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'PLANET COMICS' (is deserving of its own thread)
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Started by Paul © ® ⚽️💙™,

6,186 posts in this topic

cheetah

cheetah

Posted
Posted

just to put this out there, I spent a lot of time with scans trying to replicate what the book looked like and not what I WANTED the book to look like.  My scans weren’t perfect and yellows were absolutely the most difficult color to recreate, plus different monitors and screens show the same color differently.  All that being said, the yellows on the Heritage scan are not the yellows on the book.  Do any GA books have that brilliant a yellow?  The cover in general did not have the vibrant pop like it seems in the Heritage scan.  It was a very nice book and I think my scan on this one matches well with the book in hand.  I always considered it one of the best colored FH covers that I had.  But if I had bought it thinking it would be as vivid as the Heritage scan, I think I might have been disappointed.

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Artboy99

Artboy99

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Posted
1 hour ago, cheetah said:

just to put this out there, I spent a lot of time with scans trying to replicate what the book looked like and not what I WANTED the book to look like.  My scans weren’t perfect and yellows were absolutely the most difficult color to recreate, plus different monitors and screens show the same color differently.  All that being said, the yellows on the Heritage scan are not the yellows on the book.  Do any GA books have that brilliant a yellow?  The cover in general did not have the vibrant pop like it seems in the Heritage scan.  It was a very nice book and I think my scan on this one matches well with the book in hand.  I always considered it one of the best colored FH covers that I had.  But if I had bought it thinking it would be as vivid as the Heritage scan, I think I might have been disappointed.

I have experienced jacked up scans from many sites, the worst has to be Metropolis/Comicconnect. 

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Flex Mentallo

Flex Mentallo

Posted
Posted (edited)
10 hours ago, cheetah said:

just to put this out there, I spent a lot of time with scans trying to replicate what the book looked like and not what I WANTED the book to look like.  My scans weren’t perfect and yellows were absolutely the most difficult color to recreate, plus different monitors and screens show the same color differently.  All that being said, the yellows on the Heritage scan are not the yellows on the book.  Do any GA books have that brilliant a yellow?  The cover in general did not have the vibrant pop like it seems in the Heritage scan.  It was a very nice book and I think my scan on this one matches well with the book in hand.  I always considered it one of the best colored FH covers that I had.  But if I had bought it thinking it would be as vivid as the Heritage scan, I think I might have been disappointed.

Completely agree - Heritage were juicing all their scans up to when I stopped paying attention sometime later. I had learned not to 'buy in' to the false promise [nothing glows' like a digital picture, not even Church copies!] Interesting to know that you consciously tried to get your scans more accurate. I stopped trying to rectify my scans when I realized that my red green deficiency was more significant than I'd ever realized. I never would have realized if I hadn't started posting them on the boards. [That's where the scan of #17 with the green boots originated BTW - they still look yellow to me! there is no green boots variant, sorry Artboy!]

 

And I'm happy to take responsibility for false [did someone say cringeworthy :foryou:] impressions - not blame it on my eyes!

 

 

 

You are also right that monitor settings can cause huge variation to the appearance - colors look far more intense on my smart phone than on my 'puter for example!


I think the real difficulty, though, when it comes to posting on these boards, is when it appears as if one has intentionally juiced the scans to make a given book seem more intensely colorful than it is in hand, as in 'look what I got'. So your scans of the same book are illuminating for comparisons sake. To my eye your scans always seem a tad undersaturated, but so do Comiclink's for example.

 

Speaking of variants, and since I may have inadvertently started that particular hare running with the green boots, I am not sure either that any variations in FH covers can be properly called variants. Insofar as, I don't think print runs of a given issue have used different color set ups - I think they've just lost magenta gradually - or rapidly, even, as the print runs have continued. [I suspect that the scarcity of 'absolute' colors in surviving copies, accurately reflects that few were ever printed as designed by the colorist, whoever that was.] A great pity, as color often plays a significant role in the cover composition. Beyond the loss of magenta, I have the impression that blues often fade, adding yet another layer of confusion.

 

Gator used to say that Fiction house books - even the earliest issues - are comparatively common - think of Centaurs for example. But I do think that Fiction House books with true colors are just as scarce, if not rare, as Holyokes such as Catman. Not necessarily the rarest, but getting there. I speculate that some no longer even exist as intended, while being plentiful overall.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Flex Mentallo
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cheetah

cheetah

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Posted
2 hours ago, Flex Mentallo said:

Gator used to say that Fiction house books - even the earliest issues - are comparatively common - think of Centaurs for example. But I do think that Fiction House books with true colors are just as scarce, if not rare, as Holyokes such as Catman. Not necessarily the rarest, but getting there. I speculate that some no longer even exist as intended, while being plentiful overall.

To me, the challenge of FH was always finding a well-colored, structurally-nice copy.  With Jungle and Jumbo, finding a 9.0+ copy that had true-ish color was the grail.  For those titles it was doable since they were relatively common and the chances of finding one that fit both criteria was not impossible.  I found Planets to be popular enough that the top tier combination wasn't as available and, sometimes, I had to settle for just having a copy.  As we go through this serial display, it reminds me how much work I still had to do on my Planet run.  Even though it was 'complete,' much more than half the run could have been upgraded to something better.

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Flex Mentallo

Flex Mentallo

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42 minutes ago, cheetah said:

To me, the challenge of FH was always finding a well-colored, structurally-nice copy.  With Jungle and Jumbo, finding a 9.0+ copy that had true-ish color was the grail.  For those titles it was doable since they were relatively common and the chances of finding one that fit both criteria was not impossible.  I found Planets to be popular enough that the top tier combination wasn't as available and, sometimes, I had to settle for just having a copy.  As we go through this serial display, it reminds me how much work I still had to do on my Planet run.  Even though it was 'complete,' much more than half the run could have been upgraded to something better.

Seeing everyone's copies posted together at least gives one an opportunity to see what a collection comprising the 'best of the best' might hypothetically look like. When I first came onto the boards, in 2010 I didn't find Fiction house colors much talked about - now hi-color copies go for premium prices even in lower grade. Awareness is far greater now. When you were collecting them, it might have been possible to upgrade half the run. You'd have been in some bidding wars, no doubt. Now - well, it would need bottomless pockets! These days, I can only stand and watch. My run is only a third - 25 issues - and though I focused on the colors, not even all of those are 'the best' in terms of colors - if there even is such a mythic beast. Sometimes you do just have to settle, if it's a cover you particularly covet. [My quest to complete the title in strong colors was never realistic. I even let go of strong colored lower grade books I thought I'd easily upgrade later - huge mistake!]

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mwotka

mwotka

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Here is my 30.  I realize I can't hold a candle to some collections, but I am ok with that.  I'm just happy to have halfway decent copies most of the time.  When I started buying Planets in 2010, there were some amazing deals, but as the years went on, the prices definitely went up.  It was a struggle to finish things off the last few years.  I can't imagine starting over today.  It has been very expensive just upgrading a few books, sometimes with a ten-fold (or more) increase in price over a decade.

This issue reminds me of a guy I know who is nearing 90, a retired dealer.  He read many of these when they came out and later accumulated the run. Only guy I know who was an original reader of the title off the news stands.  There aren't many of them left.   He has since sold off most everything but this is the one issue he kept, because Lost World was his favorite feature by far.  And looking at the Ingels art on Lost World, I can understand why.  I've included a few pages. 

planet 30.jpg

planet 30 splash.jpg

planet 30 lost world.jpg

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