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Originally Posted by d_osborn
I simply LOVE historical discoveries like this-- I'm not quite sure how I missed this one. Great job on the research, on explaining old printing processes/techniques. I love non-digitial processes. From Eastman/Laird's art to final books, all via photochemical reproduction.
It's REALLY cool when pieces like this end up with collectors that appreciate the history, the old school processes, etc.
Have you hit up IDW for any potential publishing uses? Were the original inked pages scanned before being sold off to collectors? Have you personally done any archival digital scanning with the negatives? I've been scanning a bunch of original studio 8x10 negatives from Ghostbusters for a documentary project. Large format negative scanning is a HUGE pain to do correctly!
I'm sure you know, but elements of the cover printing were sold several years ago. I believe the red plate negative? I'm not sure about the others. Eastman also sold an early press proof during a huge auction several years ago.
Simply insane. Congrats on the score.  |
It's such great fun to revisit history through these critical pieces of TMNT history. Especially pieces that never should have survived the years. So glad you found the articles and enjoyed the series. Thanks for reading.
I am considering possibly making the discovery and provenance of these negatives (basically the articles I wrote) into a trade paperback. I've also considered maybe a reprint of TMNT #1 that comes directly from these negatives. But, all that really is just in the "thought" stages now. I'd need to approach IDW (Nickelodeon / Viacom) and see what is legally possible. Could be that I partner with IDW on something like that but nothing in the works at the moment.
I have fully scanned all the negatives at high resolution and have a ton of photo / scan documentation (as you can tell after reading the articles). But, I'm not using any real techniques that I'm sure would need to be done to actually use the scans I've made for production. If the negatives are ever used to reproduce a copy of TMNT #1, I'm sure it would need to be done in-house by a print shop again (and, I'd actually want it done as closely as possible to the old methods to make a really nifty collectible).
As for the cover negatives, I've never seen them before but if you have some info. about who bought them or where they are, when they sold, etc. I'd love to get more detail. Feel free to ping me via IM to chat further about that. I never did see that a cover negative was sold in the past so I must have missed that. I do recall Eastman's printer proof being sold a while back and I'd love to track that down and acquire that to go along with the negatives. I'd love to have the cover negatives as well but I don't know where those are, if they even exist and, if so, who owns them.
Thanks again for reading.