Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
28 | 29 | 30 |
The other day I found myself watching 'dry' comic book cleaning videos on YouTube and decided to give it a try. The videos showed individuals using various eraser type tools to remove unwanted marks, inks, and other imperfections - I thought to myself how hard could this possibly be?
Here is the account of my first cleaning attempts.
Step 1: The Supplies
Not having much knowledge aside from what I watched online I decided to stick to the basics. I purchased several Hi-Polymer White Erasers, 1 Rubber Eraser, and utilized an old paint brush laying around the house. Total investment was $5 from Amazon.
Step 2: The Lucky Candidates
Several years back I bought a lot of 300 Valiant Comics which contained many damaged and poor condition issues. I had no trouble finding several lucky participants from this box. I chose two H.A.R.D. Corps issues because of their white colored covers - one contains a decent Jim Lee cover.
Step 3: Let's Get Cleaning
I have to caveat that I am not a finesse person and rely on brute force. That brute force is not ideal for cleaning these books. But I did my best to be patient and methodical in the process.
I started with H.A.R.D. Corps #7 which was very dirty on the left hand top corner of the issue. I took half of the rubber eraser and rolled it into a small stick and used it like a pencil to go over color and small trouble areas. I attempted to blot with the eraser - but settled on light rubbing followed by reshaping the rubber and using different parts as the pencil point.
The regular eraser I used on all white areas - it will take color away if you use it on anything else. This an easy process and I used the paint brush to get rid of eraser residue.
I spent approximately 30 minutes on each book - slightly going over areas either with the white or rubber eraser based on the color of the troubled areas.
Step 4: Results of H.A.R.D. Corps 7
Here you can see a lot of the markings have been removed - at the expense of the Valiant box and price tag. The second image seems much better and I didn't sacrifice any additional colors.
There was a lot of markings along the spine which I was able to remove. This was easy as the white eraser does work miracles. Does not seem to be at the expense of anything major.
Overall I think the issue seems much cleaner. You can see the top right of the after photo has a dip from where I creased it.
Step 5: Results of H.A.R.D. Corps 1
The spine of the book is much cleaner. I was more careful around that Valiant Star and kept the majority of the black intact - hey it even reads $2.50.
Overall it does seem much cleaner.
Step 6: Lessons
Let me know in the comments what you think. Have you attempted this before? Have any lessons or suggestions that can improve the process?
Come check out more content and reviews: https://mycomicstack.blogspot.com/
Member auction items on eBay ? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|