Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Proofs

We're getting closer and closer to publication. I'm pleased to say that proofs for all three of the upcoming Book Palace Books' releases have arrived, been checked, corrections made and proofs returned. Peter Richardson has covered the arrival of the proofs for Wulf the Briton with great excitement over on his blog, saying: "To say this book has been a labor of love would be something of an understatement, but when Book Palace Books received a ginormous box of the printer's proofs to this volume the excitement was palpable. The book is costly but the results I think will justify the price, which even for the signed and lettered ultra-deluxe edition is still less expensive than buying a piece of Wulf artwork (if you can find one) or attempting to buy the complete run of Express Weeklys showcasing Ron Embleton's amazing artistry on this strip."

As Peter has stated, the scanning and retouching of the artwork for this volume has been painstaking and Peter has rescanned and reworked a number of pages that he was less than happy with to make sure the final volume will be as perfect as humanly possible. He's not the only one to do this... we did a run-off of the Wells Fargo pages a month or so ago and decided some of the pages were looking a little washed out in comparison with other pages due to the way we had to do the scanning (the strip started as straight line work and subsequently switched to line and wash). The problem was quickly sorted out, as were a few last minute corrections to the Thriller Index. I've also seen a print out of Wells Fargo on the paper the printer in Hong Kong was able to source and it looks fantastic.

Which means that the books have now been cleared for publication. As printing and shipping will take around six weeks it looks like the books will be appearing mid or late January, which should give you a chance to let the turkey sandwiches and mince pies settle before you try lifting that massive leatherbound copy of Wulf.