Spotting Comic Restoration
By the end of this article we hope that you will have at least an idea on what to look out for when looking out for Comic Restoration.
We have all been there. Just got a great deal on a comic to find out that when it was sent back from CGC it had that ugly purple label on it. The purple label from CGC stands for Comic Restoration and in the comic world it is viewed as a very bad thing. Restored comics could make an old gem of your collection worth just as much as a modern book. To help protect our viewers from becoming a victim The Comic Book Boys have put on our capes and masks to give some examples of what to look out for Comic Restoration.
First off is more visually obvious and it has to do with Trimming:
The picture above shows a Flash comic that has not been trimmed and is showing space above the DC and the Approved by the Comics Code Authority logo. Below you can see that Spider-Man’s head has been cut off and the little space that should be above Approved by the Comics Code Authority is missing this is a clear sign that your comic book has been trimmed and will receive a restored grade.
Next up in our examples for Spotting Comic Restoration are a little harder to spot and that is Color Touch:
As you can see on the front cover there doesn’t seem to be any white spaces on this very red cover of Spider-Man #50 from 1967 which means that the original owner either kept this valuable comic in a safe away from their kids or grand kids that wanted to play with anything Spider-Man or this comic book has been restored with Color Touch. Color Touch can be difficult to spot right away, but the Comic Book Boys are here to save the day and give you a few things to look out for.
Gently opening the front cover we can clearly see that there is little batches of red that is on right by the spine of our Spider-Man #50. This happened because the color fill that the person used while doing Comic Restoration on this book used a bit too much and the red has bled through the cover.
Another thing to watch out for on is the staples of your comic. If the staples have been replaced because they have rusted or other factors and the comic book collector before you replaced or cleaned them this is also a clear sign of Comic Restoration.
Finally we want to talk about cleaning of your comic book. If your grader can see signs such as missing ink or puffiness on your most cherished possession they will again slab a Restored Comic label on your comic making you think why did I hold on to this for so long.
Don’t worry little Batmite even if you get a Restored Comic there still may be some value. It will be leaps and bounds less than you may have originally hoped for but if it is a popular issue the devaluation may not be as bad. Below we have given a screen shot of the recent sales for our Spider-Man #50 we picked up as an example for our viewers:
To help your quest in Spotting Comic Restoration we have included the below information from CGC website showing how they grade Comic Restoration:
A (Excellent)
- Material used: rice paper, wheat paste, acrylic or water color, leafcasting
- Color match near perfect, no bleed through
- Piece fill seamless and correct thickness
- No fading, excessive whiteness, ripples, cockling, or ink smudges from cover or interior cleaning
- Book feels natural
- Near perfect staple alignment, or replaced exactly as they were
- Filled edges cut to look natural and even
- Cleaned staples or staples replaced with vintage staples
- Married cover/pages match in size and page quality. Professionally attached
B (Fine)
- Material used: pencil, crayon, chalk, re-glossing agent, piece fill from cadavers
- Piece fill obvious upon close inspection, obvious to the touch
- Color touch obvious upon close inspection, or done with materials listed above
- Cover cleaning resulting in slight color fading or excessively white
- Interior cleaning resulting in slight puffiness, cockling, excessively white
- Enlarged staple holes, obviously crooked staples, or backwards staple insertion
- Replaced staples not vintage
- Married cover/pages do not match in size and/or page quality. Professionally attached
C (Poor)
- Material used: glue, pen, marker, white out, white paper to fill missing pieces
- Piece fill obvious at arm’s length
- Bad color matching, use of pen or marker. Bleed through evident
- Cover cleaning resulting in washed out/speckled colors, moderate cockling and/or ripples
- New staple holes created upon reinsertion, or non-comic book staples used
- Married cover/pages poorly attached with non-professional materials
Quantity Scale – (Determined primarily by extent of piece fill and color touch)
1 (Slight)
- All conservation work, re-glossing, interior lightening, piece fill no more than size of two bindery chips, light color touch in small areas like spine stress, corner crease or bindery chip fill. Married cover or interior pages/wraps (if other work is present)
2 (Slight/Moderate)
- Piece fill up to the ½” x ½” and/or color touch covering up to 1” x 1”. Interior piece fill up to 1” x 1”
3 (Moderate)
- Piece fill up to the size of 1” x 1” and/or color touch covering up to 2” x 2”. Interior piece fill up to 2” x 2”
4 (Moderate/Extensive)
- Piece fill up to the size of 2” x 2” and/or color touch covering up to 4” x 4”. Interior piece fill up to 4” x 4”
5 (Extensive)
- Any piece fill over 2” x 2” and/or color touch over 4” x 4”. Recreated interior pages or cover