A cryin' shame -- Fiction House books fading away

[gozer]

I am fond of a lot of Fiction House books. But darn it, why do certain books

fade so badly? Was it the ink? Or the paper? And the muted colors on an

otherwise nice book just ruin it for me.

 

Here's a couple of examples. Someone has a nice Planet 29 on Comiclink,

but it is strikingly faded. And you see this a lot -- it's as if the cover is growing

more and more monotone. And here's the same issue for sale at Metro,

with much nicer colors (the girl's hair is actually red).

 

Faded #29

 

Colorful #29

 

On ebay, someone has just listed a beautiful Fight Comics 56 in CGC 9.0.

Structurally, it's great. But again, it's got that weird syndrome where the whole

cover is starting to look like every object is just a variation of yellow.

 

Fight #56

 

It's a shame I tell you, a shame!

 

gozer

------------------

This is the uh most exciting thing to happen to our uh fair town since the

Dalai Lama visited in 1952.

[whomerjay]

Photoshop can do wonders.

[adamstrange]

With Fiction House, some were just "born" that way.

 

FH comics were printed cheaply and they often distributed books that other publishers would have a trashed because of quality problems.

 

Without inspecting the books in person, it's hard to say how much is due to fading and how much occurred at production.

[Forbush-Man]

I was warned long ago to inspect Fiction House books carefully. They are notorious for having bad paper, and many will have brittleness. As for cover fading,...

[Apotheosis]

Another example...

 

[SignatureSelect]

If you look at the grade difference and price difference you will sell why one is better than the other. alot of fading has to do with how the books were stored. Fiction house is all pre code fantasy, horror, and war. Most books like this were hidden from the parents of young men so they wouldn't throw them away they could have spent time in a garage, maybe an attic, in a treehouse. It is amazing that any of these books lasted.

And fiction house isn't the worst for fading take a look at pre-code ACG books or books from Fox

[the blob]

mmm, maybe the faded copies are, in fact, rare "variant" printing error copies where they used less ink?

 

anyone notice how the slabbed 9.2 and 7.0 of that planet comics have exactly the same bindery chunk/chip missing from the bottom left corner?

 

strange.

 

and in a 9.2.....?

[adamstrange]

hmmmm, maybe the faded copies are, in fact, rare "variant" printing error copies where they used less ink?

 

anyone notice how the slabbed 9.2 and 7.0 of that planet comics have exactly the same bindery chunk/chip missing from the bottom left corner?

 

strange.

 

and in a 9.2.....?

 

CGC doesn't count bindery tears and chips in GA as a big defect.

[helionaut]

Looks like the red is fading out of those copies. Red ink does seem to have problems with staying power in some cases. Even today, you often see old bumberstickers on cars and the red parts are faded out while the other colors look like new. Probably something to do with being under a yellow sun.

[PovertyRow]

Looks like the red is fading out of those copies. Red ink does seem to have problems with staying power in some cases. Even today, you often see old bumberstickers on cars and the red parts are faded out while the other colors look like new. Probably something to do with being under a yellow sun.

 

Quite so. Reds can be the most fugitive of colors. In this case, actually the magenta. Tends to fade first and Ficiton House is notorious for it.

[gozer]

Yet another example. The current Heritage auction has a CGC 9.0 Rangers 37 -- ordinarily a book I would love to own. But its colors are drab. Here's a portion of the cover, next to an unfaded copy of the same book.

 

What a shame.