1977 Sparta Press Tour Film Footage. Get a glimpse how comic books were made.

0

Cool. If you have or ever happen across old pics or other artifacts of the plant, inside and out, I'd love to see them.

Hey fellas..I just joined this forum and I have this to say..I work as a security officer patroling what is left of Spartan Printing Company..It was renamed to S.I.P.C.O. (Sparta International Printing Company) in 1996. I have got a bunch of stuff from there now, Seems when the place went out of business in 1998 they left alot of comics and magazines as well as books,newspapers,and P.S.A. booklets. I was amazed at what all they had and I also got alot of memorabilia that was left over from the 1977 World Color Press Day. I got over 200 of the comic books they handed out explaining the company and it's history, armbands labeled GUIDE that were wore by security as they escorted people around during the tour, and hundreds of button badges and SPECIAL GUEST pin on ribbons for World Color Press Day. I also found a old photo album with lots of old photos and a 1968 handout magazine detailing 1948 (when Spartan Printing was built) to 1968..It is called The First 20 Years and is very informative and intresting.

I must say I now have mixed emotions..I'm sad S.I.P.C.O. is gone for good but I also know had it still been in business I'd have never got all this historical stuff as I wasn't born til 1982 . I'll gladly post pics of what all I got once I get it all scanned (it's roughly 20 boxes of stuff)

Wow! We'd enjoy seeing pictures.

I'm getting a bunch ready now..I have scanned the entire World Color Press Day comic book,Kadets Of America booklet,and 2 You've Got To Have GRIT booklets,one is 1958 the other is 1961.also scanned several old photos of the building. Left to do is

Weekly Reader=1988-1997

Nuclear Power P.S.A. booklet (The Atom Electric And You)= 1950's-1970

N.Y.P.D. P.S.A. booklet=1962

Smokey Bear P.S.A. booklet= 1960's-1970's

March of Comics= 1976

Der Wiener Dog Der Wienerschnitzel (English German comic about a dachshund,Only the title is in German)

Woody Wood Pecker comics=1970's

StarTrek BIG comic book= 1960's or 1970's

The Ghetto (odd black ghetto comic from the 1960's focusing on Harlem)

2 1991 farming magazines printed in Russian and bound for the then U.S.s.R. but unshipped

and so much other stuff I haven't sifted through yet..This is a grueling process but worth it in the end ..The stuff is often water logged and filthy when I find it and very delicate..I carefully pack it into big envelopes or heavy folders and then once I get off duty carefully lay it out and blow dry it gently..Takes forever to do it all but it works.

I will post pics of the books,booklets and other stuff but if you'd like to read it all once I have it all packed up to a torrent go here and register: www.demonoid.me I'm user FederalPoliceDept. You'll need a invite to register there though so just contact me if you wanna read all I have recovered once it's packed to there.

Alot of the books,magazines,and comic books are still in signature (meaning un stapled or glued with the pages all on one big folded sheet and the covers seperate)

Ok..I got a bunch of the historical photos scanned and can post them but there is still many more pics, Here is what I have scanned picture wise so far.

NOTICE: these picturess was horribly filthy and water logged when I recovered them from a room with a caved in roof, I seperated them and cleaned then dried them gently with a blow dryer..They all didn't turn out so good but they do have historical significance and are viewable now so I kept them, They show many things from the planning and building of the printing company to business and products they made. :

Wow! Nice pics, thanks for sharing!

Fantastic. Thank you for posting these.

these are neat. keep em coming.

Dude, these are unbelievable. Good for you for having the wisdom to save this stuff!

The storms have gone for now so I can begin scanning again. Last night I was busy and also hadn't plugged the scanner back up yet but now I have.

Spectacular! Thanks so much.

Ok here's a little progress report, ALL historical photos are now scanned, will be posted soon..Right now I'm busy scanning the media coverage of the plant's woes,bankruptcy,closing,and finally it becoming S.I.P.C.O.

Ok here's a little progress report, ALL historical photos are now scanned, will be posted soon..Right now I'm busy scanning the media coverage of the plant's woes,bankruptcy,closing,and finally it becoming S.I.P.C.O.

Excellent!

Ok here is the rest of the photos..Sorry it took so long..I'm busy going through the comics and magazines and other memorbilia.

[/img]

Spectacular stuff. Thanks so much for posting these historically valuable photos!

thank you very much...great stuff

I had these set in some sort of chronological order but PhotoBucket screws that up all the time even though I loaded them to there in the order I had them set to.

Here is some Spartan Printing Company and S.I.P.C.O. memorbilia:

Pocket Protectors

Special Guest ribbon

button badges and security's GUIDE armbands

bumper sticker

S.I.P.C.O. watch (rare) made by Image of Japan

S.I.P.C.O. business card

You guys even know what you're looking at? These are community web presses meaning...everything was done by hand. Mix the ink up by hand, jog the books up by hand as they came off the press (try doing that for 12 hours a day) Think your job is tough? Web breaks and it's your fault, get yelled at and called a POS! Pressman can send you home! not the supervisor.

Need more red or blue in a certain spot, ok walk down the press with safety guards off the press, get a screwdriver, turn the key by hand, walk back up to the front of the press see how it looks, doesn't look right, walk back do it again and again,all night long for each color.

It's not a picnic even though they printed comics.

Not to mention, no AC in the summer time and no fresh air coming in, if you worked in printing in the south, you're screwed.