Looking on ebay and foud this. Is it one of a kind?

[Drewsky]

http://cgi.ebay.com/MARVEL-COMIC-COLLECTIBLES-STAN-LEE-AUTOGRAPH-RARE_W0QQitemZ280447142104QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item414bf3c8d8

 

 

[Drewsky]

I do'nt know much about color guide type stuff. Are these real marvel production art or giveaways mass produced items? Thanks for the help

[ajaxfarrell]

Do a search , in subject, going back 10 years for "color guides"

There's about 6 threads that mention it in their subject.

 

In fact....what the heck...

LINK 1

LINK 2 LINK 3 LINK 4

LINK 5

LINK 6

 

[*paull*]

They don't appear to be color guides... more likely transparencies? Or proofs?

[CollectingFool]

They don't appear to be color guides... more likely transparencies? Or proofs?

 

Don't know about other ones but the Thor looks like the color separations. They are on transparent plastic and when you put all the sheets on top of each other you get the cover. I have a couple of those that I mounted into a mat on top of a lightbox. I've had it for about 17 years, it used to make a nice store display. One of these days I'll have to drag it out of the closet and do something with it.

 

 

[micmack]

It is called a Color Key and is used to test the negatives prior to burning the plates...

[Weird Paper]

Their intended use was as a press proof. There were two kinds, a flap style like a ColorKey, which was usually used on presses where all four colors were not running simultaneously, and on web presses like the ones on which comics were printed. The other style was made up of the four colors -- cyan, magenta, yellow, black -- also exposed individually, but laminated together. That style was usually used for four-color presses. I'm glad these sold for a good price, as it was a really worthy cause, but these proofs are not archival. They were never intended to last indefinitely, and will fade and yellow if exposed to light.

This process of proofing is all but dead with since advent of digital presses which don't use negatives and extremely precise inkjet printers which can create spot-on proofs.