1977 World Color Press Tour Sparta, Illinois & Phil Seuling

[@jaxhd1241]

I worked there from 1979 till it closed in 95, brings back memories...

[@Psylliumhead]

I’m sitting in my daughter’s house in Sparta. I’m 62 and have read comics since I was 5. For ten years I owned a chain of comic stores in the Chicagoland area. About 6 years ago my daughter met a guy who lives in Sparta online, married him. Right now I’m about a mile from where world color was. Empty for years now portions of it are being leased for small warehouses and the like. Funny how things work out.

[@JerkComic]

My father is the exact same age and used to tell me stories of the comics he had seen when he was younger. He was never a reader, but used to tell me stories about this place in its' heyday. So cool that this was digitized and shared - here's to some history!

[@camcordernonsense5264]

I remember people at the Belleville, Il. Flea Market selling the printed dud comics and the plates for printing the covers. what great memories of stories they told. i can't remember, either one worked there or both did.

[@bulldogtv2143]

This was obviously filmed with a Super 8 Sound camera... the slightly sped-up sound of the audio is distinctive for when this stuff gets transferred to digital files... I have several things I shot on S8S that have this exact same sound quality.

[@jasonrussell3252]

It's a shame Sparta printing closed down. I new a couple guys that worked there.

[@jasonk638]

Wow. I remember World Color Press Day in Sparta. All the events downtown and at the airport. My uncles and a few cousins worked there. I was 5 at the time, so I got a lot of free comic books.

[@rolandkatsuragi]

I just don't understand how it's such a challenge for publishers and independent creators to find quality printers in the US anymore

[@markcrain8030]

I was actually born in Sparta in 1977. My Dad used to work in World Color Press and in 1984 we moved to Oklahoma where Oberlin Color Press was built and he was one of the founders. I began working at Oberlin in 1995

[@GhostofSparta85]

That's my home town. My parents and lots of other family used to work there. The building is still there with a small section being used as a warehouse from another business

[@CentralPaRcFlying]

I was 12 at the time this was film, born and raise in Sparta. I always had comic books when I was a kid. Many of our family friends, and a few family members worked there. Coal Mine, Aluminum Plant, Printing Plant, those were what made Sparta great. The City of Sparta cut a deal with a company from Mexico at one point to reopen the plant. I can't say it went very well and when it was all over, they seemed to disappear with all of the equipment and it was closed for the last time. Gilister used it mostly for warehousing after that.

[@mackenzielewis7497]

Sparta Illinois