Page Color/Quality6629

Originally Posted by The_Watcher
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Originally Posted by SteveRicketts
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Originally Posted by kaptainmyke
I'd love to see pink and blue

Those colors are on some golden age comics. It's not a color achieved through decay. The comics were printed on actual pink or blue paper. Imagine the yellow pages of a phone book, but pink or blue.

Phantom Lady 17 is notorious for it

Originally Posted by DrWatson
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Originally Posted by The_Watcher
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Originally Posted by SteveRicketts
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Originally Posted by kaptainmyke
I'd love to see pink and blue

Those colors are on some golden age comics. It's not a color achieved through decay. The comics were printed on actual pink or blue paper. Imagine the yellow pages of a phone book, but pink or blue.

Phantom Lady 17 is notorious for it

Phantom Lady 17s, they're all pink on the inside.

Originally Posted by CatmanAmerica
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Originally Posted by SteveRicketts
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Originally Posted by kaptainmyke
I'd love to see pink and blue

Those colors are on some golden age comics. It's not a color achieved through decay. The comics were printed on actual pink or blue paper. Imagine the yellow pages of a phone book, but pink or blue.

Technically true, although Fox PQ during this period is usually considered inferior to other newsprint paper of the era due to it's sourcing. As the story goes, Victor Fox devised a scheme to slash printing costs by recycling pulp paper. His corner cutting measures are considered responsible for the pink/blue page coloration.

To achieve this end, Victor Fox and Central Color Printing of Wilkes-Barr purchased a paper mill (Oct. 23, '47) and started churning out rolls of recycled pulp paper for his comic lines. The reprocessed paper had a pink or blue tint (probably dyes from prior use). Fox books with this discoloration have a greater tendency toward brittleness, often without displaying the familiar browning component.

Of coarse, those involved in the pressing of fragile books are probably well aware of this historical data, but folks without your depth of experience might benefit from the background info.

Note: If anyone has additional data or an alternative perspectives on the Fox blue/pink phenomenon, please share it.

Originally Posted by SteveRicketts
I've seen spines split on just the interior pages, on otherwise high grade copies due to pressing. That is a reality.

Originally Posted by GAC
I know it's subjective or a matter of opinion but what's your tolerance level for page quality when buying comics (I also understand that it depends on the book)?

In general terms for silverage/goldenage books are Cream pages your threshold? More? Less?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by CatmanAmerica


I'm not convinced that supporting an arbitrary scale where pink/blue pages are automatically knocked down below light tan is the best approach. It's entirely possible that some Fox books with blue and pink interiors were preserved in a humidity balanced environment. This is the one instance where color and PQ should not be assessed on an absolute scale.

Originally Posted by CatmanAmerica

What is needed is a better method of examining these books to ascertain brittleness without further damaging rare 70 year old comics. pH papers might be able help with such a determination. Adding moisture to a sealed humidifier with these books might slow or reduce brittleness. While I don't have an answer to this perplexing problem, it certainly deserves more research.

In fact, it would be nice if the pH balance of rare books like these could be checked by third party graders as part of the process and the results included on labels (as if grader's aren't overworked enough these days by fans wanting faster turn around times).