Notice the road on cover has a yellow layer, unlike the other copies I've seen (is this a sign of another printing?)
:added:
I still think mine might be a true 1st print or at least a variant of it. Notice the diagonal cut and insert.(https://headcomix.info/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm1.static.flickr.com%2F180%2F410848365_74a84d3f11.jpg%3Fv%3D0&hash=87f25f5ad90357567f11c9f27041331164a8f270)
(https://headcomix.info/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm1.static.flickr.com%2F186%2F410848369_e02640a32c_o.jpg&hash=8997c9ee71b4d1279a0b8c88c6dd4e96ed87c74a)
Interesting, I had forgotten about your copy with the insert. They look the same except for the insert and the yellow layer missing on the road and bottom of the cops shoes. I'm thinking variant or initial test pressing myself.
Also, the book is not cut straight, The top and bottom have diagonal cuts. It is also darker blues than the normal 1st. In fact, looking at them side by side, mine is missing yellows, Notic e the blonds hair and the ground it self. Ok, sic em, find out about it.
The cut is what's making me think maybe test pressing along with the missing yellow on the road. It's next to impossible to compare from images, you need to compare them side by side for size, paper type, staple placement, etc. You want to send me your copy? :01_bounce:
Remind me in early July and I will bring it to San Diego.
color wise, both of my copies more resembles the Doctor's. On 50Cent's the yellows are a lot brighter. Neither of my copies have the insert or diagonal cut, though.
I have never seen the insert in any other issue nor has anyone I know. I expect Guy to figure this one out within the month.
A close scan so we could read the insert and also know if it was double sided would help all of us to maybe figure it out??? I can't read it from the scan posted.
Here is another for you Guy, the Sunpot (1st?) As I just wrote to guy, I have stuff in places that I can not get to. So if I can not post a scan or give detailed info at the moment, I will try by June 6-20. My son just announced that he is getting married June 14, so all my plans and efforts right now are focused on him.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/159/414723994_384db17275_b.jpg (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/159/414723994_384db17275_b.jpg)
I have to dig out the motor city again. I can't seem to get it clear from my original scan. Sorry for the time being. But I don;t even have time to eBay half the crap that I have to clear out of the house.
I forgot to mentio, the MC insert is a Seidbottom ad. I have about both sides.
The first printing of Motor City #1 was stripped so the color plates show the overlap on the spine. This is a first print. I don't remember the insert. We were distributing them through Bob Sidebottom and the Print Mint, so the insert could be theirs. This was before we sent out our first catalogue. MC1 was printed on the Davidson 233 in the old Family Dog office on Gough Street, just before Redevelopment moved us into the building on Golden Gate. It was trimmed on our 36-inch guillotine lever-bar paper cutter whose bronze plaque proclaimed it to be made in Old Mystic Connecticut in 1874. Doubtless came around the horn in a clipper ship.
jdave
Thanks,
So why do both copies above have the overlap on the spine, but one copy also has a yellow layer on the road? (click on the first image for a larger size).
So, Jdave, is the first printing 50 Cents or Dr. S's copy in your opinion? They both seem to have some kind of overlap of shades or colors that is noticible at the spine edge of the front cover. Is that what you mean by 'overlap'? Thanks for any clarification, as I'm about to purchase a copy which for all intents is a first according to the Wiki and Kennedy...but now I'm in a bit of a snit and a dither as your post has confused me a tad.
As far as the insert goes, it was stapled between the cover and the book. It was an ad for Seidbottom and was for EC comics or something like that. The copy that I have, has a slanted cut on the top and the bottom. Is it a possibility that it was a special copy for Seidbottom? It is a first print otherwise.
Forget the cut.
The cutter he described is crude, human powered, cast iron.
Cuts WOULD be inconsistent and croocked.
Your scan clearly shows that the insert was NOT stapled in.
Obviously hand inserted, probably by Sidebottom his own self.
You guys are too eager to declare your coppies one-of-a-kind.
We need more bah-humbug skeptics around here.
As per CJ, I was going to say it looks as though someone flattened the comic and slid the insert between the cover and the guts, right between the staples. Anyone could've done it.
Comix Junky said " You guys are too eager to declare your copies one-of-a-kind.
We need more bah-humbug skeptics around here"
Well I'm with Comix Junky on this. I am a Bah Humbugger. I am very reluctant to declare new printings without knowing the printers intentions. We have been here before with this subject. Sometimes we seem to look for a definitive answer where none exists. Sloppy standards made for multiple presentations. :dontknow:
The yellow layer on the road could have been caused by the yellow screen filling or "toning", a transient artifact caused by the press water roller running dry. I seem to remember that the orange circle on the back of the first edition contained an ad for the Print Mint, since we were distributing through them; I'll have to see if I still have one. I'm searching a 67-year-old brain for something that happened one day 38 years ago.
I would humbly suggest that y'all google or otherwise educate yourselves in pre-digital offset printing. It would help you make informed instant decisions in collecting. I taught digital publishing at Austin Community College for 15 years, so I know there's a huge difference, especially in prepress. For instance, until 1972, when the first digital color separations became available, all the books and posters were drawn by hand: a different drawing for each color plate.
Prior to 1972 it was possible to get color separations from a color slide of a complete color drawing, but for a comic-book sized cover, the process would cost roughly as much as a new VW Beetle. Computerized, the price dropped to $400. Now you do it for nothing by hitting the return key. (Hence all the endless 4-color junk-mail catalogues)
jdave
Thanks again J. Dave, so the 1st printing with yellow road may have just been a variant.
I've got a later printing of Motor City Comics #1 that has the interior pages switched so the inside front is on the inside back and vise versa, they are both upright so the sheet wasn't inserted up side down, do you recall any info. regarding this printing?
"Prior to 1972 it was possible to get color separations from a color slide of a complete color drawing, but for a comic-book sized cover, the process would cost roughly as much as a new VW Beetle."
You was robbed.
In '69-'70 we was doing color seps in our highschool darkroom, using color filters.
The filters weren't cheep. But just a one time investment. and cheeper than a used Beetle.