Paul Kosnik

On 5/2/2024 at 12:12 PM, Qalyar said:

I feel like what happened to this book almost had to be intentionally done, given the degree of cover saturation and the relatively uncontaminated interiors. I cannot for the life of me imagine why, though.

I did some research. I read through Denise Stockman's "Treatment Options for Oil Stains on Paper" and the subsequent conservation research paper from the National Library of Medicine, "Oil on Paper: A Collaborative Conservation Challenge". Bottom line: this cover is in a really bad place, but I think you already knew that. Oil is hydrophobic and displaces the water from the paper structure. That's what results in the embrittlement. Because this has clearly been in its current state for a very long period of time, that situation is severe. Conservation treatments for oil-contaminated paper have focused on heavier-weight (mostly organic) oils because of past library practices, rather than lightweight mineral oils, like what this book was almost certainly exposed to. Even so, the best suggestions from the 2018 paper are really incompatible with restoration here. I don't think this cover would survive multiple rounds of alternating solvent baths on a suction table, and that's even if such a treatment wouldn't also destroy the inks. Also, wood pulp paper (which, obviously, comic book covers are) have generally fared more poorly in these conservation studies than various cotton or linen papers. I... there's just not a lot of good news here. 

Someone with more direct experience in paper restoration might have a different opinion here, but I do not think this damage is realistically reversible. Even if that weren't the case, the degree of conservation work that would be necessary here would be extremely obvious. From a grading standpoint, you'd end up with a book in the same functional condition, but with a restoration label. That does raise a concern, however. Because of the extreme degree of cover embrittlement here, there's a very real possibility that CGC would decline to grade and encapsulate this book, per policy. If you tend towards more pessimistic opinions of CGC's quality controls, there's also the danger than they'd underestimate just how brittle decades of oil contamination have left this paper and accidentally snap the cover in half. Basically, I'm not convinced this is a gradable book.

Oh, and I'm also not convinced that's mold on the interior pages. At least not from the images you provided. It could be, but I suspect it's point migration of stains from what happened to the cover, probably before the bulk of the volatile oil elements had evaporated out.

Obviously, if CGC did opt to encapsulate, this is going straight to 0.5 without passing Go, and I think that would still be the case -- albeit on a purple label -- after any realistic conservation efforts. I'm not sure what I would do if this were my book. If you really want it in a CGC slab, I'd absolutely reach out to them before submitting it, because this is the special handling-est thing I've seen in a long time. I don't think it can safely be loaded into a Mylite. I think you're probably best off with some sort of custom framing solution. 

Regardless, congratulations on your FF2. It's still, for all it's travails, a copy of FF2, which makes it nicer than mine!

Super thoughtful assessment!  Completely agree for what it's worth.

On 5/2/2024 at 7:59 AM, Artboy99 said:

just FYI: Trimming does not need to be the entire side.

To the original poster: You used a cutting instrument and cut off a portion of the cover. How is it not trimmed? 

From the full definition in The Official CGC Guide to Grading Comics, it is pretty clear:  "It (trimming) is accomplished by cutting off one, two, or all three edges of a comic to remove wear leaving sharp edges".  It doesn't state "part of the edge", but rather the edge, which by any plain reading of English with respect to a book means the entire edge.  Further, from the guide again:  "It (trimming) is classified as restoration because it can enhance the appearance and grade of a comic".  The slice (the official jargon CGC uses for such a defect) in question does not enhance the appearance, but rather detracts from it.  

From the definition of Slice, again from the guide:  "A slice involves a cut into the paper with a sharp object".  Further, "A slice is usually accidental, most often occurring while cutting open a shipping container..."

Seems to fit the exact definition of what the OP did and the resultant defect to the book.

This isn't trimmed.  It meets neither the letter nor the spirit of the definition of trimmed.  Firstly, trimmed is entire side (or substantially so, perhaps in the case of a misscut comic).  And trimmed, by definition, improves the appearance and is intended to deceive.  This cut does not improve the appearance, cannot deceive, and is for one small section of the edge.  This is just a defect, and will be graded as such if they do their jobs correctly.  Here is CGC's definition of trimmed:

• TRIMMING – A technique that involves cutting off the edges of a comic book’s cover or pages to remove defects and sharpen edges. Unlike the other restoration techniques, trimming results in an improved appearance through destruction (loss of paper).

On 4/30/2024 at 4:23 PM, Koopakidd11 said:

I got careless removing an old-slabbed SS#4 from its inner well and accidentally trimmed off a 1" section of paper in the process.  My question is this now considered trimmed, or would it just be a slice defect?  You can see it to the right of Surfer's board.   Any insight would be appreciated. 🙏

It's not the entire edge, just that short section by the end of the Surfer's board?

On 4/23/2024 at 7:20 AM, Duopggod said:

Hey guys, I’m pretty new to the boards and had a pressing question related to an indie fanzine. I have a copy of Graphic Fantasy #1, first appearance of Savage Dragon, and I’m debating because of the newspaper quality cover if pressing the book would potentially damage the book instead of possibly enhancing the book. Any suggestions or thoughts are greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time.

 

 

Looks like it's in pretty good shape.  Are their pressable defects?  Pressing works fine on this sort of paper, not that much different from comic book paper in terms of how it's pressed.

Looks to me like possibly water damage.  From the shard to the edge looks blurred rather than smudged.  Could be from a water droplet.  What do the grader's notes have to say about this defect?

Agree with @zzutak these are probably not from factory, and thought it was worth elaborating that the way we know is the staples don't all match, you have two distinct pairs.  Although stapling errors/extra staples can occur at the factory, the staples will tend to all match.  At any rate, it was very nicely done and a nice comic book!

On 4/21/2024 at 12:27 AM, White67 said:

I sent in my Walking Dead #132 Loot Crate exclusive into CBCS. I have been thinking of sending it into CGC to get slabbed/graded. Is it worth it, do they prescreen before opening to see if it might get lower grade?

It's my personal collection, not looking to sell just like it and it's the only CBCS 9.9 of the book when I looked it up.

Thoughts, on it would be great, is it worth it having CGC over CBCS, if i ever think or decide to sell it?

I don't know the answer to "do they prescreen before opening".  I'm curious if anyone else knows?  Seems unlikely, but if they offered that it might be worth it.  Otherwise i would not crack it.  CBCS 9.9 and highest graded--take the win!

On 4/16/2024 at 10:12 AM, Sauce Dog said:

You could tape it and get a universal, though a very low grade (0.5 I would guess for this one) which would then continue to degrade in the slab - slapping tape on a book just isn't a good solution ever.

I would recommend just investing a small bit of money to have it properly conserved (with someone like phantomrestoration.com ) and get it to maybe a 1.5 (or more, depending on work. Leaf casting just the cover would do wonders - it might even be possible to take this all the way to a 2.0/3.0 if you leaf cast the cover, as I had a book that ha similar work done and it ended up at a 3.5 and doesn't look as nice as your cover does). 

For what it's worth, i second @Sauce Dog here--please don't put tape on the book--it really does destroy paper over time but a proper conservation will actually be an investment as it will conserve the paper and give you a grade bump that will make it a wise investment.  Also seconding the endorsement of Phill over at Phantom Restoration.

Cool comic book!  For what it's worth, i don't think this is water damage.  If it was, you'd likely have color bleed and/or mold present, and tide lines in the paper, none of which you seem to have.  I think the waves are created by the tape on the entirety of the spine.  Paper moves, expands and contracts.  Tape doesn't, or at least not as much as paper does.  If the spine is fixed in place and the rest of the page expands, then these waves develop.  Can happen even if the tape was applied perfectly, and chances are it wasn't.

So i think the tape needs to be removed if you want the waves gone.

Best option if you want to invest in this book is send it to a pro that does restoration removal, have them remove the tape and color touch, and conserve the book.  If you aren't up for that investment, sell and use the proceeds toward a better book.  Good luck and let us know what route you go!

On 2/11/2024 at 10:59 AM, Roadkil74 said:

Will a comic missing pages receive a .5 blue label, or some other label? The pages definitely affect the story. TIA

Missing interior pages is automatically a Universal 0.5 unless more than half of the pages are missing, then it's a NG (No Grade).  

That said, if the grade would otherwise be a 4.0 or better, then CGC will assign a Qualified (Green Label) grade, assign the grade the book would receive had the interior page not been missing, and note the missing pages on the label.  Unless you prefer the Universal Label 0.5, in which case you can request the Universal Label even if the comic would otherwise grade at 4.0 or higher, and get the blue label.

Hope this helps!

On 2/13/2024 at 5:17 PM, erikdj79 said:

In the most stunning turn of events ever, I received my book back today...signed by Kevin Eastman on 11/20/23.  Which means they were completely incorrect when they told me it never got signed.  They had it signed and then lost it somewhere.  I got exactly what I had wanted in the first place, albeit taking a long time to do so.  Unbelievable.

Wow what a frustrating turn of events, but i'm really happy to hear in the end you got your book, signed, pressed, and it was free.  I'm sure you'd rather have your time and frustration back than the free service, but at least you got your book back, and signed!  After reading all of the drama, i for one want to see the final result!

Congratulations on an awesome book!  For the record, completely split spine starts at 1.8.  That is the highest grade you can achieve with a split spine, if the book is in otherwise OK shape and complete.  This one has quite a few defects so i think you are looking at 1.5 or perhaps 1.0, but i don't think it's lower than that as long as the back cover is complete.  While i agree with @joeypost that restoration is unlikely to increase the value, there is another alternative that is likely to increase the value, and that is going the conservation route.  If properly conserved with archival material and techniques, the spine split and little edge tears can be repaired, preserving the book and making it readable and handleable.  The grade will be elevated to at least a 2.0 and possibly higher in my opinion, and the discount of a conserved comic to a universal is not nearly as severe as the discount placed on a restored comic.

On 2/18/2024 at 4:30 PM, makeminemarvel said:

Yes the bottom pics are after.  Not great pics but it is actually a little flatter.  Just some serious water damage.  Took a flyer and results were a little better than before. 

Objectively it's better, yes, but this presser left a lot on the table.  The spine roll should be fixed, and the creasing can be improved further.

That said, i would not do all of the work this book needs for $15.  It takes a lot of time, care, and experience to do this properly, so i think you got what you paid for.

On 2/21/2024 at 11:06 AM, rlextherobot said:

Overall this copy is structurally in the Fine to Fine/Very Fine zone, nice corners, a dirty back cover that might improve from a bit of TLC, and some general wear. But that strip on the right hand side front cover where the purple has faded to light blue is a major flaw in an otherwise quite presentable book. I know the common understanding is that fading matters less the lower the overall grade (but also that buyers will shy away from sunfaded copies regardless), but how do you grade a book like this with it as a major conspicuous flaw? I'd probably personally knock it down to a VG/F, but curious how others would approach it. 

I don't have an opinion on your original question--but wonder if you got it graded because i'd love to know the answer?  Also i think it looks stunning regardless--the fading in this instance creates a very pleasing color gradient that compliments the cover in an odd way.  I'd be happy to have this in my collection!

On 2/15/2024 at 9:34 PM, Terry E. Gibbs said:

Saw a Showcase 4.0 had gone for $17k and thought that must be a market blip, but when scrolling through ebay, I saw it and it had a blue label but with notation " small amount of dried glue on spine". I am guessing this has been asked before, but when is that a blue label   And that explains what looked like a market dip.

 

Thanks

The answer ought to be:  when the small amount of glue was not used to attempt to fix a defect, then the small amount of glue is just a defect, not an actual restoration attempt, and should not be labeled as restoration.  Just like doodling on a comic book or an incidental pen mark is not color touch and is graded as a defect rather than restoration.

On 2/26/2024 at 8:07 PM, iae21 said:

Wanted to get others thoughts on this.  Thought I had a higher-grade ASM 16 (originally CGC 7.5) which after a solid cleaning/press got a 7.0 grade.

Grader notes only note the excess red INK transfer on the center right cover.  The thing is, if you look closely, its not red ink from the Daredevil glove that got smudged by someone.  You can see the detail and inking of the glove.

Rather, it looks like the factory printer was bleeding the red ink a bit a smudged it at factory.

Should this have been graded so low?  Or is this something that CGC should have not downgraded the book on?

Unless all of the copies of this book have this flaw (which they don't), this seems fair/correct to me.  CGC is trying to give a prospective buyer confidence in the item.  As there are copies of this book that are just as nice without the red ink, this one should not be graded as if the red ink were not there.

Also for what it's worth, if the ink is not known for all examples, then it's impossible to say the ink didn't happen later, after production, or during poor storage when this comic was stacked against another with a red ink cover that transferred or some other event. 

Given these two issues, i think they did the correct thing here.

On 2/29/2024 at 10:37 AM, NickEG said:

I didn’t know if it was worth getting it graded missing a staple, but it’s in very good condition even so.

Wow that's a stunner!  I'd love to have an oddity like that in my collection and would definitely pay the high end of the fair market value range for one without a staple, which is to say i would pay more than for a copy with both staples, but only by a bit.

Your best bet is to check one of the large facebook groups for comic book cleaning and pressing.  Post what you are looking for there and you are likely to find someone close to you.

On 3/5/2024 at 8:02 AM, Morganstein Joshua said:

I'm looking at a 60 yo book that is higher grade by CBCS which has "exceptional white" on the case for the pages. The seller indicated they have no knowledge of any restoration but I'm not clear if CBCS would definitely notes this as CGC appears to do, at least nowadays.

I'm thinking of having it regraded by CGC because prices generally seem higher for comparable books, but concerned it might have been restored in some way and then I get a purple label from CGC which, of course, nullifies (or worse) any potential benefit of having CGC grading.

Don't want to start any conflict or discussion over CGC vs CBCS, but just wondering how folks might approach given the info above...

Would you be concerned about restoration given exceptional white pages?

Does idea of regrading by CGC seem too risky?

Thanks in advance.

Josh a word of caution--with the popularity of Blue LED photobleaching and H2O2 bleaching in recent years, CGC is working overtime in an attempt to make sure comic books are appropriately labeled so prospective buyers can reasonably expect that any work done to a book is disclosed to them prior to any purchase.  The problem is that there are not definitive non-destructive tests for detecting either of these methods.  So CGC uses a number of clues to infer if one of these procedures has been used and then grades the comic accordingly, which can include Universal, Conserved, and Restored labels.  This leaves room for interpretation which of course is subjective and sometimes incorrect.  They are doing an admirable job sorting out many books that have been bleached, but it's possible that comics with exceptionally white pages would be flagged for possible restoration.  

If you do decide to send it for cross-grading, good luck and please share the restyle with us!

On 4/10/2024 at 11:38 PM, Darthvader23 said:

i received my hulk 180 back in hand and used my torch at various angles, and i cant see a crease anywhere, but there is a wave in the rear top of the cover ( big difference between a crease and wave in my book ) that could do with a proper pressing, but since i just broke my pressing machine, i cant be bothered. I've listed it for sale, with the opportunity for the buyer top press it out and push it o a 8.5 or 9.0. I dont have the photo, to prove it before sending, but i know when i sent it, it was dead straight.

Is it possible that if you pressed the book there was some reversion after it left your hands--that it was dead straight when you mailed it off, but it had waviness by the time it was graded?  I make a habit of cold pressing post-heat press as well as preparing my CGC submission in bags and boards and leaving it for a few weeks and then double-checking it before sending it off, because i had similar issues in which comics were perfect immediately after pressing but over a few days or weeks defects would creep back into the paper, a process known as reversion.

For what it's worth i agree with you, big difference between wave and crease.

I personally think you are being too picky (and only offer this opinion because you specifically asked for our opinions!)

A 9.8 is not a 10 (or even a 9.9).  It has flaws that keep it from being a 9.9 or 10.  You can see the flaws.  That ought to be normal.  While some comic books look flawless in 9.8, i actually think these should be have 9.9s or 10s.  Nine point eight should be for books exactly like this one in my opinion.  CGC's description specifically states that in 9.8, a small color-breaking spine tick is allowed, as are other handling defects.

Congratulations on a beautiful acquisition!  I'd just enjoy it and stop scrutinizing it for defects.

On 4/9/2024 at 10:42 PM, Hulksdaddy1 said:

I have to see what these books looked like. 

He shared a pic elsewhere.  You can see what looks like rippling in the book, even in a straight-on view of the comic in the slab.  Looks like too much humidity was used without properly adjusting the pressing parameters.

Heritage says the restored Action #1 was indeed a record for a restored comic book:

https://www.ha.com/heritage-auctions-press-releases-and-news/-action-comics-no.-1-which-introduced-superman-in-1938-sells-for-6-million-at-heritage-auctions-to-become-world-s-most-valuable-comic-book.s?releaseId=4943