More on the illustrations
over 4 years ago
– Fri, Jan 17, 2020 at 10:49:08 PM
Dear friends,
We reached our stretch goal — $25,000 — which means that every book will include a handmade bookplate! Thank you so much for getting us here! We couldn't be more excited. We may announce another stretch goal soon, though we can't say exactly what it unlocks... but it might rhyme with "slip-face."
In the meantime...
An adventure to San Francisco for illustrations!
We are using Harry Clarke's magnificent illustration, produced in 1919 for "Tales of Mystery & Imagination." The original artwork contains an immense amount of detail which is lost in most digital reproductions.
We are re-setting the art with new plates, and printing it letterpress in razor sharp detail.
To make these new plates, we needed to scan the original artwork. There are plenty of high-quality scans available online. The best we could find was from Harvard's Houghton Library, which digitized the illustration at roughly 300 pixels-per-inch. This level of resolution is standard, and is plenty big for scanning documents which were themselves produced digitally.
But, for artwork originally produced letterpress at a super high level of detail, such as Clarke's, 300ppi is insufficient. Much of the detail is lost. To make the plates for this edition, we needed a higher resolution scan (around 900ppi).
Here is a comparison of the artwork, scanned at 300ppi versus 900ppi.
The face of the clock, when originally printed, was only about the size of a nickel. Even a regular high-resolution scan, then, fails to capture all the detail! So, a super mega high-resolution scan is called for.
To do this, we needed to find a first edition copy of "Tales of Mystery & Imagination," published by George G. Harrap & Co. These were printed from Clarke's original plates and, therefore, have no loss of detail.
We were able to find a copy in San Francisco! The owner graciously allowed our editor to photograph the book and take the scans we needed.
Printing artwork letterpress often requires a different setup than printing blocks of type. The art is sometimes therefore printed on separate signatures and bound into the book alongside the text. Because of this practice, publishers do not always have control over the placement of the artwork in a book. In the case of "Tales of Mystery & Imagination," the artwork for "The Masque of the Red Death" actually appears in the middle of "The Pit and the Pendulum!"
Rather than print Clarke's full illustration on one page, we have reinterpreted the piece. We are taking individual elements and presenting them throughout the book — and at a bigger size, to highlight the detail of Clarke's work. Further, we have added duotone printing (red and black) which seems only natural for "The Masque of the Red Death."
With scans in hand, we vectorize them. (Convert them from a pixel grid to a series of interconnected points.) Then, they are printed on a negative film, and the negative is applied to a plate of polymer, which is exposed to UV light. The light shines through the clear portions of the film and hardens the polymer. The rest is washed away, leaving a raised plate of the artwork. This is then mounted on a steel backing and —viola! — the plate is ready for letterpress printing.
Here's an example:
We'll have more information for you soon regarding the potential of a further stretch goal. But, for now, we've reached bookplates! Thank you, everybody, for your support. We are preparing for production, and by the end of the campaign should have a full timeline for you to see and follow along. We may also have an Insta-Gram by then, for a steady stream of production photos.
Best wishes as always, and highest regards,
Team No Reply