Flashback to 1995
Life before computers! Well, for me it was. My desk in July 1995 when I was assembling Yampy Tales No.1, a comic I self-published reprinting Combat Colin strips. The days of pasting up the logos on the pages with glue and physically taking the art to the local printers. It would be another four years until I'd buy my first computer (an iMac if you were wondering).
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I think I know where my issues of Yampy Tales are.. well, technically my fathers but never mind that ^_^
ReplyDeleteWhile I understand it all from a money point of view, it's kinda a shame that options just weren't really out there for small self publishers to be able to get decent rate clear plastic sheets.. Bigger companies and of course, animation could do it (in fact, it created a problem in the 70s as Disney found a new method to remove inkers by photocopying the pencils directly onto the clear sheets.. which is what gave the 'dirtier' style look to films like 101 Dalmatians. It was much cheaper for them during the time they weren't doing so well)..
I must say you were pretty late to computers.. couldn't even play the Oink game for the Spectrum micro computer.. not a totally huge loss there but boy, over half the game is 'based' on your work so that's a plus ^_^
I really must get around to working out some ideas for a Combat Colin game or something.. been a while since I did a nice fun small game project for fun...
Sorry Ryan, I'm not understanding your point about plastic sheets. How would that help in producing comics?
ReplyDeleteI quite enjoyed pasting up the pages in the old way. It's better with Photoshop etc of course though.
Yes, I held out against getting a computer until I had to really. For a few years I didn't know whether to go for a Mac or Windows, but after trying both I found the iMac very intuitive and that swayed me. I still use a Mac today, but one with a considerably larger screen than the iMac. :)
Ah, sorry, the Plastic sheet method mostly works well when you have repeated use of mastheads like a comics title, so they can be pasted onto that screen, and just overlaid onto the cover or strip or whatever, then the copy taken, then just lifted up and reused for the next issue Also used with times when the art is drawn and then speech balloons are kept on a second sheet/layer allowing easy movement around if need be and the like, much like what is now done via layers in Photoshop and the like. Its far more useful in cheaper animation of course, but it can still work in comics even if only saving a small amount doing it. but these days, the methods are unlikely to be needed much as it can be done more digitally.
ReplyDeleteWe did use acetate sheets for lettering. The full colour pages for Buster were done that way, with the balloons pasted onto the acetate. Logos were copies that were pasted onto the artwork.
ReplyDeleteAs I lettered Combat Colin myself I lettered directly onto the artwork. Less time consuming than cutting each balloon out and sticking it onto acetate. Even today I letter things like Postman Prat, Keyhole Kate, and The Daft Dimension directly onto the art.