First Attempt Comic Book Dry Cleaning

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 

• The sky is a nice mixture of blue and white - I removed some of the blue as a result of trying to clean up the white. Next time I may purchase a white pencil eraser instead of the block I was utilizing. 
• That Valiant Star logo on the masthead is hard to navigate and I found myself rubbing away some of the black ink. 
• I accidentally removed some of the $2.25 price.
• I creased the top right of the issue as I was erasing when I accidentally caught the corner
• Overall: It does look cleaner - but I feel that whatever good I did was only negated by removal of some of the colors, removal of the black around the price, and creating a nice new crease

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. 

• This issue was much cleaner than the previous and proved to be much easier 
• I was more careful and didn't cause any additional damage to the book 
• The fact that I only had to clean the white areas made it much easier
• For the color areas I simply blotted and rolled the rubber eraser back and forth
• Overall: The white really seems to stand out much more and everything is much cleaner

Step 6: Lessons 

• I am not attempting this on any key, valuable, or issues that I care about.
• It will take a good amount of practice for the cleaning results to outweigh any damage - and if the cleaning results in damage then why do it. 
• Getting a small white pencil eraser will come in very handy 
• Patience is the key!

Let me know in the comments what you think. Have you attempted this before? Have any lessons or suggestions that can improve the process?

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