Golden Age page quality question

[Henson-migration]

Several years ago I went to the Philadelphia Comicon (or was it Comicfest?) and picked up a copy of Black Terror #5 out of a $20 Golden Age box (why oh why didn't I buy the whole box!). It's a beautiful copy - nearly perfect except for a small missing corner on the front cover. One thing that puzzles me about the book is the page whiteness. Some pages are very white, and others are brown. It doesn't look like the book has been restored - it was after all only $20 and is firm and tight and the staples appear to be original and untouched - but I can't figure out why there is uneven "aging" of the pages. And it's not like the first ten pages are brown and then the rest white - it's just sporatic.

 

Has anyone seen this in Golden Age books?

[mrwoogieman]

Only on copies that have been 'married' to other copies to make a complete book. It doesn't necessarily have to be the first wrap or the centerfold being replaced it could be any number of interior wraps. If the halves of the individual wraps are different colors though, that would be freaky.

[Aman619]

there is the occasion when the signatures (16 pages folded and cut down from one large sheet) of the comics may have been printed on two different rolls of newsprint: one ran out between signatures. Often the end of a roll (on the inside of the huge roll) will have aged/differently than the outer wraps......an dif the signatures were each printed on one of each, you would get a book with different shades of paper coloring.

 

maybe. stuff happens.

[Mushroom]

Funnily enough I have a low grade Flash Comics #62 where three pages (half wraps) are off white and the rest of the book is bordering on tan. When I asked the seller the cause he indicated that when he bought the collection that particular book had a couple of glossy magazine covers inserted between the pages thereby providing a greater deal of protection.

 

Don't know if it is true or feasible but that is what he said.

[drbanner]

I've seen many a bronze age book (especially the DC 100 page giants as it's easy to see the difference with a big stack of paper) with different colored pages, so I imagine it's possibly on golden age books as well. The reason, as stated above, is paper coming from different sources/rolls.

[Timely]

I saw a VF/NM All-Flash #1 where the interior covers had the usual darkness to it, except on the inside front cover there was a 2.5 X 3.5 inch portion that was bone white. As it turned out a baseball card was hidden in the comic for 40 years, and the card absorbed all the acid that is normally transfered from the pages to the cover.

 

Perhaps CGC should insert baseball cards in our comics instead of those inert white sheets!

 

Timely