FMP! Overload! Manga

ladygemma · Post by **ladygemma** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:32 am

YAY! We share a birthday with Aretha Franklin and Sir Elton John!!!! But it's my 21st birthday, so I get to raise double hell if it's delayed!

Jae · Post by **Jae** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:37 am

I finally got overload #3, and thought the print quality was somewhat poor. I haven't compared it to the japanese one yet, though. The cover seemed blury and smudgy, and the contrast inside seemed off. Cheaper printer, maybe?

No info on a US release of Sigma yet. Don't even know if anyone's picked it up for the US yet.

ladygemma · Post by **ladygemma** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 2:30 am

Wow Jae, I didn't think mine was bad. I think the shadding is a little weird, but it didn't look smudged to me... Here's a scan of my copy:

Same as yours? Or different?

dr_haro · Post by **dr_haro** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:20 am

That's way lighter than my cover... that one looks pretty good.

The color saturation on my cover is a lot higher, and I have some of the smudges I think Jae was referring to.

Small complaint though, it's what's inside that counts ^_^

Weltall Elite · Post by **Weltall Elite** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:46 am

dr_haro wrote:Anybody looking forward to FMP v9, it's been "delayed" until March 25th.

Really? I didn't think it was even slated for release. I'm tickled pink!

dr_haro · Post by **dr_haro** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:53 am

Indeed. It's one of the only titles ADV Manga DIDN'T scrap (there's a few more too, but they did cut off a large portion of their manga selection)

It was supposed to come out at the end of Feb, but didn't show up. (however, BN.com did claim to have them "ready to ship" around that time)

Jae · Post by **Jae** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:31 am

ladygemma wrote:Same as yours? Or different?

At first look, I thought your cover looked better than mine. Your scan is nice and bright on my screen. But comparing it with my book, I can see some of the problems.

Dr_haro is right I think, it looks like a saturation problem.

Smudges really wasn't the right term. I had a vauge sense the colors were off, and have been meaning to dig up the japanese one to compare, still have to do that, but I did get my US #2 and that cover has a similar issue too. In your scan, it seems most obvious on Sousuke's faces.

The skin tones on #3 range from dull and dark (around the eyes) to seemingly fluorescent where shaded. Areas that should be lighter tone are dimmer (greyish) than shaded areas which are bold, bright, and colorful. The blue of Kaname's skirt and hair is too strong, and contrasts too harshly with her blazingly white jacket. That only makes her skin color problem obvious. The highlights in her eye should be white like her jacket. Oddly, Kyoko up in the corner looks ultrawhite, except for her left hand. All of the color variations make this a horrible picture- it's too busy and conflicting, visually. The original art wasn't this bad.
Not all of these things are visible in the scan, but some are IMO. Thank you for scanning it, BTW!!! You really prompted me to look closely at the covers.

On Vol 2, the problem isn't as striking, but still present. The flesh tone problem is there. The orange color in the starburst in the background is splotchy, not the way it's supposed to be, I think. White isn't *white* - it's grey. But the other colors, like Sousuke's clothes, appear just fine.

Maybe a problem with the printer, or maybe a problem with whoever's prepping the materials. Seems both covers could be easily improved in PS. *sigh* I wish it were practical and possible for US manga to be printed in Japan, where they know how to do it

HELLFIRE · Post by **HELLFIRE** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:23 pm

...having worked in the print industry for a year and a half before -- long
sob story behind that -- it could be a case of 'we needed it yesterday
but we won't be ready until tommorrow'

I've got stacks of client stories like that...

@ladygemma
that pic's a raw, unmanipulated scan i'm presuming? I'll have to check
on a couple other monitors, but my copy of Overload's not too far off
color-wise. Mostly a slightly different tone of blue.. then again this current
monitor's waaaaay past it's prime but still ticking

Regards

ladygemma · Post by **ladygemma** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 4:47 pm

@HELLFIRE
Yea, that's straight from my scanner (which is a very good scanner). It looked closer on my LCD at home, but still looks pretty close here at work on a tube.

Working in advertising and with a lot of print media, you have no idea how difficult color saturation can be. With one project we sent it back to the printer a good 4 times before the got the color to match the proofs we did. And that was with a color number and everything!

With as much as they have been rushing these volumes, it seems they have cut down on print production a bit. I might have gotten a first run or a latter run of it, in which they fixed the problem. My other volumes are fine, and I've gotten them between 1 walden and a suncoast in the same mall (which the suncoast no longer carries Manga..dang it)

KiLlEr · Post by **KiLlEr** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 6:25 pm

ladygemma wrote:With one project we sent it back to the printer a good 4 times before the got the color to match the proofs we did. And that was with a color number and everything!

How much do you want to bet that the printer's pantone index cards were more than 3 years old, and normally stored behind a window that faces south (or north if they're on the southern hemisphere)?

Don't laugh, I know of a few places......

ladygemma · Post by **ladygemma** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:46 pm

Seriously wouldn't surprise me, we get new ones as often as I blink and all of them are stored in a nice pretty bookcase in a hallway with no direct sunlight.

Doesn't help that the paper the client wanted all of this printed on was super glossy and had a tendancy to scratch very easily......... *head desk*

Jae · Post by **Jae** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:04 am

Whatever the cause, it suggests a quality control problem for ADV.

It's on two covers (I haven't look at Vol 1 yet), so it appears the problem on Vol 2 was either not noticed or simply remained uncorrected. If it's their printer, they still need to deal with the issue to prevent future covers from looking this way.

BTW, I buy lots of manga, both japanese and US releases. Glitchy/technical problems happen (more often with US releases). Pages go missing, bad cropping, tone is too dark, ect. But this is the same problem on two volumes, with lots of time between release dates.

I'm even the sort of fan who would rather support the US companies, rather than complain, but I'm tired of this sort of 'good enough' attitude with FMP.

edit - I scanned my Vols 2 and 3. Monitor conditions may vary *ppppth*
Scans look the way for me as they do irl, no hijinkery involved. The logos on both appear consistent. Still a problem with the printer?
http://fmp.abstratica.org/uugh.jpg

aand edit 2- http://fmp.abstratica.org/uughnot.jpg
the japanese covers, scanned+saved same exact way. White is white, colors are balanced, shadingV.highlights looks the way it should. Compare Kyoko if nothing else.

But, I notice on the ADV version, we can see more of Kyoko's right hand? What's with that? And not just that, the elements on Vol 3 are positioned differently. Perhaps ADV was given a different draft of the art? That still doesn't excuse the color problem. Vol 2 looks the same, but for the color problem.

dr_haro · Post by **dr_haro** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:03 am

Jeez, seeing them with the japanese covers really puts things in perspective... their covers look MUCH better.

Oh man, I hope the cover for volume 9 of the other manga series doesn't come out all screwy. :/

ladygemma · Post by **ladygemma** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:13 am

Wow, I guess there was a major difference. I just thought it was how Tomohiro Nagai was doing things with this one. My pages seem a bit dark compared to other manga I bought today as well (NANA, Hana Kimi, etc)

Possibly time to lodge a formal complaint with ADV? I honestly would rather have a quality product than have it quickly.

EDIT: Just compared it closer, it appears, depending on the artists medium (which looks like watercolors or copics, but could be PS), each of the items was a layer of some sort, and I think the US designers got a copy of each layer and pieced them back together, which could explain why the color is off. Their original sent from Japan could be the issue. Possibly printed differently? Is the size of the manga cover any different? Could that be the reason for the missplacement?

Jae · Post by **Jae** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 3:32 am

ADV's books are about a quarter of an inch bigger (I didn't use a ruler).
But the actual artwork appears to be about the same size- the extra size is all at the top.

The original medium is probably watercolors. Maybe Copics, but some of the color diffusion looks like wc. But wouldn't both the japanese publisher and ADV be working with copies? (either paper or digital)

I'd be totally behind letting ADV know they have an issue here if they can correct it for future releases.