Jay, just wondering if you know the print run of Chicago Mirror #1 (1st & 2nd prints) and #2 (which definitely seems the most common)? We already know the print run of #3...
Also, seems all the print runs are known for Bijou Funnies, except #1 (1st print)?
First printing of #1 was a thousand. Second printing was a thousand. #2 was 1500. That's just from my memory, though. I have books from those days packed away in the attic, though. Along with tons of other stuff that I can't find.
Also...on the second printing of #1, only 500 were sold. I dragged around the remaining 500 with me for the next 20 years or so. Finally I put them all out in the alley for the garbage man to take...But I told an old magazine dealer named Frank Craft that they were there...and he came and picked them up. He used to run a back issue store on Clark St. in chicago called ABC Magazine service...but that place went out of business 20 years ago.
What color is the background on the cover of Chicago Mirror #2 supposed to be? I always thought it was black, but I just received my copy in the mail and it looks brown. My copy is faded, but hopefully it's not that faded!
It is brown. Many have printing errors (not color but ink blotches over the cover)
Yes, mine had the black blotches on the cover.
I found my old checkbook records for that year. The entire cost of printing AND paying contributors for #2 was $54 ( a week's pay for me at that time). So it was cheap.. But from the second it came off the press, there really was no such thing as a perfectly printed copy. The printer just used whatever paper he had lying around...and the brown and yellow colors were a spontaneous decision...since the printer had a little brown and yellow ink in opened cans. The printer was just some guy in Evanston who had a press in his garage. He really didn't know all that much about printing. But we had no money...so that's who we used to print the thing.
Mine (Vol 1, No. #2) is brown, and with lighter and darker shades forming horizontal bands. There's a lack of ink in the upper right corner. No black blotches.