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About this journal

A place to embrace the horror (restoration), and learn a little something about the process, while staying true to conservation ethics and comics' importance as historical ephemera. After posting a couple threads about restoration projects I was pursuing, and getting some good feedback, I thought I'd relocate to here, rather than clutter up the forums. We'll see how it goes. I'm not a restoration evangelist, but rather a hobbyist who enjoys taking a beat but promising book and breathing life back into it. I know restoration generates strong opinions, and I welcome all comers on the topic. My personal philosophy is to not restore a book above a 1.5 (most are actually in the .5 range), nor do conservation on one above a 2. I employ only professional methods that meet CGC "A" grade requirements. I'll be posting pix of some ongoing projects as well as anything else that comes into my head on this topic.

Entries in this journal

Restoration

Superman #16: Conserve or restore?

Not unlike this book itself, I'm torn! Recently acquired this seriously chewed copy with intention of doing one or the other, but not sure which way to go, though I do know that I will submit this afterwards for grading. At a minimum, I intend to leaf-cast the cover and every interior wrap to fill out the missing paper. That, along with a dry-cleaning of the cover, would hopefully come in just under the wire with a conserved grade. But it's also tempting to go further and restore the missing art
Grottu

Grottu in Restoration

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Restoration

No restoration needed ('nuff said)

The goal should always be to avoid "restoring" comic books when possible, but the accepted alternative methods for improving their appearance are limited to, basically, dry cleaning. I always keep an eye out for low-grade books with defects that upon closer inspection may be corrected with Absorene pads or putty, vulcanized rubber erasers, Magic Eraser, etc. Looking at a messed up cover, for instance, it's easy to mistake moisture transfers -- which often can be removed -- for color loss, which
Grottu

Grottu in Restoration

6
Restoration

Police Lineup #1

So, this one I got for five bucks on eBay. The interior is not bad, but the cover is missing a good 1 to 2 inch strip down the entire spine. Not sure exactly how that happened (the tear pattern isn't typical of a remaindered copy), but my goal is to restore the missing portion of the cover and reattach it to the interior via the original staples. It's a fun book -- a nice Easter egg is the Wally Wood art on the inside cover. Storywise, it's the usual hard-boiled early '50s crime stuff, but this
Grottu

Grottu in Restoration

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