Field note ·
Why the splash still goes to paper
The NFT comic is the sequential issue. The paper proof is the splash you can hold. Neither replaces the other.
We print the opening splash on cream stock because collectors still argue about colour in person. A screen will flatter a red that the letterpress dummy shows as brick. If you only ever see the file, you will not know which red the colourist signed.
The token carries the full issue and the provenance card. The paper proof carries the splash and a small plate mark with the edition number. If you lose the proof, we can reprint it from the plate once, for a fee, and we mark the new sheet as a replacement. The token does not change.
People sometimes ask us to skip the paper so the drop can close faster. We will not. The reading-room dummy is printed from the same plate. If the dummy cannot be turned by hand, the drop is not ready.
Keep the proof out of direct sun. The cream stock will yellow in a south-facing window in a single Cambridgeshire summer. We say this in the handover because we have seen it happen on Maidstone Road, not because it is a slogan.