THE STORY OF THE DREAMING CITY
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"The Dreaming City" is a graphic adaptation of the first Elric story by Roy Thomas and P. Craig Russell. The first two parts were published initially in Epic Illustrated magazine before the whole five-part adaptation was completed in Marvel's second graphic novel, which was released in 1982.
P. Craig Russell hand-colored the original art and it is a true high point of his accomplished and extensive career. The original art pages are not lettered (the lettering was done on separate sheets of paper) so they are clutter-free and glorious to look at. The pages have been kept in a climate-controlled environment at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Columbus, Ohio and they are in great shape. The colors are beautifully vivid,—even more so than in previously printed versions.
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THE RESTORATION
We are attempting to restore this great work by making high-resolution scans of the original unlettered, hand-colored art (nearly 60 pages worth). Some pages also have to be sent out to a professional gallery to be scanned due to their oversized dimensions. For posterity's sake, we also need to scan each and every corresponding page of lettering so that it can be combined with the color art for any future presentations of this material (which is another 60 scans).
A number of the lettered pages are missing from the archive, so we also need to hire a professional comics letterer to recreate them so that they match the style of the originals. There will be many other lettering tweaks and corrections made that were missed in the original presentation. Also, a few pages were not kept with the bulk of the originals at the Cartoon Library and Museum, One page in particular was kept framed in a non-UV safe frame and the colors have faded and shifted considerable. These pages will have to be gone over by the artist and recolored by hand so that they are closer to their original beauty.
On top of the scanning and restoration, we also have to cover the cost of multiple all-day road trips down to Columbus, Ohio to retrieve and return the original art elements. These, along with many other expenses, ultimately add up to an unfortunately sizable amount.
This campaign will allow us to cover all of the costs of this expensive restoration and will also enable us to provide our valued pledge partners with a number of unique perks to thank them for making it all possible. Perhaps best of all is the fact that it will enable us to provide the restored files to Titan Comics for use in an upcoming new hardcover edition . . . so this amazing masterwork of comic art can be enjoyed by a whole new generation!
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