printing of comics

[kelargo]

Does anyone know much about the printing of comics?

back in the 70s they were on newsprint paper and they seemed to out
of color register all the time.

then sometime later, the printing got really nice- nice paper and
no longer out of color register.

does anyone know when that happened?
what titles were the first to benefit from the newer printing?
I guess the printers upgraded their equipment? anyone know any details?

just wondering if there's any historian insiders out there with the know!

[x-omatic]

I have actually worked at a printing company. Although I don't know the history and when changes happened in the comic world I can tell you that in the 2 years I worked there, they upgraded all of the presses. I ran 2 color and 4 color presses. The 2 color presses were set up entirely by hand and hand very basic adjments that could be made. The only way to know how it was printing was to look at a finished page. Ink flow was controlled by hand via small screws. You also had to make sure not to run out of a color during printing.

On the four color press there were computer controls. It had small monitors that would allow you to watch each of the "plates" printed registration. It allowed for some adjustment on the fly but would still need to be shut stopped to make most. The big difference between the two was the amount of adjustments, how fine they could be adjusted, and how well the plates would stay in position. The color was computer monitored to make sure the right amount of ink was being printed and that there was always enough.

[mattboh]

The first major upgrade over the newsprint format that I recall was when DC rebooted Teen Titans in 1984. This was the first time I'd seen full page bleeds. DC also started the prestige format (Dark Knight?). It seems to me that DC spearheaded most of the printing innovations.

[shaxper]

I could be wrong, bit I believe you can see a lot of it in cover prices for issues in the late 80s and early 90s. Generally, the 75 cent and $1 issues from 1988 and up are still newsprint, while the $1.25 and up issues are the good stuff.