Complete Restoration Experiments

[Hero Restoration]

Another Sunday and I have something to show you.

 

Avengers #74 experimenting with dot halftones

Dry clean

Organic solvent wash

migrated rust removal

Water wash

Leaf Casted

Re-sized

Pressed

Color touch

Assembled

Pressed again

 

So I already leaked out the bottom right corner because I was excited that I was able to ink new halftones. Let’s talk about halftones first for those that don't know what that is. Dot halftones are a part of comic inking especially when the silver age arrived. The dots are so small you need to magnify them to notice them and that was the intent. From viewing distance it’s just supposed to look like light blue but it's not. It is medium blue dots over a white background.

 

This means if some of those dots are missing and you are restoring the book there is a problem. Painting solid light blue will be noticeable and creating very small dots by hand is near impossible and irregular. As far as I know and have been told, no other comic restorer has claimed to have a solution to this problem. Sure you could print out a graft but that’s more paper being added for the sake of appearance. The other choice is to paint over the whole area like I did on FF #18 with the light blue sky which received bad reviews.

 

So I am told that the one advantage I have not being schooled by someone in the business is a open mind to processes not already worked out by the restoration community. I have done massive research and some trial and error (mostly error) until now. The experiment I am about to show you is still just a rough draft of what I expect this process to accomplish. I am still learning and refining the technique’s and it may be a while before my results impress all but in time I am confident they will in time. I am dying to try it out on large areas of leaf casted paper to see if half missing covers can look whole again. One of the big challenges with this is that the dot’s are so small I have to do most of the work under magnification.

 

So how am I accomplishing this? Am I running the cover through the printer? Silk Screening? Custom made rub on’s? Well since this is advanced R & D work I really can’t say but feel free to debate it amongst yourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Area’s I am dissatisfied with are:

Paint brush fell on cover right above the girl in the window.

The bricks, I tried to blanket the area and it didn’t work out.

The black dots bottom left were done by hand before I started my dot halftone system.

Top left blue halftones only came out so so and the Avengers above the price looks bad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry I didn't get an after of the leaf casting. It turns out leaf casted covers don't like to be resized and when I did the top half of the spine held together with new paper came loose. I didn't think this book was going to make it to completion and as a result I never took a photo. It dried so cockeyed I didn't think it would line up well but it did alright.

Well thats it guys, as always I welcome everyone's comments,input and opinions except Cheezwiz. (just kidding Cheezy, fix me up a gif)

[bullseye]

i'm almost as impressed with your stain removal as i am with your leaf casting

[That Ron Dude]

It is very impressive. You went took it up from complete sow's ear. Like yourself, though, I find the colour retouch over the screened areas too noticeable. Congratulations.

 

Ron

[Hero Restoration]

Hey all, things are slowing down here while I have been refining procedures, waiting for supplies and large more complex experiments leave me with not much to show.

I also have been busy pressing books for a customer that I am selling for online. Some of these books have bad spine curls from improper storage and need a good pressing to lay flat again. Here is a good example of what a proper pressing can do for a book. I did have to press it twice but I use a very low temp and pressure. I made spacers for the staples so they wouldn't leave impressions in the cover. For those of you wondering when this book goes up for auction I will disclose that it has been pressed.

 

[Hero Restoration]

I almost forgot to post something today. Here is a centerfold that needed rust removal and piece fill.

I first removed the soluable rust with a acidic solution and a suction table follow by abrasion to remove the rust particles.

Since rust destroy's the celulose which bonds the paper and becomes the new bond removing it can lead to more paper loss.

A little was lost but not much. Then I casted vintage paper pulp into the staple area's only and now it waits for new staple holes to be made.

It is really hard to tell the paper was ever lost thanks to the wonders of leaf casting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[etanick]

that is one perfect press job there as well as job done on the staple rust removal and fill in... (thumbs u

[Mio]

Very nice work!

[Hero Restoration]

Thanks guys !! I am really having fun exploring leaf casting in hopes of making it look like nothing happened.

 

I will be honest, it is easier to work my magic on the pages than it is the cover. The cover is coated which I don't know how to simulate and color match is much more difficult. I know the coating is clay and I have some but go figure on how to recoat raw paper and is going to be tough to find out. I hope to have the rest of this book done this weekend or the next.

 

[Hero Restoration]

Hey all, got another leaf cast task to share with you today. This one involves the cover that belongs to the page in the previous post. I used vintage comic book paper for the pulp and reinforce the edge with sizing after the casting. If that isn't enough it might add some mending tissue to the inside of the seam.

This image was taken before reinforcement and still had some excess paper to be trimmed.

 

[faster friends]

[Hero Restoration]

I am running late. Its comming out of the press here in a bit.

[Warlord]

that is one perfect press job there as well as job done on the staple rust removal and fill in... (thumbs u

 

+1! Love the look on the Flash book. And the rust removal/paper replacement looks awesome in the pics.

 

Also I was impressed by the stain removal on the BC of the Avengers, very nice improvement!

 

[Hero Restoration]

that is one perfect press job there as well as job done on the staple rust removal and fill in... (thumbs u

 

+1! Love the look on the Flash book. And the rust removal/paper replacement looks awesome in the pics.

 

Also I was impressed by the stain removal on the BC of the Avengers, very nice improvement!

[Hero Restoration]

Hey all, I have been leading up to the end of this book in two previous post and it's now done.

It started out with the cover detached by paper loss around the staples. To make things more interesting the staples were missing. They must have been really rusty judging from the rust stains I found and were removed for one reason or another. There was some missing paper on the back cover and some of the coating was missing around the missing paper area. Some tears and paper loss at the ends of the spine and there was an uneven spine roll. Oh yeah, there also is blue house paint on it mostly on the back.

I washed the cover in an attempt to remove the paint and failed. Next I resized the cover and that seemed to go well. After that I leaf casted new paper where it was missing and that didn't turn out to bad. I reinforced the new paper with a little bit of mending tissue on the inside. Lastly I tried to color touch the new paper at the staple area but the plum halftone was too difficult and it came out wrong. I did some small areas of black and that was it. I washed out the rust stains in the first wrap and the centerfold. The centerfold was detached and missing paper at the staple area so I casted new paper there as well. Pressed out the spine roll in the pages but I think I over corrected a little and the front half sticks up above the cover a bit. Reassembled and a final pressing under very light pressure so the staples don't pop anywhere. I still need allot more practice before I can put the whole package together but this is one more book down, 1 million to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[faster friends]

[Hero Restoration]

Hey all, I know this topic is collecting dust but I have been real busy and the books I am working on are taking longer to do. In the meantime I have this comic a bordie sent me that appeared to have humidity damage which causes the book to be wavy plus some hard ripples along the spine. The book is really important to him and wanted it to look its best before heading to CGC. I was pleasantly surprised to have removed nearly all defects by professionally pressing the book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[That Ron Dude]

Again, you should be very proud of your work. It is excellent.

[cyberjack11]

Thanks again the book looks great from the pictures, can't wait.

[User 01001010]

great work mike!

 

i just have to dig out the few books i have (that i promised last year) and get you to work on them!

[Hero Restoration]

Hi all, I know it’s been a while since my last post here but it is likely a sign of times ahead. I just moved to a bigger and newer home and that has stopped my restoration work in its tracks. Even though some of my restoration supplies are unpacked I am so tired and there is so much to do I can’t find the time to focus on it. Not to mention I can’t find my best eye glasses which I need for the detail work.

I do however have a cover that I am 90% the way done on for but a few small CT details. Now when you look at this book you will see allot of mistakes. Some thing I am still doing for the 1st time and some just need lots of practice to get right. When I bought this X-men #4 in poor condition back in January I assumed the best I was going to do was use some vintage paper and repair tissue to mend the spine which never enthused me so it sat. Once I started leaf casting I realized the cover now had some potential. Finally I got a air brush and that’s when I new I was ready to work on it. I was hoping to finish it before sharing but it will be sometime before I can start working on it.

This cover was brittle with pieces falling off right up to the time of the leaf cast. It was allot better after washing and resizing the paper but adding the new paper really helps lock things into place. I then reinforce the new leaf casted paper with some tradition mending tissue on the inside primarily just to make sure it won’t come apart down the road.

You will notice new paper around the “N” due to a suction mishap during the casting process, a mistake that won’t happen again I assure you. As a result I had to use an overlay technique to fix the CC and #4.

I had to trim off the excess new paper and made the mistake of doing it on glass rather than a rubber mat and so you will see some area’s along the edge’s that are missing a little paper.

This was my 1st airbrush attempt so you will see plenty of mistakes and so so results with the red being the worst.

Once I finish the CT which is all the dot halftones along the spine, Marvel comics group,IND and the females face I will show you it,until then feel free to ask any questions you might have about the work.

 

Complete spine split with missing and brittle paper

 

 

 

 

After Leaf Casting before CT

 

 

 

 

 

 

After CT but not done yet. I was very happy with the suit case and shoes.