From Artist’s Board to Newspaper Page: How Comics Were Made in the Age of Metal Printing, 1910s-80s

In the days of printing newspapers from raised metal plates long before photostats and digital scanners, how did a cartoon make its way from an artist's drawing board into hundreds or thousands of newspapers around the United States and around the world? It took eight steps. Let's look at this process through historical footage and photos of preserved artifacts that cover an era of raised metal printing of newspapers from about the 1910s to as late as the 1980s.
This video was written, produced, and voiceover provided by Glenn Fleishman on behalf of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, The Ohio State University Libraries, Columbus, Ohio, as part of their exhibition, “Man Saves Comics! Bill Blackbeard’s Treasure of 20th Century Newspapers,” 12 November 2022 through 7 May 2023. cartoons.osu.edu/events/man-s...

[@vitus.verdegast]

Our school class visited the Seattle Times on a field trip in the 1960s and I remember them showing us the embossed cardboard "flong" of an Alley Oop cartoon.

[@Brakdayton]

I got my first job in print in 1985 just as this technology was dying.

[@stormburn1]

I had no idea comic printing plates were made with what was basically an early form of photolithography. Very different technique from what is used for computer chips, but the principle seems identical.

[@doughaug]

A few years ago, I came across a few of these flongs while exploring some archives of my local newspaper, and none of knew the term. I had some idea of what they were, but didn't know the details. Thanks for the video and the information.