ASM 14 is this smudging evidence of color-touch? 1 1

[Darkwing7869]

I picked up an ASM 14 a while back as part of a collection. As I was looking at it, I noticed some smudging on the stalagtite near spider-man's arm. I held a black light to it and didn't notice any streaks or signs of marker. There's no bleed-through and the streak is all in 1-direction. Could this have occurred during printing or do you guys think that this is an attempt at color-touch that got smudged? Thanks.

[James J Johnson]

54 minutes ago, Darkwing7869 said:

I picked up an ASM 14 a while back as part of a collection. As I was looking at it, I noticed some smudging on the stalagtite near spider-man's arm. I held a black light to it and didn't notice any streaks or signs of marker. There's no bleed-through and the streak is all in 1-direction. Could this have occurred during printing or do you guys think that this is an attempt at color-touch that got smudged? Thanks.

 

While it looks like a color touch that went wrong, sloppily, accidentally smudged after being applied, I don't think this is the case here. Let's look elsewhere because although very nice, there are many places along the spine that could have benefitted from being color touched and weren't. While not always true, the majority of those that do color touch a cover, don't touch selective spots and leave other spots untouched and there's not a lick of color touch along the spine, where there are dozens of small spots where a touch of color would have concealed a flake or stress.

Also, this smudge is right where one would expect a "thumb" page flipping/holding smudge to appear from natural reasons. Always harder to tell for sure from a scan, the image evidence here points to a smudge is just a a smudge, a kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh; the fundamental things apply as time goes by (and does it ever).

 

[Philflound]

Right middle front and left middle back covers will have smudges from fingers. Look closely at many examples you find and you'll probably see partial or whole fingerprints in the smudges.