"Ghost Gallery" Project -- Collectors' Assistance Requested

[MAitchPrice]

Yoc --

And many thanks for the insights. My basic approach is to treat a comics page (deteriorated or not) with the same respect I bring to a gallery painting, whether original or a restoration. Art is art is art is art, just as there is only one Show Business, whether sideshow or honky-tonk or highfalutin' opera house. Your discovery of the PhotoShop filtering tools will prove immeasurably helpful, I believe. I keep several versions of PhotoShop in communion with one another, including some primitive (now antiquated) prototypes from 'way back when the studio was doing Carnival of Souls and Holiday for Screams for Malibu Graphics. Each has its advantages, and when harnessed together they can deliver results finer than any single program by itself.

When restoring lettering as a separate layer or separate file (the better to place a restored balloon within the final page), I try to work with the authentic material. Sometimes, this is impossible, owing to many factors that might include, for example, a layer of original coloring over a caption. This requires a higher density (400-600 d.p.i.) and a willingness to crank the Gamma (one stage), then lighten it with Contrast and the Lightening tool (one stage), then blur it (one stage) to remove traces of pulpwood distortion, and then sharpen it (one stage) and then adjust Gamma, Contrast, and Lightening (another stage) until pleasing to the eye (an instinctive judgment). A good desaturation, or bleaching, is the final step before an original balloon's lettering is ready to plunk into the correct place upon the final page. Misspellings, bad kerning and line spacing, and even poor grammar and bad syntax can be corrected (in the original letterer's own handwriting) by the Cloning tool or even a simple cut-and-paste procedure. I developed this technique several years ago when restoring my Prowler series (with Tim Truman, John Snyder, and Graham Nolan) for an omnibus edition; Tim Harkins' lettering was integral to the authenticity, but it required scattered corrections.

When applying original lettering, I use a customized keystroke edition of my own hand-lettering alphabet (I learned the craft from Ben Oda), in addition to several prefabricated fonts, modified in Real Time. Fanboy Hardcore is evocative but usually requires narrowing; its lower-case setting can yield the all-important lower-case "i" in places where an upper-case serifed "I" is inappropriate. A Leroy-style font (called Squa Tront, and best used in lower case) is available as a free download. The lowly and over-used MS Comic Sans can become a vibrant and evocative comics-page font if double-bolded and adjusted for kerning and narrowed line-spacing. (A single-stroke "i" can be found in MS Comic by using the lower-case "L.") Nothing beats hand-lettering on Strathmore, of course, but a digital-lettering job can be made to appear organic with patience and the right attitude.

A most delightful exchange of ideas, here. Thanks. And yes, the Digital Comics Museum will receive its due in the forthcoming volume. Your service to the field of research is irreplaceable.

-- MHP

[Yoc]

Thanks for elaborating on this Mike.  I'm loving it.
Working on my edits for sharing on DCM feels like a walk in the park beside what you must have to do for printing requirements.  Just doing the lettering sounds like a huge task!  You worked with Ben Oda?  Very cool!  And you say you run several versions of PhotoShop?  Interesting.  Does this mean you have several computers or have you figured out how to run the older versions on newer machines?  Having to upgrade software is one of the bigger reasons I'm always reluctant to migrate to newer PCs and operating systems.  I'm still using an ancient PC running XP Pro here.  The idea of jumping to Win 7 or 8 scares the heck out of me.  (Being a cheap s.o.b. doesn't help either.)  Running PShop CS5 on 1.5gig of ram can try ones patience.
For my edits I rarely have to worry about any of these things you obviously must dissect so closely.  On some rare occasions like that Phantom Lady I mentioned, I've had to recreate lettering and yes, the clone tool is heavily used.  Cloning is likely the heaviest used tool for me removing thumbs from page edges and the odd stain or ripped edge.  Generally I've tried to preserve books as-is 'warts and all'.  When working with Soothsayr he's sending out massive raw tiff files which need more work than a typical Rangerhouse scan.  Colour correction is needed on a Sooth scan due to a green hot-spot created by the scanner on each spread.  After a lot of trial and error I've managed to work out a fix using gradient fills with hue and lowered opacity.  The unfortunate side-effect though is muting the overall colour of each page which I try to correct with curves and brightness/contrast tweaks.  I might use the sharpen filter but that's about it from the PhotoShop filters section.
Perhaps I'm wrong but I'd gotten the impression that a typical comic today is almost entirely made on computer for speed and cost reasons.  I'd figured hand lettering must be a mostly lost art.

What's your thought on books going digital with iPads and Comicology growing more important?

[MAitchPrice]

Not much pondering going on here about digital books. I've licensed a few of my film-history books as iPad editions, but those have yet to outperform the printed-and-bound versions. No desire to see my art or my restorations reproduced as pixelized images. Tried that with one title at ComicMix in 2007 and was appalled at the loss of detail and lack of clarity. The flourish of the page and the weight of the binding are as key to the experience as the printed matter itself.

PhotoShop system here is all-in-one, although I do maintain a Virtual Machine (the ghost of a deceased favorite PC) within the new (2012) framework, which is kept deliberately off-line. Any techno worth his salary can install antiquated software on a newfangled platform. The primitive iPhoto+4 (a forerunner of PS) and PS itself do not like one another, but they can be made to commune against their will if kept in separate operating paradigms. Offline operation protects everything from Internet glitches and annoyances, and also from unwanted intrusions from the software manufacturers. Adobe is most annoying in its discouragements to offline installation, but the task can be accomplished with patience.

First step on any page is to achieve the right size (in CM or inches) and density, and then to create backup layers (or copies) for density, color correction, and restoration of lettering. The primary-source image takes a beating while the backup duplicates are there for cannibalization and experimentation. I generally go to about -45 Gamma, +30 Contrast, and -10 Lighten after a general blurring to minimize the internal rough edges; save that; blur again; resume Gamma at about +140, Contrast at +10, and Lighten at -3; save that; and then cannibalize the blues and blue-red dot-screen areas from one oversaturated layer or duplicate file. Basic steps, subject to interpretation and personalized style. The imperative is to Work Big (like 1.5X, I mean), or as big as the Memory Bank will allow.

And yes, you are correct: Computers have taken over. I resisted until about 10 years ago, then found that I enjoy the digital processes, which enable a lot of new work that might be otherwise impossible. Still keep quite busy at the drawing table, and in fact the new Prowler story (forthcoming as a bonus track in Leo Kragg: Prowler Vol. 2) is entirely organic, including the lettering. Same for a humor book that Todd Camp and I have in preparation called Stitches. Lost Art Forms are fascinating, but there is no excuse for allowing an Art Form to become Lost.

-- MHP

[Yoc]

Hi Mike,
Thanks for sharing a typical work flow for a page.  I'll give it a try.
I'm always behind the curve on computer technology.  Bleeding edge is too expensive and the thought of trying to reinstall or upgrade all my programs... well I put it off for as long as possible.  Even when it's silly not to upgrade anymore.  I've always been PC but all I've heard about Win8.1 isn't positive at all.

The print vs scan debate has shades of the LP vs mp3 one doesn't it?  One aspect that so far hasn't been touched is the cost to readers.  I've long felt comics have priced themselves out of reach as a cheaper form of entertainment.  With less and less pages on much more expensive paper sold in less locations it's no surprise to me the number of readers has been shrinking for decades.  How many generations have no exposure or interest in the medium now?  But with digital I thought here is a chance to really reach the masses and do it at a lower price.  But it's not happened yet has it?  I'm sure as a creator you've got strong feelings on the economics of it all.  Music, magazines and newspapers have been struggling to find the solution for a while now.  An all-you-can-eat NetFlix sort of idea has been running for a bit in Canada called NextIssue but I don't know if they are making a go of it yet.  The digital age must be a scary place for traditional media companies and workers.  One aspect that worries me is the death of accredited reporting and news media being gobbled up by a select few.  24hr news channels have been bad enough but now it feels worse....   BUT, that's a whole other ball of wax.

[MAitchPrice]

Yessir, well, speaking as one who keeps a hand in comics and music-making and egghead cultural scholarship, I've found that Hot New Trends are hardly what they used to be. Print will out, as will the physical handling and collecting of palpable objects of communication -- paper, vinyl, smartly packaged CD-albums -- even though the art of collecting itself has deteriorated into more a matter of hoarding. (Old-school collectors do not merely acquire; they amass meaningful objects and keep them in a practical array: Curatorial instinct, even among those who have no curatorial training.) The "collecting" of MP3 audio files or digital funnybooks only lends itself to chaos, for there is no physical beauty to array into a display. My digital files (works-in-progress, raw material, etc.) require special chronic handling and file-naming, lest they collapse in a heap of unnavigable data. The "Download" folder on one's hard drive demands frequent rearrangement and cleaning, accompanied by the transfer of kindred files into coherent thumb-drive collections (or "primitive" CD-ROMs) that can be filed physically as books or binders.

Haven't collected comic books, per se, in years. Too much like work, a second job that drains one's time and resources. If some publisher should exhibit the gumption to revert to newsprint at ten cents per title, then that industry would resurrect itself in short order. Reclaim the shirtsleeves audience. The contempt of Big Publishing toward comic books is demeaning and arrogant -- a dime's worth of entertainment each month for $5? Ridiculous. Small wonder that DC Comics is re-couching itself as an Entertainment Company and moving to Burbank. Even when overpriced, the funnybooks are now but loss-leaders, bound for extinction at the present rate. One can almost hear some bean-counter addressing the Board of Directors: "And why are we still publishing these pamphlets?" A return to genuine comics, reasonably priced, would cause a popular stir and re-justify a back-to-basics movement. One page of a Wayne Boring Superman story is worth the entire running time of Man of Steel.

Just my opinion, of course. Anyhow, keep up the good and valuable work. I am always pleased to make connections between the dedicated enthusiasts and the production sector. Used to do that in person and in Real Time as a comics-convention exhibitor and lecturer, but even the dear old comics-cons have deteriorated into show-business deal-making and costume pageantry.

-- MHP

[darkmark (RIP)]

Got a point.  Most of my comics are stored on CD's or DVD's, which are a lot lighter than the equivalent amount of paper comics and take up less space.  Paper comics are about to die the death, but collections and gn's will still work.

[MAitchPrice]

Good coherent storage -- that's the ticket. Just like maintaining an air-conditioner or a washing machine. I'm just on the point of regathering my last few original-material comic-book books (mid- to late-1990s) into one final TPB omnibus, with new material culled from hitherto unfinished stories from that period. A nice hefty 300-pager has a better plop-factor than an ordinary funnybook, anyhow.

[Yoc]

Sounds like you must have a very well organized collection there Mike.  I'm envious.
I hope you're right about the future of print and media.  The comics will hold on at least until the end of the Hollywood love-in with comics ends anyways.
GL with your new project!


Careful with DVD/CDs there DM.  They can get 'disk rot'.  Saving on the now much more affordable HD's or flash drives is a better bet.

[MAitchPrice]

Yaz um. Main storage now on a humongous Flash Drive. The CD- and DVD-ROMs will work as long as they work, and the shelf of binders looks fine in the studio. (Still got 30-odd years of newspaper and magazine bylines archived on floppy disks; gradually transferring those, insofar as they pertain to new projects.)

[Geo (RIP)]

Solid State Drives are coming down in price, no moving parts makes it an excellent choice for saving files/large files to store for longer times. I have a solid state drive on my laptop and it's strange not to hear it during startup.

Geo

[Yoc]

SSD's are still $$$ to my eye but I do love the idea of them.  And completely silent?!  Wow!

[CBpop]

A most excellent topic... thanks Mike and Yoc. I  would be very excited if a Restoration Manual was produced !!  I enjoy the “pulp” look of a comic and have been using PhotoShop to do some minor restoration to my scans.  Thanks to Yoc and other scanners, I am learning more and would be very interested in a forum topic dedicated to PhotoShop techniques. 

I did a reconstruction on a very damaged GA book using a Pixel by Pixel transfer of color from an undamaged section of art from the comic to restore damaged pages.  Thanks to Yoc for a fiche page of the damaged pages, I was able to overlay the damaged page and “fill in” the art using PhotoShop. Very time consuming but I think it was worth the effort.

I agree, paper seems to be a thing of the past, but I still love to hold a book in my hand and “smell the pulp” 

Best  of luck with your restoration projects. I look forward to hearing more about them.
Ed

[MAitchPrice]

A fine contribution to a sequence of considerable interest. Mightily grateful for everyone's work, which also makes my research a great deal more efficient. -- MHP