Measures 9.5" x 13". Folded, unbound, untrimmed color interior printer's proofs, copiously hand-annotated by Harvey Kurtzman. Good condition; tears, chips, soiling. Art by Severin, Evans, Davis.
Harvey Kurtzman was a famously exacting editor, and nothing shows his attention to detail more than the EC printer's proofs that he marked up with thoroughgoing zeal: circling and noting every tiny stray dot and tiny printing glitch that had to be fixed before the issue could be printed. EC proofs are very rare, and only a small handful of examples annotated by Kurtzman are known to exist.
Ironically, although printer's proofs were considered disposable, they were printed on a much higher grade of paper than the actual comic books, so the detail is much sharper and the colors brighter than on the final product. Proofs were the first copies printed from the engraver's plates, before the fine lines degraded from tens of thousands of pressings. Contemporary Kurtzmaniacs would have loved a chance to read ECs of this printing quality, but the economics of comics precluded that possibility. This is the prime copy of Two-Fisted Tales #40, bearing, in every detail, the mark of Kurtzman.
Provenance: From the Harvey Kurtzman Estate
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