Ausreprints

...covering Australian comics

AusReprints needs your comics by James Zee

How You Can Help

page 1
Ringo 41 Cover: The current AusReprints format for covers is 1000 pixels wide, even though the images are displayed at 200 pixel on most pages. Click the image to see the full size.

AusReprints is a community-driven project, and contributions from collectors and researchers are essential to its growth and accuracy. If you have information about Australian comics, you can help improve and expand AusReprints.

Contribute via Facebook or email

The easiest way to contribute is through our Facebook groups, where information can be shared and discussed with the community:

You can post scans, corrections, missing issues, or other information directly in the relevant group. It can be added to AusReprints from there.

If you prefer not to use Facebook, contributions can also be sent via email.

page 1
Sunday, 'Appointment at Red Rock': Page scans can help increase knowledge of rare features, such as Spanish art by Ramon de la Fuente from Selecciones Ilustradas.

Useful information

When contributing information, please try to provide complete and consistent details. Partial lists of contents can be difficult to interpret accurately. For example, if you are listing the contents of an issue, it is best to list the full contents rather than a selection of stories. Include titles, features, and number of pages for each item. Generally, credits are not needed for reprints as details are available at resources such as comics.org.au.1

The following types of contributions are especially helpful:

  • Complete contents for an issue (rather than partial lists)
  • Corrections or additions to existing entries
  • Publication details (dates, publishers, pricing, etc.)
  • Information on creators, publishers, or series history.

Providing images

Cover scans and page images are always welcome. Scans are typically more clear than photographs. For best results, provide images in as high a quality as practical, without heavy compression or editing2.

page 1
Ringo, 'The Will', page 1: A scan of the indicia, as seen at the bottom of this page, helps track changes and developments in Australian publishers. Importantly, it also helps date many undated comics.

Where possible, include:

  • Front covers (and back covers if available)
  • Indicative interior pages (contents pages, title pages etc.)
  • Scans that show the full page, including edges

If you are unsure about formatting, it is usually better to send the original file rather than a resized or edited version.

All contributions, large or small, help improve the accuracy and coverage of AusReprints.

Acknowledgements

I aim to acknowledgement contributors by name. Please let me know if you would prefer to not be acknowledged publicly.

References

1

Where possible, AusReprints includes full details of the contents, documenting all pages, with original source and creator credits. The following is the minimum needed to track down this information on the internet:

  • Story title (in the order, in the comic). It the story doen't have a title, include the first distinctive line of text to help identify it.
  • Feature title (eg 'Superman' or 'Fantastic Four'). The main featured characters are helpful if it is not clear from the feature's title.
  • Number of pages in the story (this is particularly important with 1980s comics where stories are sometimes merged and the join might not be obvious).
  • Some other distinguishing features of obscure one-off stories and untitled items (eg synopsis, signatures, printed credits, a scan of the first page).

If you have time and are inclined, you can also provide:

  • A full catalog, with all story details, in the standard form on the site. This can be time consuming at first, but gets quicker with practice. A key tool to find credits for creators is the Grand Comics Database.
  • Anything unusual: If there is anything distinctive or unusual, an advertisement or particularly Australian artwork, it is great to have a scan of that particular page.
  • Indicia, that is the small print often at the bottom of page 1 that gives publication information. A typed version or a scan, large enough to be readable, is good. This information helps develop a greater understanding of the history of Australian publishers and the date of an undated comic.
2

A resolution of around 300–600 dpi is generally sufficient, though higher resolutions are preferred and capture additional detail. Scanning at 300dpi will provide a cover image over 1000 pixels wide, which is standard for AusReprints. Save in JPG format (although AusReprints can deal with almost any format) with low compression. JPG files become less clear with high compression. Avoid resizing, heavy compression, or saving repeatedly as JPG, as this can degrade image quality. Providing the original scan (often TIFF format) helps preserve detail and allows for consistent processing.

Article status

Ausreprints ID

  • 33

Article details

  • By James Zee
  • 1 May 2011

Previous

Next

Can you help?