Right on, let me know how it works!

Glad you like it!

Its a beautiful cover and made us take notice of Todd Macfarlane that's for sure!

ahh... nice... i think I got one like those or something similar I can try that within a ceramic-tools set I bought for working on comics

thanks for the tip Ammar

My pleasure!

My pleasure! Consider the tic attack boards for the super tiny spine tics on that book. they help greatly for "polishing" the tiniest tics!

Thanks 🔥!!!!

It really is!

Wow thanks for these kind words I appreciate it so much! reach our to me any time at rick@immacualtecomics.com !

You're welcome!

thanks for the note!

@@ImmaculateComics No problem, also what do you think of the chemicals this guys uses vs what your Immacuclean? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pcCHd5p1qsfIg4E.html

Larry , this is a great point! I was judging think last night that I wonder how valid that census data really is since comic books don’t have a serial number!

It ends up that book wasn't actually even mine to begin with. Somebody gave it to me as a gift and it was just in my box of slabs. My own copy of ASM 265 isn't back yet. Its very confusing!

I lspilled Coke on it decades ago and it’s something of a miracle it got an 8.0 grade!

unfortunately they just leave me bemused and wondering. I didn't pay for the grading notes, which I now realize that I should have!

@@ImmaculateComics I don't believe you have to pay for them, if you submitted yourself. They should be under your submission recap on the CGC site.

I didn’t submit the books myself, I had a friend submit for me, I’ll have to ask him. When I look up the serial Numbers for the book I can read all the other info about it but the graders notes section just reads “not available”

You are a lucky man! I got Neal to do an original art sketch for me a few years ago of a Batman face in profile and he signed a Black Cat litho for me too. I love his work!

@@ImmaculateComics I was able to meet him at a con, had him sign my 251, even he commented on its nice shape. He's one my favorite artists

same!

I’m going to order some your stuff once my presser comes in

I'm glad to hear that Ed. You should hear the things comic book cleaners falsely tell me about Immacuclean only giving purple labels. They actually tell me worse things too and get pretty aggressive at times. Clearly they are making up stories but they also tell those stories to other people who tend to believe the loudest or scariest voice. They often seem to have a powerful need to tell others about it too!

Well there are no shortage of them. I bought that book off the shelf before I had ever heard of Todd McFarlane!

no... i haven't got on too... they just keep popping out of my price range on ebay ^^ I really love that cover. Out of frustration, i started collecting Todds Hulk run... Has some great covers too and not as pricy ^^

That's a great idea! I'll do it!

That's good to know

The didactic discussion of what a book's grade "actually" is can be one of those notional things I think we will all be having conversations about for a long time. People send in books to be slabbed for many different reasons. For me, this was part of an experiment and these books will not be in these slabs for very long unless I decide not to keep them.

Batman Mcfarlane cover are you kidding mate💥?! Any Batman Mcfarlane cover gets slabbed 🤦🏼edit: not quite sure how people can be unstoked on an 8.5 Mcfarlane cover ESPECIALLY when he was doing Batman…. That artist really made comics attractive to me back then; I’ve got them all… every comic he’s ever done….even looking at todays drawings in comic books they are NOTHING AS COOL as TM was doing way back then (just covers or full pencils as well) and that’s precisely why they are sooooo so valuable…. Well to me anyway , sorry don’t want to sound like a d*ck… BTW love the channel @Immaculate Comics

well I can tell you from memory that we really weren't quite sure what was going on when we first saw his work. remember we were still reading Jim Mooney, Romita Jr, Mark Silvestri etc books at that time so that was just weird and cool at the same time. But also edgy and it took you out of the experience of the story a little. Of course in the 90s there was great art in terrible books everywhere as the balance had swung hard the other direction from the great stories with mediocre art we were used to in the 80s. It was a wild ride!

@@6nosis I don't disagree at all. I am also taking this perspective from the personal collection acquired during my youth and not one obtained as a working professional who lives check to check. While I will buy older books I don't put much interest in purchasing the one's I've read and traded while growing up. While I have always viewed comics as a potential investment I'm not rushing to flip a book by getting it slabbed. all that being said, I really do need to go back through my books and rethink those targeted for encapsulation. Growing up I had spent upwards of 100.00 a month on new releases. I might not have all the coolest gems but I've got a few. What really crushed me was a theft some years ago where I lost about 1500 books. Still not sure what I'm more pained about, losing those books or my 64 SS Impala. Life is wonderful!! hehe thanks to everyone for sharing!

i actually believe that. I think the error is +/- half a grade point anyway.

That’s a great point and pretty hard to recognize when you are only looking at the cover from outside!

I’ve definitely seen reversion in the past but I wasn’t concentrating on the pressing on these books so I didn’t really notice any. I also cold press usually several days before submitting and that helps prevent reversion. I have a new cold press system that gets the cold press time down to about 8-12 hours which helps my table space immensely. Or at least it did. I’m getting out of the cleaning and pressing business myself and leaving it to brighter minds!

@@ImmaculateComics Are you giving up pressing and cleaning as a business or the search for new and better ways to improve books? I always enjoyed the way you look at comic cleaning and pressing from a scientific viewpoint. You introduced new ideas to me on how to fix issues with my comics.

@@petereddy7633 Hi Peter, thanks for asking and also thank you for the kind words. I never really intended to do pressing and cleaning as a business. I'll make a video more on that in the future. I just sort of fell into it as people started asking me to do it for money and the ask became significant over time. My real joy is teaching others, researching new tools and methods, and developing products. I tried doing it for money for a while but it took all of the joy out of it and it became a job and then a chore. I have other projects I am working on with cleaning up Covid viral load waste in Africa, developing corrosion-resistant coatings for metals in Scotland, Developing green chemistry courses t the university, and a few other things that are much more fulfilling. Pretty much daily people ask me to work on their books for them but I am done doing it for money. I will continue to work on some books for free if they are interesting or instructive but that's it. I have a couple of dozen books I still need to do for some customers and I am not going to charge them. I just want to focus on getting away from the idea that I have some sort of special power or ability that no one else has, or that I know some secret method that I hide away from everyone else. I am not especially skilled or talented and I do my best to share what I know with others so long as they won't get hurt or damage books (too much, lol). I want everyone to preserve and protect their comic books and more importantly, to find a new way to love the same books to keep this hobby alive. I don't want to be at risk of breaking my own arm by patting myself on the back and showing off my work for others to envy. What I really want it to help you be able to pat yourself on the back and take all the credit, leaving me out of it entirely. If I can teach 1,000 people to do what I do at a level that I can do it then I think that's a win for the hobby as a whole!

thanks Jay

@@ImmaculateComics thank you for a give away! Kind to share. 😊 Thanks 🐣 and the end of video you say if you want one. Just say , I want one. No Body else said they want one. Did they watch the last 10 seconds of the video? Hmmmm........lol

I haven't cleaned tons of modern books - as they usually don't have the kind of dirt on them for me to think they need this treatment - but when I started out the first few times, I didn't just take off the gloss but noticeable amounts of color in spots too... I think it usually is a pressure thing... you have to get a feel for it, but I know just don't really press down the pad. For the first pass, I use the flat side of the pad and just wipe it down very lightly to get it wet - then let it soak for about a minute and use the rougher side of the pad for another swipe - also without tons of pressure, just let the dirt come off naturally. Until now - even when I took off tons of oxidated color I didn't experience loss of gloss - but I think I remember rick mentioning it - can really be that special printing - as even with the colors that are usually the most likely to come up magentas/reds/yellow there where huge differences between books/ages - sometimes I feared to touch a red book with immaculate - only to later do it and have nothing come up - while a similar book needed to be worked on very gently. Don't know if that answers or helps you with anything ^^ But I promise keep up with it (not on expensive books in the beginning!) collect the experience and in the end it will be worth it...

almost certainly a pressure thing, but I haven't cleaned anything newer than about 10 years old in a long time.

@@ImmaculateComics it was a damaged book so i figured why not take immacuclean for a spin. it didnt take off gloss on a book from the 80s

One thing I picket up from watching all those cleaning/pressing tutorials is - that counterintuitively modern books have worse paper and inks used and are much easier to damage. Some people even said that you don't really have to steam(/apply moisture) to these books because the paper is so thin it responds pretty well to pressure and heat alone (but you also have to dail down the heat to not having the inks run away(?) ). If i do some cleaning i usually just do a slight dry clean before pressing to remove finger-prints and stuff

I will turn it up to 11!

Yep. I mentioned it in the comments when I posted. Many people have noticed it too!

CGC cases are flawed, they damage comics

Clearly I already knew that they'd come back blue label just like the hundreds of others before them. However I don't like to be that guy who says "I told you so!" I feel like I answer this question often, but people keep asking me so I figured I would post this video.

I'll give it a shot and see. I am thinking 9.6 as well.

Nick is a great guy and really knows his grades!

@@ImmaculateComics Totally, been watching him for years and I learned so much from Nick...:)

You are probably right, Dr Spidey!

Two or three of of them I had sent in previously, I think in 2019 or 2020. I forgot to mention that it the video but I noted it it in the description. I put the new ones in my cgc box and pulled out more than I put in when I made the video and didn’t realize it until I watched my own video!

I was going to point this out and wondered if anyone else has noticed this. Glad to see it caught other people's attention as well

I also Mentioned it in the description when I posted the video

unfortunately they arent available for these books.

@@ImmaculateComics that's a shame. Would've been great to learn lessons for future cleaning & pressing. Great video btw.

good to know!

I dont think it could get a 9.8 but below a certain grade they dont seem to mention centering

@@ImmaculateComics Thx rick... well the 9.8 was out of the question with this book anyway. It's in decent shape - but 1-2 tiny color-breaking spine ticks and a small corner-crease... My guess would have been 8.0-8.5.

I love that idea! I had developed an image comparison action in photoshop the checked for difference from a "perfect" book but it only graded covers. However it did so instantly and gave a % different from perfect. But I am out of the grading game now. my heart just isn't in it.