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Fading or color variant?

Started by october,

18 posts in this topic

october

october

Posted
Posted

I came across this eBay auction for a Tales from the Crypt 29 and I can't figure out if the cover is sun faded or if the colors are due to a production error. Here is the book in question...

 

tfc1213051.jpg

 

and here is what the cover should look like...

 

talesfromcrypt29.jpg

 

The reds don't look faded and neither do the yellows, but the parts of the cover with blue inks have either turned grey or purple. 893scratchchin-thumb.gif What do you guys think? Just sun fading? Can one color on a cover fade while others stay relatively fresh? I think that it's just fading since there seems to be a square of bluer area near the price.

 

tfc1213056.jpg

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matewan1990

matewan1990

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Posted

The Cyan plate appears to be missing. Color printing involves four plates, CMYK, which stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. The Cyan plate would be needed to produce the purplish sky in the background and it appears to be missing. This copy may have been part of the spoilage that escaped the trash and made it into the copies sent out for sale. Still, it would make it a rare color variant, unless there are tons of these out there, which I doubt, since spoilage is thrown away right after the presses start rolling.

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Timulty

Timulty

Posted
Posted
The Cyan plate appears to be missing. Color printing involves four plates, CMYK, which stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. The Cyan plate would be needed to produce the purplish sky in the background and it appears to be missing. This copy may have been part of the spoilage that escaped the trash and made it into the copies sent out for sale. Still, it would make it a rare color variant, unless there are tons of these out there, which I doubt, since spoilage is thrown away right after the presses start rolling.

 

Finally, someone actually explains how this sort of thing, happens. Thanks.

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matewan1990

matewan1990

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Posted
So what is the box near the price that appears to be a light blue (which might have been caused by a price sticker on the bag that blocked fading)?

 

That appears to be just a darker shade of gray, rather than light blue. If this were simply fading that's caused the color variation, then it should all be faded and not just the blues. A missing plate is fairly common in the printing world, but those copies printed without a plate are usually discarded as part of the spoilage, or, the first thousand or so copies that roll off a press as the press crew calibrates the colors. Presses will run off several thousand copies sometimes to get the printing right. It's something that happens all the time in publishing and this appears to be a spoilage copy that got out into the actual saleable run.

I bought an Amazing Spider-Man 149 a while back that was missing the cyan plate on the front cover, thus giving Spider-Man a red and gray costume and the Jackal a yellow color, rather than green.

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PovertyRow

PovertyRow

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Posted
I agree that it's a printing error. If the book was faded, the scarf in the back pocket wouldn't be red anymore.

 

It depends. Fading oftern occurs with just a sinle color. In the Fiction House books, red is notorious for fading. but I had an Action 252 that was similarly grayed from fading. The cyan was hit but not the reds etc.

 

If there is indeed cyan on the Vault Keeper then this could still be a printing issue but from a bad plate - missing some burns when making the cyan plate or some bad stripping of the flats.

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october

october

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Hey October. Can you puy up a larger scan of the Vault Keeper. Appears to be green there, which would be a mix of cyan and yellow (and maybe a bit of magenta and black depending on the shade.)

 

Unfortunately it's not my book, so those are the only scans I have.

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PovertyRow

PovertyRow

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Posted
Hey October. Can you puy up a larger scan of the Vault Keeper. Appears to be green there, which would be a mix of cyan and yellow (and maybe a bit of magenta and black depending on the shade.)

 

Unfortunately it's not my book, so those are the only scans I have.

 

Ahh well. In re-looking at that Vault keeper - that may well be the scummy kind of green you get when mixing yellow and black. Well, either way, it is pretty definitely a printing defect from no cyan.

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october

october

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Hey October. Can you puy up a larger scan of the Vault Keeper. Appears to be green there, which would be a mix of cyan and yellow (and maybe a bit of magenta and black depending on the shade.)

 

Unfortunately it's not my book, so those are the only scans I have.

 

Ahh well. In re-looking at that Vault keeper - that may well be the scummy kind of green you get when mixing yellow and black. Well, either way, it is pretty definitely a printing defect from no cyan.

 

893scratchchin-thumb.gif Interesting. I was expecting people to say it was fading, but the consensus seems to be color variant. Is there a strong following for this sort of oddity amongst GA collectors?

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adamstrange

adamstrange

Posted
Posted
Hey October. Can you puy up a larger scan of the Vault Keeper. Appears to be green there, which would be a mix of cyan and yellow (and maybe a bit of magenta and black depending on the shade.)

 

Unfortunately it's not my book, so those are the only scans I have.

 

Ahh well. In re-looking at that Vault keeper - that may well be the scummy kind of green you get when mixing yellow and black. Well, either way, it is pretty definitely a printing defect from no cyan.

 

893scratchchin-thumb.gif Interesting. I was expecting people to say it was fading, but the consensus seems to be color variant. Is there a strong following for this sort of oddity amongst GA collectors?

 

Nope. It's common enough and usually doesn't result in a better looking book so many folks will avoid them.

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Norrin_Radd

Norrin_Radd

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I believe there is also a Captain America 1 that was printed without one of its color plates, although I can't remember which one. I think Metropolis had the copy at one point and may still have it for sale.

 

I believe board member Filter81 owns the yellow Captain America 1.

 

And someone tried to pull a scam selling it on eBay a while back. foreheadslap.gif

 

 

I think it originally sold on Mastronet. Atleast that's where I saw it back in 2003.

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14 of spades

14 of spades

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Posted

filter81 has the Captain America 1. i think he put it up for a sale very recently (like last week or something).

 

this book seems like a production defect to me. look at the "hood" worn by the "Old Witch" (the middle mug-shot on the left). the reds in both copies look IDENTICAL. if the mis-color was due to fading, the red in the top copy would have faded.

 

as for the little "bluish" square - i think it's just a darker square and i believe is due to see-through to the interior cover - maybe the interior cover has an advertisement which includes an image of a black box.

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