'Illustrated Checklist to Underground Comix - Preliminary Edition'

The Archival Press, Inc., 1979

Contributors: Robert Crumb, Robin Storesund, Jay Kennedy, Robert K Wiener, Bruce Sweeney, Maurice Esutchier 


Exactly what it says it is. If you haven't been downloading my Underground 'Restorations', or previously been collecting Underground Comix, there's no need for you to grab this one. Unless of course you suffer from the same geek ocd that I do, and then you might find it interesting from a purely historical standpoint. Most of the book is just a text checklist, though.

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Part of the 'Restoration' process is done to make it possible to enlarge these images. As such, after you have opened the files in a comic book reader some of you may actually need to shrink them down a bit to improve the image quality.

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After it was pointed out to me that people were getting a GonVisor popup, I am now creating these books in such a way as to have stopped that from happening. No GonVisor popup will appear on any 'Restorations' in the future.

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I have almost 1500 Underground comic books in a digital format. I will be restoring and uploading many of my favorites over the coming months. Any requests, just say the word.

So what does 'Restored' mean? Well, with respect to all the work the scanners have done in order to make these books available, the pages were not yellow when first printed. Newsprint? Yes, often they were. Cheap paper? Yeah, that too. But not yellow.

In most cases, the changes make the books look better than they did when they were originally printed. By turning the newsprint or cheap paper they were printed on to a bright white, with crisp, clear greys and solid blacks on top, they look very much like a new b&w comic you would buy right off the shelf today.

This is accomplished by running the b&w pages through the PhotoScape Batch Editor. The Filters applied to the pages are; Grayscale (changes the image to greyscale); a 'Middle' or 'High' setting on Auto Level (greatly improves the blacks); a 'Low' or +1 Sharpen (barely noticeable, even if you watch the changes take place); 'Deepen' is used if there is bleed through from the image on the back of the page or to improve the overall look of color or b&w pages. Occasionally 'Brighten' or 'Darken' are used if needed. Color covers, back or interior pages are 'Restored' on a page by page basis.