Checker Book Publishing Group - Further Reviews and Criticism

Further Reviews and Criticism

In addition to some disappointment regarding the format and layout of some of their newspaper strip reprints, some of Checker's titles have drawn criticism directed towards the company's stated "High Quality Standards". In particular, critics have focused on art reproduction quality, citing, for example, a "faded" look in some of the Dick Tracy volumes where ink appears not to have been accurately applied, or the aforementioned "quality of reproduction", on Flash Gordon Volume 1, which is said to be "occasionally muddy and often off register" - some reviewers going so far as to allege more generally that "the quality of Checker's reproductions is very poor."

Indeed, Publishers Weekly's review of Flash Gordon, Volume 1 went so far as to note that "he reproduction quality is fairly rough... panels and colors are frequently muddy and blurry." This statement, however, demonstrated the diligence with which Checker treats its output, as evidenced by Mark Thompson's personal swift rebuttal of the PW comment, writing that Publishers Weekly had necessarily only had access to an advance "Review Copy", subsequent to which:

"Checker... chose to delay the publication of the collection and revamp the book format and design to better reflect its original published format. The end book is something wholly different than what we provided to the editorial staff at Publishers Weekly."

Indeed, the book-as-published was well-received, with subsequent reviews writing, for example, that the volume featured pages of a "high quality", while "the images are large and the colors are amazing," others note that future volumes improve upon the printing quality also. Ink 19's review of Volume 4, for example, notes that by this point, the color is "clean but subdued", and the "high quality strips" are mirrored by being printed in "quality books".