Says the guy who I had work on a book worth more than $20 (And FWIW, it's worth a LOT more now than when I sent it to you!-) Seriously though, Mike, if you feel bummed at all, go back and look at your early work and then compare it to your present efforts. It's really impressive to think on how much you've improved through self-directed training and working solo on the advice from others (Lord know I need my hand held sometimes on technical projects!)

Got your PM and I'll probably get back to you either tomorrow or the day after (M-W is insane work-wise for me this semester) as I've got a lot to finish prepping for the week. Woo. Hoo. lol

Book #26 Sub-Mariner #19

Not a whole lot new to add with this book, I had some tape to remove but it had not done to much damage yet so it wasn’t too bad other than the fact it was taped on the inside as well as the outside.

The cover did have some pencil writing in the colored area I had to patiently remove. Washing the cover and doing the leaf casting was mild by comparison to AC #17. I had to recreate some of the art and text which eat up some hours. I only gave the pages a mild wash just to work out a little wear and tear.

That’s about it, I will have the usual likes and dislikes at the bottom of the post.
Next book (All-Star #3) will be another .5 starter which should be interesting to show as it needs a ton of work.












































What I like:
95% of the color touch went as I hoped it would, gloss seems to be a perfect match to the original. Spine came out looking good even though the spine had a lot of wear and wasn’t replaced.


What I didn’t like:
The other 5% of color touch. I don’t know if the skin tone equals 5% but that is what I would have liked to come out better than it did.
The text recreation on the interior would have been better if the scan I had was of better resolution, not really my fault but still it would be nice if I could have found a better scan to work with.
The last thing that bugs me seems to be a recurring problem where I ended up with an unwanted black smudge on the back cover which resulted from not being careful enough, I really need to watch what I am doing so that I don’t end up with unwanted results that could be easily avoided.

Nice work, Mike.

If it is not a trade secret, how do you get out the pencil without removing the background color as well?

I use a dry cleaning techique that is semi safe for colors but it is a slow process compared to doing the white area's. The writing on the lower left is raw but in the yellow area even though I dry cleaned it I eneded up color touching that area anyways for other reasons.

You did a great job on the yellow color touch match. I didn't realize that was touched.

I have lots of collection of books regarding different cartoon characters here in my room, and I am so much interested with all of them. Can you please tell me more about your books and give me update about that? Just message me if there are new updates.

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Book #28 First Appearance of the Justice Society of America
Oh man, this book needed a lot of work. Split spine with a significant amount of the spine missing, every page stained and missing paper and oh yeah, tape stains on the cover and the first wrap. Did I mention stains? This book had plenty of those.
Let’s take a look at the cover first.






Yikes, total .5 right?

Next I want to talk about the tape stains a little. Most of you probably have heard by now that tape is bad for paper, I wanted to show and explain in a little more detail about this so that people who still don’t know will understand and those who do know might learn something new about the subject.

Most tapes in general have very damaging adhesive, cellophane being one of them. Ever seen a book where you can tell there use to be tape on it but its gone and all that remains is a dark stain and there is one on the opposite side of the paper as well? Have you wondered what caused that to happen? Well, the adhesive migrates from the tape carrier into the paper which is called "cross linked". Once this happens the adhesive starts to break down the structure of the paper and it is this reaction which also starts the staining process. If not removed the paper will eventually disintegrate.

This photo shows the staining really well.





In the photo below you can see when it is in front of a light how it affects the paper, causing that area to be translucent.





Here is a photo awith the paper in front of the light after the adhesive has been removed and subsequently the stain as well.




So how did I do it? I don’t mind sharing with you the basic process since it is not something someone is just going to be able to just do themselves without some equipment, study and serious commitment to the work involved.

A device called a suction table is used, the paper is placed on the machine which then can pull a combination of air and organic solvent through the paper and pull the adhesive out. This is a time consuming process, it take many applications to remove the adhesive. You have to be patient and careful since the organic solvents are very strong and can damage the inks if used excessively.

Ok, enough long winded descriptions, I don’t want to lose the impatient reader. (:

Although I had to do major work to all the pages I only made the effort to get some pre and post pictures of the first wrap.

I did my best to match the paper color while at the same time improving the strength of the paper overall.






That little bit of stain at the top that still remains is not from the tape, it seems as though some other containment got stuck there that wouldn't remove with washing.

And here we are at the end of the picture show.













































So, the book went off to CGC and it has been graded. It has not shipped out yet so I don’t have a scan of it in the slab but I do have a copy of the online invoice I can show you.





I am assuming the notes show that it has been re-glossed because I went a little too heavy on the resizing. For those of you that are unfamiliar with what resizing is, it is to replace the original sizing (an ingredient used in the paper manufacturing process) that is lost during the washing . Long story short, I think I used too much and the more you use the more it can increase the gloss of the surface and I am assuming that is why they think a re-glossing material was added.

I am however very happy with the grade it got, to go from a .5 to a 6.5 was more than I could hope for and the owner is super pleased.

My only main disappointment is the crease on the front bottom right. It looks like it didn't get color touched but it did. The paper fibers were so damaged it had a hump and makes it look like it lacks color. I didn't have any way of knowing it wasn't going to disappear during the final pressing.
If I knew it wasn’t going to come out, then I could have done other work to it before color touch that probably would have repaired it completely.

Great work Mike. It turned out beautifully and your hard work really shows. It's too bad CGC puts the purple label on restored books because it's such a negative connotation and there's nothing negative about a book that's been beautifully restored from a .5 to a 6.5.

I completely agree! I really need to get some books out to you! Great job!

WOW! That book looks great.

That's an awesome job, Mike.

Great color match on the yellow. That has to be really tough.

Big thanks to everyone for posting your thoughts. The only thing more rewarding than making a ugly book look good again is having others appreciate my efforts. It is what makes the countless hours of work worth it.



It was tough, long story short the yellow took me around 9 hours before I was happy with how it looked. Some of that time was lost time having to redo work that if I could have predicted the outcome could have been avoided.

I agree completely. Professional restoration should be rewarded while amateur repairs should be discouraged. It is a crying shame that professionals and hacks both get a purple label.

Great work Mike I am greatly impressed with how well you have progressed throughout the years. It is even more impressive knowing you have done it all on your own. Not to mention putting yourself under the microscope for the entire journey. Very, very impressive.

Hey Aaron, yeah my progress over the years is something unreal. Sometimes I sit back and think, wow I am leaf casting and with color touch I can really change the structural and cosmetic appearance of the book. I almost can’t believe it and when I heard that last book got a 6.5 I was a little surprised as I now know how tough CGC is on restored grade of extensive books.
I still have a lot of ground to cover, and some adapting to do as product supplies change. I have some very hard challenges ahead, dealer reject recreations for one. Some books with that much missing or worse on pages. To try and recreate that much and have it look original and match the existing paper is really hard, especially in hand but I have my fingers crossed as I gather the last of the materials I need to proceed.
Oh the microscope, I like it but I don’t. I think overall I would say it has been a good thing.

I have been thinking about the label issue.

It is too bad that CGC groups everything together; there are things a book gets a purple label for that I wish would get something new. In order of extent I would list trimming first. It isn’t any form of restoration or conservation so its one of the good reason they’re should be a separate label for amateur restoration.
Although amateur color touch could qualify as restoration, it is restoring at its worst.
I would also like to see non-conservation tape get a purple. The worst thing about this type of repair is that it is a ticking time bomb. The adhesive is going to migrate in the paper and start to feast on the paper until it becomes so brittle it just breaks apart.

Book #29 Pushing the limits

When you look at the outside of the book first impressions would be that it doesn't need to be restored, it isn't in great shape but not the worst either.





So, you might be asking yourself why restore this book, in fact if I was just to restore this book because of the cover I probably wouldn't even bother posting it as people don't seem to get that excited over covers in this condition.

So, here is the reason why the book was sent to me;








Not only would this book end up getting a .5 but it would be labeled incomplete as well. Because the book isn't too valuable the owner didn't want to spend much and understandable so. The original deal was to just do a color copy but recent research indicates that the book would have either got an amateur for excessive color copies or get a .5 as incomplete. I didn’t know this at the time and how I found that out is another story for another day. While this book was waiting to get started on I had been running through my head about using a color copy and just didn’t like the idea, some because it would just be a color copy but also because I didn't think it would look good. After some time I decided I would recreate the missing art by hand and do it pro-bono as a experiment but how was I going to get-r-dun? The details of that will remain a trade secret but it wasn’t too dissimilar from how the artist, colorist and the letterer did it originally, I just had to be all three of those guys in one.





Here is what the page looked like after I did a full immersion leaf casting.





I didn't want the whole perimeter casted because the other side was in good condition so I blocked that area off before I did the full immersion leaf casting.

So once that was done I did the daunting task of doing all of the art work by hand and here are the fruits of my labor.





This was an experiment for me, I have recreated small amounts of art before by hand, I have done a coupon using an ink transfer process but I never had to do this much work by hand including all the writing.

Here is the finished product:















As I was restoring the cover something was bothering me but I just couldn't put my finger on it, it was like having a splinter in my mind but I went ahead and sent it to CGC and here is the scan CGC sent me after grading.



I was looking at this scan when it finally hit me what was wrong with the cover. I did some check with other covers and confirmed my mistake. Looking back at it I feel stupid, a rookie mistake and then some. Needless to say after all my efforts on the page and the grade which isn't bad I was pissed as this was going to be a great center piece for me.

Now, I could point out my mistake to you all but I am curious how long it will take before someone catches it, so I am going to let you all play the "where's Waldo game" to see who can figure it out if anyone can.

Great work Mike and you should of just trimmed that bottom black area off.

Book #30 Hammering Out Another One

Apologies for not posting in this thread for a while, I have been unbelievably busy.

List of defects of note:

Tape stain top right front cover
One piece of tape inside back cover
Subscription crease
Two puncture holes in back cover extend to several pages
Half staple split at bottom of cover
Stains on back cover
Stains on several pages
corner missing on one page
Multiple corner break creases lower right front
about 1/2-3/4 inch split at bottom


























So as you can see, the book is complete and not in terrible condition, just not in that great of condition either.

One of the first things I do when considering a book for restoration, is to figure out it’s grade and current value. At the time, I concluded that it was either and 2.5 or 3.0, but to be sure before I say that to you all, I posted the book in the "Hey buddy, can you spare a grade" section. Including mine I received 17 grades ranging from 2.0 to 3.0 and the average came out to 2.65, so I guess it could go 2.5 or 3.0.

At this point is was worried that restoring was the wrong choice, the last thing I would want is for the book to go down in value afterwards including the expense of having it restored. Still, before I make any recommendations, I look up the value of the book and try to predict what it will be worth after it is restored.

I used GPA to find out what a 3.0 had sold for recently, GPA is helpful with this since I will also need to look up what restored grades are selling for. At the time I looked these up, my guess was this book would grade an 8.0 after restoration, which I feel was ambitious but possible, and was the restored grades with the most recent data.



I was pleasantly surprised at the large increase in value for an 8.0 restored VS a 3.0 unrestored and it wasn’t going to cost that much to do the work, so I gave this info to the customer and got approval to proceed. I just had to try my hardest to reach the goal grade.

I started with the usual, take photos and scans, dry clean, disassemble and solvent cleaning. Most of the edges were in good shape so I leaf-casted just a few area’s, here is the cover at that point.



Once I got that work out of the way, I did a few small repairs and added some secret sauce for added strength and stability. (:

Then I started the color touch, and while I was working on that, I proceeded to wash the pages in hopes of removing the stains.



Unfortunately, the stains did not completely come out. At the time I was at a loss on how to do better. Since then I have come up with a theory but it will be some time before the results will be in on those experiments, which I will have to try on practice books with similar stains.

Disappointed that this would affect the grade, I worked twice as hard to make up for it wherever I could. One way was to leaf-cast the missing corner of the page.



This came out pretty good, but I just noticed that I missed some stray pulp that is covering up the ink, you can’t notice it in hand but blown up it is obvious.

So with the pages cleaned, de-acidified and repaired, I returned my full focus to the cover. During the color touch process, I will frequently scan the cover to get a different perspective, it is also a great way for me to see things I missed or mistakes I made. Here are 2 scans near the tail end of the color touch.




Once the color touch process is done, I trim any excess paper from what I added, re-assembly the book, fold it and press it. I scan it again and look for any final touches it may need, then it is done.








































I either send the book back to the customer or submit it to CGC. This book was sent to CGC which is a great way to validate that the book was done within professional parameters and what grade it will get.

Although this book is not one of them, there are books that are so extensive, I am pushing the limits of conventional means, so it is good to see where CGC will draw the line on professional VS amateur, and complete VS incomplete.

One of the reasons my post in this thread of new projects has been infrequent, is because I am waiting for books to come back from CGC, and have some scans or pictures of the end result to post.

OK, so here is what you all have been waiting for:





The Label is hard to read, here is what it says:

8.0 EP White Pages

Restoration includes: color touch, pieces added, tear seals, cover cleaned, interior lightened, reinforced

My thinking is that it got an Extensive due to the pages being washed and repaired including the missing corner. It seems almost eerie though that it got an 8.0, my original prediction, lucky guess.

As always, I welcome all feedback, both positive and negative, and thank you all for your support and enthusiasm in my work and this thread.

Great job! I really need to get some of my books out to you.

You went with the black all the way to the bottom and colored in the area that should be white (outside the area of artwork.)

Nice job on the JIM 83.

I wonder where it would have ended up if you just did a press and spot stain cleaning (perhaps avoiding a purple label.)

Yup.

Interesting, I was curious about that too.

I'm late to this thread, but wow. Some great work here, Mike!

Mike, you have come a very long way! This is great stuff. I have a Green Lanter with glue I have to send you. As a mater of fact I believe I also have a DD #1 some where.

You believe you have a DD#1 somewhere? Sorry, just find it odd you don't know for sure and where it is.

yup same here. Your restoration work is insanely amazing Mike!

Ya, that's how it is, I find stuff all the time. I have boxes I haven't looked in for 30 years. I find all sorts of odd things like comics with double covers and odd things like that. It is all neat and tidy mind you. I will read everything and put it away. I just have to go thru a box or two to find it. I know I have them. I recently commented that I was missing 3 and 7, though I believe I have a 3 but it is coverless. I have been distracted lately and do apologize.

Is that Green Lantern with the glue a GA issue? Ga is sooo much nicer to work on.