Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Mar 12, 2012, 08:46:08 PM
Shoveke, are Archie or Walter assisting you in anyway at all with the re-release?
Aaron - Sadly, Archie passed away back in '99. I work in Walter's studio so that's how I got the gig to do the art scanning and restoration, as I scanned all the artwork for the recent Marvel THOR Omnibus reprint and some of the artwork for IDW's THOR Artist Edition. Walter is extremely busy drawing Avengers for Marvel currently, but be assured he will be signing off on all portions of the finished product to make sure we get the best book published that we can. We will also have the original creative director for the book and letterer, John Workman involved. He is very excited to see this back in print, as are we all.
Quote from: SM on Mar 12, 2012, 10:31:22 PM
Shoveke - What exactly constitutes "restoring artwork"? I have the original edition, which still stands up for mine. Do you have any examples of the old edition compared to the new?
Cheers.
SM - When the original book was printed, all of the lettering was done on a separate pieces of drafting vellum for each page, as some of the dialogue was to be printed in blue, and it was easier to have the lettering done that way for printing. Well, fast forward 30 years, printing is done somewhat differently and it's easier to have all the artwork setup and finalized going into the print process. So, I had to re-composite the lettering digitally back onto the artwork for the B&W and color editions. Also, the coloring in the original printing ended up being kinda muddy and the blacks were a little washed out in places. We have scanned in all the color artwork fresh and will adjust things so that it will be printed in the manner that was supposed to be originally released back in '79 but for some reason, did not turn out that way.
Quote from: predxeno on Mar 13, 2012, 02:54:45 AM
If I do get the Artist's Edition, it will be more for the fact that I'm a fan of the Alien series than anything else as I have never bought an Artist's Edition of any kind of comic book and thus have no idea what truly makes these copies so special.
What makes them so special, is that if you've ever seen original artwork compared to the printed version, there is usually a significant size difference as artwork is generally reduced by 35% for comics as a rule. The "Artist editions" print the original artwork at it's full original size, that means the pages in this book will 14" x 17", the same size as the original artboards. Plus with all the extra and new material and interviews, that's what makes them so "special". Also, the IDW edition start at US$100 a copy, so the price for the Alien book is a considerable bargain. If you are not one to care about such artistic matters, then the regular color reprint should hold you just fine.
Quote from: RagingDragon on Mar 13, 2012, 03:07:35 AM
Does that just mean it's autographed? I'd like to know what's different as well, before I decide to spend the extra money.
RagingDragon - All copies of the Original Art Edition will come hand-signed by Walter. It will be a limited run and there are no plans for re-printing as I understand it.