Restored comics anyone?

[Aman619]

Where is Sol Harrison's ghost now that we need him to explain how a Silver Age comic book was manufactured?? Or a contemporary who can fill in the gaps? Knowing once and for all how Sparta and Eastern Color worked would certainly help us judge trimming and other structural mysteries.

 

Here's some of the process. Ive never been on press but hopefully it's a start:

 

Eastern Color used to print just the covers, They would then ship these glossy sheets to Sparta who printed the newsprint insides. I think the covers were 4-up, (4 to a sheet) fronts over backs with plenty of bleed to be trimmed away.

 

Sparta printed the insides a one 32-page 'signature' or 2 16-page ones (Thats why all comics were 32 or 48 pages. (and if you look at the Annuals you see the individual signatures glued to the cover inside the spine) On these sheets the pages were arrayed upside down and right side up according to where they would fall when folded in on itself a couple times ending up as 16 2-page spreads.

 

At this point there are a few different ways to assemble these parts. I do not know the correct answer...so my guess is that the covers are placed on the spreads which all get trimmed out together, then stapled, then folded in half yielding one finished comic.

 

This order gives us the v-shape on the pages on the right (as explained earlier), and explains how the staples float from front cover to back as far as 1/2 from the fold. And as with any stapler, you need to press against a flat surface so stapling must come before folding the spine.

 

Somebody fill in the gaps.....

[Aman619]

This X40 looks like it was trimmed straight, and the book is rectangular....but the pages were offcenter when they were trimmed. The right edge is slanted, but so is the spine. Notice the extra white from the back cover at the top left; and how the black line is right on the spine fold at bottom. That 1/8th inch is consistent with the variance on the right.

 

The comic is trimmed square, but the 'images' are all at an angle to the trim.

 

The DD1 is tougher. The right half is definitely at a severe angle. But, as Hammer points out, its a twisty very UN-machine like cut. Looks like CGC didnt call it cause they werent sure? But, its a 9.4 forever! Congrats.

 

Ive seen many books like this and wish I could find out for sure why....

[hammer-migration]

Because CGC allows a certain amount of "play". They cut you (excuse the pun) some slack, and they do it with ERASURE (like onthe Cage MM33) and they allow you the right edge of the book as well. The one edge that is open to argument because of questionable mechanics. That's why SO FEW books in slabs have CHIPS. Whatever happened to chips? Before CGC, one out of three high grade, mid-high-grade, and mid-grade examples of Marvels sported chips. Now, you RARELY see encapsulated books with chips. Why is that. Where did all those SHARP books go that had chips? Are they being HOARDED until chips come into vogue? Of course not. They're being encapsulated every day and this DD1 is one of the de-chipped population.

[Aman619]

Thats a good point. Tons of books have Marvel chipping, and pre-chipping. You havent seen many CGC books that have it? Are you saying they were trimmed off and CGC says nothing? That's a pretty huge loophole if that's really the case.

[hammer-migration]

Many moons ago, Lew Lipset, publisher of "The Old Judge" (Old Judges are a large issue of Baseball cards named after the tobacco whose company included them in their product in 1887/1888), a newsletter/fanzine dedicated to Vintage cards said something VERY interesting. Lew had been a card collector/dealer/auctioner probably longer than ANYONE in the hobby by a WIDE margin, including Mastro, Kit Young, Larry Fritsch, etc. (The guys in it seemingly forever). Probably more 1909 to 1911 issued T206 cards have been through Lew's hands than any 10 of the top dealers in the hobby today, COMBINED. Anyway, PSA was relatively new company slabbing cards and the prices started ESCALATING wildly. Lew noted something like: "For DECADES, all you saw were Good to Excellent (1 to 5 on the grading scale). Occasionally an Ex/mt (6) would show up in a collection of 1000 or so cards. Something like a NM (7) was rare as hen's teeth, you could go YEARS without seeing one. Lately, cards grade Ex/MT & NM (6 & 7) are COMMONPLACE, but WHERE are all the 8s and 9s coming from?? These cards didn't EXIST in these grades with RAZOR sharp corners until NOW. Years ago there WERE no T206s with RAZOR sharp corners like a 1981 Fleer card!".

MANY of these trans 9.2 graded books sported chips and pre-chips until quite recently. The uncertainty over the production of the cut on the right edge is the mitigating lee-way factor, vintage vs. aftermarket, not CGC turning a blind eye, in my estimation.

[fantastic_four]

The uncertainty over the production of the cut on the right edge is the mitigating lee-way factor, vintage vs. aftermarket, not CGC turning a blind eye, in my estimation.

I read your post 4 times, but I couldn't tell without doubt from your phrasing what you were trying to express. Are you thinking these right edges are aftermarket trimmed or not?

[hammer-migration]

YES, and it's not so much as CGC turning a blind eye to it, as part and parcel of the way the right edge can assume slightly different configurations in production. Sometimes, they CAN'T BE SURE but will lean towards "not trimmed" *Hence it winds up in a blue holder. Think of all the trimmed notations on labels you've seen on CGC Ebay offerings. 90% of the time it's "top edge trimmed" or "bottom edge trimmed" and on these there is NO notation of right edge. OVERFLASH is an accepted norm on Marvel books. The right edge is where the majority of chipping occurs and on the majority of Marvels that HAVE a trimmed edge, it SHOULD be the right edge, but that's not the case. There are a multitude of books sitting in CGC blue holder with trimmed right edges and it's because the production idiosynchoses that occur on the right side DO NOT occur with the same rarity on the top and bottom, the short edges being far more STABLE in look as produced, and far easier to discern DEVIATION from the "norm". The one thing that SHOULD give away a trim on the right edge is ANY DEVIATION FROM AN EVEN and CONSISTANT ARC, or BEVEL on the interior pages end configuration when the right edge is viewed from the bottom up at 0 degrees perspective REGARDLESS of whether the cover slightly overlaps the furthermost point of the pages (later Marvels) or stops short of the splash page, thereby exposing the splash page. The right edge should maintain this shape: ) And deviations that at points yield any kind of twist or shaped like: ] should be considered trimmed.

[hammer-migration]

Check out the right edge on this X-Men 1. And coincidentally, as one would expect with a right edge trimmed book, it's SMALL left to right (only 6 and 11/16ths inches across the top as extropolating measurement from an X-Men 1 in my hand) Notice the twist of the pages. Every page seems to "hide and seek" as you follow it up from the bottom. In my estimation, this book was trimmed TWICE. The first time, the person tried to make too thin a cut and the blade kept tracking OFF sections of the interior pages. Another thin slice attempt REALLY finished the botched job leaving that mess you see on the right edge behind.

 

web page

[ArAich]

Hence it winds up in a blue holder.

 

 

hence thief....

[hammer-migration]

**Hence (Tm Araich copyright 2003).