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Elite Collector
 
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A customer was Brave enough to use my services and send me this Diamond in the rough Hulk # 181. I thought it would be fun to see the restore process as it unfolds in stages. Feel free as I go along and comment or ask questions if you like.
Why restore a Bronze age comic you ask? 1st Value. Surprisingly people want this issue bad. .5-1.0 selling for $100 and The nice one's were a lot.
So Scott's Hulk Unfortunately gets a grade of .5 due to missing marvel stamp on one of the pages. CGC seems to always give these a .5 and I use them as my guide on those matters. Comic also has a very wrinkly cover,stress lines,some minor stains and a fair amount of dirt on back of cover. Spine showed minor fiber wear. Corners also show some wear.
Stage 1
Inspect book : Done
Stage 2
Scan book  one 
 My Mission : To become a respected professional paper conservator/restorer 
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Elite Collector
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Stage 3
Cleaning Cover
Unless staples are in distress or it needs a full bath dry cleaning is done assembled. The back cover is done 1st.
Before:
After: 
My Mission : To become a respected professional paper conservator/restorer
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Enthusiast
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| cool be interested to see how it turns out....
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Elite Collector
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| Front after dry cleaning. Before : After: 
My Mission : To become a respected professional paper conservator/restorer
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Elite Collector
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Update: Hulk has got 1st press done but scan dont show a difference So will post pic after final press.
My Mission : To become a respected professional paper conservator/restorer
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Enthusiast
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Last Login: 6/5/2009 6:49:50 PM
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| Looks good. How do you dry clean a book?
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Enthusiast
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The cleaning process has already made a big difference. Particularly the top centre of the front cover. Nice.
Will be watching this one.
What if this were heaven, wouldn't it be Hell?
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Serious Collector
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How's the restore coming along?
The one-man wolf pack.
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Elite Collector
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| Its in the press as we speak for 2nd time. Still waiting for marvel stamp. Dry cleaning a book is just that. using methods that don't require liquids most special types of erasers you get at a art store or a preservation supply store. It is easy to damage a comic Dry cleaning it so you would wanna practice on crap till you don't tear up the covers. www.mikescomicshop.com
My Mission : To become a respected professional paper conservator/restorer
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Enthusiast
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Last Login: 6/5/2009 6:49:50 PM
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Oh, I thought it was something like dry cleaning clothes. I think they use some type of chemicals for that, but I'm not sure.
Never would have thought to use an eraser. I figured, it would remove the gloss from a cover and damage the pages. Maybe that's why you say to mess with poor comics first. I can try and play around with some poor condition comics and see if my old drafting eraser will work (says it's for paper and film). It's made in Germany 
Is that what the Wonderbread method that everyone says is also? I read it at lots of forums, where people clean comic books with Wonderbread... I don't know if they mean the actual bread or if that's some type of special tool for cleaning comics.
Anyways, looking forward to seeing the Hulk after the second pressing. BTW, is that just taking an iron and pressing it like clothing or is it something like putting the comic in a vise and squeezing the life out of it until it is perfectly flat?
So far what you have done does not seem to be major restoration and will probably improve the grade without any negatives. Once that stamp gets in, this looks to be a very nice restoration!
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