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Firestorm #1 Transparency

Here is a really strange item I recently picked up on eBay.  It’s an acetate transparency of the cover of Firestorm #1 volume I.  It’s pictured below on the left, with the final cover of issue #1 on the right.

It appears that the transparency was copied directly from the final black-and-white cover artwork.  The DC Bullet and the word “explosive” are both missing on the transparency when you compare it to the printed #1 cover.  Those are the only items on the cover that lack a black ink outline; they were composed solely of red ink.  This lead me to believe the transparency was copied from the final inked version.

The picture below shows the transparency without a solid white background.

The eBay seller apparently picked this up (along with several other acetate comic book cover reproductions) from a gentleman in Brazil who wrote several books about the art of comic books in the 1970s and 80s.  The seller theorized that perhaps the transparencies were used with an overhead projector for a workshop on how to draw comics.

Regardless of what it was used for, it’s kind of neat.

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3 Comments

  1. John says:

    I know that acetates were used back in the day before computer coloring became the standard to when they needed to print something in color without black lines around it, such as Professor Stein’s floating head, but I don’t remember the details. Maybe you should forward this link to Todd Klein (http://kleinletters.com/); he worked in the DC production office for years and could probably fill in the blanks.

  2. outburst says:

    Very cool.
    Good find!

  3. Xum Yukinori says:

    That transparency may actually be the black “plate” for the actual cover printing. I have a few cover transparencies that include the black as well as cyan, magenta, and yellow transparencies; they form the full-color cover when laid on top of one another.

    Xum

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