So, I have never really tried to seriously grade a comic, but with CCL I am trying to catalogue my collection as accurately as possible.
My question today is about:

SPINE ROLL:



Here is an example of what appears to me as a manufacturing/publishing error,
the staples are placed in the center but the center crease is off.



In this example the top staple is around the back while the bottom staple(not pictured) is on the front.
Again the staples are centered but the center crease is not straight of square with the book.




In these two the staples are centered along with a straight crease, but these spines, through use,
no longer lie flat and actually curve of the table like the letter ‘J’.
(hard to see in the scan but you can see the creases that run parallel with the spine).



Just for reference I put what I believe to be an excellent spine.

So my questions are:
1. What is the actual definition of “spine roll”?
2. Is spine roll a manufacturing defect or a function of well read?
3. Depending on the answer to Question #1 how do you classify the other?

4. What about when the staples are grossly off center?
5. any other spine roll or spine questions I missed?

Spine roll is about 99% due to reader wear. Any new book that won't lie flat has been damaged or suffers from a major printing defect and would probably be pulled by the retaier before you could see it.

The roll comes from either bending the comic too severely when reading it, excessive weight being placed on or against the comic in an uneven distribution, or from rolling up the magazine into a tube shape whether to put it in your pocket or mail slot or something else. If you lay the comic flat on a table and it curves into any shapped letter, a "C", a "U", a "J", etc, then that's spine roll.

If the staples are off center, that's a manufacturing defect. For the most part, you want the staple to be right through the center of the spine. CGC will give your book a lower grade if the staples aren't perfectly centerd and that's why you see so many books that have never been touched by human hands get the teir infamous 9.8 grade. I disapprove of their whole scam anyways so it doesn't really matter to me, but I do find that some of my older books with off-centered staples have developed the same kind of slight indentention as depicted in your pictures.

The thing to realize is that your pictures also show a significant amount of spine wear(chips and minor tears), spine stress (the lines running parallel with the spine) and stress lines (small lines that run perpendicualr to the spine). The first image's comic does not have a centered staple. The cover was not evenly placed around the book when it was stapled even though the staple is through the black line. Therefore the staple lies on the faceo fthe comic and not the spine. Over the years the stress of opening and closing the cover resulted in the staple pull you see so I would open the book as little as possible otherwise you risk making it worse. If you must open the book, lay it flat on a table and make sure to grasp the spine so that it never fully opens. Bend the cover slightly supporting it if you need to open it further but never open this book fully all the way.

The second image also has an off-centered staple but it favors the back cover. This book probably doesn't suffer from any staple pull because the back cover of a comic is rarely flipped or bent since there's nothing more to read once you get there.

The third and fourth images shows major spine stress and stress lines with the top book suffering from staple pull. If you open the cover you'd probably see that the cover has smal tears where the holes made by the staple went through. I find that the more you handle these types of books, the worse the staple pull gets and can eventually lead to cover separation from one or both of the staples. But the Rawhide Kid book just has spine stress and no pulling.

If you reall are concerned, it's kind of tough to flatten out the roll once the comic suffers from it, but for minor case all you have to do is stack a bunch of heavy book on top of the comic for a few days and leave it be. The stress lines are pretty much permanent but if you're really desperate you could pay a restoration expert a bunch of money to iron out your book and touch up the lines.

Thanks for the response Batman007,

If I understand you, you are saying "Spine Roll" is a function of
use as in reader wear and tear and NOT a manufacturing issue.

so. . . when you are grading a comic do you note the off center
staples?


Just a note: in pic #1 when you open the comic the staples are perfectly centered
throughout the book it is the fold that is way off!

Yep, reader wear. The off-centered staple by itself is a printing defect.

When grading, if you really really care that much then yes, note the staples' positions but I think it's a bit excessive to get out the ruler and measure the millimeters. If it's something fairly obvious to the naked eye then definitely note it. Again, though, if these books were in perfect condition with no creases or stress whatsoever but the staples were off, it would still be a VF/NM book, at least in my opinion.

Rememeber, while there are grading standards, it's still subjective. Some people care about staple positioning and some don't. Staple positioning doesn't bother me but staple pulls do. And I'll buy a book with a cover crease over the same book with a perfect cover but with the spine split.

There should be a grading forum opened up. Possible a thread for each of the 12 grading steps in the CCL grading wizard. Something with pictures to show examples of the kinds of situations described. Not everyone knows what a spine roll is, or what exactly is meant by cover wear, blunted corners, etc.

I agree that would be helpful.

I actually have quite a few graded books by CGC and do have a few with the off center staple,as long as the books spine is nice the staple placement does not change the grade of the book it's considered a manufacture defect.