Detective #474 color variants?

[Dr. Balls]

I'll get on the other side of the discussion. The density of the other colors (cyan, yellow and black) are just too strong to suggest fading. I'd say it was an issue with the Magenta plate, as everything from Batman's face to the background to the muzzle blast is missing Magenta. The blues in the costume and masthead can be made up of 75C/25K or so, so you don't actually need any M in those areas, which makes it hard to compare color variations between the two.

 

However, an in-hand assessment with a loupe would probably answer the question.

[electricprune]

I'll get on the other side of the discussion. The density of the other colors (cyan, yellow and black) are just too strong to suggest fading. I'd say it was an issue with the Magenta plate, as everything from Batman's face to the background to the muzzle blast is missing Magenta. The blues in the costume and masthead can be made up of 75C/25K or so, so you don't actually need any M in those areas, which makes it hard to compare color variations between the two.

 

However, an in-hand assessment with a loupe would probably answer the question.

 

I'm with Balls...wait a second...

[joe_collector]

Looks like sun fading to me. It was probably in a store window at some point, or on a wall where the sun hit it. It looks pretty even of a fade, so it was in the same place for some time.

 

Definitely, and although this was pretty obvious from the first scan, the back cover sealed it. The cover is a one-page print job, so any missing colours would be missing on both front and back covers.

 

Red fading is extremely common with "wall comics" and it can be extremely fast and aggressive not only in sunlight, but in fluorescent lights,which were common in comic stores.