Phonics Monkey Vol 2 wrote:
Fin Fang Foom wrote:

I have some of the first Superman and Batman archives and chronicles, but compared to Marvel DC is centuries behind the reconstructioh process...


To each his own, but keep in mind that some of that stuff was first reprinted decades ago, when the process of preparing Golden Age material to be reprinted was often very different, and even the computing power available for a digital process was still relatively modest.

If you can find a copy of the hardcover reprint of Marvel Comics #1 from (I think) the late 1980s, you'll see it's on par with other reconstruction efforts of that era.

(And if you could see how this material was first presented in the Masterworks, you probably wouldn't be so complementary.)
Right, but the fact that DC is still using their rustic restoration files from 25 years ago shows how far behind they are. It's like using a movie mastered for VHS, and slapping the VHS files onto a BluRay disc and saying voila. Standards change. Marvel has continually refined and improved their product, while DC has not. Technology has allowed for greater restoration, and DC is once again behind Marvel.


Yeah, that's what I meant. Maybe decades ago Marvel and DC's offering of their Golden Age stuff was very poor in reproduction quality. But people were ok with it back then, the novelty of having GA material around was enough to make make fans ignore those things. But nowadays with Marvel's Golden Age material available there is nothing to complain about, not only the softcovers but the omniboo (which I've heard they're perfection in reproduction line, coloring, paper, etc.) But DC is lagging behind Marvel (as usual) in these issues. Last time I checked DC didn't offer something like the MMW softcovers. I for one would buy their expensive HD archives in they'd printed them in the same SC format that Marvel does, if they use the same paper, ink, and provided they take care to upgrade their golden age material in terms of restoration by getting the original comics or something. Granted, getting a real life copy of Action Comics 1 or Detective 27 is like impossible, but once I read that Marvel Comics 1 was one of the rarest comics ever, even harder to find than Superman and Batman's first appearances.