How to spot restoration....? 17 17

[silverweb]

Here is an article that I found on Ebay written by David Baratier of thecomicgarage!

 

Not bad, although he should have first listed the number one nightmare - color touch, followed by what he wrote about trimming

 

 

http://reviews.ebay.com/Is-my-comic-restored_W0QQugidZ10000000001507047?ssPageName=BUYGD:CAT:-1:SEARCH:2

[Transplant]

Call me slow, but I want to echo the suggestions to buy a ground glass loupe. Today I received a 10x Belomo triplet loupe that I ordered from an Amazon seller. It was only about $25 shipped. I'm blown away by what it can pick up. Some very slight professional color touch popped out on a book. Granted I knew where to look thanks to grader's notes, but I can completely see this saving me money down the road. I doubt I will buy a raw book in person >$100 without using it. It is amazing.

[DiceX]

Moved here where it belongs.

 

This post was made by Scott in another thread, and I didn't want it to slip away unread. I figured it would be easier to find if it were filed in this thread.

 

Thanks for the great post!

 

The "How to Detect Restoration" thread in the grading and restoration forum is probably your best bet. There are no books on how to detect comic book restoration.

 

Unless you're buying expensive comics (like more than $1,000 each), you usually won't run into professional restoration. Most of the restoration you need to look out for is the following:

 

1) amateur color touch

2) trimming

3) pressing

4) tear seals

5) staple replacement

 

1) Amateur color touch is usually very easy to spot. The best way to find it is to take a close look at your book under good lighting, with focus on the spine, corners, and edges. The most common amateur color touch by FAR (in my experience at least) is black marker pen. Fortunately, it's also usually the easiest to spot. Look at the inside cover and see if there is any "bleed through" where the ink has bled through the cover. Most marker pen ink will bleed through the cover because the solvent in the ink cuts through the sizing on the paper before the solvent volatilizes, and carries the ink pigment all the way through the paper.

 

Sometimes the amateur color touch won't show any bleed through, but it will still be visible from the outside of the cover because you'll see a stress line or crease that should break color but doesn't. Oftentimes you'll be able to look closely at it and see the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) difference between the original inks and the amateur color touch. Using a magnifying glass or a ground glass loupe can help, but once you know what you're looking for, you'll be able to see color touch with the naked eye as long as you have good eyesight.

 

2) Trimming can be very easy or very hard to detect, depending on how skilled the trimmer is, what the book looks like, and how much they are trying to trim off. What makes trimming hardest to detect is that every comic book is "trimmed" on all three edges when it is made. The trick is to spot the differences between the factory trim and the "aftermarket" trim.

 

Sometimes you can spot trimming by the lack of paper in an area where you would expect it to be. On early silver age Marvels, there is usually an overhang of the cover at the top of the book. This tends to get bent, and people who want to get rid of the bends will sometimes just trim off that edge. Sometimes people will really get carried away and will trim the leading edge of the book, and the bottom edge too. Sometimes they'll only cut a tiny bit off the top edge and will still leave some overhang. It's all variable.

 

Sometimes a trimmed edge will look different under magnification than a "factory" edge. One of the differences you might see will be apparent in the ink layer, not on the actual paper.

 

When a comic book is printed, the inks have drying compounds in them that help the inks to dry quickly after printing. Even when the inks are dried immediately after printing, they are still softer than they will be 40 years later. On most silver age Marvels, when the book is cut during printing, the ink layer is still soft enough that it won't fracture near the edge. The edge of the ink layer will match up perfectly with the edge of the paper on a factory trim (even if the factory edge is rough cut, which is not at all uncommon on silver age Marvels, the ink layer will usually follow the factory rough cut edge).

 

When you take an X-Acto blade and trim the edge off of a book that is 40 years old, the ink layer is harder and more brittle than it was when it was originally trimmed and you will get little micro-fractures on the ink layer that don't perfectly line up with the edge of the paper. Also, it is surprisingly difficult to cut a comic cover freehand, even with a ruler to guide you. Sometimes you can look closely at the edge of a comic and see very subtle variations in what should be a perfectly straight edge.

 

Another thing you might watch for is worn corners that meet up with an edge that is straighter than you'd expect the edge to be in light of the corner damage. This is usually a good sign that the book used to be worn along the entire top edge, and the wear was trimmed away, leaving only a furry corner that transitions into an unusually "clean" edge.

 

Another thing you should watch for are little tears that will occur (they look like Marvel "pre-chipping" tears) along the edge of the book where the book was trimmed. What happens is someone tries to trim the book with a dull blade, and the paper is weak and snags on the blade. The blade then pulls the paper and tears it. This tends to happen near the spine corners because the paper will be weakest there, but it can also happen anywhere else along a trimmed edge.

 

Here are some large pictures of a Brave & the Bold #25 that was (very amateurishly) trimmed on all three edges. This will give you a good idea of the kinds of things I am talking about in the trimming section. (I am using links because these files are huge and I don't want to stretch the screen in this thread - please be patient as the files load.)

 

http://www.datazap.net/sites/fantasyfootballbono/bb25.jpg

 

http://www.datazap.net/sites/fantasyfootballbono/bb25b.jpg

 

3) Pressing can be difficult to detect if done poorly, and is impossible to detect if done well. Don't even worry about it. Focus more on learning how to spot other restoration that people actually care about.

 

4) Tear seals are usually pretty easy to spot. Even if a tear is sealed, the evidence of the tear will still be visible. If it isn't visible, that generally means that it has been color touched over, which will make the restored nature of the book even easier to see.

 

When looking for tear seals, you'll generally see them along the edges of the book, especially at the spine corners. There are three main kinds of tear seals that you'll run into most often: (a) glue alone; (b) adhesive and Japan paper; and © archival or non-archival tape.

 

Spotting glue alone is usually easy because the person doing it will have made something of a mess. The place where the tear was sealed will usually be evident by a slightly darker line where the paper was torn. Also, sometimes if you look at the paper surface at a raking angle, you'll see a difference in surface texture from glue smearing. The easiest and surest way though is with a good blacklight. Tear seals will generally light up like a Christmas tree under a blacklight. This is not to say that a blacklight is necessary to spot a tear seal, but it can definitely help confirm your suspicions about something if you're not sure what you're looking at.

 

Spotting Japan paper with adhesive will also be pretty easy for the same reason that glue alone is easy to spot - the person who applied it will not have been able to control the adhesive and will have smeared it along the area where the tear is sealed. (Remember, we are talking about amateur repairs, not a professional job.)

 

Other times there will be a slight difference in the texture from the application of a tiny piece of archival tape. If the piece of tape is small and the person applying it is really careful, it can be really easy to miss. So look carefully along the edges and the spine corners from the interior of the book. That's where the tape will have been applied. Look for the slightest variation in surface texture between the surrounding areas at the area that is under suspicion. If you still can't tell, a blacklight will light up the archival tape.

 

5) Staple replacement. This is a lot less common on amateur jobs than the other four listed above because it is extremely hard to do without making an absolute mess of the book. Staple replacement is usually done if the original staples were rusted. Rusted staples will usually leave some kind of rust migration stains on the paper next to them, which are usually most easily visible at the outside of the cover or at the interior of the centerfold. If you see any kind of widening of the staple holes on the outside of the cover, check the staple tines at the centerfold. If they don't line up perfectly with the indentations on the paper at the centerfold, they might have been replaced. Look for rust migration on the paper. If it is there, but the staples are replaced, then ask yourself where the rust came from. If it looks like it came from the staples, then the staples were probably replaced or cleaned.

 

Those are the main amateur restoration types you need to watch out for on less expensive books. As you get into more expensive books, you're more likely to run into restoration that requires disassembly of the book and a lot more effort. This should get you started though.

[DiceX]

Amateur Color Touch...Thanks, JC!

If a Canadian did it, it would be a Colour Touch, because of the "Random U Factor".

 

[KreeSkrull99]

...........obviously, restoration is more prevalent in gold books, but really applies to all ages of books..............(even moderns??? )

 

Its amazing that yes, even modern age books have become Franken-books

[Ze-man]

Just curious what you would constitute a "franken book?"

 

For the most part, (to me ) this means large amounts of pieces added, or married parts(ya know, like ol bolthead) What modern era books have ever had this done?

[DiceX]

ASM 238

 

 

[divad]

HULK #181 (close enough)

[Ze-man]

In what bizarro world are those considered moderns?

 

Let the man answer for himself, I wasn't talking to the peanut gallery.

 

 

 

[divad]

bizarro world

 

Us old guys consider anything 25 cents or more to be "moderns"

[gilbertotorres]

Just curious what you would constitute a "franken book?"

 

For the most part, (to me ) this means large amounts of pieces added, or married parts(ya know, like ol bolthead) What modern era books have ever had this done?

 

cerebus 1, tmnt 1, x-force 1

[Jayman]

bizarro world

 

Us old guys consider anything 25 cents or more to be "moderns"

 

[Ze-man]

Recently I have been asked what various forms of restoration look like so I thought I would post a few sets of photos to help people spot various forms of resto when looking to buy a book. Much of this information is probably common knowledge to many, yet unknown to others so take from it what you will.

 

Tear Seals

 

Earlier in the thread Poverty wrote up a great description of the most common types. And since we can all easily see applied tape I will just go over kind sealed by glue and japan paper.

 

Here is a large tear

 

 

Now depending on why it was sealed there are several things to look for.

 

If sealed with glue only it can go unoticed much easier because there is no visible glue, tape or paper sealing it. This also is more commonly used when the tear has overlapping areas that glue can be applied to. If it is a clean tear you cannot glue it this way.

 

This photo shows the tear sealed with glue only applied to overlapping areas. As you can see the tear is sealed and unless you are really looking for it you might not see it was actually a 2 inch tear. This would be a case of sealing a tear to deceive more then to restore since it really isn't structurally reinforced, just glued shut.

 

 

 

Same glued tear with japan paper applied to the interior cover.(which is what most people consider to be the standard method when the term "tear seal" is used. Notice the frayed edges, many times this will not be cleaned up and is an easy way to spot a tear sealed with japan paper. And to be clear a wheat based glue(water soluble) was used so it can be easily removed is desired.

 

 

The next two photos show the cleaned up japan paper, but the glue line is still visible at an angle. This is the easiest way to detect a tear seal, or that glue was applied because it will always show up at an angle.

 

 

Tear as seen from the front cover, not so easy to spot unless you look for it. ( please note that a sealed tear is almost always visibly darker due to soil buildup around the exposed tear over the years.)

 

Tear as seen from the interior cover, much easier to see it because of the paper and glue applied.

 

 

A few more shots of the interior side that show how a tear seal looks.

 

Hope this helps people detect possible tear seals when buying books in person. Look for the same type of thing with supported centerfolds, reinforced staple areas and sealed spine splits because whenever japan paper is applied with glue it will always have this look unless CT is applied.

 

 

More photos to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FFB]

Thanks Kenny. That's exactly the kind of thing this thread needs more of. This was already the most detailed resource on the web for detection of restoration in comics, but every picture and knowledgeable description just makes it that much better. Even on the most basic topics, most people will learn much faster from a picture and an explanation than they would from just an explanation. And the more people understand restoration for what it is (and what it isn't), the more the discussion can be focused on the facts and less on fear.

[Ze-man]

I hear ya Scott, now if Pov would just show his face we might actually be able to hold a decent conversation! And I agree with you about people wanting something tangible to go along with the written word, one can only remember so many words.

 

Especially when a few photos can help make all those words make sense.

 

 

[PovertyRow]

I hear ya Scott, now if Pov would just show his face we might actually be able to hold a decent conversation!

 

Edited October 22, 2008 by povertyrow

[CheezyWhiz]

Thanks Ze-Man! I'm sending some books off for restoration now, but I've never really known what the finished job looks like. Very informative!

[Ze-man]

Semi useful Resto detection tip of the day, Black line CT.

 

It is all to easy/tempting for many to CT the black line on a spine be it a dot or two, or remarking the entire line. It is one of the most common forms of resto(the type meant to deceive) that kills a book that is otherwise unrestored because if the black line is well defined your eye is drawn to it and you overlook other flaws.

 

Of course there are many ways to detect this depending on the condition of the book (loupes, hold the book in light at an angle, gloss difference, bleedthrough etc) The easiest is to look for stress lines that should break color, but dont. If a spine stress breaks ink on either side of the black line logic dictates the black line should also have similar color breaks.

 

This can obviously be applied to black lines around lettering or characters, and does not always bleed through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PovertyRow]

Just posting an encapsualtion of some of the things I have posted here. This was from an article I had written in 2006. Made some updates, edited it, removed some outdated info. Check the stuff by FFB and Ze-Man here as well. Some excellent reference material by them.

 

Some General Thoughts On Restoration and its Detection

Michael Spampinato (aka povertyrow)

copyright 2006 by Michael Spampinato

 

Replaced Staples

Use a magnifying lass to examine the staple area. See if the depressions in the paper match the staples. See if slightly darker (aka metallic) stains match where the staples are now. Be sure they align with the depressions on the pages.

 

Color Touch

Check for any color from the cover that has bled into the pages below or the back of the cover. This can indicate magic marker “restoration”.

 

Check for dull or glossier area of color on the cover. If found, examine under good light to see if a crease is detectable. Also, check the back of the cover in the same area to see if a crease is revealed there.

 

Hold the cover up to the light and allow light to pass through from behind to look for areas of roughing that have been color touched but have left the paper a bit thinner.

 

Using a magnifier, look at the dot pattern of suspect areas. Comics are printed with 4-color process using a dot pattern. (Look at a newspaper photo to see dots). Retouch will not usually reproduce the dot pattern. You will just see a smear of color with no dots. On very deep colors, though, the inks may have been at 100% (aka “solid” – no dot pattern would be there) so use this for areas of similar color. If you see dots then the abrubtly stop or stop and start again? Most likely color touch.

 

Ink Transfer Stain Removal

Impossible to detect unless it is not fully successful. Examine the inside back and front covers for a green ink transfer stain. If it appears mottled it may been subject to removal but has proved too extensive for total removal. If you find this is the case, re-examine the staples VERY carefully as ink transfer removal generally means dismantling.

 

Tear Seals

Different techniques are used to seal a tear.

 

Glue (preferably archival glue with a neutral PH). This type of seal is easily identified as a slightly grayish or brownish or otherwise discolored line along the edge of the tear. The line is usually a slightly twisty line that follows the angles of a tear. This is detectable because the tear is still visible and there is a change of reflectivity/color from the glue.

 

The second - the most acceptable amateur restoration - is to use real archival "tear repair tape" - you can get it in most art supply stores, and just apply as small a piece as needed to the tear. Just like using a piece of scotch tape to tape paper together. This is easily detected by a dulling on the side where the paper has been taped and the back side displaying no dulling. (The tape is quite transparent but does not reflect light the same as the plain paper does.)

 

The third is using Japan Paper and methyl-cellulose or wheat/rice paste. It can be a bit harder to detect but look for a slightly dull "sheen" that reflects light differently than the rest of the surface. Further investigation of the dull area should reveal the tear.

 

Cleaning

Cleaning can be VERY difficult to detect. It is usually performed on the cover since the cover is primarily used to determine grade. There are dry cleaning and wet cleaning.

 

Dry Cleaning

Basically Dry Cleaning is using an eraser type material to remove things like light soiling, pencil etc. One method to accomplish dry cleaning is to pick up a template at an art supply store. This template is a thin piece of aluminum with various shapes cut into it. Long thin rectangles, circles, etc Using the template as a guide a white eraser can be used to clean the white aeras (template usually used for white text logos etc.) If an eraser was used to erase an entire cover, ink will be removed and smeared (especially on the back cover with all of the text in B&W ads

 

Wet Cleaning

FEEL the surface of the book. Should it have a gloss cover? If so is it very dull AND does it feel slightly rough? If rough, angle it to a light and see if it appears matted. That could be age or it could be a wet wash. Examine the inside covers. If they seems unnaturally white with a slightly rough "tooth" to it, may have been subject to a water wash..

 

Spine Roll Removal

Spine roll removal entails pressing. Look for slightly off-color (often lighter) cover areas at the spine. People who know spine roll should have a feel for the general area. Also look for those lines/wrinkles that are still visible but now flattened all along the spine. Basically what you are looking for is an area the length of the spine that displays a look of something that, well, has been rolled then flattened. Many possibly longish fine creases that are flat. The “off-color” (lighter) aspect deals with what you often see in a spine rolled book. The extra wear removing a bit of the cover inks.

 

Cover Only Trim

This is addressing amateur attempts at trim. Examine the color of the edge in question and compare it to that of the other edges. If it is much whiter, it MAY indicate a recent cut. On books with really white covers it can be impossible to tell. You want to examine the cut itself, determine the angle of the cut and if there are angle fluctuations. Here I am talking about the edge of the comic itself - so I am talking fluctuations over the edge. NOT the angle at which the entire cover was cut. That could just be a miscut.

The least accurate way of detecting cover trim is by comparison to other books. In comics, quality control can be shoddy and books could and did emerge with varying finished sizes.

 

What IS Gloss?

The glossiness of paper comes from a couple of things: the amount of "calendering" paper has gone through (basically a process that can smooth out the surface and bring out a sheen by subjecting the paper to successive passes through rollers and the "hardness" of the paper - in paper manufacture, clay minerals (mainly kaolinite) are in the mix and make for a paper that can take a very smooth glossy finish. One way to think of it is stones. A soft stone like Calcite will never take a brilliant polish the way the much harder star ruby will.

 

What is Re-Glossing?

Reglossing is an attempt to simulate the inherent glossiness of hard, calendered paper (see immediately above) with a spray or coating. It is artificial.

 

[Ze-man]

Great stuff as usual Pov, mind if I add a few things to your already extensive musings?