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You know what I'm saying? I know about things like creasing, foxing, spotting, splitting, tearing, watering and all of that jazz.

But what do you call that defect where it looks like someone might have put down a can of soda or some other libation that causes a circle looking ring with odd stress marks coming out of it that makes it look like a meteor just crashed into the moon?

I'm trying to get a good scan of one but it doesn't translate well to digital images apparently.

I mostly see them on Bronze and earlier comics but have also noticed some Modern books with them.

Are the stress marks coming out of the ring more like wrinkles?

Yeah, it ends up kind of looking like a smashed spider. I've found some with more than one of those spots. Sometimes they're huge and other times about quarter sized.

I have been noticing it for years. Been buying books from a bunch of private collectors and store overstock. Still can't get a clear pic to post.

I used to work in powder coating and it sounds similar to an effect that we saw there... funnily enough it was called cratering.

The cause was usually a contaminant on the surface that the coating was being sprayed onto, so I wonder if it's something similar with the printing process for comics where a contaminant gets on the paper... (or maybe on the rollers?) and causes the cratering effect when the ink is processed onto the paper.

Here are a few pics of what I'm talking about. Can you see? I intentionally got some glare on them so to make it show up. Not sure if I was successful...







It's a circle with lines radiating out of it like a kid trying to draw the sun. Most of the times I see it is on older books but I have seen it on some modern ones as well. And from several different collections, not all from the same place.

Very hard to capture the image. I tried a scan of it and I didn't notice it at all. Looked like a VF/NM book.

Oh, that? I always assumed it was from what you originally suspected--someone used the comic as a coaster. Lousy kids leaving their funny books on the dining room table!

Looks likes pressure stress marks from something heavy, possibly a gorilla.

Looks likes pressure stress marks from something heavy, possibly a gorilla.