Doc's Bootlegs

@TravisMorgan : Cool thread over there! Awesome Marshall Rogers portfolio!

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@DocAtlas Thank you. I need to start a non-DC thread in the Iceberg Lounge to post other stuff I have.

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Ok, it’s time for a new bootleg. Only posting this because DCU doesn’t have it up yet.

Ladies and gentlemen, coming here all the way from 1983, Mr. Jerry Siegel and Mr. Joe Shuster!

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Now, that is a theater to experience Superman: The Movie in!

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@Vroom Quick story: as I said earlier, when those pictures were taken, that was my first time in there in many years. When I entered, I was just amazed at the restoration, and I was soaking it all in. And then I thought to myself, “Wow! And to think, this is the theater where I first saw ‘Porky’s’!”

:slight_smile:

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Superman: The Movie and Porky’s…that’s a great double feature. :metal: :film_projector:

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Ok, new Bootleg Time!

Take a Minute to think of the character Swamp Thing. Then think of what artists do you associate with Swamp Thing.

I imagine the top response would be Bernie Wrightson, or maybe Stephen R. Bissette and John Totleben. Maybe a few would recall Nestor Redondo, who had the unenviable task of following Mr. Wrightson. Maybe Rick Veitch. Or maybe someone more recent like Yanick Paquette.

But did anyone guess Paul Gulacy?

I didn’t think so.

I wouldn’t guess Mr. Gulacy either, except for one thing. In the early 80’s, there was a Swamp Thing motion picture, and somehow, this allowed the creation of licensed items based on the movie. One item was a portfolio done by Mr. Gulacy and distributed by Eclipse Comics

No folder or envelope for the portfolio, just shrink wrapped with a cardboard to back it. And apparently they didn’t get the price right when they first published, so there’s a price sticker on the first page.

Actress Adrienne Barbeau once said on Stu Shostak’s show that they ran out of money when the movie was being made. Considering the shrink wrap and the price sticker, I think Eclipse ran out of money when they made this portfolio.

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Great share @DocAtlas. How do you scan your portfolios? Large flatbed scanner? I’m trying to figure out how I can get better quality on the larger stuff I share.

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@TravisMorgan : Until this virus clears up, I don’t have access to a large flatbed, so I’ve been scanning in two or more parts and then overlay one part over another. Blurriness will occur on any part that’s over the scanner glass and near a part of the plate that overhangs beyond the scanner glass, so that gets cropped out about an inch and this part with the cropped new border will be on top of a previous part.

Overlaying images is hardly precise. For the bootlegs, I’ve only been scanning at 200 dpi because of file size limits on DCU. Thus, the scanner software may not get enough detail at 200 and will extrapolate an erroneous pixel of two. When I’m overlaying, I might have maybe 15 points of reference in the line art and maybe one or two aren’t quite right, which is annoying for me.

Also, images will need to be rotated to line up, but this can introduce difference shades of white near the borders of the plates because of the different angles of the scans. Again, annoying, but that’s usually more noticeable when zooming in.

Start with a good size work area (IIRC, I’m usually starting at around 2400 x 3500 pixels for a portfolio plate), overlay the parts and then shrink the work area. I strongly recommend do not resize scanned images in your work area. Your software might do a suck job of extrapolating and introduce too many artifacts. I learned that the hard way when I started this. When I was trying out software, I scanned the Moebius plate from the Superman #400 portfolio (which is my favorite of the group) but I resized the parts to make is easier to work on, then I decided to share and emailed it to someone. I look back on what I emailed and I’m completely embarrassed by what I emailed. Talk about doing a suck job!

I realize some might think I’m being picky about this. I think that comes from being a dentist since, no matter what I’ve done for a patient or how long I’ve known them, ultimately I will be judged by the very last thing I did for them. Consequently, perfection must be the standard each and every time, and that has invaded other parts of my life. As that relates to scanning, that means I’ll keep trying to find more tricks of the trade. If I figure out something else. I’ll let you know.

I hope that helps. If you have any questions, please let me know!

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@DocAtlas Thanks, that’s great info! What program do you use to join the images together?

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@TravisMorgan : Haha, well, my cousin might shoot me since he used to work for Adobe (but then again, I did get him his first copy of Watchmen, so I might be spared, but I digress…), but for only that overlay task, just ordinary Microsoft Paint. Obviously there’s better stuff to use, but I don’t need it for much. I’m not redoing art (after all, this isn’t the DC Archives Editions). If anything, I think my weakest link is the scanner software, but for just that task and if my scans aren’t askew, it does the job.

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@DocAtlas Cool. I’m going to have to try that and see if I can do some of my portfolios. I just hope they turn out better than my Brave and the Bold: Warlord and Sgt. Rock vs. Nazi T-Rex guest starring Batman.

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New Bootleg

Phil Seuling is without question the father of the direct market. He formed Sea Gate Distributors in 1972, had a memorable appearance on the Mike Douglas Show where he mostly talked about comics (although most who remember it may mainly recall an appearance by the great Wendy Pini toward the end, you can see it on YouTube thanks to Ms. Pini’s husband, Richard), and in 1983, created a reprint series with DC entitled The Masterworks Series of Great Comic Book Artists. The first two issues was based on the work of the legendary Frank Frazetta.

Cover for issue #1:

The inside front cover had a biography of Mr. Frazetta written by Allan Asherman:

This issue reprinted Shining Knight stories from (what I’m told) are Adventure Comics #150, 151, 153, 155, & 157

The inside back cover is an ad for the store Forbidden Planet in NYC. The back cover is an ad including what’s to come in the series:

The cover for issue #2:

The inside covers are ads for Forbidden Planet’s convention and store. The Shining Knight Stories in here are from Adventure Comics #159, 161, and 163. The story from #161 was reprinted in Adventure Comics #417, which as of the time I write this, is the only Adventure Comics work from Mr. Frazetta I can find on DCU. Oddly, I think both DCU and this DC-Sea Gate book used the version in #417 instead of the original since they both reference it was originally published in #161 in exactly the same way (also the only reference in the DC-SG books to state when it was originally published). It finishes with stories from Jimmy Wakely #7 and Mystery In Space #1

The back cover, with a peek of what’s to come:

Issue #3 focuses on Mr. Berni Wrightson:

The inside front cover, also with a biography written by Mr. Asherman:

Stories are from Plop #5, House Of Mystery #186 & 188, and back to Plop to issue #1.

The back cover promised goodies from Neal Adams:

Alas, those issues nor any others came to be. I don’t know the reason for the end of the series, maybe because the direct market business model changed at the time (and not in Mr. Seuling’s favor), but perhaps it could be related to the fact that, very sadly, Mr. Seuling passed away the following year in 1984.

Anyone who ever enjoyed a comic book store owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Seuling.

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Ok, time to add the original pages from Superman #400.

Some notes: 1.) The inside from cover had an essay from Ray Bradbury. It was not in the portfolio that I posted earlier and I’ll post it at the end. 2:) The portfolio had a plate drawn by Mr. Terry Austin but was sadly not included in the comic (Boo!) 3.) As I said earlier, The plate from Mr. Jim Steranko was taken from the first two pages of Mr. Steranko’s ten page story, so I’m posting the first two pages here. 4.) Both the plate in the portfolio and the inside back cover in the comic as drawn by Mr. Jerry Robinson were both presented in black & white, neither was in color. 5.) The pages from the comic have been placed here in alphabetical order as there were also displayed in the portfolio to facilitate a side-by-side comparison, and not in the same order as presented in the comic. 6.) Mr. Frank Miller’s drawing is also the back cover.

Ok, here we go!

Again, Mr. Terry Austin’s pin-up should be here from the comic and not just in the portfolio!

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@DocAtlas Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful artwork. Frank Frazetta is a favorite of mine. His work introduced me to Edgar Rice Burroughs and I bought all four of his art books. The Shining Knight work looks fantastic.

The color Superman pages are great as well. Good to see so many different artists and all their unique styles. Thanks again!

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@TravisMorgan Glad you liked it! IIRC, the other place where DCU has posted a book here where there was art from Mr. Frazetta is All-Star Comics #50…or rather, there should be his art there. The original book has a three page back-up story from Mr. Frazetta (not part of the main JSA story nor does it have any JSA characters), but unfortunately it is not reproduced on DCU at this time. I don’t have that comic, but I should be able to figure out how to access it through a connection (all legally, no pirating). If I can, I’ll reproduce it here.

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Ok, two bootlegs, then a break.

After Crisis On Infinite Earths, Mr. Wolfman and Mr. Perez, along with Mr. Karl Kesel, created the History Of The DC Universe. The original two part series can be found on DCU here:

https://www.dcuniverse.com/comics/book/history-of-the-dc-universe-1986-1/f6e8ff9f-510a-4788-8dae-51c339cc00e0/

In conjuction with this, DC made two other items of note. The first that I’ll talk about is the portfolio bearing the same name.

The front cover of the folder:

The back cover:

And the ten wonderful plates inside:

Now then, notice anything out of the ordinary? Maybe Plate #9? Well, I did too. Other than it being in landscape instead of portrait, it feature something from Mr. John Byrne that I’never seen before.

There is an explanation inside the folder of the portfolio. Here is the inside front cover:

Now then, to the best of my knowledge, despite what is claimed as then-future plans for this team, this was the only DC appearance of “Freaks”.

However it does make me wonder if, back in the 80’s, maybe DC got into the business of publishing the backs of milk cartons! :slight_smile:

Also something of note is who is credited as being Batman’s creator, or rather, creators. This is what I believe is the earliest occurrence of DC printing “with Bill Finger”. Very glad someone sneaked that in there!

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And the other item, in collaboration with Graphitti Designs, was a hardcover edition of the book. Graphitti pulled out all the stops for this! They got wonderful artwork from other creators which I’ll reproduce here. In addition, great essays from legends, some of which I’m also reproducing. But the cherry on top is a gatefold jam artwork that I’ll let speak for itself.

I think I read someone here sent in that postcard and got the poster and now has it framed. It must look great that way!

Ok, I think I should take a break. Take care of yourselves, stay safe, tell someone you love them, and (especially because I’m a dentist) try to make someone smile! That’s Doctor’s orders!

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@DocAtlas Huzzah! Thank you my friend, I have been playing with my scanner and MS Paint and have some lo-rez scans to share.

First up Marshall Rogers Batman.

Next Brent Anderson’s Ka-Zar $12.00 for a signed and numbered portfolio 1415/3500.

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@TravisMorgan : Great work with the scans! I don’t have the Marshall Rogers portfolio but I do have the Brent Anderson one. That one was beautifully presented, complete with Mylar. Excellent choices to post here! Thank you for sharing!

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