/1/02 & 12/1/02)
3. Big Shot Comics #19 (2/12-13/02)
4. Jumbo Comics #76 (2/21/02)
5. Amazing-Man Comics #15 (bet. 2/23/02 & 7/15/02)
6. Doll Man #43 (2/27-28/02)
7. Black Terror #12 (3/4/02)
8. Wings Comics #78 (3/17/02)
9. Big Shot Comics #101 (4/16/02)
10. Crack Comics #23 (5/13/02)
11. Punch Comics #14 (7/13/02)
12. Thrilling Comics #25 (7/15/02)
13. Green Lama #3 (7/19/02)
14. Blue Bolt vol.2 no.11 (8/26/02)
15. Crack Comics #22 (9/6/02)
16. Grand Slam Comics vol.2 no.3 (#15) (9/19/02)
17. Black Terror #25 (Canadian) (9/26/02)
18. Feature Comics #89 (12/3/02)
19. Skyman #3 (12/3/02)
20. Tony Trent #3 (12/4/02)
21. Blackhawk #41 (2/21/03)*
22. Exciting Comics #46 (5/10/03)*
23. Boy Comics #47 (5/24/03)
24. Speed Comics #10 (5/27/03)*
25. Marvel Family #52 (1/16/04)*
26. Wonderworld Comics #4 (1/18/04)*
27. Crime Does Not Pay #48 (1/21/04)
28. Blazing Comics #4 (1/30/04)
29. 4 Most Comics vol.2 no.2 (1/31/04)* Possibly posted in early 2003.
30. America’s Best Comics #22 (1/31/04)*
31. Blazing Comics #4 (1/31/04)*
32. Captain Marvel Jr. #61 (1/31/04)*
33. Target Comics vol.6 no.10 (1/31/04)*
34. Target Comics vol.7 no.11 (1/31/04)*
35. Whiz Comics #84 (1/31/04)*
36. America’s Best Comics #26 (6/14/07)
37. Exciting Comics #51 (6/14/07)
38. Target Comics vol.2 no.8 (2/28/09)
39. Thrilling Comics #8 (2/14-15/10)
40. Black Cobra #6 (#2) (10/9/10)
41. Hit Comics #14 (10/10-11/10)
42. Veri Best Sure-Fire Comics #1 (10/14-17/10)
43. Hopalong Cassidy #66 (10/9/11)
44. Super Duck Comics #42 (10/24/11)
45. Whiz Comics #7 (10/24/11)
46. Dick Cole #9 (10/24/11)
47. Heroic Comics #85 (10/26/11)
48. Airboy Comics vol.5 no.7 (11/18/11)
49. George Pal’s Puppetoons #17 (11/19-20/11)
Honorable Mention:
1. Spirit Section #55: June 15, 1941 (1/31/04)* Not counted with the rest because it is a newspaper insert, not a full-sized comic.
And now, the 50th scan is…
PLASTIC MAN #40!!! This issue fills one of our last holes in the series, and is the last of the issues with new material that is completely unscanned! And now, the issue notes:
******************************************************************************
At some point in this book’s history it suffered from moisture problems and the pages became “wavy.” A heavy book was placed on it when scanning to help flatten, but some waves are still noticeable. Also, the text story was intended to be two pages, but only one was printed, so it is incomplete. There is not a page missing from the scan.
******************************************************************************
-Eric
