Can you safely clean a thumbprint/smudge from a black cover?

[Inhuman Fiend]

Hello all...I've been reading the board for awhile and finally decided to post.

I've recently gotten back into collecting after a 22 year absence...amazing how much easier it is with the internet! Anyway, I'm hoping some of you experts can help me out.). I just bought what appeared to be a beautiful copy of ASM #36/Volume 2 (the 9/11 issue) for just pennies on eBay, but upon close examination was horrified to see that it has a large smudge/thumbprint in the middle of the solid black cover. Is there any possible way to remove/clean this off without marring the cover? Any advice/suggestions would be much appreciated!

[Ze-man]

Depending on what kind of smudge was left behind.. will factor into how well it can be removed.

 

If it was a surface/dirt type smudge.. perhaps it could be carefully wiped off..CAREFULLY.

If the imprint left oils behind.. then that is not good. As it has seeped into the cover/inks and is now a part of your comic.... to try and remove this is neigh impossible, especially on a black cover. And not worth the expense.

 

 

I suggest you just leave it alone. Or buy another copy if it bugs ya that much

 

 

Oh.. Welcome to the boards.

 

Ze-

[FFB]

Hello all...I've been reading the board for awhile and finally decided to post.

I've recently gotten back into collecting after a 22 year absence...amazing how much easier it is with the internet! Anyway, I'm hoping some of you experts can help me out.). I just bought what appeared to be a beautiful copy of ASM #36/Volume 2 (the 9/11 issue) for just pennies on eBay, but upon close examination was horrified to see that it has a large smudge/thumbprint in the middle of the solid black cover. Is there any possible way to remove/clean this off without marring the cover? Any advice/suggestions would be much appreciated!

 

If it's an oily stain, you can't erase it. It it's just ink transference, you could erase from a white area, but don't try to erase anything on a colored area. On a book like that, it's probably not cost effective to send it to a professional to have it removed. Having said that, you could always ask Matt Nelson what would be possible. Send him an email to spectre52@aol.com.

[nearmint]

Inhuman Fiend.

 

Cool name.

[Inhuman Fiend]

Thanks for the replies! It does look sort of oily so I guess I will leave it alone.

 

Nearmint...glad you like the name...back when I was a high school comic nerd, I read a comic where Thor called some villain an "Inhuman Fiend", which I thought was hilarious. So me and my fellow comic nerds started calling ourselves Inhuman Fiends.

 

Haven't used the term in 20+ years but it seemed appropriate now that I'm back into comics again. Thank goodness for the internet, it makes collecting easier which somewhat offsets the difficulty of finding time for comics and still giving appropriate attention to the wife and kids!