There is a lot of careful checking to be done, but the printed pages are looking nothing short of stunning, with razor sharp repro of the scanned 'Heros' pages looking every bit as vibrant as the day the were first published in the Eagle some fifty years ago.
Next
week we should be receiving the mock-ups of the leather slip-cased
edition, which crams in an extra 24 pages scanned from the original art
in a sumptuous leather binding, but for now our energies are focused on
any last minute tweaks that need to be made to ensure that this
gi-normous book (each spread of 'Heros' is reproduced at the same size
as the comic was printed) is as perfect as it deserves to be.
This
had been a tremendous undertaking and we have had a lot of help from
dedicated Bellamy collectors from around the globe. The introductory
chapters, which feature Dez Skinn and Dave Gibbons interview with the
great man (many thanks to both Dez and Dave), also include mouthwatering
reproductions of key examples of Bellamy artwork, which are largely
sourced from high resolution scans and add an extra zing to the whole
production.
The
location of Bellamy Heros originals was as problematic as can be
anticipated with artwork of this vintage. The search was ongoing
throughout the eighteen months that this project occupied us and we did
manage to unearth a lot of Heros artwork that had remained unseen for
decades. One of the spreads high on our list was, of course, the famous
massacre of the fifth legion, which was one of the strip's many high
spots in terms of artistry. We did locate the spread in question, but
the collector had the artwork framed and was extremely reluctant to let
us near it, let alone prize it out of it's frame. After a lot of
pleading, he did provide us with a photo which captures the main action
of the scene and which was good enough to run in the book, we would have
loved a razor sharp scan of the entire spread, but we were really
pleased to be able to reproduce at least a sizeable chunk of the artwork
and at the same time we managed to locate another three spreads which
again have added a lot of extra lustre to what is already a very
desirable book.
This
is without doubt, the most ambitious project that Book Palace Books has
invested in, and the production costs reflect this. It is, therefore
doubly, heartening to see such a healthy demand from people who are
determined to ensure that they don't miss out on what is a very limited
print run (600 copies of the regular edition and 120 copies of the
numbered leather edition), to the extent that the sheer volume of
pre-publication orders we have received have just about cleared our
production costs.
So
to all of you who have pre-ordered and all of you who have helped in
our quest to make this the ultimate tribute to the incredible artistry
of Frank Bellamy—a very big thank you.The waiting is nearly over!
