Weekly Update #2: "Cerebus" & "High Society" Reprinting

Previously on 'A Moment Of Cerebus':

Dave Sim, working with George Peter Gatsis, has remastered the first two collected volumes of Cerebus to restore details and quality in the artwork lost over the thirty years since they were originally published (as detailed here and here). After Cerebus' original printer Preney Print closed its doors, Dave Sim moved his printing to Lebonfon in 2007 as at that time they were still capable of working with photographic negatives and making printing plates as Preney had done. And then Lebonfon switched to digital scanning and printing - a technology which struggles to faithfully reproduce Cerebus' tone without creating moire patterns (as detailed in Crisis On Infinite Pixels). Dave Sim continues to work with Lebonfon to ensure the print-quality of the new Cerebus and High Society editions (as detailed in Collections Stalled). Now read on...

WEEKLY REPORT ON CEREBUS (16th PRINTING) &

HIGH SOCIETY 30TH ANNIVERSARY S&N GOLD LOGO (11th PRINTING)

DAVE SIM:
(by fax, 25 October 2013)

Progress: George and I are in receipt of SHERPA 1440 dpi scan, XEROX 2400 dpi scan, Lebonfon 600 dpi which we have compared to George's 600 dpi print-out from Kinko's. The darkness in the last panel (the test page is page 12 of the CEREBUS volume) which has persisted through two rounds of proofs and the unbound printed copy (where it was much worse) is now within a more livable range. The XEROX 2400 dpi print-out is the best in my estimation.

George has inquired about the cost -- if any -- of the different versions and I've asked if we can just limit 2400 dpi scanning to "problem" pages like CEREBUS pg. 12 and to have that as part of the overall quote. We're waiting to hear back.

Tim: I'm asking George to email you the last panel on page 12 -- the 2400 dpi and the "unbound" printed version:

Tim: Re your question and Dominick Grace's follow-up:

Thank you for your questions. The problem is the SEVERITY of the moire pattern which is -- and has been -- livable on the proofs we've received. Livable in that I don't think the average reader would notice it. The 111 pages, once printed but before binding, the moires were more pronounced so the average reader would notice them. The 35 of the 111 were the most noticeable. What we're hoping is that a combination of more accurate proofs -- the 2400 dpi XEROX -- and George "tweaking" the 35 based on the printed version and Lebonfon "baby-sitting" those 35 pages in particular will bring us as close to top quality as we can get in the Computer Age of Printing.

cc:
Matt Demory, DIAMOND COMIC DISTRIBUTORS
George Gatsis, THE BLACK DIAMOND EFFECT
Patrick Jodin, IMPRIMERIE LEBONFON