The First Artist Proofs Beta or Collectors?
Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 12:34 am
Jesper Myrfors wrote the following statement about this topic.
"There has been some discussion and or arguments concerning artists proofs, mostly on the part of people who were either not even alive when they came into being or were little children. So I am going to set the record straight once and for all.
Remember that the artist proofs were my idea, so there is no closer to the source information.
From the beginning I wanted the artists to be able to get example of their work. Getting color samples was a pretty big deal back in the early 90s when color printing was not cheap. The problem was we had a randomized game so sending artists product would not work. I came up with the idea that printing extra cards with no back that we could then send to the artists to do with what they wanted.
Originally we were going to do this for Alpha, but demand was so high and cash in so short a supply that we agreed to push it off to the next printing, which was Beta.
By the time we were ready to print the beta artist proofs we as a company came up with the idea of doing a non playable collectors edition for people who just wanted a sample of every card. It was decided that they would be printed along with the beta artist proofs, but that to further distinguish those cards, that they would get square corners. I was asked if it would be a problem if the beta proofs has square corners and I saw no problem with it, so the beta proofs and CE cards were printed at the same time, at the end of the Beta run.
Call them what you want, but the square corner artist proofs are the first edition of any artist proofs. They were not run as CE proofs, the two were bot run off of Beta with a different die cut.
This should end the discussion among all but the most obtuse or argumentative (or those trying to scam the original artists).
From now on I suggest just calling them first edition artist proofs.
Discussion closed.
-Jesper Myrfors
First magic Art Director, Graphic Designer, Magic Artist and Former Vice President of Production for Wizards of the Coast."
"There has been some discussion and or arguments concerning artists proofs, mostly on the part of people who were either not even alive when they came into being or were little children. So I am going to set the record straight once and for all.
Remember that the artist proofs were my idea, so there is no closer to the source information.
From the beginning I wanted the artists to be able to get example of their work. Getting color samples was a pretty big deal back in the early 90s when color printing was not cheap. The problem was we had a randomized game so sending artists product would not work. I came up with the idea that printing extra cards with no back that we could then send to the artists to do with what they wanted.
Originally we were going to do this for Alpha, but demand was so high and cash in so short a supply that we agreed to push it off to the next printing, which was Beta.
By the time we were ready to print the beta artist proofs we as a company came up with the idea of doing a non playable collectors edition for people who just wanted a sample of every card. It was decided that they would be printed along with the beta artist proofs, but that to further distinguish those cards, that they would get square corners. I was asked if it would be a problem if the beta proofs has square corners and I saw no problem with it, so the beta proofs and CE cards were printed at the same time, at the end of the Beta run.
Call them what you want, but the square corner artist proofs are the first edition of any artist proofs. They were not run as CE proofs, the two were bot run off of Beta with a different die cut.
This should end the discussion among all but the most obtuse or argumentative (or those trying to scam the original artists).
From now on I suggest just calling them first edition artist proofs.
Discussion closed.
-Jesper Myrfors
First magic Art Director, Graphic Designer, Magic Artist and Former Vice President of Production for Wizards of the Coast."