Comparison of Comic Book Reproduction Editions - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 vs. Cerebus #1

As regular readers of this blog should no doubt be aware of by now, I have had a resurgent interest in comic books. There is nothing quite like holding and reading stapled pieces of folded paper together that tell a story with pictures and word balloons. Recently I have discussed both the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Cerebus the Aardvark. Now let's compare a pair of recent authorized reproduction editions of the first issue of each series.

Duoshade, Letratone and Web Offset Lithographic Printing

Before I go into the reproductions, I would like to talk a little about how Dave Sim and Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird produced their respective books in the days before digital tools. 

In broad strokes, the initial stages of creating a comic book are mostly-human directed. Sometimes creators would use scripting and storyboarding to give a very rough outline of the book and help plan the action and story's progression. Then the artists would start by penciling in their drawings on special paper. Then inks would be applied over the pencils and the excess pencil marks would be erased. Letters are generally added in a very late stage in the process. Once they got past the penciling and inking, these men used mechanical aids to help them tone their books. 

Cerebus #1 Phonebook Sample

Sim generally shaded only Cerebus in gray, other artwork was generally just inked. He applied a pre-printed pattern using a special type of screentone paper called Letratone, made by Letraset. Letratone 30%, LT 45, was commonly used. The pattern uses black dots of a certain size and spacing on a white background to give the illusion of a gray tone. With Letratone a pattern on a piece of backing paper is cut out with an x-acto knife into the shape of the area to be shaded. The cut out paper, which has an adhesive backing, is then adhered onto the original inked artwork. With a light board illuminating the inked page from below, one can "cut over" the pattern to be cut without harming the underlying artwork to fine tune the shading. Sim shows how he used to apply Letratone in this video.

Letratone is similar to the Duoshade paper used with the B&W issues of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but the application methods are essentially the opposite.

TMNT #1 4th Printing Sample

Duoshade paper, manufactured by Graphic Arts Systems (Grafix), had special patterns embedded into the paper which would not be very visible to the naked eye at first. A pair chemicals are selectively applied to the paper to bring out the lighter or the darker pattern (duotone) embedded in the special paper with a brush applicator. (There was also a product called Unishade, which only had a single pattern.) Duoshade looks sepia in color on its own board but will show up as black and white once printed using web offset lithography. While you can pencil and ink directly onto Duoshade paper, Eastman and Laird photocopied their inked artwork onto Duoshade paper. The photocopying method, instead of applying the pencils and inks directly onto the Duoshade paper, permitted the original inked artwork to be colored at a later time. Duoshade patterns clash with color and are not well suited for colorization. A good video showing how Duoshade is brought about can be viewed here.

Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Duoshade, which needs to use a full page for every two comic book pages where Duoshade is used, can be more expensive to use. Depending on how much shading you need to do on a page, a page of Letratone could be stretched out for several pages. Duoshade is less labor intensive than having to cut out the precise pattern on the Letratone paper and less hard on the original artwork. The artist must also hope the Letratone pattern sticks onto the artwork without folding or tearing until it is ready for the printer. Duoshade nor Letratone are no longer manufactured.

When a black and white comic book's production was finished, the artwork would be taken to a printer. There the printer would take a photograph of each page. The negatives would be etched or plated onto a thin metallic sheet, which acts as a stencil. This stencil would be mounted on a roller used to guide the ink and water to be imprinted onto a rubber-coated blanket cylinder which makes contact with rolls of newsprint as they run through the blanket cylinder and the imprint cylinder. 

As covers would be printed in at least one color, they would typically be prepared separately. The image would be photographed four times, each through a filter, to obtain the separation layers for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Each photograph would be plated and every page to be printed in color would have to go through four rolls, one for each color layer. Finally the finished colors would then stapled over and through the interior pages. 

The Comic Book vs. the Trade Paperback

A traditional comic book comes "saddle-stitched", which is an industry term to describe a book that is stapled together in the centerfold of the pages (the staples straddle the fold like a saddle). As more and more pages are folded into a book, the stapling method becomes impractical. The common method by which thicker comic books and collections are distributed are by gluing individual pages into the cover spine, which is called "perfect bound" or "thermal bound." Comics which have glued bindings are known as trade paperbacks.

Trade paperbacks can contain hundreds of pages and are far easier to handle than multiple comic issues but their physical construction presents an issue. Opening the book often enough will eventually cause visible wear to that spine. You cannot fold a TPB flat without risking damage to the spine. There pages will always display in a "mustache" shape when laid out side by side. For a book with just text or artwork that is contained within a single page this should not be a problem unless the inner margin is poorly laid out. 

For artwork that spans across two pages the construction of a trade paperback can be an issue as the inner fold will not give a full presentation of the whole artwork. Unless the margins are very carefully planned, you will lose some art in the middle. Stapled books tend not to have this issue or, because you can lay them flat or nearly so, do not suffer from this issue nearly as much.

When you buy a collection of comic book stories which were originally published as individual books, you often lose a lot of the unique character of that thing in itself. That includes the original covers, the advertisements, editorials, reader letters and backup stories. Unfortunately the older, rarer or more desirable the book is, being able to experience the book as it was originally published can become very difficult and expensive.

Reprints, Reproductions and Facsimile Editions

Original printings can be expensive but reprints may not always be able to serve in the place of an original printing. For TMNT, other than the 2nd and 3rd printing of issue #1 and the 2nd printing of issue #2, later reprintings will have different covers and contents. Those 2nd and 3rd printings are also rather expensive. TMNT #1-2's later 1980s reprintings and TMNT #3-7 and Raphael #1's reprintings can also be expensive buying issue by issue. Cerebus issues #1-80 were reprinted as single issues in the "Bi-weekly", "High Society" and "Church and State" series. Those issues have some miniaturized original contents outside of the story itself and standardized covers. They are quite affordable, in contrast to TMNT, issue by issue. These single-issue reprints were printed in the mid-to-late 1980s and  into the early 1990s.

TMNT and Cerebus were originally printed on newsprint. Newsprint is not particularly durable and can age rather poorly. What began life as off-white or light gray pages can yellow and become sepia-toned within a few years if stored indifferently. 

Reading original comic books come with its risks. The books are rather expensive, reading them may put wear and tear on the book. An inadvertent slip can crease a corner or tear a page. Inserting and removing a comic book from its bag could scratch the cover. If you have your books graded and slabbed, then the only way you are going to read them would be to crack open the slab. This act wastes the money required to grade and slab the book in the first place.

Bootlegs of highly collectible issues like TMNT #1 and Cerebus #1 exist. A contemporary bootleg will not be quite the same quality as the originals (unless they are TMNT #1 second or third prints masquerading as first prints). These bootlegs might also be fairly expensive to purchase.

This is where the facsimile or the reproduction edition comes into play. A proper facsimile edition is an authorized product. These books try to recreate the original book as closely as possible or as close as could be come to the original intent. The size and cover artwork should be almost identical to the earliest prints. There are of course always some alterations to make sure the facsimile can be easily distinguished from an original such as a modern logo, a barcode or some extra text. 

TMNT #1 40th Anniversary Reproduction (TMNT: A Collection Edition)

TMNT #1

For its 40th Anniversary, TMNT #1 was reprinted, yet again, and as usual in many covers. This time things were different because a comic book collector named Rich Horn, who runs the site TMNT: A Collection, discovered and bought the original photostatic negatives used to print the 1st and 2nd printings of TMNT #1. With them he recreated the original book as close as possible to the original first print, using the web offset lithographic printing method that was originally used back in 1984. 

His site is the only place where you can buy the book recreated by this method with its original cover. While the original cover has been reproduced several times after the 3rd print, this cover has the fewest "counterfeit protection" features. Only the rear exterior cover and interior front cover have "extra stuff" not found on a genuine first print. The interior rear cover has the ad for Gobbeldygook #1 & #2 found only in the original 1st printing. The price varies from $100-25 depending on the condition of the book you want. Apparently the condition of the books as they came off the factory presses could be variable. I bought the $50 book, which has only very slight imperfections and has a CGC suggested grade of 9.6.

TMNT The Collected Book Volume 1 2009 Edition Sample

Shipping was $9.30. I ordered the book on a Friday and it was delivered the next Monday, so the shipping was fast at least. The book was packaged very sturdily and came packaged in an appropriately sized bag and backing board.

I measured the book and size of it is identical to the reported measurements of an original 1st printing, which was printed in a magazine size of 7.5" x 10.9375". There are only 40 interior pages, just like the original 1st-3rd printings. I was very impressed with the quality but the glossy cover will show fingerprints if you touch it ungloved. Other original issues of TMNT I own, such as #3 2nd printing, #9, Leonardo #1, #17 and #50, all of which have black borders on their cover pages, will not show fingerprints instantly. I suspect that "gloss" wears off a little over time or 2024's gloss is extra glossy compared to what was used during the 1980s.

TMNT #1 40th Anniversary Reproduction Sample

Another thing to note is that the contrast of this printing of TMNT #1 is not as deep in the Duoshade tones as in other printed copies of the book I have. My TMNT #1 4th printing has much darker contrast but the pages of my copy are rather yellowed. My only other physical copy, a TMNT Collected Book Volume 1 2009 Edition, shows a contrast level in between these two books. Comparing this reproduction to photographs of the pages of the original first printing shows a similar level of contrast.

TMNT #1 40th Anniversary Reproduction Interior Front Cover

A final comment should be made about the two-page spreads on pages 2-3 and 28-29. In trade paperbacks these images are often printed so close to the margins that the artwork will be cropped off on the inner sides. For the original printings the margins were sufficiently wide on all sides to allow you to see exactly where the left half of the page is supposed to end and the right half of the page is supposed to begin. My 4th printing just barely manages to show every penstroke on pages 2-3 but is a little too tight for 28-29, even when laid out as flat as you can without abusing the book. I think the magazine format tends to be more generous to the two-page spreads compared to the modern comic book size.

Cerebus #1 Remastered Edition 2020

Cerebus #1

There are two reproductions of Cerebus #1 with the original cover artwork and with the cover's original color. The first was released in 2020 as a Kickstarter campaign run by the Waverly Press. This edition came in four covers, three of which only differ by the main color and the text on the rear banner. There is the red cover with a cover price of $10, the gold cover for $20, platinum for $30 and the promotional edition (artwork taken from page 10) was sold for $40. At present Waverly is selling the red cover for $30 and the gold cover for $45. The red cover has 24 pages and the non-red covers have 48 pages with additional artwork and material beyond what was included in 1977. There is a 2023 edition from Waverly with some improvements over the 2020 edition but all the cover variants vary more significantly from the original than the 2020 edition.

Cerebus #1 Facsimile Edition 2024

The second reproduction was released in 2024 and has the words "Facsimile Edition 2024" on the front cover. This comes with a cover signed by Sim ($30 cover price) and an unsigned cover ($20 cover price). This edition is not being sold through Waverly. They were originally available from PREVIEWSworld but are no longer. I found a copy of the unsigned version at a comic book store with an online presence for only $0.50 over the cover price. The store charged $9.90 for shipping. I also bought a copy of the 2020 red cover Remastered Edition from eBay for $10.70 shipped to compare the two. I would have bought the 2020 from Waverly but I balked at the $30.00 price plus $17.00 shipping. Waverly has also done a remastered Cerebus #2 single issue in 2023.

The 2020 Remastered Edition has the following features that distinguish it from an original #1:

• Regular or Modern Comic-sized dimensions
• Thick cover
• Front Cover - $10 Cover Price
• Rear Cover - "Remastered Edition" Banner & "'This is what Cerebus No. 1 was supposed to look like back in 1977.' - Dave Sim, 2020."
• Inside Front Cover - Street Address of Aardvark Vanaheim deleted, original copyright, publisher  and printing information text box replaced with credits for the 2020 edition
• Glossy interior cover pages
• White interior paper
• Remastered artwork

The 2024 Fascimile Edition has the following features that distinguish it from an original #1:

• Regular or Modern Comic-sized dimensions
• Front Cover - $20 or $30 cover price & "Fascimile Edition 2024"
• Rear Cover - Pink Floyd Authentic vs. Counterfeit Comparison
• Inside Front Cover - Street Address of Aardvark Vanaheim deleted, "Printed in Canada" and "Fascimile Edition" added
• Glossy interior cover pages
• White interior paper
• Remastered artwork

Due to the erroneous elongated, Golden-age comic book size used by the original #1, the Star Wars advertisement in the original book is not fully contained to the rear cover and the first part of it can be seen on the inside front cover. This was not what Sim intended but he had to sell the books he received.

Cerebus #1 2020 Remastered Edition Sample

I am not sure how "white" the original #1's pages were but the book was printed almost fifty years ago and on newsprint. Those pages usually age over time and it is highly unlikely one will find an original with no yellowing on the pages, and even more unlikely that such a book will not be graded and slabbed. 

Between the 2020 and 2024 editions there are no noticeable differences outside of the covers (interior and exterior). The issue's interior artwork looks identical, if you unstapled each book and shuffled the pages together a visual examination would not be able to tell which page came from which book. The front and rear covers of the 2020 are closer to the original #1 while the interior front cover of the 2024 is closer to the original #1. The 2020's has a slightly more orangish hue for the Warm Red C color compared to the 2024 but as I do not have a swatch from Pantone I cannot determine which color is more accurate to the original #1. The thinner cover stock of the 2024 is closer to the original #1. The cover of the 2024 is slightly glossier than the 2020.

Cerebus #1 Facsimile Edition 2024

This brings me to the next issue, the remastering process. Unlike TMNT, the photostatic negatives used for early Cerebus issues do not survive. Sim sold original artwork to supplement his income and when he decided to remaster Cerebus in 2012 he had to work with what he had. Some original artwork was donated as scans but other panels had to be scanned from Sim's file copy of the original issue #1. Touchup work in Adobe Photoshop by George Peter Gatsis and later by Sean Michael Robinson was done to try to give the cleanest and most consistent presentation to the artwork as possible. The quality improvements over the older method of photographing issue pages, which is what had to be done for the trade paperback and bi-weekly reprints, is remarkable. 

These reproductions certainly look better than my Cerebus phonebook, a seventh printing from August, 1995. Even the counterfeit Cerebus #1 looks better than the phonebook. The full page panel on page 16 has almost no tone on Cerebus as depicted in the phonebook. Letratone and Duoshade can be difficult at times to reproduce, whether by photographic duplication or scanning.

Final Words

These two reproductions have different goals. The TMNT #1 reproduction tries to reproduce the original 1st printing as closely as possible to the original presentation and using as many of the original methods as possible. The Cerebus #1 reproductions try to produce an idealized version of Cerebus #1 without the compromises and mistakes that were encountered back in 1977. While I might have preferred a Cerebus #1 reproduction with the original book dimensions and printed on newsprint, As products they are of high quality and in my opinion well worth the money. They can certainly fill what would otherwise be expensive holes in a Cerebus or TMNT comic book collection.