Feelings on the IDW reprints

[Metropoliskid41]

Originally Posted by Tazi

I don't know how Nick or IDW deals with this issues, but if you want to reprint a comic by Marvel (for a different country then US), and they don't have it digitally, they will offer you to scan it for a high price, but If you (=your publisher) don't like it, marvel will still let you scan it by yourself. I don't see why Nick wouldn't let something like that to happen for IDW, but of course I might be wrong, some from IDW could reveal the truth about this...

Tazi, What I was saying about the scans and Mirage is this, for reprinting the material, IDW can only either a) Use the original art files provided to them by Mirage or b) Use scans of the actually published material

So for example when Ultimate Collection volume 4 had issues where the pages were missing the duo tones (so the only art was line art and not the shading, give the book a hollow look like the DC Showcase or Marvel Essential books) that was because Mirage no longer had files containing the Duo Tones, and only had the original line art (pencils and inks) and that was what they sent IDW to reprint. So the end result was an Ultimate Collection that was missing the Duo Tone shading in certain issues that were collected.

For the case of the Archie Adventure series, it appears that they don't have access to the original art work, whether that means permanently, or simply for the time being, and so if they wanted to put out these books that fans were clamoring for, they had to use scans of the actual printed material. Obviously this isn't ideal, especially from an era where printing inconsistencies still ran rampant due to experimenting with different printing processes for making comics. So they could just not have access to high quality, flawless printed copies to scan from. Some printing inconsistencies or smudges are from the printing anilox or plates that the press used, and so the same smudge or mark that messes up a single panel could be present in the exact same location in literally thousands of copies.