A way to check for trimming?

[HarrisonJohn]

After reading some informative posts here I looked through some of my older comics and Hulk 180, which I just picked up at a convention, looked a little odd to me (which I had a fleeting thought about before I even read anything here). Across the top just doesn't strike me as the way comic books are usually cut for some reason, but I can't put my finger on exactly what seems off about it. It's a little too even and clean of a cut maybe (the cover is cut the same as the pages on top, and bottom, but on the side the cover is a little bit longer than the pages). Also, it's cut through the word 'approved' on the comic code stamp. I tried some of the tests listed here but really couldn't decide either way, and I don't have any Marvel's from that exact period to compare size to. So I went to ebay and looked at every picture listed for the book. I found a copy cut almost exactly like mine (right through the word approved) and that book had the same amount of picture information at the bottom. I found copies that had a lot of space above the code stamp, and they had less picture information at the bottom than I did. This, to me, says that if mine originally had space above the stamp and was cut, I would not have the extra artwork showing at the bottom. Is this a good enough method to inspect the matter or am I totally off? Sorry if this has been addressed already.

[sfilosa]

Always tuff to tell on trimming.

 

Bronze-Age books don't have the overhang as much as Silver-Age, so it is not as clear-cut (pun intended) if a book is trimmed at the top. Also, Bronze-Age books don't suffer from Marvel chipping or tears like their early Silver counterparts, therefore if the rest of the book is very nice, it probably wasn't trimmed.

 

I also use the "look at other photos method", which is the only way to tell unless you have the actual book.

 

If you do have a Silver-Age book where the pages are flush with the top cover, then I would always suspect trimming. Better safe then sorry.

 

 

 

[Smokinghawk]

...wouldn't a cunning Silver Age trimmer just re-trim the interior pages to a hair's breadth inside the cover, to re-create the illusion of the original cover "overhang?"

 

If we're talking a millimeter variance here (on the outer cover from "untrimmed" to "trimmed"), would it still score a PLOD?

 

 

[sfilosa]

wouldn't a cunning Silver Age trimmer just re-trim the interior pages to a hair's breadth inside the cover, to re-create the illusion of the original cover "overhang?"

 

But then you also have to pull the book apart, correct?

 

Still, you are sneaky (well maybe not you).

 

Trimming can be very hard to detect.

[Smokinghawk]

wouldn't a cunning Silver Age trimmer just re-trim the interior pages to a hair's breadth inside the cover, to re-create the illusion of the original cover "overhang?"

 

But then you also have to pull the book apart, correct?

 

Still, you are sneaky (well maybe not you).

 

Trimming can be very hard to detect.

 

 

No, you actually wouldn't *have* to. One of those thin, flexible artist's X-acto cutting mats can be laid between the cover and the pages to spare the cover while the interior pages are trimmed slightly by hand.

 

I've never trimmed a book, but being an artist automatically makes me a cunning SOB.

 

[sfilosa]

Well, now lets telling everyone how to do it.