DiceX

Could be. Or even a double cut. But I don't know how it could get a double cut. Is it possible it was something post production? Can it be confirmed that this defect was on the original newsstands? I'd bet they were, but you never know. I remember back in the old days of the LP. A local retail store would have discounted LP's that had similar corner cuts to note which ones were on sale. Is it possible that delers/drug stores used to cut the corners of the old books when they were discounted for liquidation? I don't think it's a post-production defect, and from the grade on this Heritage book with the same problem, I'm guessing CGC agrees with me. This cut... I believe could be production related. I'd have to look at it through a loupe to have a better guess...but it is a possible cut due to it looks like it rolled away from the blade during the cut. This one... And the one you listed in the auction link, I don't believe could have possibly been production related. I have no idea how that could have happened. I lean towards retailer return or discount book. But that's just an educated guess. There is only one cut. One chance at a miscut on each side. This is a secondary cut, and there is nothing in the production line that would have done that.

Ummm,...planning on sending me the book I won from you two weeks ago anytime in the near future?.. .that's Rocketeer....R-o-c-k-e-t-e-e-r Ditto. Except you don't spell my name R-o-c-k-e-t-e-e-r

I'm workin on it. Do you want the right answer, or just an answer?

Could be. Or even a double cut. But I don't know how it could get a double cut. Is it possible it was something post production? Can it be confirmed that this defect was on the original newsstands? I'd bet they were, but you never know. I remember back in the old days of the LP. A local retail store would have discounted LP's that had similar corner cuts to note which ones were on sale. Is it possible that delers/drug stores used to cut the corners of the old books when they were discounted for liquidation?

I'll have to do some investigating on the missing triangles before I answer. Bindery tears are easy. It's just that...a tear, usually on the folded corner, when the book is cut. The spine is harder to cut than the other area of the page, due to the fact that is where the paper is folded. When the blade cuts, the book has a tendancy to pull away from the blade in the spine. Because of this, the paper will often tear at that point. Sometimes the book will pull away enough to cause extra paper to appear at the tips. Other times the blade just isn't set to cut deep enough and will fall just short of cutting all the way through the book in the spine. The book will tear to separate from the sliver that was trimmed away. A sharp blade, set at the proper cut depth, solves the problem. The tolerance is tight, and will often drift during the run. I'll work on the first part of your question. It would help if you could post a few pics to keep me from trying to find some.

Printing variance. While printing, the color has to be set and will drift through the run. Meaning: Ink is applied to the plate during the run. The Pressman can controll the density of the ink to have the most visual appeal. When the press starts the run, the ink densities across the plate may be quite different from what it should be. As the run progresses, a Pressman is constantly checking and adjusting the ink to get the closest match to the color proof. This is much tougher to do than it sounds. There are times where there can be areas on the plate where it is starved for ink, and others where the ink can be flooded causing the print to look very saturated or even muddy. This variance can happen in a single color, or all four. For comparison sake, on your home printer, there are crude color controlls. You can set the printer to run color very light, or you can set it to flood the page with ink. The settings you use can have a very drastic effect on the look of a picture you print. By changing them, you can print the exact same picture multiple times and make them look very different. This is one of the most comon production variances and can occur on virtually everything printed.

More investigation needed. Some of you Timely collectors help us out. Show some examples of marvel chipping on books with heavy ink coverage, and some with no ink (white bg). I would dig a few out of the Dice Pedigree, but it does not go back that far. But first... I get some

Your post got me thinking about a way to solve this riddle. And I have... Anyone ever seen a book with *TRUE* Marvel Chipping that has a white background? Like this one? I think it may not be the ink.

I don't know for sure, but I'll see if I can find out.

Actually move the red line to the right hand side, since it's on the back cover near the spine.

Like this? (Red line being the cut you are describing?)

Yep. Very common flaw in almost every comic era. It's just a misaligned blade/blades during trimming.

Do you mean shaped like this?

I can't answer for the ink used in the 60's, but today's ink is very pliable. It doesn't set up hard like nail polish. But I know today's ink is quite different than what was printed years ago. It's possible this could have contributed to the chipping problem, but I have no way to prove it one way or the other.

Jerry Weist attributes the chipping to how thin the paper stock was on early Marvels. He says in his new book in reference to AF#15 that Marvel was near bankruptcy and was using super thin paper stock to save money. As a result, the chips came off the edges when the cutting blades went through the paper (instead of a clean cut that you'd get if you used better paper). Steve Borock told me a while back that Marvel chipping and pre-chipping existed when the book was on the rack, although on books with brittle paper (whether early Marvels or not) the chipping could obviously have happened at any time in the lifespan of the book. There is also the theory that chipping occurs from tiny tears that form from the bent overflash that Marvels had back in the day. As the tears get bigger, pieces come off. This likely happens on some books with overflash, but I have seen so many books that don't have overflash that still have chipping, that this can't explain how the chips happened on every book. I agree with the thin, cheap paper theory. I have a hard time swallowing the bit about a dull blade.

Back in the days at least until the late 1970's two sets of plates were created for each job. Because it took so long to make the plates, they made two sets in the event something happened to a plate during the run. That way they wouldn't have to shut the press down and wait for a new plate to be made. After the press run, the plates were melted and recycled for new plates. The plates used during the Silver through Bronze ages were large, heavy, and made of lead. Not very practical for a collector today. However...I personally know someone that has several of them. When this type of plate was dated and no longer being used, a few of these were saved for nostalgic purposes. Some of these are the originals used to print the books, and some are the backups. The backup plates are very very pretty. The used ones are a bit beat up and inky. I've personally seen them. (There was an unknown issue of Amazing Spider-Man on one.) Sometime down the road, I'll see if I can get pictures of them so you can see what they look like. It's quite possible these are among very few that still exist, due to the size and weight. Not many people would have saved them.

Not much to say here other than a Quality Control problem. If the cover is misaligned during binding, it can have have a bad wrap on the book. The trim could run high or low causing additional problems. By "wrap" I mean how the black line dividing the front and back cover not falling perfectly on the spine. Now for something you might not know... This is a problem that is much more common in the Bronze Age than any other age. If you've ever seen a book where the spine line lays perfectly on the spine, but the "Marvel Comics Group" banner runs slightly diagonal compared to the top edge of the book. One possibility is that the trim of the book is skewed (the sides are not a perfect 90 degrees from the others). However, if you see this to be an extremely common flaw on a particular book, it's quite possible the Original Artwork itself is skewed. Example below... The red lines are perfectly parallel, but look at the lines that make up the "King-Sized Annual" banner. This is common on a lot of books from the Bronze Age. Marvel Spotlight #5, and Ghost Rider #1 (Two of my favorites) have this problem. And it all goes back to the original art. I have no idea why some of the covers were built this way, and some were not.

**Stupid answer deleted by DiceX**

Comic Production (Post Artist) from a post I made a while back... Technology...gota love it.

Answered above in response to Greggy.

I'll get back on this one with an illustrated explanation. It may take a while.

Squarebound books are made the same as stitched books with one exception. The body pages are grouped into 8 page "sections" and stacked on top of each other. The stack is stitched (stapled) front to back to hold them together, instead of through the center of the book as on a regular comic. Then a bead of glue is put into the spine of the cover, and wrapped aroud the body pages. A constant bead of glue was very hard to maintain, and very often an excess dose of glue would be put on the cover. When the cover was stuck to the body pages, the spine is ran across a roller to flatten it and give it the square shape, then through another pair of rollers to flatten it out on the front and back covers. If there was excess glue, it would cause the various defects in question. Also if the first roller was not set with proper pressure, it would hold the excess glue in places or even across the entire spine, giving the spine lumps or even a curve. Today's technology keeps tighter controll of glue on squarebound books to almost perfection. Years ago, comics were created as cheaply as possible, and most times on old antiquated equipment to keep the cost down.

Marvel Chipping has been blamed on dull blades when the book was trimmed. I'm skeptical of this because a dull blade would possibly only give a jagged edge, sort of like what you see as a common problem on Amazing Spider-Man #300. I'd think a more likely possiblity would be poor paper quality that gets flaky on the edges as time and oxygen break down the fibers. The edges of this particular paper would be more likely to flake. I could be completely wrong, but I think it's a possiblity. Borock may have a better soloution this defect because of his experience with looking at so many examples of it. While I have no way of proving my idea...I'd need to see some solid proof before I believe the dull blade theory. I have a hard time believing that the bindery blade was dull for 15-20 years. If it was possible to trace the paper down to the mill, I'd bet the paper on all these chipped books came from the same source. This is a hard one to answer because it is something that takes time to become evident, and can't be seen immediately. Who knows...In 20 years when we have Marvel Chipping on all the ASM 300's and Hulk 340's, we may have the question answered.

Next up...Print Creases Here's what they look like. Here's the answer... Something I'd like to add to my response... This is more common with thinner, cheaper paper. It can also be caused after the ink is printed on the paper as it goes through the rollers at the end of the press. If there is ink inside of the crease, it was caused after it was inked. If there is no ink inside of the crease, it was caused before ink hit the page. More often than not, it will be before inked. This is very typical on specific books because the cover paper was cheap or very thin (Low basis weight). Weird War #1 and Defenders #1 come to mind as books with a high percentage of this flaw. Actually, Greggy pointed out to me that it is very hard to find a Weird War #1 without a Print Crease. I have looked at many copies since he told me this to find that he is correct.

First flaw is holes that are common near the bottom edge of some comics. They are more common on some issues than others, but can be on any printed and bound book/magazine/comic. Here's the answer...