Stains on comic books

A private customer brought us some comics from the 1950's to present
date with some dark brown stains. It looks as if something has been
spilt on the edge and absorbed in the paper like a coffee stain but
after closer examination it seems to be some kind of mold. We
thought of storage conditions but my colleague found exactly the
same kind of stains on some of her own comics from the same era
stored at home and in our studio where we know we never had extreme
variations of humidity or temperature. Has somebody encountered some
similar problems? Is anyone aware of some problem specific to comics
causing that type of damage? I would be grateful for any kind of
information.

Magali Aellen Loup
Book, paper and archives conservator
Atelier de restauration
8 rue de la Muse
CH-1205 Geneve
Switzerland
+41 22 321 42 32


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 22:49
                   Distributed: Sunday, March 1, 2009
                       Message Id: cdl-22-49-010
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