The Yellow Kong: Dating by Dotscreen!

Several original pages appear here in color, to show how some of the dotscreen has aged. For conoisseurs of old comic book and comic strip art, the concept of Benday screens is nothing new; a number of manufacturers made dot screens on advesive-back film (Zip-A-Tone, Mecanorma, Pantone, Formatt), and I probably used every variety on the original art for Kong.

Some of the effects I was able to accomplish, depending on whether the dots were printed on the front of the film, was scratching off the pattern to create mist or white glows, etc.

Some of it seems to have aged better than others, although I no longer have any record of which brand was used on which page. All of the art was stored in the same (not optimal) conditions, with heat in the summer and cold in the winter, and all of the art was scanned under the same parameters. The scans match the originals fairly accurately on my monitor. The only factor that is different is the manufacturer (although it all might have fared better in a more climate-controlled storage facility).

However, as illustrator Vince Dorse suggests, the yellowing kind of gives the art a patina of charm! Enjoy.

Close-up of Ann Darrow that has aged pretty well, although some slight shrinkage is evident to the right of the circle where two pieces of dot screen were laid next to one another.

Dots and line patterns are used on this page, which shows different degrees of yellowing. Clearly, it is the adhesive backing that is the culprit. So much for archival quality! Although it does make the flesh tones of the villagers rich and varied.

Some scratching on top of the film is evident in panel one, to create a modulating effect.

Spotlights are emphasized against the skyline by cutting away the dot screen. This page was one of the last I drew; it is so iconic, I don't know why I didn't plan it from the start.

Different dot screen values (probably 20% black to 40% black) were used in bands to give the water added depth in the second panel. Leaving the figure of Ann and the bubbles white make them pop out from the murky depths. Some shrinkage, however, can be seen at the top right corner and along the seams, particularly between Ann's neck and left arm. It appears in the photocopies of the time and probably the printed comic, so I probably did not do such a great job joining that spot in the first place.