Progressive Proofs

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When the Black Box prints a continuous-tone lithograph, they save a copy of each color as it is printed, so they can preserve a "progressive" history of the edition. They first save one or more copies of yellow -- for instance, of Dubious Doings at Dismal Downs. They can do this because, unlike other lithographers today, they print one color at a time and let is dry completely before adding another. This is how they get their quality! Next they print blue and do the same thing: save a few copies. After they are satisfied the blue is "just right" they print it on top of all the yellows, combining the two colors. When they are done, they pull out a few copies to save. Now they have three stacks of full-size lithographs they call "progressives," one of yellow, one of blue and one with the two together. After red, which comes next, the print is starting to look good and they now have five stacks of lithographs! One is yellow, two is blue, three is yellow and blue, four is red and five combines yellow, blue and red! But for the Black Box this is just the beginning!
Comparing the progress so far with the oil, they determine through measuring instruments that they still don't have enough yellow. So they go back and run another print of just yellow -- a different shade -- and then they run that on top of and in combination with everything that came before. And, as I've said, they keep copies of each step as they go ... and they call them "progressives"! By now they've done six "colors" -- twice through the press with different yellows, then two times with blues and finally two times with just reds. But they still are not satisfied. Now the really close examinations begin. They decide just a touch more yellow could be added here and a touch more there and when these are right (keeping copies for the "progressive" record), they combine them with everything that's gone before. "Touch" plates, in printing terms, are counted as "colors" because they each had to go through the entire printing process one at a time and then each left to dry. When they've "touched" up all they need to, to get the lithograph's "colors" just right, they finish by adding black and -- wow! -- they have a lithograph!
A copy of every color (including black) and every touch plate in every combination as they are added together is kept by the printer as a permanent record of how they "progressively" put it all together.This is their "proof" of what happened, hence the term "progressive proof". The final "progressive" is, in fact, the final print ... signed by Carl Barks. But rather than have the Black Box merely run off their own couple of Progressive Proof sets for their company records, we came up with the idea to have them run off several extra sets ... for Disney, for Another Rainbow, for myself, for Barks and five complete sets to sell to AR customers! As far as we know, and as the Black Box has told us they believe, no other publisher in the world has ever offered such sets for sale to their customers. Carl Barks leads the parade again!
A twelve-color lithograph will have 23 full-size lithograph prints, each housed in its own Mylar sleeve, the collection housed in a huge, hinged, gold-stamped, custom-made, specially-designed box. Collectors can slide this spectacular array of prints -- one at a time -- from one side to the other when the box is opened up, to demonstrate how the oil painting looked at absolutely every stage of its printing history. Another Rainbow once framed every print in a set -- twenty three (23) individual, large-size lithographs -- and hung them, side by side, on both sides of a long hall-way, so customers could come in, walk down the hall looking at one side, then walk back looking at the other side to follow the full history of one print's production.
Because of the expense and because they have a hard time envisioning what they would be getting, many collectors are afraid to order a Progressive Proof set. However. The reorders from customers who have bought one and want another is very impressive. The biggest problem with repeat customers is many have run out of room to store them! I don't know anyone yet who has had 23 custom frames made to show off a set in a hallway as we did, but I've talked it up over the years and many wealthy clients have said they were going to try to figure out how to do it, either in their house, if big enough, or at their business office (everyone agrees they certainly do attract attention). Many other collectors have bought one large-size Progressive Proof set and one miniature-size, so they could have examples of each. Unfortunately, we didn't come up with the idea to do this until our ninth lithograph. Our second, First National Bank of Cibola, was the one we had framed.
Of all the things we've ever done, the Progressives are, to me, one of our proudest achievements. It's something you really have to see to fully appreciate.