143ksk Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 (edited) Edited April 5, 2006 by 143ksk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 That cover's great! The next 2 books were brought to me by one of my employees. Her mother was cleaning out her house and came across a small group of books from the late '50s and early '60s. Pretty cool Sounds you like made a good hire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted April 15, 2006 Share Posted April 15, 2006 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FFB Posted April 15, 2006 Share Posted April 15, 2006 Love that late 50s/early 60s DC green on that cover! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Love that late 50s/early 60s DC green on that cover! My scanner seems to lose some of the richness of the deep colors DC used back then, whether it is green, blue, purple, or red. Oh well. This one scanned pretty nicely for a certain someone who seem to like pink on his war covers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfiver69 Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Love that late 50s/early 60s DC green on that cover! My scanner seems to lose some of the richness of the deep colors DC used back then, whether it is green, blue, purple, or red. Oh well. This one scanned pretty nicely for a certain someone who seem to like pink on his war covers. LOVING THE PINK. And the green! I have been off the silver books lately as I clean up my bronze runs... but oh man, I am gonna buy me some silver DC war in the next little while!!! Stellar books, Adamstrange! Shep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Doing the group shots the hard way. (I know, definitely a bunch of 12cent books in there.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FFB Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Love that late 50s/early 60s DC green on that cover! My scanner seems to lose some of the richness of the deep colors DC used back then, whether it is green, blue, purple, or red. Oh well. Are you using an HP scanner? That's what I use and I get the same effect (too much yellow added that mutes the other colors and dulls the whites). I usually have to adjust the colors in Photoshop to get them to show up close to the true colors. Anyway, if those are examples of "muted" colors on your book, I'd hate to see how blinding they are in person! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Love that late 50s/early 60s DC green on that cover! My scanner seems to lose some of the richness of the deep colors DC used back then, whether it is green, blue, purple, or red. Oh well. Are you using an HP scanner? That's what I use and I get the same effect (too much yellow added that mutes the other colors and dulls the whites). I usually have to adjust the colors in Photoshop to get them to show up close to the true colors. Anyway, if those are examples of "muted" colors on your book, I'd hate to see how blinding they are in person! Epson Perfection 1650, though I'm thinking of getting a new in the next few months. I have a scaled-down version of Photoshop (PS Elements) but I've stayed away from mucking too much with colors. I'm not sure it's extra yellow as I have trouble picking up a bright lemon yellow -- it's always duller than the book. I do a few things like adjust sharpness/contrast but I haven't been able to make refinements other than that I felt helped me create a more accurate image. The green on that particular copy is less intense than some from that era, like the Tomahawk below, which I bought specifically for the dramatic coloring: Here's an example of the red being a slightly dark red rather than pure cherry red. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfiver69 Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Adamstrange, Just some killer, killer books.... HG DC from that era are impossible. Jaw-dropping... damn! Shep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FFB Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Love that late 50s/early 60s DC green on that cover! My scanner seems to lose some of the richness of the deep colors DC used back then, whether it is green, blue, purple, or red. Oh well. Are you using an HP scanner? That's what I use and I get the same effect (too much yellow added that mutes the other colors and dulls the whites). I usually have to adjust the colors in Photoshop to get them to show up close to the true colors. Anyway, if those are examples of "muted" colors on your book, I'd hate to see how blinding they are in person! Epson Perfection 1650, though I'm thinking of getting a new in the next few months. I have a scaled-down version of Photoshop (PS Elements) but I've stayed away from mucking too much with colors. I'm not sure it's extra yellow as I have trouble picking up a bright lemon yellow -- it's always duller than the book. I do a few things like adjust sharpness/contrast but I haven't been able to make refinements other than that I felt helped me create a more accurate image. The green on that particular copy is less intense than some from that era, like the Tomahawk below, which I bought specifically for the dramatic coloring: Here's an example of the red being a slightly dark red rather than pure cherry red. I remember talking to Tim about your books when you first started posting on the boards. He couldn't figure out how you got your scans to show colors so intensely -- then after a while I think he realized that it's the books themselves! Those are just killer, killer colors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelcity Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 This is the first time I have tried to post a scan; hope it works! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelcity Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 I don't know why the book has posted as an attachment instead of a straight image? I'll post some more if I can improve my technique (I'm trying out my new scanner!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnenock Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Here you go. Just copy the url of the attachment, edit your original post, and from the Instant UBB code list click IMAGE, and copy the url from your attachment into the dialogue box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelcity Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Thanks for the advice! I'll try to post some more scans later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Thanks for the advice! I'll try to post some more scans later on. Nice! Thanks for posting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 I remember talking to Tim about your books when you first started posting on the boards. He couldn't figure out how you got your scans to show colors so intensely -- then after a while I think he realized that it's the books themselves! Those are just killer, killer colors. You can tell Tim that it's all in the wrist! There are times when the scan will look better than book as it may hide certain defects or make the book appear brighter than it does in real life. If you look at the GA cover contest for the Startling 49, that scan of that book is too bright. It looked odd enough that I looked it up on the Heritage site and it has been altered -- the large pic they have is much more reflective of what the book actually looks like. I sometimes struggle with that in doing my scans as I would like them to be reflective of the book I'm scanning. To some degree this isn't possible because, even if you could reflect the colors properly, you couldn't reflect qualities of the ink, sizing, paper, etc. The print qualities of comics from the 40s and 50s vary far more than the comics from say 1965 until you get to the foil variant phase. But in a number of cases, I don't feel like the colors are close to accurate. There is only so much you can do to manipulate a book if the colors are faded and the cover has yellowed. Given time, I'm sure Redhook could do a great job with most any scan, but I think that doing something quickly requires clean source material. I would actually be interested to see what RH would do to improve the scans. I'm sure there are some general tips, but I suspect that would be interesting to watch him trying to make the scans match the HOM and Tomahawk books I posted previously. I had a professional photog take some pics of the comics and that didn't turn out all that well either as the photos couldn't capture the vibrancy of many of the colors. My brother, who has seen the photos, the scans, and the comics, prefers the photos. By an overwhelming margin, I prefer the scans over the photos. In any event, the real secret to the scans is that I generally place the books naked on the bed of the scanner. Tim could do that too. Here's an example of scanning through mylar vs. scanning the book directly. This is also a good example of how a scan makes a book look worse. The "dirtiness" on the upper third of the spine is from the printing press. The one stress mark in that area is exaggerated. The top edge of the book looks like it is bent, but it's not -- it's a near flawless overhang for a Marvel. What you are seeing is the edge of the back cover that has been bent in ever so slightly. If I placed the book on the scanner upside down, the top of the cover would look as solid in the scan as the bottom does is this scan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelcity Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 I've been trying out my new scanner all morning. Scans do look better for books out of their mylars but I've only dared try with modern books. I'm going to carry on scanning all non-moderns in their mylars just for safety. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelcity Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 That's a great White Mountain Strange Tales! I'll try to post an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelcity Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Here it is: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
