Who does the best restoration work?

[themegoguy]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums and am really enjoying searching through all of the different topics. My question is: who does the best restoration work? I've contacted Matthew Wilson from Fantasy Masterpieces Art Restoration about some work and was very impressed with the examples he has on his website. I also contacted Tracey Heft about the work and was very impressed with her response, but not so much with the examples on her site. I've heard nothing but good things so far though about her work though. Right now though I think I would go with Matthew (the examples he has represent similar work that I would need done). Any other restorers that come to mind? Any to stay away from? thanks!

Vince

[divad]

I think Tracey's a guy . . .

 

 

Oh, and WELCOME TO THE BOARDS!

[arexcrooke]

I think Tracey's a guy . . .

 

 

Oh, and WELCOME TO THE BOARDS!

Ditto, Tracey is a guy, and welcome to the boards.

[bullseye]

susan ciccioni is quite good, but the most pricey of the big three, her site is nifty too, therestorationlab.com

[FFB]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums and am really enjoying searching through all of the different topics. My question is: who does the best restoration work? I've contacted Matthew Wilson from Fantasy Masterpieces Art Restoration about some work and was very impressed with the examples he has on his website. I also contacted Tracey Heft about the work and was very impressed with her response, but not so much with the examples on her site. I've heard nothing but good things so far though about her work though. Right now though I think I would go with Matthew (the examples he has represent similar work that I would need done). Any other restorers that come to mind? Any to stay away from? thanks!

Vince

 

Susan Cicconi at the Restoration Lab is supposed to be (according to many) the best in the industry. I have heard that she is very slow on jobs though, and I know that she is super expensive. I also don't like the fact that she always wants you to ship the book to her before she'll even talk to you about a ballpark estimate.

 

Tracey Heft is a bad @ss. I asked someone whom I trust on these matters (he shall remain nameless) recently who was the best person aside from Susan Cicconi to send a book to for extensive work and inpainting and he said Tracey. Tracey has my Amazing Fantasy #15 right now and I'll be posting the results if he and I can agree on a pricing schedule for the work to be done.

 

And yes, Tracey is a man, not a woman.

 

I have heard not so great things about Matt Wilson's color matching and piece replacement, but have ZERO first hand knowledge so do with this comment what you will.

 

I only know Matt Nelson's "minor" restorative work, i.e., cleaning and pressing. He is good at it, but his pricing is more expensive than Tracey Heft's for a simple press job. I have heard some good things about Matt Nelson's extensive work from Ian Levine. You can see the Detective 27 that Matt worked on for Ian on Matt Nelson's website -- www.comicrestoration.com. Matt is a nice guy with solid customer service. I have never sent him an extensive job before so I don't have personal knowledge of his skill at color matching, inpainting, etc. But Ian was elated at the results he got from Matt N.

[Dr_Neff]

 

FAR AND AWAY THE BEST candidate is Matt Nelson of www.classicsincorporated.com

here is some testimony from his site

-"Thanks very much for your good work on my books. The Weird Science #11 came out beautifully! The value is more thanks to you...it was really worth it to me to get these books fixed".

Bob Overstreet

 

"Matt, the book arrived today and it looks great! You have done it again. You are without a doubt the MAN!"

John Cash

 

"I got the Spider-man #1 issue today, and I just want to say that I'm impressed on the restoration work! The book looks like a killer, thanks ! It's nice to know who I'll contact if I ever need a book restored again in the future.

Morten Hultgren"

 

Most of the books that have had great work done in the past (that I encountered) have been through Matt Nelson.

 

Additionally, I have also dealt with the Wilson family and they are awesome. I dealt with Mark at the retail level, he is the consumnate professional (World's Finest/PGC Mint)

 

Matthew (Wilson) did a great job on a ASM # 1 that had 1/3 of the FC missing, (kind of like the Action 1 2.5 but the missing piece went all the way around.) and not only that but there was silver spray paint on the rest of the cover!

 

He spliced on a Strange Tales # 113 Back cover, and drew in the rest of the cover. I don't recall how he got the paint off, but I ended up with a nice (App) 5.0 out of the deal. I didn't want to go too much higher in the grades I just wanted it to look a lot better than it did.

 

Susan Cicconi is the Johnny Walker blue label of comic restoration. Is she single?

I just remember having books pressed in the late 80's and I saw her photo on that postcard with all the keys and thought OMFG! I didn't even notice the books, she was fine! Always hear great things about her and her work.

 

It's funny to see books that were pressed in 89/90 returning nowadays to get cracked out and pressed YET AGAIN for a higher resub grade. Pretty soon there won't be any more paper left to press. Would the book open a third time?......maybe the world's first transparent comic?

 

 

Why not send a book to each of them and see what shakes out?

 

I have heard of Tracey Heft but I think it was a few years ago over Playboy Dec 1953 and there were like 100 copies or something...anybody help me out here?

[spidrvacc]

Matt Nelson did work for me and it was spectacular.

[FFB]

Matt Nelson did work for me and it was spectacular.

 

Could you be more specific?

[themegoguy]

Thanks everyone for the great responses so far! I'll probably e-mail Matt Nelson and inquire as to what he thinks in a few weeks when I get the book in question in hand. Also, just in case Tracey visits the boards sorry for the confusion! More responses are VERY welcome.

[PovertyRow]

The real problem with this question, and not your fault vj, is that in order to actually do a comparison of the main restorers (Susan, Tracey and Matt) one would have to have submitted books to all three to compare their techniques etc. I know Susan's work the best and it is amazing. But having not had any books restored by Tracey or Matt can only attest to quality of Susan's work, which is exceptional.