The Process

Before I start today’s column I want to thank everyone for their tremendous support over my column!  I have been waiting to talk about that project for so many years, and to finally get a chance to, and to be recognized for it across the comic book internet websites, was really a pleasure and an honor.  The only way anyone ever knew about the things we did on the Watchmen book was if people came around for a tour of the offices, and we explain some of the things we do here in Pre-Press.  People now know Watchmen very well, and it’s always a pleasure to share the work that went into that book, for it is a highlight for us as well as the department as a whole.  To be able to have a forum to finally tell more people about it, was definitely something I will cherish now, and I’m so happy and excited people enjoyed the column.  I hope I didn’t peek on that one column, and I can continue to entertain and educate in future columns.

So after a little bit of writer’s block because of the Watchmen article, and trying to come off that high horse it put me on (lol), I couldn’t really figure out what to write for this week.  I have notes on my iPhone for the column of a ton of things that I could write about in future columns, but none seemed to strike me enough to write about just yet.  I finally decided that today I wanted to discuss more in detail how the Pre-Press department here at DC is run.  I think I glossed over the different aspects of the department in the past, but felt it was more deserving of going over again, so you, as the reader understand what goes into actually MAKING a comic book, from digital art and lettering to the final bound book you buy in stores.  After all, this is our main mission and our prime directive, if you will.

The best place to start I think, would be at the initial stage of a book inception.  We’ll start with a new book, to make things easier to follow.  Everyday, we get a couple of emails from our Publishing Operations crew about a book that has been added to the schedule.  It usually states the new book title, and other pertinent information.  One such email would look as follows:

Superman: World of New Krypton has been approved as a project under the DC Comics imprint.  It will be a twelve (12) issue limited series in 32 page comic format (22 story pages) w/ads on Miraweb #40 with Gold level color.  Superman: World of New Krypton will be printed with an 8p gloss cover and will be priced at $3.99.
Superman: World of New Krypton will be edited by TBD.

ually states the This provides us with the title, which imprint the book will fall under, how many issues it will be, how many pages each issue will be, and how it will be printed, as well as who the editor of the series will be.  We don’t really have to do much at this early of a stage of a new book.  The first thing we do in Pre-Press is to go onto on to our INTERIORS server, and create what we call a project folder for the book.  We label it as the official title given above, and put 3 folders and a quark doc into each issue set up.  The three folders in each issue on the server are called, ’600 art’, ‘final color’ and ‘final lettering’.  The page size of the quark doc put in the folder is dependent of the page count given in the above info.  This comic in particular is 32 pages, meaning there is 22 pages of comic art, with 10 pages of ads.  After all these folders are created on the server, we ask our scan department to create a code for the title that we will use to label the new title for the future of the series.  The scanning department also does all of the interior books archiving process, so the codes help with us being able to save all the files in a organized fashion for all of time, and future reprints.  A simple code is created and sent to all involved, so we know what we are going to call the series from now on.  The code that we made for this book is simply SMWNK #1-#12.  The scanning/ archive department has a list of codes we use that is about 75 pages long, that goes back about 10 years worth of titles.  We have to check with them for any new code to make sure it is clearly a new code and one that hasn’t been used before.  If that code has been used for some other title, we have to create a new one.  If we have printed this title before, and this is something akin to a volume to, we add a “v2″ to the old code, make it clear that this is the same title, just a new series.  Now we are set up fully to begin work on the book.

Once we get the email about a new series such as this one, it is generally followed by an email from the editor, about a month or so later, asking us to set up an FTP folder for the artists working on the title if they don’t have one already.  Let’s say we are working with new artists here.  Let’s say Ron John is inking, and Tom Phun is coloring.  We go to FTP server, and make sure all those people have FTP folders so they can turn in their work.  In their folders, we place into them the templates for interior pages for a single page and a double page spread template.  We also include a file that gives the artist our specs on how to scan and template a page (that I went over in previous columns), and the color specs for coloring the DC way for the colorists if they are new.  Penciller’s aren’t usually given this information unless a book is not being inked.  Penciller’s still work closely with their inkers and send their pencils directly to them, so we never see pencils for the majority of comics.  We usually get all the art from an inker for a book, unless a book is being directly colored over the pencils, (ie Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink), then we get work directly from the penciller.  If that is the case, we also send them the templates, because pencilled work is treated the same as inked work, and must be templated, just at grayscale, not bitmap.

Ok, so now everyone is set up and ready to go, and work is ready to begin and be turned in as it is completed.  The next step is to wait for an email from the artist of the book or the editor of the book saying that pages have been upoaded to the FTP server, ready to be put onto our server in that titles project folder.  Such an email is supposed to look like this:

Hi, Corey.  The following pages have been inked and uploaded to my FTP site:

SMWNK #1 pgs.4, 6, 8, 12, 15-22.

Thank you,

Ron John.

In this case, a pre-press artist goes on to our FTP site, and gets the following files that have been uploaded to that artist’s folder.  We make sure all the pages are there that we were told would be, and drag them onto our interiors server in the project folder for that book, in this case SMWNK #1.  Since this would be the inks, we will be putting them into the 600 art folder in it’s project folder.  The next step is to re-label the files according to the code for the book, as well as how we label interior pages.  We already have the book code, SMWNK #1, but the artist rarely labels the full file correctly, so we need to fix that.  Our full codes include to title code, the page number of the issue, the DPI of the file, and finally the extension of the file (almost always a “.tif” file).  So relabeling all the pages we get something like SMWNK 1.01.600.tif.  That would be page 1 of this book, at 600 DPI, as a tif, Photoshop file.  We relabel all the pages that were uploaded by the artist and then we open them all up in Photoshop.  We check out each page individually, and check to make sure it is templated right, it is in fact 600 DPI, and it was not converted to bitmap incorrectly.  If it is a grayscale file, we check to make sure that was done correctly.  We check to make sure the scan was done as clean as possible, and that there is no glaring mistakes that we can see the artist made, such as not having the page go full bleed off the file if it should be.

Next we open the quark doc and place the page into the page it should be.  Since it’s been templated correctly, it should fall exactly where we need it to, since the quark docs have all been set up as a template themselves.  We have pre-set quark templates for various size comics and the one for the interiors should all be set up for regualr comic book size that lines up directly with the art and lettering.  Next we print out the page in color, on laser paper, even though the file is at b/w stage.  We do this because on the quark doc, there is pre-set visible color dotted lines that show the editor where the crop is, and where the safety is.  This helps the editor decide where they want the lettering to be when they are ready to turn the page in to be lettered.  So the editor gets the proof, and this is also where they decide what corrections if needed have to be done on the b/w art.  They look over the page, and check to see if everything is correct according to the script and the pencils they recieved as a jpg through email from the penciller that we in pre-press never see.  They mark up any changes that need to be done (ie- stat a panel, fix an arm, redraw a face), and fill out a turn-in-sheet and hand it in to Publishing Operations.  That is where it is logged in and filed so that the artist can be paid that they did the page, and sent to accounting.

At this point, we get the art back with a turn in sheet and see if there are any corrections.  If there are, we do the corrections that need to be done.  If we are not pressed for time, sometimes the editor emails the artist what they need changed, and the artist him or herself can do.  If that is the case, we start from scratch, and get a new revised file off the FTP site where the artist puts the corrected page.  But since everything is considered a rush these days, we just do the correction in-house.  Now that the page is ready we grab it and thrwo it on the FTP site for the colorist and for the letterer.  If the lettering is being done in-house in our lettering department, then we just tell them in an email that the file is on the server for them to use, and just email the colorist that the file was put on the FTP server for them to grab and start coloring.

Next we wait.  We wait for the colorist to color the page and send it back to us.  They actually wind up sending the file in through the FTP again, for our Pre-Press coordinators to upload.  Those are the people in our department that handle the book after we work our magic, to get the book ready to be “shipped” to our printers in Canada, called Ronalds or Quebecor.  We work very closely with them once the color is in to do any final corrections that the colorist doesn’t do, to finalize the files in the quark doc.  Also at this stage is when the lettering is being done.  When we notify the lettering department, or the letterer, they take the script supplied t them by the editor, and letter the book as the pages come in.  That goes through many stages as we wait for the coloring to all come in.  The next time my department sees the book, it will at least fully lettered.  This is usually the DAY it is due to the printers, which makes our life very difficult, because we have to rush the book out the door.

The book gets turned in again with lettering proofs from the letterer, and a new turn in sheet for the entire book.  This is where we place the lettering into the quark doc where the art is that we placed when we got the art from the artist off the FTP site.  We put on the lettering files in each page on a new layer already set up in the quark doc, and print out a new set of proofs.  We check each page for alignment (make sure all the balloons fall on the boards they are supposed to fall on according to the lettering proofs that were approved), and we make sure that every page was set up correctly.  We then bring those new proofs up to the editors for any final corrections needed.  This is mostly corrections on the lettering, doing final spelling mistakes that were missed, or moving any balloons that now, upon seeing it again, need to be re-positioned.  We again work closely with the coordinator of that particular book so that we are working on the color that comes in from the colorist, as well as the lettering.  It should all fall into place that same day we get the lettering and color, so we can get the book out that day to the printers.  That’s all in theory of coarse, because it never is that easy.  Last minute corrects ALWAYS come about, as the editor works with the writer, colorist, and us last minute to make any changes.  This is also usually on a Friday at 4pm, hahahha.

The final stage is to get the editor to sign off on the book making it ready to be made into what we cal a Dylux.  A dylux is a proof of the entire book made from our printers to mock up the book as it would look as the final comic.  This is where the coordinator places in all the adds, and when the cover is fully completed by another Pre-Press Coordinator.  Our last step before they make this dylux is to pre-flight the lettering and the color to make sure that everything prints the way it is supposed to.  Pre-Flighting is the process in which we go into each and every file and make sure all our blacks are 4-color, and backed up, so that it prints correctly with no see through, and/ or drops out.  This is very important, for if we mess this up, we get weak blacks, and something like All-Star Batman #10, where the blacks were not backed up, and you can see the curse words through the black.  All blacks need to be 60C, 40M, 40Y and 100K.  That way, all the blacks print with a strong support underneath them, creating a nice solid color.  The editor then looks it over one more time for final sign off, and then the book is done from the dylux that was made.

That aproval gets the coordinator to create a PDF file of the final comic from the quark doc, that includes the lettering being flattened on top of the art, creating a locked file for each page.  That file is then run through a distiller of sorts for Adobe PDF’s and finally that finished file is FTP’d to our printing press.  It is ready to be made into a full fledged comic by them.  It is scheduled for a print run, and that’s why we are so rushed and our job is so dependent on deadlines.  Since it’s all on a schedule because there are so many books, that particular book needs to make that deadline to go to press.  If it doesn’t make it, then we could lose money.  If we foresee a problem making that time on the printing press, we have to notify them well in advance that the book will be shipping late.  That is a terrible thing because not only is the book now possibly going to miss coming out in stores when it was scheduled to, but also, the fans think the book is coming out that day, and it doesn’t… well, they get upset, to say the least.

So we have to be On all the time and follow this process to the end as quickly as possible.  Inkers work night and day, colorists work night and day, and up to the minute sometimes, to get the books out to the printer so it can make it in stores on time!  There are so many talented people involved, and I will use this time to thank all of them for their hard work, and dedication.  I hope this gave a little bit of insight into the entire process ONE book has to go through to get into the fans’ hands!

Until Next Time,

Corey Breen

IN TWO WEEKS- More fun, current examples of Pre-Press work!