Can someone please help me understand what this is? Caniff Steve Canyon 1 1

[Bandelier]

Recent pick up. I really enjoy it but I'm not quite sure exactly what it is. It seems to be something that was created in-house although I'm no expert. Perhaps an experimental production piece for coloring? It's large (approx. 19" x 28"), and printed on a sturdy 1/4" hardboard panel. The print quality is excellent. Even under a loop it's very hard to tell it's a print; but the blacks are uniform across. Some of the coloring appears to have been applied by hand, some maybe a print. The white out over the bold date at the top makes me think it's produced directly from the original art. 

Thanks for the input.

 

 

[drdroom]

Bro, I got no idea what you have there...

[Readcomix]

Based on your description, I think maybe you’ve got a Sunday strip production page. Back in the day, newspapers received a black & white that somebody had to hand-color to prepare for printing. I’ve got a Peanuts like that. Just my best guess; hopefully someone with more expertise can corroborate or correct.

[Day Stripper]

You have what appears to be a partially colored production page (photocopy of the black and white pen and ink art) for the March 18, 1951 Steve Canyon Sunday comic strip by Milt Caniff. 

Typically, for Steve Canyon Sundays, Caniff rendered the original art in pen and ink, in a horizontal, rather than vertical, format.  Once Caniff sent it to the syndicate, the original art would be photocopied, usually arranged in different formats (some papers ran it as a full page strip horizontally, some ran it as a full page strip vertically, some ran it in a half-page [or smaller] format which deleted some of the full-page panels) for layout and coloring purposes. 

What you have looks to be a vertical format photocopy/production page of the Sunday with partial hand-coloring (mounted on board).  It is unclear whether the mounting and coloring was done by a syndicate (or printer) colorist or by someone who later obtained the black and white photocopy.  The partial coloring of your page is similar to what colors were in the published Sunday as per the IDW Steve Canyon reprint volume 3, which reprinted strips from 1951-1952 (Sundays were reprinted in color). 

Hope this helps.   

P.S. You can tell it is a photocopy, and not an original Caniff Sunday, by the copyright indicia (sometimes called a "bug") at the bottom of the final panel.  Yours looks to be printed on the paper; on the original art, Caniff (or an assistant) would have pasted/glued a strip with this information directly onto the bottom of the final panel.  

Edited November 16, 2023 by Day Stripper

[Bandelier]

On 11/16/2023 at 9:38 AM, Day Stripper said:

You have what appears to be a partially colored production page (photocopy of the black and white pen and ink art) for the March 18, 1951 Steve Canyon Sunday comic strip by Milt Caniff. 

Typically, for Steve Canyon Sundays, Caniff rendered the original art in pen and ink, in a horizontal, rather than vertical, format.  Once Caniff sent it to the syndicate, the original art would be photocopied, usually arranged in different formats (some papers ran it as a full page strip horizontally, some ran it as a full page strip vertically, some ran it in a half-page [or smaller] format which deleted some of the full-page panels) for layout and coloring purposes. 

What you have looks to be a vertical format photocopy/production page of the Sunday with partial hand-coloring (mounted on board).  It is unclear whether the mounting and coloring was done by a syndicate (or printer) colorist or by someone who later obtained the black and white photocopy.  The partial coloring of your page is similar to what colors were in the published Sunday as per the IDW Steve Canyon reprint volume 3, which reprinted strips from 1951-1952 (Sundays were reprinted in color). 

Hope this helps.   

P.S. You can tell it is a photocopy, and not an original Caniff Sunday, by the copyright indicia (sometimes called a "bug") at the bottom of the final panel.  Yours looks to be printed on the paper; on the original art, Caniff (or an assistant) would have pasted/glued a strip with this information directly onto the bottom of the final panel.  

This is so helpful. Thank you! I really appreciate the info from all.

I was looking at some of the Sold OA on HA and noticed some of those pieces had handwritten lettering - "Let depth come one Sharp Glossy Print for Rescale..." and then that made sense. A production print rescale. Very neat!

[Bandelier]

I also stumbled on a CAF's user gallery that has some wonderful pictures of Caniff inking similiar sized boards. Thought I would share! Thanks again.