Tag: Glenn Whitmore

Archie rocks ’n’ rolls into the 1950s

Waid and Augustyn unite for another take on history through the eyes of the Archie gang.

Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn recently took the Archie gang back to the 1940s, and now they’re turning their attention to a different decade — the 1950s.

“As a boy who grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi, I’ve been a rock-origins aficionado my entire life,” Waid said. “Archie: 1955 is my chance to visit that era I so love, and do it with an Archie spin. As with Archie: 1941 we’re very true to the time while telling a story in a modern way that’s exciting and dramatic. Using Archie as a lens through which to really examine the beginnings of rock ‘n’ roll is a blast.”

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1990s Era Color Guide by Walt Simonson

As part of a larger piece on the comics coloring process by Glenn Whitmore Smash Pages uncovered a 1990s era color guide by Walt Simonson, along with this supplemental contextual data.

The separator, which for much of comics history was Chemical Color Plate in Connecticut, would make nine acetate prints of the original art, one for each percentage of each color.

The black and white artwork – originally drawn at twice the printed size, then 1½ times, and currently slightly less than that — was photographed, reduced and printed on sheets of clear acetate. Nine copies were made of each page – one for each of the three percentages of the three colors – and these were turned over to a separator.

Using the colored artwork as a guide, areas on the acetates would be filled in with an opaque paint (Rubylith) to correspond to the color(s) necessary.

Once the color guides were fully “translated” and the acetates were finished, they would be photographed with appropriate screens to create a single version which included the percentage dots and the solid of one color. These three new pieces of film, along with a fourth clean version of the art which was used to make the black, were used to make the printing plates.

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