OWL Card - What's Cream?

[zosocane]

The newly-released Overstreet Guide to Grading Comics specifically states that the OWL card is out of date and should not be used.

 

out of date in comparison to what?

 

I mean did page quality get re-defined?

 

PQ did not get redefined.

 

My copy of the Grading Guide is at home, so later tonight (if I don't forget) I will quote the actual statement from the Grading Guide regarding the OWL card.

 

Ok, here it is:

 

"In the past, we have recommended the use of the Overstreet Whitness Level (OWL) card to determine the hue of a given book's paper, but we no longer recommend relying that that card as it is not up to date with current grading standards and its tonal scale is inaccurate. In this area, you just have to do the best you can, and use other comics to hone your skills." Robert M. Overstreet, The Overstreet Guide to Grading Comics at 37 (2014) (emphasis added).

 

The new Guide to Grading also clarifies that when judging paper quality, there is not static "one-size-fits-all" benchmark, but instead, paper quality is judged relative to the era and the paper stock used by the relevant publisher:

 

"Due to the wildly diverse paper stocks employed by the various comic book publishers over the years, the freshest possible quality of the paper in any given comic book may differ markedly in color and tone from that of another comic from another company or era. * * * * Obviously this poses a significant challenge when trying to determine a base 'white' level with which to grade a given book's paper quality.

 

"Therefore, we use the term 'white' loosely in all cases to refer to the freshest and brightest color and tone of the dominant paper stock used in any given comic regardless of the actual color(s) and tone(s) that may be evident. Subsequent descriptions of 'off-white,' 'cream,' 'tan' and others should be interpreted in related to the 'white' starting point of the comic described."

 

Id. at 25.

[01TheDude]

 

On my computer screen your White and Off White/White both look in the White range.

 

Your Off White looks Off White/White (the word balloons are white but the page edges are off-white.

 

Your Cream/Off White and Cream both look in Off White range.

 

Your Tan and Brown both look in the Cream range.

 

 

I didn't make this, I cut and paste it from the website which you can see in the frame -- it isn't my site. so attaching the YOUR to those comments is confusing me.

 

 

[rodan57]

 

 

 

I didn't make this, I cut and paste it from the website which you can see in the frame -- it isn't my site. so attaching the YOUR to those comments is confusing me.

 

 

I went back and edited my post. Sorry for the inappropriate mis-attribution.