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Problems with early 90's Marvel books

Started by The_Man_Of_Steel,

11 posts in this topic

The_Man_Of_Steel

The_Man_Of_Steel

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Has anybody else noticed that over time many of the MARVEL books printed around 1991 have become wavey? What am I talking about? I"m talking about brand new MARVEL books that were put into bags in the early 90's, that appear wavey almost as if water were spilled on them at one time. I've noticed this problem with early 90's Punisher (2nd Series) books, Silver Surfer (vol. 3) books, and Amazing Spider-Man (vol.1) books. Take a GOOD look at your Amazing Spider-Man 346 and 347 books (front AND back). I wonder if the problem stems from the gloss finish that was used in production? I've also noticed that many of these books have a 1 1/2 inch surface line/mark/crease (I don't know how best to describe it) on the back of the book. It's obviously a printing defect, and from the number of books I've looked at perhaps a common printing defect for early 90's Marvel books?

 

Am I the only one that has noticed these defects that appear to be "common" to early 90's Marvel books? Any thoughts?

 

P.S. - I wish I could show you just how wavey one of my Punisher books is. Looks like a feakin' Ocean!!

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The_Man_Of_Steel

The_Man_Of_Steel

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Thanks for the response! I don't know for sure, but I think you may be right. Actually I think it could be a combination of two things:

 

1.) Humidity and

 

2.) the gloss finish that was used in production.

 

The reason I think this is because other books were stored in the same environment, but it did not have this same effect on them. For example: take 300 books ranging from 1981-1991 and store them in the same box, in the same type of bags, and in the same environment, and opening them 11 years later to find out that only the early 90's Marvel books exibit the wavey effect. I call in wavey because if you look at the thickness of one of these books, the paper is not flat.

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comicinvestor-migration

comicinvestor-migration

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You're exactly right, and I think it has to do with the paper quality and the heavy/wet inks that Marvel used for a certain time period. It's definitely not humidity, and only a select number of my books exhibit this flaw.

 

One I remember off-hand was one of the "Name of the Rose" Spec. Spidey comics, with a red cover. I've also got a few from EBay and they're wavy on the top.

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blowout

blowout

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Welcome back CI. grin.gif

 

MOS, I have checked some of my books from the same period ('91 or so) and a few do seem to have a 'kinky'( blush.gif ) appearance.

I can only assume, as you have, that it is something to do with the inks Marvel were using at the time.

My books from other periods that I checked (60's, 70's, 80's, 2000's) don't display the problem.

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awe4one

awe4one

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Yep...you can add Spectacular Spider-Man to the list (that's where I first noticed it). It's uniform across the whole Marvel line that uses the same paper stock and stops at the same time. Don't remember what issue (month) it stops. Next time I'm digging in my collection I'll check it out. I blame it on the paper stock being used but it also affect the covers as well. Same paper source maybe? It is not humidity as all other comics from that period do not exhibit the same problem.

 

 

Jim

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duncan36

duncan36

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Yep I definitely remember this problem it was in the early-mid 90's, I was getting sick of it and asked the comic store I went to what the deal was, they told me it was from the way Diamond boxed and shipped their comics in bulk to the wharehouses. Seemed to make sense at the time, but I have no idea if this is actually the cause of it.

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