Wierd pages in a couple of Golden age books...

[Fedoraman]

I have bought a few coverless goldenage books from about 1940 or so and couple of them have pages that have been cut in just over half right at the fold line, then folded over to the match up to the opposite page that is also loose and cut in half just longer than the fold. At first I thought that someone had mearly cut out an ad page but it looks different.

 

I am assuming that whomever had the book before up the road removed these pages from other several books and folded them together to make one "complete" book. There has been no attempt to merge the wraps with glue or rice paper, etc. but as I said they are folded together at the crease.

 

The books that are like this have come from two separate sellers so it begs the question: was this a common "restoration" technique for goldenage comics or what?

[Scrooge]

Some books have what are called tipped-in pages, i.e., pages folded in as you described. However, my thought was that a tipped-in page does not have a corresponding page on the other side of the book which is how you're describing what you're seeing so that can't be the case here. Indeed there would not be the need for a tipped-in page in that case

[Fedoraman]

As I said it's wierd as there is another "tipped-in" page on the other side that seems to be the other half...as if from another book.

[MrBedrock]

Do the half pages match in placement on each side of the book? In other words does each half-wrap fit together at the spine or does one occur closer to the centerfold and the other occur closer to the outer wrap? If it is the later, then it is more than likely the way it was manufactured. If the former, someone may have tinkered with the book. Half-wraps are very common, but to my knowledge, they were not placed in a book to make two sides of the same wrap.

[Jayman]

This is new to me and sounds interesting but I'm having a hard time picturing whats going on. Is it possible to post a pic?

[Silver Surfer]

I had a Marvel Mystery Comics #13 and a Human Torch #12 that sounds like it they had similar issues with some of the pages. Were any of these books manufactured with one staple by any chance?

[Fedoraman]

The first six outer wraps look fine - here are some shots of the front and back:

 

 

 

See how the interior pages look "brighter"?

 

The 7th wrap starts to get a little screwy:

 

 

 

 

These next three pages seem to be cut like so:

 

 

Then the two opposing sides are cut as well:

 

 

 

 

So it would appear as though I am missing 1/2 of a wrap?

 

The next six interior wraps are normal like the first six.

 

It is also obvious to me now that these interior pages came from another book as the staple holes don't match up at all...

 

My question is - was this the way the Batman #25 was made originally with the 1/2 wraps or is this a "Franken-book" as I suspect???

[Catman-migration]

I have some books like this with half-wraps. My understanding is that this was a common way that books were printed during the war (possibly due to paper shortages?). Usually it's only some of the pages/wraps that are affected.

[Fedoraman]

That is interesting - these pages are still obviously from another book as the staple holes don't match up and they have a different coloring.

 

Thanks for the info.

[Ze-man]

Does anybody have a raw copy of Capt. America #34? If I recall correctly there are about 5 or 6 of these type of folded in "tipped" half pages throughout the book.

 

The folded tab was also glued as I recall, not 100% sure though.

 

 

[Ze-man]

I just saw what book it was you were talking about and I looked through my copy of Batman 25 I just bought from Bill.

 

The add on the 7th wrap of my copy is for Everready Batteries. And there is not one half page. And add that to the fact that your staples dont line up with your miscut interior half pages.

 

Something is obviously not right here, pence copy perhaps? Did they piecemeal books together like that back then for different countries?

 

Seems like an awful lot of work just to try and make a complete coverless copy of Bats 25.

 

 

As you said in your title, weird.