Big Ass #2

[human]

The Davidson 233 was what's known as a duplicator press with a push-register system. It was never designed to print coated stock, much less do color registration; but it was all we had.

Our next press was a giant 36-inch Ebco made by the Electric Boat Company for only four years as they tried to diversify from making submarines after WWII. Since it was an "orphan" we got it cheap. It would print covers 4-up. The first runs were a disaster—the ancient rubber rollers disintegrated and had to be replaced. First edition Subvert may be distinguished by the hickies from those disintegrating rollers.

jdave

[Comix Junky]

Thanks JDave.
So the Davidson was a single color press, only big enough for 1-up covers. (in the classic defination of 1 per sheet)
Please confirm for 50cent, that the Ebco "would print covers 4-up." means 4 per sheet.

Please confirm for me; Freak Bro 1 (1st print) covers were printed 1-up (1 per sheet)?
Rumer is that it was printed 2-up. Two versions of the "black tire" cover are known.
With or without an orange patch on the wall. (missing zip-a-tone)
http://www.ugcomix.info/guide/tells/0768tell.html
If printed 1-up, these would need to be 2 seperate printings. 2 diffrent plates for the gray ink.

I think i remember the Davidson now. The paper feed can not be moved left or right.
Plates are just rectangles of alluminum (no pre-punched holes), held onto the cylendar by a spring loaded bar with small spikes that punch their own holes into the ends of the plate. Registeration is a bitch.

[50Cent #II (1st print)]

Couldn't that also make the Freak Brothers #1 with the orange patch a part of the same run if something happened/damage to the area of black/gray (zip-a-tone) during the print run if all the gray tire versions were done on this 1-up press? 
Also, from what I've read of Bruce's, he stated that the first print of Freak Brothers was done on the Davidson press and the later printings were done on an assumed 2-up (or actually as we now know probably a 4-up) press.  This could make the rumored 2nd print (one with the orange patch, one without) actually just one of the 4 plates with the missing gray zip-a-tone (therefore making the covers with the orange box actually a 1 in 4 ratio)?

Dates of 1st printing via JK.
Hydrogen Bomb Funnies - 26 May 1970
Subvert Comics #1 - 7 Nov. 1970
Freak Brothers #1 - 1 Feb. 1971

So this may make Bruce's claim that the 1st print of FB #1 was done on the old DD 1-up press wrong.  Of course it could have been ROP was using both presses at the same time and not just replaced the 1-up with the Ebco 4-up?  J.David what's the story?

[Comix Junky]

Zip-a-tone is added (or lost) in the art or paist-up stage.
That's before photography which is before plate making which is before presswork.

I beleave the orange patch came first.

JDave.
This might look obseive to you.
But is's a game to us, CSI.
Comix Science Investigation.
Comix Forensics.

[Sir Real]

CSI

Tahahahahahahahahahahaha

[human]

I have an uncut cover sheet of Freak Bros #1 here before me, run 1-up on the Davidson because we had not yet gotten the Ebco to feed properly. The tire and the ground are gray from a second screen burn on the black plate (ziptone was not often used on originals, because, due to the short depth of field of a process camera, it would look like bubbly mud). The frame next to Gilbert's signature is out of register. On the uncut sheet there is a small yellow square on the bottom of the back cover next to the fold that would likely be lost in the trim.

The second printing was done on the Ebco with either a second printing of Subvert,   
the first printing of Armadillo, and two Freak Bros #1 at the bottom of the plate, both missing the overburned screen, or, more likely, one copy of Freak 1 without the screen with first printing of Rowlf, Mother's Oats #2 and reprint of Mother's Oats #1.

Because of our experience with the unexpectly slow sales of Hydrogen Bomb, we were overcautious with Freak Bros. Almost every plate after this contains two FB covers until we got the 24-inch two color Solna, when printing reverted to two-up.

The screen reappears with a reprint of Up From the Deep, Last Gasp's Slow Death 1, and 2-up Freak Bros.  After that Gilbert colored in the tire by hand to make it a white wall, and the troublesome second burn was dispensed with.

Bruce Semens interviewed me and looked at this collection when all this remembered information was carved in granite; now it is carved in Swiss cheese and I have to go back to the archives.

Red box with R.Crumb was on first printing of BA #1, done on Davidson; left white in next edition, done with first Subvert on Ebco when the rollers were disintegrating.

[50Cent #II (1st print)]

Wow, years of trying to figure these two out and on this day it's all here (and now we know Bruce documented this many years ago but never released the info.).

So there was at least 2 printings of the gray tire Freak Brothers #1.

The Red Box Big Ass #1 is the first print.

Now to clear up the FB #1.

"The frame next to Gilbert's signature is out of register. On the uncut sheet there is a small yellow square on the bottom of the back cover next to the fold that would likely be lost in the trim."


Not sure what a frame is and what out of register looks like, can someone explain?  I'm not sure which Shelton signature you're referring to (the one on the front or the one on the back?)
I don't have or have seen any yellow boxes on the back so they are probably lost in the trim.

[50Cent #II (1st print)]

Scan of the 1st prints for both FB #1 and BA #1 are posted in their threads.