"Auto-Enhance"

I've considered starting a separate blog just for getting on a soapbox about things that bug me... but for now, I'm just going to put this on the regular blog.  Pardon the "interruption"...

For the last couple weeks, I have been running into the WEIRDEST glitch on my blogs.  I find that I can upload 2 IDENTICAL files, and they show up looking different.  Sometimes I'll remove one version of an image with an updated one, and inexplicably, the new one will be MUCH darker, even though in other programs (Photoshop, Super JPG viewer) it looks the same.  I've even uploaded the IDENTICAL file onto 2 different pages of the blog, and they look very different.  HOW CAN THIS BE?  What the hell is going on?

It's getting so I can't even trust uploading an image to look at to doible-check what it "really" looks like anymore... 

It's very annoying, because I'm so exhaustively particular about exactly how bright or dark I make the colors on my restorations.

Then about 2 weeks back, I was upgrading a "Bible" episode with fuller skin tones (I had to download a new copy from the BL site to do it).  All of a sudden, the ENTIRE image went darker-- but, this was only visible on the blog.  Other images around the new one were as bright as weve.

Last night I set up a new "Sub-Mariner" page which would collect all his early-60's cover appearances.  On a regular website (like Nick Simon's Silver Age Marvel, which has been down for 2-1/2 years), you'd have ONE version of any file, and it could appear anyplace you wanted when you wrote the code.  But with Blogger, as far as I know, you have to upload more than one copy of something to get it to appear on more than one page.  I'm wondering if somehow, this might be connected.

Right now, for example, FF #9 and DD #7 look perfectly fine on their respective pages, but on the Subby page, both are way too dark-- which is especially noticable in the graytones.  The B&W newspaper image on DD #7, the one on the Subby page you can barely see the picture.

Well, it's "nice" to know I'm not the only one.

Just found this at a Blogger forum (which itself was NOT easy to find)...

I see that not only my new pictures are automatically (poor) enhanced, but also the images from older blogs. How is that possible without notification to the owners of the pictures? I (and a lot of my co-bloggers too) am very sad about this. We are a group of photographers and quality is very important to us. Why is that tag set to "automatically enhance YES"? 

More... 

Im NotBad 
I never had this issue before, but I noticed when uploading images to blogger, the tint of all photos is changed a lot. My main page image has the same color background as my post backgrounds. Just the other day I noticed my main image was darker and off-color. Had to host my main image elsewhere and the colors are fine. I then added all sorts of images to blogger to test it and every image I add is having its color changed automatically, either darker, some were more red, some were more yellow. Other site's I upload to aren't having this issue so it can't be something I'm doing wrong. It's a very noticeable problem. I attached a comparison pic. Is this something that can be fixed ?!?!?  Or at least addressed.

Her Ugliness 
Okay, I just experienced something really weird with blogger:
I was just about to write a post and uploaded a photo from my computer to blogger as I have been doing for the past 2 years, but the photo turned out to look completely wrong. The contrast was much higher and the image was darker. This has never happened to me before, and no matter how often I try to re-upload images (I also tried re-saving them on my computer) it always turns out weird like this.

This is not just concerning a certain set of photos. I just tried to re-upload old photos I had already used in my blog posts in the past, and back then also uploaded directly via bologger, into blog posts and they too look different than before.

jaine kershner
Everything was working just fine yesterday, but when i go to upload my images today, they are coming in darker, yellow-ish and pixelated. none-of my settings have changed on my blog or computer. How do I fix this??

Here's an answer they posted...   

Google Plus now integrate the Auto Enhance feature which automatically edit your uploaded pictures (adjust the brightness, saturation level...add filters). To disable this feature:

• Connect to your Google + account.
• Click on Home > Settings.
• Scroll to the "Auto Enhance" section.
• Uncheck "Automatically enhance new photos".

 

• Click on the "Back to Google+" link.

   

JESUS CHRIST!!!!! 

I've used Photoshop-- and a pile of other programs-- enough to know, ANYTHING "auto" SUCKS BEYOND ALL BELIEF.

Someone showed me how to use "levels" in Photoshop, which allows you to adjust an entire image by clicking on a white area.  There is an option, "auto levels".  Never, NEVER, EVER use that.  Utterly worthless.

WHO-- THE FUCK!!!!!!!!-- comes up with SHIT like this???? 

After a bit of searching, I found the "auto enhance" thing-- and UNCLICKED it.

We'll see how this goes...

I posted my previous reply... along with the folowing postscript...

(Oh yes-- THANK YOU for the technical reply. But it should never have been NECESSARY in the first place.)

Summing up:  I checked, and it's WORKING FINE now.  This still doesn't negate how REALLY PISSED OFF it made me. The world is a challenging enough place, without TOTAL ASSHOLES needlessly FUCKING it over for everybody else on a daily basis.



We now return you to our regularly scheduled blog, already in progress... 

Sub-Mariner 1962-65

PRINCE NAMOR, THE SUB-MARINER was the creation of Bill Everett, and had debuted in 1939. At one point he appeared in 5 books regularly at the same time! Though his series ended in 1952, he returned in 1962, and after 14 appearances in a variety of books, was finally awarded his own series again.

When Jack Kirby's FANTASTIC FOUR debuted in 1961, part of its line-up was a new version of The Human Torch, the character who originally bumped Namor from the cover slot of MARVEL COMICS #1.  It probably seemed a natural step to then bring back another Timely hero.  So it was that Namor returned in FF #4, where it was revealed he'd suffered amnesia, as a way of explaining his disappearance.  But on regaining his memory, he discovered his undersea kingdom had been destroyed, and naturally blamed the entire surface world.  In effect, Kirby returned Namor to the way he'd been when Everett first introduced him in 1939-- a violent hothead out to bring down mankind.  But as had happened before, he fell in love with a surface woman-- in this case, Sue Storm, which set up a love triangle between Sue, Namor & Reed Richards ("Mr. Fantastic", a variation on Jack Cole's Plastic Man) that would not be resolved for some time.

FANTASTIC FOUR 4  /  art by Jack Kirby & Sol Brodsky   (May 1962)

FANTASTIC FOUR 6  /  art by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers   (September 1962)

FANTASTIC FOUR 9  /  art by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers   (December 1962)  

FANTASTIC FOUR 14  /
art by Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko   (May 1963)

STRANGE TALES 107  / 
art by Jack Kirby & Sol Brodsky   (April 1963)

FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL 1  /
art by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers   [September 1963]

FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL 1  /
art by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers   [September 1963]
Fantasy version by Henry Kujawa

THE AVENGERS 3  /  art by Jack Kirby & ??   (January 1964)   (Coming soon!)
THE AVENGERS 4  /  art by Jack Kirby & ??   (March 1964)   (Coming soon!)
FANTASTIC FOUR 27  /  art by Jack Kirby & ??   (June 1964)   (Coming soon!)
X-MEN 6  /  art by Jack Kirby & ??   (July 1964)   (Coming soon!)
STRANGE TALES 125  /
art by Jack Kirby & ??   (October 1964)   (Coming soon!)
FANTASTIC FOUR 33  /  art by Jack Kirby & Chic Stone   (December 1964)   (Coming soon!)
THE AVENGERS 16  /  art by Jack Kirby & ??   (May 1965)   (Coming soon!)

Perhaps the most "obvious" story was to pit 2 of Bill Everett's creations against each other.  Then-current DAREDEVIL writer & artist Wally Wood redesigned DD's costume, giving him the "classic" version that would remain virtually unchanged for the rest of his career!  Below is surely one of Wood's MASTERPIECES.

DAREDEVIL 7  /  art by WALLY WOOD   (April 1965)

(Continued in TALES TO ASTONISH, Part 5)

More as I go!

Artwork (C) Marvel Comics

Raw scans supplied by Barry Pearl
Raw scan of FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #1 from the Heritage Auctions site
Raw scan of DAREDEVIL #7 from Boards Collectors Society website 

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

Jules Verne, Part 2

(Continued from Part 1)

My overview of various comics & audio versions of  
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA continues!

Wonderland Records specialized in original "radio-style" dramatic recordings aimed at children.  Their take on 20,000 LEAGUES was apparently even more afield than the Disneyland Records version, but it did have some nice cover art.

WONDERLAND LP  /  cover art by WALLY WOOD   (1973)

Gilberton's CLASSIC ILLUSTRATED line was shut down in 1971.
In 1973, Pendulum Press, Inc. picked up the ball, doing brand-new versions of old stories in hardbound editions.  The line was headed up by Vince Fago, most known for funny-animal comics, and a brief run as Marvel's Editor during WW2.  Pendulum's 20,000 LEAGUES was written by Otto Binder and had interior art by Romy Gaboa & Ernie Patricio.  Apparently it was first serialized in WEEKLY READER, a publication distributed in classrooms, before being collected in book form.  There've been 5 different editions of this (so far) over the years!

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  /
cover by Romy Gaboa & Ernie Patricio   (Pendulum Press, Inc.  /  1973)

Peter Pan Records' specialty was packages that combined recordings of stories aimed at children with comic-books.  Their version marked at least the 3rd such recording of the story! 

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  PR-42  /
cover by Rich Buckler & Dick Giordano   (Peter Pan Records  /  1974)

Look And Learn Ltd. in England published a weekly magazine which contained, among other things, adaptations of classic stories.
In 1975 they did a version of "20,000 LEAGUES" that ran for 11 weeks from September 2-October 11, 1975 (22 pages total).  It was later collected and reprinted in the LION ANNUAL 1981 (Christmas 1980).

LOOK AND LEARN 707
cover by ??   (Look And Learn Ltd.  /  September 2, 1975) 

LOOK AND LEARN #715  /  Episode 9
art by BILL BAKER   (Look And Learn Ltd.  /  September 27, 1975)

MARVEL CLASSICS COMICS was one more area Marvel Comics decided to expand into, if in a half-hearted way.   Running 36 issues from 1976-78, they began with reprints of the earlier versions from Pendulum Press, Inc. under new covers-- all of which were terrible!  It's no wonder these slipped completely under my radar when they came out. 

MARVEL CLASSICS COMICS 4  /
cover by Gil Kane & Dan Adkins   (Marvel  /  1976)

EN VERDENSOMSEILING UNDER HAVET  /
cover by (??)   (Hjemmet  /  Norway  /  1976)

No, this next one isn't here by accident... apparently, the 1954 movie adaptation was reprinted, serialized, over several issues of this magazine.
The 1st 11 pages are included in this issue.

THE NEW MICKEY MOUSE CLUB FUNBOOK #11190  /
(Western  /  October 1977)

King Features Syndicate, mostly associated with newspaper strips, had their own short-lived line of comic-books in the mid-60's.  They dipped into the market again briefly from 1977-79 with their own line of CLASSICS, although I'm not sure if these were new versions, or reprints-- and if the latter, of which versions!  Their 20,000 LEAGUES, at least, had one of the best covers yet. 

KING CLASSICS 8  /
cover by ??   (King Features Syndicate  /  1978)

Fleetway published a series of "Annuals" which were a mix of new and reprint material.  The LION ANNUAL 1981 collected the 1975 version of
"20,000 LEAGUES" from LOOK AND LEARN.

LION ANNUAL 1981  /
cover by ??   (Fleetway  /  Christmas 1980)

OMNI Magazine article "Light Voyager"  /
painting by JOHN BERKEY   (1982)

In 1984, Academic Industries Inc. did a series of B&W paperback-sized reprints of the 1973 Pendulum CLASSICS (which had previously been reprinted by Marvel).  Aside from my general dislike for shinking art that way, the new covers weren't impressive, either.

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  C12  /
cover by Romy Gaboa & Ernie Patricio   (Academic Industries, Inc.  /  1984)

In 1990, Pendulum Press, Inc. decided to reprint their early-70's books in "prestige format" editions, with new painted covers.  Only 6 or a projected 72 were actually published, but it's interesting how the cover format is IDENTICAL to that used by Berkeley / First the SAME year. 

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  /
cover by ??   (Pendulum Press, Inc.  /  1990)

First Comics was a successful "small" publisher in the 80's, until they teamed with Berkeley to do CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED.  They'd been over-expanding for some time, but the new deal, which involved a series of brand-new, "prestige format" adaptations, many with fully-painted color, pushed them over the edge into bankruptcy.  It might have worked, if they'd limited themselves to 1 such book a month-- instead of 4 or more...!

One of the books announced but cancelled wound up being published some time later by Dark Horse Comics, who seemed to understand more about "limited" runs.  The project was scaled down to a standard comic-book format, printed in B&W on newsprint paper.  Kind of a shame, as according to his website, artist Gary Gianni spent "over a year" working on the book-- with STUNNING results!

DARK HORSE CLASSICS  /
cover by GARY GIANNI   (Dark Horse Comics  /  1992)

DARK HORSE CLASSICS  /  page 25  /  art by GARY GIANNI

From 1990 to 2001, BOYS' LIFE magazine featured Bank Street Classics,  
25 brand-new adaptations, each clocking in at a mind-boggling 16 pages per novel.  Despite the extreme compression, the results were very impressive!

BOYS' LIFE  /  Bank Street Classics  /  page 11  /
art by ERNIE COLON   (November 1996)

After the stylish new Berkely / First / Dark Horse adaptations, it must have seemed a step backwards when Acclaim Entertainment (the company that bought out Valiant Comics) decided to reprint the original versions, once again with NEW covers.  Still, it's fun to compare versions, and this gave younger audiences a chance to read the older ones without going broke on expensive back-issues.

CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED 23  /
cover by J.P. LEON   (Acclaim Entertainment  /  1996)

9 years after its original publication, Gary Gianni's adaptation was reprinted
in a limited edition (50 copies!!) available only from his website.  Fittingly, the new cover is in the style of a 19th Century publication! 

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  /
cover by GARY GIANNI   (Hieronymus Press  /  2001)

In 2008, a far-more "cartoony" adaptation was done, in a style apparently inspired by Japanese comic-books ("manga").

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  /
cover by JOSE ALFONSO OCAMPO RUIZ
(Capstone Publishers / Stone Arch Books / Graphic Resolve  /  January 2008)

Pin-up by JOSE ALFONSO OCAMPO RUIZ  /  color by Benny Fuentes

In 2008, 18 years after it was finished, Gary Gianni's adaptation was finally issued in an expensive, full-color package as originally intended! 

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  /
cover by GARY GIANNI   (Flesk Publications  /  September 2008)

In 2010, Saddleback Publishing, Inc. reprinted Pendulum Press's version as part of their "Illustrated Classics" series, reusing the 1990 cover painting and format, with only the lettering changed to reflect the different publisher.  I'm not sure if the interiors were in color here for the 1st time, or if they had color added for the 1990 edition. 

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  SP-9502  /
cover by ??   (Saddleback Publishing, Inc.  /  2010)

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA   (2010)  /
page 11  /  adaptation by Otto Binder  /  art by Romy Gaboa & Ernie Petricio

From 2010, some promotional art from a proposed REMAKE of the 1954 film.
It's obvious they're using the same design for The Nautilus here.

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  /  promo art
art by ??  (Walt Disney  /  2010)

Campfire Classics is yet ANOTHER publisher getting into the market of doing graphic novels based on "classic" novels, doing an entire series of books based on the SAME stories (how many versions does the world really need, anyway?).  This one appears to be based in India, and while their cover artists are good on the technical side, their depictions of people seem strangely "off" to me. Also odd is that I've found 2 completely different covers for their version of this story.

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  /
cover by BHUPENDRA AHLUWALIA   (Campfire Classics  /  2010)

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  /
cover by BHUPENDRA AHLUWALIA   (Campfire Classics  /  2010)

The Paul J. Smith music score to the 1954 had never been released until 2008 when it became available on iTunes as a download.  3 years later, Intrada (who did the original extensive remastering job on Jerry Goldsmith's PLANET OF THE APES score years earlier) finally put it out on CD.  Note that the cover art includes the actual logo from the movie poster!  (I GOTTA get this.)

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA  /
cover by ??  (Intrada  /  November 2011)

In the "How many versions of a story does anyone need?" category this adaptation by Dan Ross.  The art seems reminiscent of various "Eastern-Bloc country" art styles I've seen.  (He's actually from New Zealand.)  It also reminds me a bit of the art in the 1969 film "YELLOW SUBMARINE".

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA
art by DAN ROSS   (Dan Ross Art  /  August 2012)

Page 16

Finally, here's artist Ken Taylor's "Mondo Print" poster for the 1954 film.  WOW!

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA
art by KEN TAYLOR   (Mondo Print  /  2012)

Copyright (C) the various artists & publishers.

Scans of DARK HORSE CLASSICS from my collection

Scan of 1982 John Berkey painting from the Heritage Auctions site

Scan of EN VERDENSOMSEILING UNDER HAVET  (1976),
     THE NEW MICKEY MOUSE CLUB FUNBOOK,
     & CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #23 (1996)
     from the GCD site

Scan of Wonderland LP from the Masterworks site
Scan of 1973 & 1990 Pendulum Press editions from the
     Kleefeld On Comics blog
Scan of Peter Pan Records 45 & book from the ComicVine site
Scan of 1975 Look And Learn version from the Bear Alley blog
Scan of MARVEL CLASSICS COMICS #4 from the Classics Central site
Scan of KING CLASSICS #8 from the Classics Central Store site
Scan of LION ANNUAL 1981 from the Comic Vine site
Scan of Academic Industries #C12
     & the 2001 Hieronymus Press edition
     from the My Comics Shop site
Scan of 1996 Bank Street Classics version from the BOYS' LIFE website

Scans of 2008 Stone Arch version from the Google Books & Deviant Art sites
Scan of 2008 Flesk Publications reprint from their website
Scan of 2010 Saddleback edition from the Saddleback site
Scan of 2010 promo art from the Michael May Adventure blog
Scan of 2011 Intrada CD from The Second Disc site
Scans of 2010 Campfire Classics book from their website
     & from My Comics Shop
Scans of 2012 Dan Ross version from the Freelanced.com and Dan Ross Art sites
Scan of 2012 Ken Taylor Mondo Print
     from the Into The Mouth Of Madness blog

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

For more:
Visit the Vern.ca site to see various editions of the original novel!
Read about the 1916 20,000 LEAGUES film at the Silent Volume blog.
Read about the history of Gilberton & Classics Illustrated at Wikipedia.
See production art & posters for the 1954 film at the Disney And More blog!
See & read the RCA Victor album book at the Mountain Ear Song blog!
Read a fascinating examination of the 1954 film
     at the Steampunk.WonderHowTo site!
See the 1954 View Master pics at the Selling Tourists Info site!
Read FROM HERE TO INSANITY #11 at the Mars Will Send No More blog!
Read Perspective magazine's article on Dell Movie Classics.
Read about the 1963 Disneyland Records LP
     at the Voyages Extraordinaire blog.
Read Scott M's article about Marvel Classic Comics
     at the Seduction Of The Indifferent blog.
Read about the 20,000 LEAGUES theme park ride at Micechat.com.
Read more about the WDW ride and watch a video
     at the DisneyAndMore blog.
Read about Vincent Fago's Pendulum Press at the Kleefeld On Comics blog
Read about Look And Learn Ltd. at the Bear Alley blog
Read about artist Bill Baker at the Illustration Art Gallery site
Read about the Moby Books "Illustrated Classic Editions"
     at the Lost In The Cloud blog.
Read more about the Moby Books edition and see more interior artwork
     at the Mars Will Send No More blog.
See Sam Ita's 20,000 LEAGUES pop-up book on Youtube!
See Jim Tierney's innovative book cover design at the 2PenniesWorth site.
See Dan Ross's art as his website.

See the 20,000 LEAGUES overview!
Read the Jesse Marsh 20,000 LEAGUES adaptation!
Read the Frank Thorne 20,000 LEAGUES adaptation!
Read the Wally Wood 20,000 LEAGUES parody!
Read the Jack Kirby 20,000 LEAGUES parody!
Read the Dan Spiegle CAPTAIN NEMO series!
Read the Jim Fair CAPTAIN NEMO series!
Read the Bill Baker 20,000 LEAGUES adaptation!
Read the Gary Gianni 20,000 LEAGUES adaptation!
Read the Ernie Colon 20,000 LEAGUES adaptation!

See the JOURNEY overview!
See the MYSTERIOUS ISLAND overview!

Special thanks to Luke Blanchard for supplying info
     on LOOK AND LEARN.

And for something really crazy & fun-- check out...
NEMO'S REVENGE: THE QUEST FOR THE LOST PEARL
...an online video game using the Disney "Nautilus" and a giant squid!

(Continued in Part 3)