Different shades on comic covers 3 3

[BoomCity]

Here's another that I've seen... Showcase 22

 

From production?

 

[manetteska]

Here's another that I've seen... Showcase 22

 

From production?

 

 

[Chadwick]

Silver Surfer 2 is like that as well.

 

 

A couple of copies I had, printing isn't an exact science

 

[namisgr]

Sometimes the printer missed the reds:

 

 

[Michelangelo]

I think it's common among greens more so than other colours.

 

Take for instance SC 22 or X-Men 1 as two prime examples. The greens are either dark/rich or light and almost yellowish.

[r100comics]

Sometimes the printer missed the reds:

 

 

 

That looks like classic post-production fading.

 

The reds are always the first to go.

[peterchizzle]

hmm I know this is an old thread but do people prefer one over the other? If you had to choose between a 4.0 Showcase 22 cr-ow with bright greens or 4.0 showcase 22 ow with dark greens. 

[adamstrange]

On 12/3/2015 at 9:11 AM, jimjum12 said:

..... I've seen other DC's with this problem, all from the late '50's to around '60 ....

DC switched the printing process coincident with the advent of the code, March 1955, to 1960.  The inks they used produced intense colors that were unique to DCs of that era and, in fact, were unlike that produced by any other publisher ever.  The downside was that they were photoreactive; that is, they faded when exposed to light due to the oxidation of the metal pigments.  Reds become orange, green becomes olive, purple becomes lavender and blue becomes light gray blue.

When you try and determine whether variations are due to printing or to fading you want to take a look at lots of examples from pedigree collections and bound volumes.  Generally speaking, books from those sources will have had minimal exposure to the light.  If you see variations from those two sources there's a good probability that it happened at the printing plant.  If, however, the pedigrees and BV comics are uniform in shade then fading must be considered.

Since fading is almost always due to sunlight, there will be situations where some part of a comic is exposed to more light than some other part of the comic.  So when you see a number of examples of lower grade comics where the color is beautiful in one section but faded in another, then it's unlikely to be the printer.  Unless it's a Charlton or Superior, who competed to see which could produce the worst comics for kids, and then all bets are off.

I've included some example to illustrate the DCs.  The first is a comparison of a Salida copy to relatively high grade but faded graded copy from Heritage.  This is not just a difference in scanner or the fact that slab diminishes the color.  The scanner used on my copy actually underplays the color and the scanner used by Heritage amplifies the red.  Notice how all of the colors on the cgc copy have faded just as I described above:  Green -> Olive, Blue -> Lt Bl Gray. The Red has faded toward Orange Red but then the scanner amped the red back up a bit.

When comparing copies you do need to watch out for a couple of ways that distortions occur due to aging:  yellowing and transfer stain.  A comic left in the heat and the light will start to yellow as the acids eat the paper and will give a darker cast to the colors (a bit of a mustard yellow) than you'll find on a white paged pedigree.  Transfer stains are due to oils in the interior pages being absorbed by the cover making it a bit translucent and giving it a light brownish yellow tint.

 

Edited June 29, 2017 by adamstrange

[adamstrange]

Here's an example of a cover where only the right hand edge was protected from exposure to light.  You can see that the greens, blues and reds make a hard transition from true to faded.  Well, not quite "true" if you compare it to the Slobodian.

[adamstrange]

Here's another comparison using scans from Heritage:  the same scanner was used for both so you can make reasonable assumptions about differences without worrying about scanner variation.  Note that the color differences of the one on the left are, in every instance, a uniform fading to olive, orange red and lt gray blue. You won't see the blue remain bright blue if the red is faded.  Yellow, btw, seems to be affected the least.

[adamstrange]

So is this faded?

 

Spoiler

Edited June 29, 2017 by adamstrange

[adamstrange]

Is this faded?

?

 

Spoiler

 

Edited June 29, 2017 by adamstrange

[adamstrange]

On 12/4/2015 at 2:34 PM, nearmint said:

Showcase #55 is a good example of this, and not just shades, but colors. Some copies have a purple cover, others have blue.

Purple is the one color among the late 50s DCs most subject to printer variation.  Mystery in Space 44 and 55 vary between shades of purple to purplish blue.  The other colors are pretty uniform across the pedigrees.

Edited June 29, 2017 by adamstrange

[MusterMark]

2 hours ago, adamstrange said:

On 12/4/2015 at 8:34 PM, nearmint said:

Showcase #55 is a good example of this, and not just shades, but colors. Some copies have a purple cover, others have blue.

Purple is the one color among the late 50s DCs most subject to printer variation.  Mystery in Space 44 and 55 vary between shades of purple to purplish blue.  The other colors are pretty uniform across the pedigrees.

Edited 2 hours ago by adamstrange

Yes, I have a late 50s DC two copies of the same issue in which the only color difference is that one has purple and the other has blue, while the rest of the colors have the same exact tint/shade in those colors.

In that situation, which one would be considered the "variant" and which one the "standard"?  Or is that a moot/unanswerable question?

[Martin Sinescu]

2 hours ago, MusterMark said:

Yes, I have a late 50s DC two copies of the same issue in which the only color difference is that one has purple and the other has blue, while the rest of the colors have the same exact tint/shade in those colors.

In that situation, which one would be considered the "variant" and which one the "standard"?  Or is that a moot/unanswerable question?

Adamstrange has done some nice work contrasting these covers for us and it seems that, if you have time on your hands, the best thing to do would be to search for a representative sample on a case-by-case basis to determine what is likely the correct color before making a purchase if you suspect there might be some color shift. My assumption based on the Action 233 comparison would be that, in most cases, blue is the original color and the purple is tainted blue which appears to have an element of red affecting the blue's purity. Not sure if scientifically this is a correct comparison, but it seems like the same effect you get when old color photos age and get an overall red tint, but localized to one color in this case. 

Again, not necessarily a like-for-like comparison, but the paint and fabric dyes on vintage Star Wars figures discolor from age, but certain colors are more sensitive than others. For example, the material used on the Ugnaught's apron was once thought to come in both purple and blue, but it is now generally accepted that this is discoloration of the dye and that blue is the only color Kenner actually used. Also, the "flesh" paint used for the faces is a composite of yellow and red to make the orangey tone. The red component very often bleeds or sweats out, separating from the rest and leaving only a pale, yellowish color to the face.

[VintageComics]

10 hours ago, peterchizzle said:

hmm I know this is an old thread but do people prefer one over the other? If you had to choose between a 4.0 Showcase 22 cr-ow with bright greens or 4.0 showcase 22 ow with dark greens. 

The right answer is choosing which one you like best.

[peterchizzle]

I appreciate all the knowledge. Here are two images from Heritage photos that I was comparing.

 

 

[adamstrange]

3 hours ago, MusterMark said:

Yes, I have a late 50s DC two copies of the same issue in which the only color difference is that one has purple and the other has blue, while the rest of the colors have the same exact tint/shade in those colors.

In that situation, which one would be considered the "variant" and which one the "standard"?  Or is that a moot/unanswerable question?

For a dark blue/purple cover, you would need to find the color design or cover proof in order to have confidence in the intended color scheme.

[1950's war comics]

23 hours ago, adamstrange said:

For a dark blue/purple cover, you would need to find the color design or cover proof in order to have confidence in the intended color scheme.

Adam the top banner should be blue, everything else is color correct , it is most likely faded correct?

[adamstrange]

17 hours ago, 1950's war comics said:

Adam the top banner should be blue, everything else is color correct , it is most likely faded correct?

Sugar & Spikes are difficult to find in high grade and I've not seen one of this particular book so this is a challenging one to comment on when looking at a picture on line.

  Comparing it to the scan on GCD (a suspect source to verify color fidelity due to the variety of scanners and uncertainty as to the quality of the comic that was scanned), I suspect there is some general fading on your copy.  The top log looks completely devoid of blue so it could be the top was exposed to sunlight while the bottom half was protected or it could be an actual printing error.  I might be able to suggest which of the two is most likely but only if I saw it in person.