Haunt of fear 12 question 0

[Dr. Balls]

I'm not sure if this applies to EC Comics, but the printer who ran the Fiction House comics had a degradation/fading problem with their magenta ink. Fiction House books are notorious for going orange from their original bright red - which is an indicator of an issue with the magenta ink (as opposed to cyan, yellow and black).

The variance between purple and blue here would be an issue with magenta ink. The higher chroma in magenta ink on that particular mix of color would make it more purple. As the chroma fades, it will become more blue.

I'm not 100% positive, but my guess would be the more purple cover is a book that has been stored in a slightly better environment that somehow prevented the magenta ink from degrading. What those conditions are/were are impossible to know, but that's my take on it. I don't think it's the typical "fading" of sunlight exposure. I think there was a legitimate problem with the longevity of the pigment used to create the magenta color.

Another scenario would be that one of those versions would have been earlier in the print run (like very early) and the pressman adjusted the ink density one way or the other, which would result in a color variance. This is what I think happened on New Mutants 87, some came out orange, and some came out red - this was probably an on-press adjustment rather than fading or degradation of the ink since not as much time has passed and those variances were caught only a year or two after the issue came out.

Edited January 31 by Dr. Balls