Restoration by Alexandra vonHawk 3 3

[alxjhnsn]

I recently hired Alexandra vonHawk of Von Hawk Labs Restoration (https://www.vonhawklabs.com) to restore four pieces of art from my collection. 

I thought I'd show these two first. They are:

• An unused cover proposed for Scribbly #13 based on the writing on the piece
• A recreation done by Sheldon Mayer in watercolor, pen, and ink.

Here we have the  before (top row) and after (bottom row).

I now think the color piece was intended by Sheldon to be the cover to Buzzy, but DC used a different artist. This explains why Scribbly's hair is red vs. the normal black. Here's the published Buzzy cover for comparison.

The other images are progress shots from Ms. vonHawk as she worked on the pen and ink piece.

 

I'm very pleased with her work and communication.

Hope you enjoy it.

[alxjhnsn]

I have a little more time so here's the next piece that I had restored. It's page 11 of S&S 93, a one page story entitled  How to play Arrgh!.

Here are the before and after images:

The scans don't show much difference, but the patched area is much lighter now. She lifted it off, cleaned up the glue on both the board and the patch and used an archival hinge to allow me to see bot the original drawing and words and the printed panels.

Here's what was under the patch after it was cleaned:

Now here's the patch:

I think he definitely improved the story with his change. I'm grateful that she could clean and neutralize the glue and hinge the patch so I can view both.

 

Edited November 23, 2023 by alxjhnsn

[gumbydarnit]

Great to see these before and after images, thanks Alex for sharing. I’ll need to bookmark her website. 

[Rick2you2]

I hope she steered clear of the January 6 “insurrection”. I would have to wait a long time between sending over something and getting it back.

[JC25427N]

On 11/23/2023 at 4:01 PM, Rick2you2 said:

I hope she steered clear of the January 6 “insurrection”. I would have to wait a long time between sending over something and getting it back.

I feel like there’s some context I’m missing here 

[Will_K]

On 11/23/2023 at 8:19 PM, JC25427N said:

I feel like there’s some context I’m missing here 

See https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/525473-october-heritage-international-art-auction/#comment-12901848

 

[Will_K]

On 11/23/2023 at 3:11 PM, alxjhnsn said:

I recently hired Alexandra vonHawk of Von Hawk Labs Restoration (https://www.vonhawklabs.com) to restore four pieces of art from my collection. 

Can you describe the pricing / cost for the jobs ??  Hourly ?  Based on the type of restoration / conservation ?

[timguerrero]

On 11/23/2023 at 9:23 PM, Will_K said:

Can you describe the pricing / cost for the jobs ??  Hourly ?  Based on the type of restoration / conservation ?

I would also appreciate this information Alex. Is she the same restorer that did some work for Bill Cox?

[Xatari]

Same.  

[alxjhnsn]

On 11/23/2023 at 9:23 PM, Will_K said:

Can you describe the pricing / cost for the jobs ??  Hourly ?  Based on the type of restoration / conservation ?

Here's how it went. I reached out and explained what I wanted done and asked if she was interested. She was.

I sent her pictures of the pieces and my areas of concern. She made some comments, but said that she couldn't quote unless she had the pages in hand to examine.

I made the decision to send them to her - USPS Priority Registered. USPS Priority Registered keeps the package under lock and key the entire way, but it is slow. I put an Apple AirTag in the box to track it. That was interesting to see.

She got the pages and told me what she thought she could do and what she would not be willing to do (bleach the pages due to the damage that causes). Eventually, she sent me a quote and asked for 1/2 up front with the balance due when she shipped the completed work back. The bid was Lump Sum Turnkey (LSTK). I could have declined. The cost in that case would be the shipping in each direction. There was no charge for the evaluation mentioned.

She sent a large number of pictures of the work as she did it.

The total less S/H was just a bit more than $1600 for the batch, but she didn't do a lot of work on some of the pages.

Turnaround from the time she received the material to the time she shipped it back was a couple of days over a month. Your mileage my vary depending on her workload.

On 11/24/2023 at 2:49 PM, timguerrero said:

I would also appreciate this information Alex. Is she the same restorer that did some work for Bill Cox?

Yes, Bill Cox recommended her and used her services.

On 11/25/2023 at 11:02 AM, Xatari said:

Same.  

See above.

Edited February 16 by alxjhnsn

[alxjhnsn]

On 11/23/2023 at 7:19 PM, JC25427N said:

I feel like there’s some context I’m missing here 

One of the two most commonly mentioned comic art restorers is Robert Dennis. Robert attended the proceedings of January 6th, 2021 in Washington, D. C. and was convicted of attacking officers. He was later sentenced to 36 months in prison and fined. 
 

Edited February 16 by alxjhnsn

[cstojano]

On 11/26/2023 at 7:21 PM, alxjhnsn said:

Here's how it went. I reached out and explained what I wanted done and asked if she was interested. She was.

I sent her pictures of the pieces and my areas of concern. She made some comments, but said that she couldn't quote unless she had the pages in hand to examine.

I made the decision to send them to her - USPS Priority Registered. USPS Priority Registered keeps the package under lock and key the entire way, but it is slow. I put an Apple AirTag in the box to track it. That was interesting to see.

She got the pages and told me what she thought she could do and what she would not be willing to do (bleach the pages due to the damage that causes). Eventually, see sent me a quote and asked for 1/2 up front with the balance due when she shipped the completed work back. The bid was Lump Sum Turnkey (LSTK). I could have declined. The cost in that case would be the shipping in each direction. There was no charge for the evaluation mentioned.

She sent a large number of pictures of the work as she did it.

The total less S/H was just a bit more than $800, but she didn't do a lot of work on some of the pages.

Turnaround from the time she received the material to the time she shipped it back was a couple of days over a month. Your mileage my vary depending on her workload.

Yes, Bill Cox recommended her and used her services.

See above.

Interesting comment about the bleaching. I primarily need work done to mitigate sun damage from the frame, no fading of inks, just tanned. I see she did lighten some of your pieces so assume there is an alternative to "bleaching" for that. Always makes me nervous to hear about folks basically submerging the piece in some kind of solvent to remove the tanning. Its a shame Robert's site is down as he had a nice archive of before and after images, perhaps some are still on CAF.

The pricing is very helpful. All restorers I have emailed of course refuse to give a price until they have the work in hand. That is quite the professional approach. But its also hard to send a low 5 figure piece to some person you read about online to do work that could be 100s or 1000s of dollars. Seems the standard is more in the 100s for standard comic art issues. 

Edited November 27, 2023 by cstojano

[alxjhnsn]

Yeah, deciding to send the art is the biggest decision. Priority Registered from Houston to Orlando was $80. So, $160 was the minimum I would have spent. 

As far as bleaching goes, I have a sunburned piece (why was it framed off center anyway?)

It's colored pencils. When I asked other restorers (not Alexandra), they said that there was nothing that they could do. Basically, I would need to block off the tanned area and let the lighter side age.
 

Edited February 16 by alxjhnsn

[cstojano]

On 11/27/2023 at 11:32 AM, alxjhnsn said:

Yeah, deciding to send the art is the biggest decision. Priority Registered from Houston to Orlando was $80. So, $160 was the minimum I would have spent. 

As far as bleaching goes, I have a sunburned piece (what was it framed off center anyway?)

It's colored pencils. When I asked other restorers (not Alexandra), they said that there was nothing that they could do. Basically, I would need to block off the tanned area and let the lighter side age.
 

Well that's concerning. I assumed most of the restoration work being done was due to sun damage in frames. Is it the colored pencils that aren't steadfast to the treatment or is the sun tanning a known "not treatable" condition. Nice Elfquest, BTW.

[Phill the Governor]

On 11/27/2023 at 1:32 PM, alxjhnsn said:

Yeah, deciding to send the art is the biggest decision. Priority Registered from Houston to Orlando was $80. So, $160 was the minimum I would have spent. 

As far as bleaching goes, I have a sunburned piece (what was it framed off center anyway?)

It's colored pencils. When I asked other restorers (not Alexandra), they said that there was nothing that they could do. Basically, I would need to block off the tanned area and let the lighter side age.
 

Anyone dealing with high-end items should have in-house insurance that would cover you shipping anything to them, as long as a declared value is set beforehand and there is a signed submission form. Signature required is all that is needed. That alone should reduce the perceived risk of sending items through the mail (and the overall cost!). In my experience, and after talking to several USPS employees, registered mail is not only takes much longer but isn't actually more secure because the amount of checkpoint the package has creates a larger chance of something happening to it. Which is ironic, given it is suppose to be more secure.

The bottom piece could very likely be treated (would need a spot test done first to be sure) but in all likelihood the piece would have to have great sentimental value or otherwise for it to make sense.

 

From the above scans, Alexandra looks to do incredible work!

Edited November 28, 2023 by Phill the Governor

[Will_K]

On 11/27/2023 at 1:32 PM, alxjhnsn said:

It's colored pencils. When I asked other restorers (not Alexandra), they said that there was nothing that they could do. Basically, I would need to block off the tanned area and let the lighter side age.

From the scan, it looks like markers.  And if they were, they held up really well. 

I've seen there's such a thing as lightfast colored pencils.  But never researched them.

In any case, the art, paper and signature look great.  I'd prefer the current look vs matte burn all around the drawing.

 

[Will_K]

On 11/27/2023 at 5:47 PM, Phill the Governor said:

after talking to several USPS employees

I've been waiting weeks for an ebay purchase.  The tracking indicates it's been bouncing around to the same facility.  And sitting for over a week.  I went to the US Post Office.  The 3rd person said there hasn't been a "live scan" and it's probably still sitting in the Post Office where it was originally mailed.  I asked what was the story behind the tracking.  I got some mumbo-jumbo explanation.  All of which tells me that USPS tracking is basically a simulation.

[cstojano]

On 11/27/2023 at 6:22 PM, Will_K said:

I've been waiting weeks for an ebay purchase.  The tracking indicates it's been bouncing around to the same facility.  And sitting for over a week.  I went to the US Post Office.  The 3rd person said there hasn't been a "live scan" and it's probably still sitting in the Post Office where it was originally mailed.  I asked what was the story behind the tracking.  I got some mumbo-jumbo explanation.  All of which tells me that USPS tracking is basically a simulation.

Just saw this on an incoming tracking number I checked. I can only imagine the grift this is/will become. Anyone with experience with this, or understand why anyone would purchase this given the timeline given for free? It kind of screams "pay us more for something we used to/should provide for free".

Edited November 29, 2023 by cstojano

[thehumantorch]

On 11/23/2023 at 1:11 PM, alxjhnsn said:

I recently hired Alexandra vonHawk of Von Hawk Labs Restoration (https://www.vonhawklabs.com) to restore four pieces of art from my collection. 

I thought I'd show these two first. They are:

• An unused cover proposed for Scribbly #13 based on the writing on the piece
• A recreation done by Sheldon Mayer in watercolor, pen, and ink.

Here we have the  before (top row) and after (bottom row).

I now think the color piece was intended by Sheldon to be the cover to Buzzy, but DC used a different artist. This explains why Scribbly's hair is red vs. the normal black. Here's the published Buzzy cover for comparison.

The other images are progress shots from Ms. vonHawk as she worked on the pen and ink piece.

 

I'm very pleased with her work and communication.

Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for sharing  Pages look much much better, congrats.

[JadeGiant]

Great info Alex - thanks for sharing!