A photo of the back cover to this rare gem.

I'm actually afraid to touch it, much less read it... but I did, albeit, very carefully, take an exam of its condition... cover (flat, no spine rolls, blunting on edges, minor foxing on back cover) and interior (all white pages, no missing pages, no missing pieces, no rusting on staples, no detectable oxidation odor) and generally no amateur repairs or restoration that I could detect. My conservative guess on its conditon is 8.0 (Very Fine), but my gut tells me it's 9.0 (Very Fine/Mint).

It's printed on heavy stock paper... thick cloth type... not fragile and prone to brittleness like comic pages.

On the front cover, in small print, all in caps, appears:

A MOPPETT*BYRNE PRODUCTION

The back cover reads in large print, all in caps, and centered:

THIS CATALOGUE PUBLISHED

ON THE OCCASION

OF THE

A.C.A. STUDENTS' EXHIBITION '71

A.C.A. GALLERY - MAY, 1971

And in small print (but also all in caps and includes a company logo) appears on the lower right corner:

PRINTED BY SAIT GRAPHIC SERVICES

It obvious it wasn't meant to be a comic book per se, but a free giveaway to those invited guests viewing the gallery. But how many would they realistically print for a gallery viewing? I'm guessing 500 to 1,500 max. I imagine the majority of the recipients were Canadian... mostly students, faculty members, art collectors and the like... but would they have kept them or tossed them away? So the big question is... How many survived? And after 41 years... how many survived in good condition?

I have a good mind to research this further. My first task would be to contact SAIT polytechnic and speak to someone in archives. I would like to have a full historical perspective on this... give it the best presentation it deserves!

SW3D

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