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8,405 posts in this topic

Thanks @Scrooge - a consistent picture is starting to emerge of a switch to glossy stock in the first part of 1948. (Though WDC&S never had anything else.)

I have only one Four Color below 100 and that's too low grade to be of much help. Do you think the early ones were glossy or matt? I.e. Was the pattern: gloss --> matt --> gloss or was it just matt --> gloss?

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That's very hard to say. I looked at them and dependent on condition they look different. Didn't have time to take them out of the bag to feel the paper which would have helped.

But take this 61. It looks very shiny and glossy. It would appear too fortuitous that 62 then is non-glossy - I'll let someone else make the call here.

1948540646_FC61.jpg.3d7b3165c818494790c8a6da796a8f0f.jpg

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Scrooge said:

That's very hard to say. I looked at them and dependent on condition they look different. Didn't have time to take them out of the bag to feel the paper which would have helped.

But take this 61. It looks very shiny and glossy. It would appear too fortuitous that 62 then is non-glossy - I'll let someone else make the call here.

 

That does look like the glossy stock. As I said earlier, I *think* my 62 was glossy a lot of handling ago, but can't be 100% sure. If someone would like to send me a high grade copy I promise to report back! (For that matter, better send a 9 and 29 as well - we can't be too careful...)

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5 minutes ago, AJD said:

As I said earlier, I *think* my 62 was glossy a lot of handling ago

Oopps, didn't pay attention enough.

Here are some later sub-100's which are visibly non-glossy - They don't wrinkle, they tear.

1026958517_FC94.jpg.3aca1d17a54d7167c51563330c15f90b.jpg

1244543767_FC96.jpg.f65b6aa63dbd967b6e2aa5f3f0ee46c1.jpg

742792771_FC97.jpg.16bbc021174bd52042b45998ccda9f44.jpg

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Well, I don't have time to look into this in detail for a couple of weeks due to a vacation; but I have a bunch of books in this time frame.  I have a drop dead gorgeous Four Color 163 (Tracy) that is the non-gloss cover and a nice 152 also non-gloss. I now need to find an earlier four color in nice shape to compare. But I believe it was semi-gloss to matte to semi-gloss. Just don't know exactly when. It does seem that the earlier semi-gloss books were not as glossy as later on though.

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At any rate, the change back to the semi-gloss paper lines up with the lifting of paper rationing, circa 1948.

Here are some corollary information from other sources (from a quick Google search) -

"The end of the war was accompanied by rapid inflation in all areas of the economy, and paper remained in short supply despite the end of rationing. It was not until September 1948 that all Modern Library titles were back in stock for the first time since the war." from https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/3714

"Since I collect juvenile series books, it is not uncommon to see a Grosset & Dunlap book featuring a "Wartime Conditions" notice on the title page or dust jacket.

Wartime_Conditions.png

These appeared on G&D books from 1943 to 1945. The exact months is not quite certain though enough study has been made on the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books that it might be possible to get a rough estimate by making a study of the reference books for those.

Grosset & Dunlap, as an example, started to use pulp paper (that turns brown and brittle with exposure to heat, sunlight, and air) starting in 1942 as white paper supplies dwindled. A typical Nancy Drew book was about 2 inches thick in 1941 and 1942. However, thinner paper was used over time so that by 1945 the books were only about 1 inch thick.

The pulp paper continued to be used by Grosset & Dunlap through 1948. Only by 1949 was good paper being used on the juvenile series books." from https://www.librarything.com/topic/95897


 

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8 hours ago, 50YrsCollctngCmcs said:

Well, I don't have time to look into this in detail for a couple of weeks due to a vacation; but I have a bunch of books in this time frame.  I have a drop dead gorgeous Four Color 163 (Tracy) that is the non-gloss cover and a nice 152 also non-gloss. I now need to find an earlier four color in nice shape to compare. But I believe it was semi-gloss to matte to semi-gloss. Just don't know exactly when. It does seem that the earlier semi-gloss books were not as glossy as later on though.

I agree that the earlier semi-gloss books were not as glossy as later on.  I THINK my #88 and #91 were both originally glossy, but both are sufficiently low grade that I'm not sure.  My 102 is definitely non-glossy, as is my 178.

I'm not sure that it was a sharp line between glossy and non-glossy; I'll try to dig up my Animal Comics (where I have the full run, rather than random issues) and see how it plays out.

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On ‎6‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 7:36 PM, OtherEric said:

I agree that the earlier semi-gloss books were not as glossy as later on.  I THINK my #88 and #91 were both originally glossy, but both are sufficiently low grade that I'm not sure.  My 102 is definitely non-glossy, as is my 178.

I'm not sure that it was a sharp line between glossy and non-glossy; I'll try to dig up my Animal Comics (where I have the full run, rather than random issues) and see how it plays out.

All of my other Four Color comics are different from Four Color 178.

26544332383_8b2e91ac67_b.jpg

4127920279_8e131a1755_b.jpg

5551792324_71b38603c9_b.jpg

8788236908_052744b807_b.jpg

 

5547886219_5a316e056a_b.jpg

Edited by BB-Gun
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On 6/6/2019 at 11:33 AM, Scrooge said:

At any rate, the change back to the semi-gloss paper lines up with the lifting of paper rationing, circa 1948.

Here are some corollary information from other sources (from a quick Google search) -

"The end of the war was accompanied by rapid inflation in all areas of the economy, and paper remained in short supply despite the end of rationing. It was not until September 1948 that all Modern Library titles were back in stock for the first time since the war." from https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/3714

"Since I collect juvenile series books, it is not uncommon to see a Grosset & Dunlap book featuring a "Wartime Conditions" notice on the title page or dust jacket.

Wartime_Conditions.png

These appeared on G&D books from 1943 to 1945. The exact months is not quite certain though enough study has been made on the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books that it might be possible to get a rough estimate by making a study of the reference books for those.

Grosset & Dunlap, as an example, started to use pulp paper (that turns brown and brittle with exposure to heat, sunlight, and air) starting in 1942 as white paper supplies dwindled. A typical Nancy Drew book was about 2 inches thick in 1941 and 1942. However, thinner paper was used over time so that by 1945 the books were only about 1 inch thick.

The pulp paper continued to be used by Grosset & Dunlap through 1948. Only by 1949 was good paper being used on the juvenile series books." from https://www.librarything.com/topic/95897


 

Interesting. Somehow I never noticed the variation in the cover stock Dell used. 

Surprising that there were still paper shortages as late as 1948 given how rapidly (or so I thought) the U.S. converted from military to civilian production.  

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On 7/4/2019 at 7:26 PM, AJD said:

Yep - and you can see their first ever panel here:

us_wdc_561b_010_amj.png

 

4 hours ago, Sqeggs said:

Leave it to Barks to make the girls horror movie fans! 

So true! "Gore in the Gully" also strikes me as typical Barks alliteration with just the right comic twist. The simple desire to see that horror movie gives the audience an immediate and direct insight into these girls and lets them know they may be a match for the nephews!

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15 hours ago, Badger said:

Nicest 7.0 I've ever seen!

I think the disagreement might have been over what to make of the the nick in the upper right corner. To be honest, you would think that would be enough to bring the grade down below 9.2 unless CGC decided that it was production related. 

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