Where can I find......

[rshale]

....a comic page color 'guide'? I know I've seen one somewhere before. You know, where you hold it next to the pages to tell if the pages are Cream or Off-White to White or whatever based on comparison of the colors of the pages to the guide strip? I want to be able to be PRECISE when describing my comics.

 

Thanks in advance!

[rshale]

It's something like this:

 

http://www.downtowncomicbox.com/grading2.htm#clickhere

 

Only more detailed - has anyone seen one and know where to get one?

[drbanner]

The OWL card (the one in your link) is the only one I've ever seen, and frankly, it's not very effective as the color of the paper comics were originally printed on has changed over time (both in terms of the actual "color", as well as the texture and other physical properties of the paper). I don't believe OS makes these anymore...

[OldSchoolTerry]

Hopefully, Arnold from Overstreet will read this and help us out.....

 

Maybe in the Overstreet Grading Guide?

[PovertyRow]

I know I've seen one somewhere before. You know, where you hold it next to the pages to tell if the pages are Cream or Off-White to White or whatever based on comparison of the colors of the pages to the guide strip?

 

I would not recommend depending on the OWL guide. It is very innacurate. I would be plenty angry is someone sent me a "whote page" book that looked like the OWL white!

[garthgantu]

This is a great example of an area in which CGC could provide a benefit to the comic book buying/collecting community and help 'standardize' an aspect of comic book grading at the same time. CGC should issue an updated version of the OWL guide, perhaps even several such "cards" for different eras of books.

[rshale]

Ah - thanks guys. So I'm not crazy after all!

 

 

[ArnoldTBlumberg]

Yes we specifically did *not* pursue creating a new OWL card when we updated the Grading Guide early last year. Although we do still offer the original OWL card for a very small sum (you can call and order one), as many have pointed out it was a bit like an exercise in futility since it was nearly impossible to guarantee that the colors in the card would be accurately reproduced with any degree of exactitude. But it's more complicated than that - let's face it, from Golden Age to Modern Age, from Marvel to DC to Charlton, and from even one copy of the same issue comic to another, page hues can be very different and start at differing levels of "white" depending on the paper itself and a million little organic factors. The best you can manage is to read our descriptions in the Grading Guide and if someone agrees that your Off-White pages are indeed Off-White and not Cream or Tan, then you're close enough for rock and roll.

 

Arnold

[drbanner]

This is a great example of an area in which CGC could provide a benefit to the comic book buying/collecting community and help 'standardize' an aspect of comic book grading at the same time. CGC should issue an updated version of the OWL guide, perhaps even several such "cards" for different eras of books.

 

The scope for that endeavour lies not with CGC, but with OS. Can you imagine the uproar on here from the usual suspects if CGC issued "Official CGC Page Whiteness Cards", usurping the standard bearer (OS)?!?!?

[THE_BEYONDER]

This is a great example of an area in which CGC could provide a benefit to the comic book buying/collecting community and help 'standardize' an aspect of comic book grading at the same time. CGC should issue an updated version of the OWL guide, perhaps even several such "cards" for different eras of books.

 

The scope for that endeavour lies not with CGC, but with OS. Can you imagine the uproar on here from the usual suspects if CGC issued "Official CGC Page Whiteness Cards", usurping the standard bearer (OS)?!?!?

 

[PovertyRow]

The greatest flaw with the OWL Guide was using a standard 4-color process. Such a guide should use PMS Inks mixed to the proper colors. But that can be prohibitively expensive. The 4-c just can't hack it.

[DoubleCovaBrotha]

But what if the color guide was aged and no longer had the page colors in their original hues?? Then OW pages would be beautiful WHITE pages!

[Zanarkand]

CGC holds "white" to mean "as white as it ever was", not necessarily literally white. Pulp paper used in many GA books was originally off-white leaning to beige and magazine paper was off-white leaning to grey. Both would receive "white" designations though as long as the pages were still the original beige/grey.

 

I do not believe in this relative color scaling and I find it very misleading. There needs to be a separate brown scale and grey scale. Gradations on these scales would be labeled, not named, so the highest quality could be called "10" or "A" or something and we can stop calling pages "white" that aren't.

 

But the fact of the matter is this: People like the misleading color names. Calling pages "white" implies perfection, a total lack of deterioration due to age. We all know that a 9.4 book with "white" pages will bring a premium over the another 9.4 copy of the same book with "off-white" pages.

[PovertyRow]

But what if the color guide was aged and no longer had the page colors in their original hues?? Then OW pages would be beautiful WHITE pages!

 

They should advise, as does CGC advises re-slabbing every 7 years, replacing the PMS inked cards every 6 months, thereby insuring a tighter adherence to whatever it is good to tightly adhere to in this situation.