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GA Facsimile Editions
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68 posts in this topic

I have more [PCH] if people want to see, but the above should give you a good idea. The covers are well produced. The interiors are on white paper and the books don't close properly. So they don't exactly feel right. And it's odd when the scan used is of a comic with creases! Personally speaking, I'd rather have them than not, but I'm sure others will disagree!

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On 9/12/2022 at 11:40 PM, Cat-Man_America said:

Having thought this through I'm persuaded of exactly the opposite.  Normally I despise digital faux-airbrushed fades in classic GA art, covers and/or story art; it ruins the art for me.  Note: From my perspective the epic fail was the EC Archives which attempted to recolor stories digitally with shading which lost all the magic of the original books in an attempt to appeal to a contemporary audience.  

Here, it's quite different.  The Captain America Milestone Edition ...at least the cover... looks like carefully rendered watercolor shading that seems to serve Kirby's art pretty well.  For the most part it doesn't intrude upon his inks even though it looks too well realized for most GA cover work.  However, it fixes the one glaring nit-pick that always bothered me about the original art by coloring over the right wing on the back of Cap's head which always seemed off perspective-wise.  In spite of this, the colors are subtle yet varied, far from garish, but strong where they need to be blending well with the art without looking digital.  

In contrast, the 'Tec #27 looks like a third or fourth generation copy of a copy, with garish colors and no subtlety in the toning (more Andy Warhol than Bob Kane).  The high degree of saturation doesn't remind me of a GA comic at all.  This is just my artistic sensitivity thinking out loud and it's totally an "eye of the beholder" kind of thing taking into account my personal dislike of universal price codes.

:goodvsevil:

Here's a pic of the actual book. The one in the post was just from DCs website. 

Screenshot_20220913_073722.jpg

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On 9/13/2022 at 8:06 AM, Flex Mentallo said:

I have some of the recent Marvel and DC facsimiles too, though not this one. Have to say, the bar code kills them for me.

I have the loot crate Tec 27 and I would say the quality of this facsimile is much higher. It feels much more substantial and the page quality and colors are outstanding. There was obviously a lot of love put into this, which is what makes me excited for the forthcoming AC1, Supes 1, Tec 38 (and hopefully Bats 1 and on and on). The price code is just a sign of the times and it has to go somewhere but I believe DC minimized it as much as they could. We no longer have the original 10 cents and times have changed in that regard. At least it's not like Marvel who plaster the new price on the book twice.

Screenshot_20220913_081522.jpg

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On 9/13/2022 at 8:21 AM, Krydel4 said:

I have the loot crate Tec 27 and I would say the quality of this facsimile is much higher. It feels much more substantial and the page quality and colors are outstanding. There was obviously a lot of love put into this, which is what makes me excited for the forthcoming AC1, Supes 1, Tec 38 (and hopefully Bats 1 and on and on). The price code is just a sign of the times and it has to go somewhere but I believe DC minimized it as much as they could. We no longer have the original 10 cents and times have changed in that regard. At least it's not like Marvel who plaster the new price on the book twice.

Screenshot_20220913_081522.jpg

Would have been better if they dropped the dollar sign and priced it “399 cents”…

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Here are a few pics. If any of the high rollers want to flip through their first print High Grade Tec27s and check the colors for us it would be appreciated (shadows in pics are mine, can't take a good pic to save my life, just ask my wife).😁

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Edited by Krydel4
Clarity
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On 9/12/2022 at 12:47 PM, Flex Mentallo said:

because the seller was entirely reliant on the quality of scans uploaded to the Digital Comics Museum

This bothers me immensely.  I doubt very much that they asked permission to use the scans from all the fans that were trying to help preserve these fantastic books.  The fans that spent all that time carefully scanning (do you realize how hard that is without taking the books apart?) are not sharing in any of the profits.  I'd imagine that use of those scans without the scanner's permission amounts to copyright violation.

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I'm definitely a fan of facsimile editions, as I've pointed out and discussed in other threads.  IMO, they're ideal as fill-in or reading copies and aren't intended to replicate the original comic in a manner that becomes an issue with identification. Give current comic prices for original books, it might even keep collectors involved in the hunt rather than cashing out. 

As Flex mentioned earlier the interior paper isn't newsprint pulp so the books don't feel the same or open in a similar fashion due to thickness.  I'm also in the same place about universal price codes, so I'm more attuned to public domain copies reproduced within the limitations of available scans.

On 9/22/2022 at 8:28 PM, Yorick said:

This bothers me immensely.  I doubt very much that they asked permission to use the scans from all the fans that were trying to help preserve these fantastic books.  The fans that spent all that time carefully scanning (do you realize how hard that is without taking the books apart?) are not sharing in any of the profits.  I'd imagine that use of those scans without the scanner's permission amounts to copyright violation.

This is a reasonable concern and a valid point, but we probably shouldn't assume whether permissions were requested or granted. Since the Digital Comics Museum is sharing public domain materials acquired through fans this becomes a grey area.  Those who helped do deserve recognition, but the work involved in producing, storing and marketing replicas at a reasonable price point I'd also think is also a noteworthy effort.

The bottom line is the end result.  The quality has to be sufficient to justify price and desirability. Some facsimile editions are better at recreating the GA comics "experience" than others.

:cheers:

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On 9/23/2022 at 2:28 AM, Yorick said:

This bothers me immensely.  I doubt very much that they asked permission to use the scans from all the fans that were trying to help preserve these fantastic books.  The fans that spent all that time carefully scanning (do you realize how hard that is without taking the books apart?) are not sharing in any of the profits.  I'd imagine that use of those scans without the scanner's permission amounts to copyright violation.

 

On 9/23/2022 at 5:51 AM, Cat-Man_America said:

Since the Digital Comics Museum is sharing public domain materials.

Some facsimile editions are better at recreating the GA comics "experience" than others.

I am not very kbowledgeable about copywrite and I understand why it bugs some of us.

PSArtbooks seem to rely on what is in the public domain for example. So unless someone uploads a full copy of Chilling Tales to the Digital Museum I doubt they will ever complete the out-of copywrite PCH project they started so long ago.

I have many of their titles, and one can clearly see that resto is minimal.

Shout out to our very own @Artboy99

who loaned PSA his precious copy of Planet #15 or that book set might never have been completed.

But at least we have them even if as books not facsimiles, though they have now done a few of these.

Plus we have EC (did anyone else collect the facsimile sets from the nineties like me?)

Wherever I can, I pick up HB editions -Fantagraphics deserve a mention.

LMK if you guys would like more info as it's going off topic strictly speaking.

Edited by Flex Mentallo
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