posted March 14, 2003 08:33 AM               

In considering what the next GA Superman volume will be, it was offered that since Batman In World's Finest Vol. 1 has seen publication, then it follows that much of the restoration work on the complimentary pages of Superman would have also seen work. This seems like a valid assumption to me, but is this the case?

What part of the process of putting together the Batman book would make it easy to also put work in on the Superman pages? Borrowing the original books? (Do they still have access to original art from these periods?) And would this follow to, say, More Fun Spectre issues, where we could then conclude that we'll see all of Corrigan's stablemates seeing their pages getting restored at the same time?

I'm not quite sure how this all shakes down. It would be strange if this were the case that DC has sat on all the Hawkman pages it might have worked on when putting together the first Jay Garrick book.

posted March 14, 2003 10:50 AM               

I would guess that access to the older Golden Age titles is a limiting factor when putting together an archive. So, in the case where books have to be borrowed, DC most likely takes advantage of the loan to photograph additional material rather than only what is immediately needed.

There are probably a whole mess of factors that come into play, and ultimately determine what additional material is or is not copied:

- The likelihood of a need for another feature in the near future. If you borrow More Fun to copy the Spectre, you will likely also copy Dr. Fate while you have possession of the book. You will probably ignore the Mutt and Jeff (or whatever humor feature) in the same issue, because (a) there's currently no interest in archiving that feature and (b) that feature started forty issues earlier, and in the unlikely event that it is archived, the first three archive volumes will not reach this issue's chapter.

- The condition of other features in the same issue. Just because the Batman feature is in nice shape and complete, does not mean the Superman feature is. So you could end up with several missing Superman in WF chapters after completing the Batman in WF archive.

- The schedule of the person(s) responsible for the copying. If Joe Zerocks is pushing into overtime and can barely complete photographing of the Batman in WF stories #8 - #15, and those issues must be returned to their owner tomorrow, then the decision may be made to not copy the Superman features, in order to avoid paying Joe overtime. This undoubtedly creates extra work/hassle for the next year when the Superman archive is made; but this is the way business is done in many places.

posted March 14, 2003 11:08 AM               

As for the original art, what remains is all in the hands of privite collectors. I don't believe there is any film until at least the mid-late 50's, and they're spotty at best until the 70's from my understanding.

-Steve

posted March 14, 2003 12:15 PM               

I certainly remember reading somehere that one of DCs two remaining sets of copies of Superman 1-4 had to be systematically destroyed to produce the first Superman Archive.

posted March 14, 2003 06:21 PM            

However, I suspect, that DC actually has a substantial amount of usable material for two reasons:
1. Many of the rarest issues have already been Archived.
2. DC doesn't have to destroy (Theakstonize) original comics in order to make an Archive. This means that they don't need two copies of a comic to make an Archive.

I'll be shocked if DC has to borrow more than 50% of the material in any single volume. I suspect that they have to borrow no more than 30% per volume. Usually, the percentage will go down as volume numbers go up. I think I'm being conservative, but keep in mind that I'm only guessing.

I don't see any reason for DC to put in any extra work for usable material that they have in their possession. Based on the beliefs I described above, DC isn't doing a lot of doubling up.

However, in cases where DC is getting material from someone else, I pretty much agree with quincyjb.

If they have to pay someone for the issue, they will scan everything that they consider Archivable. I don't think DC considers Mutt and Jeff Archivable. Slam Bradley's on the edge.

I'm assuming that the owner of the material hasn't placed any restrictions on DC. For example, if I'm the kind of person who would charge DC big bucks to make an Action Archive from my material, I'm going to charge DC based on what they are using. Superman in Action will cost less than Superman and Zatara. I'd probably give them anything that I believe is unArchivable since I believe they won't be making any money off of it.

In any case, scanning is almost certainly the easy part. The restoration is almost certainly the hard part, but it can be done long after the material has been scanned. So doubling up probably never saves DC any significant amount of time.

If we're talking about Superman in World's Finest, I suspect that DC had to borrow about a quarter of the material. They probably scanned both Superman and Batman from these issues. However, the scanning is the easy part, so no time was really saved. I'm not sure when Green Arrow starts, but they probably scanned him as well. Zatara's on the edge, but I think he's falling off on the wrong side.

posted March 15, 2003 06:54 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by James Friel:

...Perhaps it isn't necessary to lie the whole book face down on a screen as if it were being photocopied--maybe it can be held open at a right angle with the page being copied flat and face up and a lens pointed down at it from above, as if it were being photographed.

---

Why go to all that bother? Just slit the spine with a box cutter, run the pages through a color copy machine, and staple the thing back together. That would take 10 minutes, tops. Simple, really. The owner could wait in the lobby while the processing was being done, so you wouldn't even have to mail the comic back and forth.

:-)

posted March 15, 2003 07:22 PM               

<choke>

<gargle>

posted March 15, 2003 07:26 PM               

Tell them Don Powers recommended MicroComics to you.

Comics from DC since Action 1 on microfiche.

Since I have read early World's Finest (Best)on microfiche, I can tell you Supes and Bats were the bookends of the title with Zatara, TNT, GA, etc. squeezed in the middle.