Question on printer's proofs

[Joanna]

Just a general question. Is there anyone out there who collects or buys printer's proofs of comics? I have some and was thinking of selling them, but I don't know if this is something anyone would have an interest in.

 

(printer's proofs are full, uncut, loose comics -- no staples, etc. that are sent to the publisher to approve prior to printing a run).

 

Here are a couple of examples:

 

 

 

 

[PovertyRow]

Just a general question. Is there anyone out there who collects or buys printer's proofs of comics? I have some and was thinking of selling them, but I don't know if this is something anyone would have an interest in.

 

(printer's proofs are full, uncut, loose comics -- no staples, etc. that are sent to the publisher to approve prior to printing a run).

 

 

Yes, there are folk who collect these. My personal opinion is that this area is not unlike where a lot of original are was 20 or more years ago - when you could get a TON of good art for $25-50 a page. In the future, as people become more aware of it, I think they will increase nicely. These proofs are very beautiful, quite rich and also hearken to the history of the book..

[Mushroom]

Hey Joanna I am interested in them. I have been collecting a few lately.

 

Here is a recent thread on them.

 

Proofs

[Joanna]

Very interesting thread. These are a bit different, as they aren't the acetate color proofs, but a printed comic (it's got all the pages) that was sent to DC for approval.

 

I have the original letter from Bob Rozakis at DC (I won these in a trivia contest). It says it's "A press proof of a current issue (in my case, WW 117), plus a section of the new Tenth Anniversary Dark Knight Returns book."

 

I have another press proof for Amazonia, a WW Elseworlds graphic novel. Probably have more, too, but I found these while looking for something else tonight.

 

-- Joanna

[Mushroom]

I would still be very interested in them. They make outstanding presentation pieces.

[Joanna]

I would still be very interested in them. They make outstanding presentation pieces.

 

They're definitely rare. As Pov said, most get thrown away. And they're not available to the public for the most part. Thanks for being interested -- I'll PM you. Some background:

 

Bob Rozakis used to hold a weekly trivia contest in an AOL chatroom -- this was many years ago, when AOL was young and actually really fun. I used to run the weekly WW chat room with Trish Mulvihill (the colorist). Anyway, Bob would ask these wonderfully obscure DC questions and whoever got the most correct answers won something. Usually, it was whatever happened to be on his desk at that moment. But sometimes he'd try to find something that fit your collecting preferences. Being a bit of a trivia-head, I won several of his contests. I know I still have stashes of these prizes around the apt. All sorts of crazy things, and some really cool things like the proofs. I have this big box of Zero Hour stuff -- full of posters, handouts, pins, cards -- all sorts of stuff. Some sort of publicity kit for a distributor, I'm guessing. But it was fun because where else would you ever see this kind of thing?

 

-- Joanna

[Joanna]

Found some more stuff. Found some John Byrne scripts, an autographed poster (Galactus vs. Darkseid), some xeroxes of his original boards for a couple of comics, with his notes on them. A Death (Sandman) stand-up ad. Man, I sure collected a lot of stuff. There's no telling what else is buried in here.

 

Does anyone else accumlate stuff like this -- sort of satellite items that are related to your hobby? I know some people collect toys and cards, but what about other things?

 

-- Joanna

[Room 237]

Yep, I do... if you find any Iron Man stuff, I'm your man

 

cheers.

[lighthouse]

Joanna,

 

We used to get proofs of the covers of new DC's almost every week... Along with next week's comics they would send cover proofs of the week after that. DC stopped for some reason, never found out why... but we never got proofs of interiors...

 

I used to joke with my buddies that we should make our own double covers...

[Joanna]

double covers, eh? Hmmm....

[Joanna]

Yep, I do... if you find any Iron Man stuff, I'm your man

 

cheers.

 

I'm a DC gal, but good luck on your search!

[fantastic_four]

Are proofs sized like a comic book, or are they oversized like original art is?

[lighthouse]

Art is the same size as comics... but untrimmed... so you have a 1/2" border all the way around with the printer guides and whatnot... you can see it in Joanna's pics...

[FlyingDonut]

Just a general question. Is there anyone out there who collects or buys printer's proofs of comics? I have some and was thinking of selling them, but I don't know if this is something anyone would have an interest in.

 

(printer's proofs are full, uncut, loose comics -- no staples, etc. that are sent to the publisher to approve prior to printing a run).

 

Here are a couple of examples:

 

 

 

 

The Jack Adler color proofs from the 70s sell for a lot, all day long.

 

[aardvark88]

Jack Adler DC cover 60s proofs seem to all be hand-colored & comic bk sized. Newer ones from mid -70s up, are probably 3 acetate overlays (blue, red, yellow) + black line overlay. Untrimmed (same size) covers from the 60s to current are on same paperstock as normal comic bk covers.

[Mushroom]

These are my latest production art purchases:

 

Green Lantern Proof

 

and I really really really love this one

 

Super friends

 

 

[Joanna]

Ah yes, color guides! That's another aspect. One of my good friends is a colorist, and she occasionally sells pages on ebay. She's extremely talented and I've watched her work -- this is art in every sense.

 

Most coloring is done on the computer now, but the old way was to hand color a high quality print using markers, then color code them for the separator. The hand-coloring is very detailed, and the result is an eye-popping page.

 

I think these hand-colored pages will go up in value in the future, because so much is computerized now.

 

-- Joanna