The only evidence that 1a exists is the mention of it by PK and possibly the coverscan on Afterglo (although I suspect the Afterglo cover scan is a ringer).
Pete Kerestan wrote:I looked at the pictures you linked to and yes the black cover and yellow cover were among thefirst efforts back in 1975 but I don't remember ever doing a spiral bound for sale. My wife's cousin had a print shop and we did the first ones on his press then I drove them to different hobby shops and sold them from the trunk of my car. A year later I picked up a small press and started doing all the printing in my game shop in San Louis Obispio CA. Brad (Morno) came up from LA and I set him up with a place to live and he came down to the shop as well as he worked on art for the products.
Pete Kerestan wrote:I have been looking over stuff from back then and found I made a mistake on my dates. I got out of the service Feb of 76, for some reason I kept thinking it was 75, but my 214 shows 76.
mbassoc2003 wrote:So no pre-pub at all? Or no 1a? PK was alking about selling them through his shop prior to the TSR deal (and presumably prior to the black folder).Where does that leave the print sequence?
Adam Shultz wrote:I understood that to mean that he was trying to sell the version he just sold off to A2Jeff.
harami2000 wrote:Adam Shultz wrote:I understood that to mean that he was trying to sell the version he just sold off to A2Jeff.At present that copy cannot be shown to be any different to a standard yellow scrollwork cover ziploc (June 1976 or later), unless Jeff can find some constant printing difference which might show that the white pages are "earlier" than any of the others seen included in other copies thus far
a2jeff wrote:I'll do a detailed comparison of the pages in my black folder version (see page 1 or 2 of this thread for some details on my black folder copy contents, which differs from Harami's slightly) to the pages in the House Copy and see if I can notice anything.
a2jeff wrote:Another possible approach is to compare white pages of the House copy to Killjoy's, should he want to extract them (again....).
mbassoc2003 wrote:I would have expected to see the grey grid in the black folder version maps!? Is the grey grid missing in your black folder version of PoVQ?
Pete Kerestan wrote: The product itself was first put out in a plastic bag with just a plain sheet front. They didn't sell to the hobby shops in LA at all well. I took the next step and had a black cover made up by my wife's cousin who had a print shop.
afoolandhis$ wrote:Setting aside the finer details of the dates and printings for a moment, this is the over-arching scenario that makes sense to me.Production begins with: white title page, no scrollwork, polybagged. Very simple. Doesn't catch much attention.Next: white title page, scrollwork, polybagged. Timing perhaps coinciding with Brad getting set up in Pete's shop. Still doesn't attract much in the way of attention/sales. Need to ramp up the packaging.
afoolandhis$ wrote:Next: yellow title page, scrollwork, bagged. Very soon afterward: production of the black folders begins. Some of the black folders are stuffed with the leftover sets that have a white title page without scrollwork, some are stuffed with the leftover sets that have a white title page with scrollwork, and the rest are stuffed with the newly-printed sets with yellow title page with scrollwork. Sales pick up.
afoolandhis$ wrote:So it goes from there to the bagged castle printing and finally the digest printing. The regression to a polybagged version (with the yellow castle cover) may have been motivated by deteriorating relations with TSR and resultant tightening of funds. On the other hand, wouldn't the digest printing have been more expensive than the yellow castle baggy version?
afoolandhis$ wrote:I see the evolution of the module as driven by the need to increase visibility and shelf appeal. From white, plain; to white, scrolled; to yellow, scrolled; to all of that plus black folders (re-packaging un-sold, early printings).Any thoughts?
tfm wrote:I thought David's chronology was on track, that the black folder predates any kind of yellow sheet, as described earlier: Pete Kerestan wrote: The product itself was first put out in a plastic bag with just a plain sheet front. They didn't sell to the hobby shops in LA at all well. I took the next step and had a black cover made up by my wife's cousin who had a print shop. Am I missing something?