Question on IDW's reprints (Dreamwave, Marvel UK etC) - Page 4

inflatable dalek · 2012-04-10, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Denyer

Eh, it's better than letting information rot away unrecorded, and you're not going to have things like a paper collection (or even a full set of the old scans, let along anything more recent) without a fairly keen interest. Who cares if a company makes a few bob off that? It's not much in the grand scheme of things, and TBH Amazon probably do best out of the publishing financially.

I am inclined to agree with Cliffy that IDW are in it solely for the money rather than any great preservation scheme, and if they're only after a fast buck expecting the people helping them make it to do it for the love would be crap.

Of course, this is all conjecture and the exact working relationship and reciprocation could be just about anything. As Roberts apparently sent IDW his own comics (suggesting these are all new scans rather than reuses of previous IDW trades, which makes the poorer quality even more annoying) I hope he at least got them back in good condition. Someone was telling me recently that a few of the Annuals don't scan easily without wrecking the spine.

Cliffjumper · 2012-04-10, 07:29 PM

There are several elephants in this room, aren't there?

I don't think I actually totalled any annuals in the end, though I did cheat like ****ery on the Fallen Angel reprint in the Magnificent Six one. And swore a bit at the last one for the way none of the page joins are close to correct.

That and you can't spit in this country without hitting a copy of one of the first four annuals. Apparently in Sunderland there's a block of flats made out of pulped copies of the second one. True story.

inflatable dalek · 2012-04-10, 07:36 PM

Next to a public toilet made out of the World Distributor Gobots Annuals I believe.

Cliffjumper · 2012-04-10, 07:52 PM

"BUG BITE turns into a Volkswagen Beetle. Here's a two-page spread on the Volkswagen Beetle!"

inflatable dalek · 2012-04-10, 07:55 PM

Does it mention how the famous Transformer Bumblebee turns into one?

One thing that wouldn't surprise me is, if these books don't run the course, Roberts will very likely make sure any and all interview/research material winds up out there.

Denyer · 2012-04-10, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by inflatable dalek

I am inclined to agree with Cliffy that IDW are in it solely for the money rather than any great preservation scheme,

Companies are made up of individuals, and most of those I've spoken to have given the impression of interest. Which actually makes various editing and quality ****-ups more bothersome.

In any case, motives and outcome don't have to coincide to make a project worthwhile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cliffy

Which makes the idea of a mooted translated print run of Generations around the time even more inviable

I think the relative ease of importing the thing for anyone who jumped on the first printing probably has most to do with it. (I didn't, so mine was long after the fact -- after the deluxe edition came out, but before the Chinese reprint -- and thanks to a friendly British fan). The type of people buying are unlikely to care about the language.

Cliffjumper · 2012-04-10, 08:33 PM

What the hell is "inviable"? I think I was going for "unviable".

And yep, that interested would import is another factor against a translated run. Bottom line is that there are/were at most somewhere between 500-800 people in the West who would have been interested in buying a translated version of the book and would have actually followed through (Stepper Stepper Stepper Stepper), and most of those made alternate arrangements. My base point is that there were much, much simpler reasons for the thing staying in Japan than any potential copyright problems.

Denyer · 2012-04-10, 08:53 PM

@Der2:

Sorry, the light in here's quite yellow... this is Collected Comics #10, IDW and Titan.

http://img31.imagevenue.com/img.php?..._122_460lo.jpg

The main thing Titan has going for them here is the size and the glossy paper, although as mentioned the blacks are truer... both modern reprints emphasise contrast and have lost a lot of the blue tone, which is especially noticeable on Prime's face.

I'm guessing the paper in #64 (first print of the story) would be in slightly worse condition than CC#10 but not by much.

der2 · 2012-04-10, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Denyer

@Der2:

Sorry, the light in here's quite yellow... this is Collected Comics #10, IDW and Titan.

http://img31.imagevenue.com/img.php?..._122_460lo.jpg

The main thing Titan has going for them here is the size and the glossy paper, although as mentioned the blacks are truer... both modern reprints emphasise contrast and have lost a lot of the blue tone, which is especially noticeable on Prime's face.

I'm guessing the paper in #64 (first print of the story) would be in slightly worse condition than CC#10 but not by much.

Many thanks man, I really appreciate that.

I can see what you mean about the blue tones, they're gone from Ratchets face in the bottom left, Spike's t-shirt isn't quite as vibrant either, a little washed out.

But for a collected edition it looks reasonable enough for a neat copy to have. For all the complaints, it's affordable and that'll do me. I have a lot of the originals at home buried in a box somewhere and I'd prefer one book (or a handful of TPBs) over routing through individual issues to find the one I want.

inflatable dalek · 2012-04-11, 07:18 PM

Blimey, I hadn't realised quite how shrunk the art is...

Skyquake87 · 2012-04-12, 08:27 AM

Indeed...they may as well have spared a tree and shrunk the book to fit the scanned artwork if thats how they were going to do it...

Cliffjumper · 2012-04-12, 02:23 PM

I do like the borders emphasising just how much of the page is wasted. It's like they're saying "we've spared the original whitespace within the lines; outside of them it's IDW's own brand of clear, fresh nothing, as seen in Infiltration".

relak · 2012-04-12, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skyquake87

Indeed...they may as well have spared a tree and shrunk the book to fit the scanned artwork if thats how they were going to do it...

Precisely. I've been pestering IDW (dont know if they reply emails or not) about why the decision to shrink the art, but no reply yet.

Especially since the art was already previously printed in full page format/
Anyone got any speculation?

Cliffjumper · 2012-04-12, 03:17 PM

relak · 2012-04-14, 11:58 AM

ya. Money.

But you see, if they cut the entire book down to the size of Transformers Armada omnibus, yes they be saving on the lesser paper used.

In this case the paper used is the same as a tpb size since the size of the book is the same.
They might save on a little less ink since the pictures are smaller but seriously!!!!
Go through the trouble of getting some guy to shrink ALL the artwork just for a bit of ink saved?

Denyer · 2012-04-15, 11:07 AM

Most of the work (layouts, colour correction) can be reduced to very straightforward batch processing with automated steps. The worst part of scanning comics material is if you get distortion other than slight rotation, and the UK material has a lot of art that hangs over panel borders or reaches page borders so you'd have to be careful with cropping, but it's still something an office temp could do with clear instructions.

Cliffjumper · 2012-04-15, 11:37 AM

inflatable dalek · 2012-04-22, 07:53 PM

Brief interview here with Roberts:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

It clarifies how the scans were done (the first volume was all done from Roberts' own collection sent to IDW, the second largely from the Australian).

I have to say, the offered reason for moving Ancient Relics, to offer fans something "Special" (ie, something not reprinted before. So it's entirely sales motivated rather than space as I thought) is a bit crap.

I'm finding it odd that right after they've reprinted the Joe lead up to G2 issues they're doing them again in the first TF/Joe collection. Considering a large part of the people who'd want them would have already brought Joe 14 surely that's going to hit sales hard when the only other thing in the book is the bloody terrible original Marvel mini?

Cliffjumper · 2012-04-24, 04:19 AM

Transformers fans will buy it anyway. Hit sales hard? Less than a thousand people would be buying the book either way.

relak · 2012-07-26, 05:08 AM

So i just got Transformers Classic UK vol 3.

I must say the Quality control is better on this one.

The colors are less "smudge-looking", the darks have defined gradient.

Then again, most of these stories were reprinted before in the "Best of UK" series and before that from Titan.
Maybe they just re-used those master copies instead of scanning them from scratch?

IMO, i like the whole commentary about the change of coloring policy.
It's something i never noticed until the commentary pointed it out

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