Page "Comic strip" Paragraph 22

Proof sheets were the means by which syndicates provided newspapers with black-and-white line art for the reproduction of strips ( which they arranged to have colored in the case of Sunday strips ).

Michigan State University Comic Art Collection librarian Randy Scott describes these as " large sheets of paper on which newspaper comics have traditionally been distributed to subscribing newspapers.

Typically each sheet will have either six daily strips of a given title or one Sunday strip.

Thus, a week of Beetle Bailey would arrive at the Lansing State Journal in two sheets, printed much larger than the final version and ready to be cut apart and fitted into the local comics page.

" Comic strip historian Allan Holtz described how strips were provided as mats ( the plastic or cardboard trays in which molten metal is poured to make plates ) or even plates ready to be put directly on the printing press.

He also notes that with electronic means of distribution becoming more prevalent printed sheets " are definitely on their way out.