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New Charley's War Printing

Started by Tjm86, 30 October, 2017, 06:09:23 PM

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Tjm86

Seeing the news on this, I have to admit to being a tad torn.  Including the colour spreads makes it a bit tempting but then again the Titan Hardbacks (missing poppy notwithstanding) are a thing of beauty.  Now if Rebellion had decided to release a hardback 100th Anniversary edition with the colour spreads, as a box set even, then I'd have my slightly well worn kidney on eBay in a heartbeat.

TordelBack

This the perfect edition for me, happily, having been sorely tempted by the Titans but unable to scrabble up the cash for the first few at the time. Can't wait.

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

I'm afraid the Titan editions, with all their commentary and whatnot, are the perfect ones for me, and they sit happily on the shelf and won't be replaced by new editions any time soon. Colour bits or not.

SBT

maryanddavid

The Titan editions are beauts, but I always though the covers were too academic. They certainly don't advertise the content, lapsed readers could easily pass them by.

13school

There's one book of the Titan collections - I think book four but I'd have to check (it's the one with Blue) - where the reproduction seemed a bit below par. Considering the later books looked excellent (as did Titan's one and only omnibus), I'm really hoping these new editions will fix that.

Tjm86

Aye, there are some muddy pages in volume 4.  To be fair to Titan, they did print a disclaimer that sourcing the material meant that quality was likely to be somewhat variable.  I'm not sure a new edition would sort that.  Am I right in thinking that comparisons between Titan and Rebellion have not always been favourable?

I do take your point maryanddavid with regard to the covers.  There is a risk with the choice made that fails to convey the dynamism for a new audience, never mind capturing old readers who need a bit of a visual prompt to remind them.  Then again, does it not convey the seriousness of the material?

glassstanley

Quote from: Tjm86 on 31 October, 2017, 08:33:14 AM
Am I right in thinking that comparisons between Titan and Rebellion have not always been favourable?

Yes, you'd be right. And understating the situation!Although, to be fair, it's mainly the early Rebellion reprints that doubled up the Titan reprints. The Treasury reprints have been well done. Just frustrating that Leopard from Lime Street has a quality reprint, while Bolland Dredd and B&W Slaine... doesn't.


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Rogue Judge

Can someone illuminate me as to if there is a link for more news on this? I'd like to know what format these are being released and in how many volumes...and when. I have just over half of the Titan collection but would consider picking this collection up instead. I do enjoy those hardbacks, however.

Rogue Judge

Quote from: Tjm86 on 30 October, 2017, 06:09:23 PM
Seeing the news on this

Where did you see this news? Google has failed me...thx

Tjm86


The Amstor Computer

Quote from: Tjm86 on 31 October, 2017, 08:33:14 AM
Aye, there are some muddy pages in volume 4.  To be fair to Titan, they did print a disclaimer that sourcing the material meant that quality was likely to be somewhat variable.  I'm not sure a new edition would sort that.  Am I right in thinking that comparisons between Titan and Rebellion have not always been favourable?

I do take your point maryanddavid with regard to the covers.  There is a risk with the choice made that fails to convey the dynamism for a new audience, never mind capturing old readers who need a bit of a visual prompt to remind them.  Then again, does it not convey the seriousness of the material?

A new Rebellion edition could possibly sort that. They have apparently been working from scans of the original comics for much of their Treasury line and they clearly have the process down well - there's an art and a technical challenge to scanning and cleaning up art from printed pages, and between their repro staff and whatever software they're using (some early interviews specified custom software built by Rebellion for the work) they seem to be on top of it.

Some of Titan's reprints from the comics themselves have been pretty iffy - I have the first Major Eazy and I was incredibly disappointed with a lot of it, with a number of pages soft and blurry (I think they may have originally been colour pages, reprinted greyscale, but the result wasn't great) - and I would expect any books that were heavily reliant on that kind of material to look better in a Rebellion edition.

As for the covers... I do like the Titan edition designs, but they aren't entirely true to the presentation of the strip in Battle. The bold title, with its reversed "S", the handwritten letters... it was all linking into the strip's young lead, and I think that kind of innocent, naïve look worked really well. Replacing it with the more sombre, formal approach, using period photos and the poppy motif was respectful and distinct but I don't think it quite hit the mark.

I'm not entirely convinced by the covers I've seen so far for the Rebellion reprints, but I've only seen what may be unfinished/mock-up covers on the MCM slides. That said, the focus on Colquhoun's art as a major cover element, and the reinstatement of the original reverse-S logo, give them a look that I think is more true to the strip than Titan's editions. Will be interesting to see how the full range looks when they're more formally announced.

Rogue Judge

Thanks Tjm!

I like the new covers, but based on what I see I will continue to collect the Titan hard back editions. I like Pats annotations and the histoical extras add a lot of value to me. As much as I like the color spreads the B&W works fine.

IndigoPrime

Quote from: The Amstor Computer on 26 November, 2017, 01:49:48 PMthere's an art and a technical challenge to scanning and cleaning up art from printed pages, and between their repro staff and whatever software they're using (some early interviews specified custom software built by Rebellion for the work) they seem to be on top of it.
One thing that has really come on is Rebellion's work on colour pages. Things still aren't perfect. Luke Kirby has some moire, and there are some other issues with pre-digital art now and again. But mostly the colour stuff is looking very nice indeed, not least centre spreads in the likes of Dredd.

Black and white still seems a bit more of a crapshoot. When I was reading through City of the Damned recently, some of Dillon's art lost details here and there. Still, the book was still broadly strong throughout, and it's interesting from a technical standpoint to see how this stuff is gradually improving. (It's a pity they don't use one of the Meg text slots to explain the process. It's a bit geeky, sure, but I imagine quite a few readers would be happy to read about how saving British comics history is happening in Oxford, and gain some sunlight into how it's done.)

Bolt-01

#13
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 28 November, 2017, 09:43:22 AM
interesting from a technical standpoint to see how this stuff is gradually improving. (It's a pity they don't use one of the Meg text slots to explain the process. It's a bit geeky, sure, but I imagine quite a few readers would be happy to read about how saving British comics history is happening in Oxford, and gain some sunlight into how it's done.)

Seconded. I know it's well geeky, but in many ways it is this process that is going to be the best way to preserve so many strips.

broken quote fixed — IP

The Amstor Computer

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 28 November, 2017, 09:43:22 AMOne thing that has really come on is Rebellion's work on colour pages. Things still aren't perfect. Luke Kirby has some moire, and there are some other issues with pre-digital art now and again. But mostly the colour stuff is looking very nice indeed, not least centre spreads in the likes of Dredd.

Black and white still seems a bit more of a crapshoot. When I was reading through City of the Damned recently, some of Dillon's art lost details here and there. Still, the book was still broadly strong throughout, and it's interesting from a technical standpoint to see how this stuff is gradually improving. (It's a pity they don't use one of the Meg text slots to explain the process. It's a bit geeky, sure, but I imagine quite a few readers would be happy to read about how saving British comics history is happening in Oxford, and gain some sunlight into how it's done.)

Yes, I'd love to see a feature in the Meg on their process - even just an interview with the staff working on repro and design on the Treasury line and a brief overview of the challenges involved in reproducing these strips would be welcome and would maybe keep it on a less-niche level for the general Meg readership.

The colour stuff certainly has improved in leaps and bounds. Moire can be a nightmare to deal with, and there are still some gnarly bits in recent Mega Collection reprints of pre-digital colour strips, but it's far less common than it was in earlier Rebellion reprints.

B&W art should be easier to deal with in theory (not quite "scan, level adjustment, threshold adjustment, convert to bitmap" though!) but I suspect - and I'm happy to be corrected if I'm off-base - that the issues with some of the iffier linework repro in things like the Dredd Mega Collection is to do with the budget for preparing those books. There probably isn't the time and money available to go back and do completely new scans/clean-up for everything in those books, so while you'll get some fresh elements (colour spreads in some Dredd tales, or strips that have never been reprinted before and were likely scanned for these books) some of the material seems like it may be from an existing, older digital archive which was scanned/processed with less-than-ideal techniques, or sourced from less-than-ideal material.

I'd expect slow improvement with already-scanned material though as Rebellion revisit it for new editions - in fact, I believe there's an upcoming reprint of The Black Hole due, as Smuzz/SMS has been trying to source his original art and scans of the old Titan edition of the book to provide Rebellion with better digital files for it.