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to restore or not to restore? That is the question

Started by jmg3637,

25 posts in this topic

jmg3637

jmg3637

Posted
Posted

whether tis nobler to leave a book in it's current condition or to take arms against a sea of past of future damage and send these books off for an expert opinion.

 

I have 3 books with different issues that I often wondered would benefit from a restoration. And who to send the books to?

 

the first one is my Showcase # 4. I bought it locally in Los Angeles from a fromer store owner who said that he had bought it when he was an employee at Passport Comics. For those of you from this area you may remember Earle who had one of the first comic book stores in the area. Well the ex-employee said that Earle occaisonally would use a marker to "improve" some of his comics. And he had done so on the spine of this book.

 

I have attached a copy of the open front of the book where you can see the bleed through from the marker. Is there anything that can be done about this?

584735-showcase4in.jpg.d395aa0dcde0a23821b6737408fd0b7e.jpg

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Mr. Zipper

Mr. Zipper

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I had amateur marker touches with a few books and I sent them to Matt Nelson. The bottom line is that nothing can be done. The only way to remove a marker touch is to cut it out, and I don't think that's an option here. My marker touches were a LOT less than what I see on your book, but if it's a tiny CT or a bigger one, they are both PLOD anyway.

 

With my books, I figured that they were already "restored" and there was no way to undo it. So, if they are already restored, a little light pro work couldn't hurt.

 

Matt performed slight pro restoration (slight CT, clean and press) to make the books look as good as they could while still maintaining Slight level of resto. I was very happy with the results and the grades went up about 2 full points.

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PovertyRow

PovertyRow

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Unfortunately, marker bleeds through the paper. The way to remove it is to remove the marker areas. This would require slicing out the markered area (in this case looks like a good percentage of the length of the cover). Then paper is added back and the blank cover area inpainted to match. And also trying to match the inside cover white in color and texture.

 

You'd end up with worse than what you started with.

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jmg3637

jmg3637

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This one is an All Star # 3. It is in very nice shape, except for a spine split that runs from staple to staple, and a small piece of tape at the bottom of the spine.

 

What grade could it get as is?

 

What grade could it get with a PLOD?

585582-allstar3v3.jpg.d961f64df06e9999704278a33f6ede4e.jpg

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jmg3637

jmg3637

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boy does that scan look awful. tongue.gif

 

The original scan i had was too large so I tried to resize it. Last time I will use Microsoft Photo editing software instead of Paint Shop Pro. shocked.gif

 

 

I hope that this one comes out better

585728-allstar3v3.jpg.b1526bfb3d3d7450a02c6eef7439ee0c.jpg

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Newerthannew

Newerthannew

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I just had to respond to this:

 

I had amateur marker touches with a few books and I sent them to Matt Nelson. The bottom line is that nothing can be done. The only way to remove a marker touch is to cut it out, and I don't think that's an option here.

 

and to this (Pov, shame on you - you should know better!):

 

Unfortunately, marker bleeds through the paper. The way to remove it is to remove the marker areas. This would require slicing out the markered area (in this case looks like a good percentage of the length of the cover). Then paper is added back and the blank cover area inpainted to match. And also trying to match the inside cover white in color and texture.

 

You'd end up with worse than what you started with.

 

While there might be cases where SOME marker bleed-through can only be removed by cutting out the original paper you can remove the majority of marker staining through the use of solvent treatments IF you know what you are doing (and needless to say a real CONSERVATOR wouldn't even consider cutting the original an option as that would be highly unethical, it seems, however, that RESTORERS apparently think nothing of it).

 

Here is what is possible:

 

www.eclipsepaper.com/fant15pre.jpg

www.eclipsepaper.com/blotter.jpg

www.eclipsepaper.com/fant15d.jpg

 

It helps if the marker is on a white/non-colored area of the book but there are several treatments to preserve the original printing ink which do not involve slicing and dicing parts of the original book away. At the very least, the staining can be safely reduced and then a small amount of inpainting (sorry, color-touch) can be done to cover the remaining stain. Surely this is more desireable than having parts of the original book cut away and replaced? Is this what is meant by cutting edge restoration?

 

Having looked at the Showcase 4, there is no reason why any part of the book needs to be cut off, trimmed away or removed.

 

If you are interested in having another estimate, then please contact me.

 

Tracey Heft

Eclipse Paper Conservation

www.eclipsepaper.com

trace@eclipsepaper.com

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Matt Nelson

Matt Nelson

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I just had to respond to this:

 

I had amateur marker touches with a few books and I sent them to Matt Nelson. The bottom line is that nothing can be done. The only way to remove a marker touch is to cut it out, and I don't think that's an option here.

 

and to this (Pov, shame on you - you should know better!):

 

Unfortunately, marker bleeds through the paper. The way to remove it is to remove the marker areas. This would require slicing out the markered area (in this case looks like a good percentage of the length of the cover). Then paper is added back and the blank cover area inpainted to match. And also trying to match the inside cover white in color and texture.

 

You'd end up with worse than what you started with.

 

While there might be cases where SOME marker bleed-through can only be removed by cutting out the original paper you can remove the majority of marker staining through the use of solvent treatments IF you know what you are doing (and needless to say a real CONSERVATOR wouldn't even consider cutting the original an option as that would be highly unethical, it seems, however, that RESTORERS apparently think nothing of it).

 

Here is what is possible:

 

www.eclipsepaper.com/fant15pre.jpg

www.eclipsepaper.com/blotter.jpg

www.eclipsepaper.com/fant15d.jpg

 

It helps if the marker is on a white/non-colored area of the book but there are several treatments to preserve the original printing ink which do not involve slicing and dicing parts of the original book away. At the very least, the staining can be safely reduced and then a small amount of inpainting (sorry, color-touch) can be done to cover the remaining stain. Surely this is more desireable than having parts of the original book cut away and replaced? Is this what is meant by cutting edge restoration?

 

Having looked at the Showcase 4, there is no reason why any part of the book needs to be cut off, trimmed away or removed.

 

If you are interested in having another estimate, then please contact me.

 

Tracey Heft

Eclipse Paper Conservation

 

Tracey, your lack of professionalism when addressing me in this thread is truly amazing. But judging your display of arrogance in previous posts, I guess I shouldn't be suprised.

 

The issue about color touch removal refers to high grade books that are otherwise unrestored, and the owner's intention is to get those books into blue holders.

 

So answer me this: does your solvent cleaning require disassembly? Given my experience with color touch removal, I'm guessing it does. Which means you've broken CGC's cardinal rule, and the book will stay in a PLOD regardless of your removal. That doesn't help your client at all, does it?

 

Keep up with the market, Tracey. And stop trashing people. That's no way to get ahead in this business.

 

Matt Nelson

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