What was going on with Charlton's printing?

[RJBowman]

I have heard stories about the printing at Charlton; Supposedly, they bought an old color press from a breakfast cereal company. The publisher seems to have been built around providing content to feed the presses and keep them working and profitable, and toward that end, Charlton produced comics, magazines including Hit Parader, and miscellaneous stuff like coloring books.

I have seen Charlton comic with terrible printing. Lots of off-register color, and smeared ink. Off-square page trimming. Off-square or misplaced binding folds. Someone on this forum recently reported finding two different comics with wrong covers.

But I have also seen a few Charlton books with beautiful printing. Sometimes even better than what Marvel and DC were producing at the time.

Was this unevenness the result of equipment going without proper maintenance for long periods, followed by a complete overhaul resulting in good printing for a time? Or did the presses finally become unusable, forcing Charlton to go completely against their business model and contract the printing to another printer?

[tilliban]

These are valid questions, RJ, and I’ve got no idea.
All I know is, this is not an isolated case.
Infamous for their bad printing is the Canadian Superior company.
But I was shocked to see how bad the books from Premier Magazines are printed as well.
And getting a straight scan out of those off-square pages is the hardest part in scanning comic books…
Printing in general seems arbitrary and random. I wonder if two copies of the same issue could have looked different?

[RJ Bowman]

For those off-square pages, get yourself a copy of Paint Shop Pro. It has a tool called "perspective corrector". The software superimposes a rectangle over the image; you can move the corners of the rectangle independently, and set them on the corners of any rectangle in the scan, then click a button, and no matter how off-square the image is, it will be skewed and stretched to square corners. I've used this to fix old Fox Features comics.

[Yoc]

I strongly suggest caution gang.  As some scanners and editors have learned, less is more.  Over working a scan can create an unnatural look to the scan.  Not to say 'never' tweak a scan, I'm just suggesting caution.

[RJBowman]

In my experience, the Paint Shop Pro perspective correction tool almost always produces good looking results.

[Yoc]

Each to their own RJ.
I've never heard a complaint about someone leaving a scan as close as possible to the original comic as-is. 
But I've heard many about over worked or 'unnatural' edits.

[tilliban]

Off-square correction software?
This is almost taking the sport out of scanning!
 

And to answer my own question from above:
Just had the chance to compare two issues from the same Ajax comic.
The printing quality is identical.
But does that mean that all those really badly printed books ONLY exist in this really bad condition?
Makes me shiver to the spine...

[JVJ (RIP)]

For those off-square pages, get yourself a copy of Paint Shop Pro. It has a tool called "perspective corrector". The software superimposes a rectangle over the image; you can move the corners of the rectangle independently, and set them on the corners of any rectangle in the scan, then click a button, and no matter how off-square the image is, it will be skewed and stretched to square corners. I've used this to fix old Fox Features comics.

If done properly, and it sounds like RJB is doing it right, there is absolutely no reason why squaring the scan should do any harm, Yoc. On a low resolution scan (less than 200 ppi) it is possible that there could be some slight loss of crispness in the color dots, but this occurs even when you simply straighten a scan. A 300 ppi scan should be able to withstand both squaring and straightening - but best practice would be to do both at once. Tools are tools, the same color levels correction applied by one editor will produce a different result than when applied by another. It's the editor and his/her skills, not the tool, that makes the difference.

Peace, Jim (|:{>