Collector guides in this series
Two comics, two creases, both an inch long, both in the same corner. One book grades 9.4 and the other grades 7.0. The difference is not the length of the crease or where it is. It is whether the crease broke colour. If you learn one thing about grading this year, learn to read that difference, because it decides more grades than any other single defect and it takes a lamp and thirty seconds.
What "breaking colour" means
A comic cover is paper with a thin layer of printed ink on top, and on anything modern a coat of gloss over that. When the cover bends gently, the paper flexes and the ink flexes with it. Nothing breaks. When it folds sharply, the fibres on the outside of the fold stretch past what the ink can follow, and the ink layer cracks along the line. Where it cracks, the pale paper underneath shows through.
That pale line is what graders mean by a colour-breaking crease. The ink has physically gone from that line. It is not going to come back, which is why this one defect is permanent in a way that a bend is not.
Bend, crease, fold: what graders mean
Collectors use these words loosely and graders do not, so it is worth borrowing CGC's definitions from its grader notes guide.
- Bend. A defect that disrupts the flatness of the cover without breaking colour. Comes in every shape and size, from a soft corner curl to a diagonal stacking bend across the whole front.
- Crease. The paper has folded over and broken fibres along the fold. A crease may or may not break colour. A light one on a matte cover can keep its colour; a sharp one on a glossy modern cover almost never does.
- Colour-breaking crease. A crease that has cracked the ink layer so the paper shows through as a pale line.
- Spine stress lines. The small horizontal breaks along the spine from the book being opened and bent. The same rule applies: a stress line that keeps its colour is minor, one that breaks colour is a tick that counts.
CGC also names specific varieties: finger bends and finger creases from handling, reader creases from the book being bent back, subscription creases from being posted folded, polybag creases, and stacking bends. The names describe where the defect came from. What decides the grade is still the colour.
How to check with a lamp
- Take the comic out of its bag and lay it on a flat, clean surface with one lamp to the side, not overhead.
- Tilt the book so the light rakes across the cover at a low angle. Ridges and shadows appear that you cannot see head-on. Every bend and crease will show up here, colour-breaking or not.
- Now look at the book straight on under ordinary room light. A non-colour-breaking bend all but disappears. A colour-breaking crease stays visible as a pale or white line.
- Follow the line across the darkest part of the cover. Colour breaks are most obvious across black, deep blue and red, and easiest to miss across white or pale yellow. If the line vanishes on the pale area and reappears on the dark, it is breaking colour.
- Turn the book over and do the back cover. Then the spine, looking for ticks that show white.
That is the whole test. If you are photographing a book to sell or to send me for a valuation, one photo straight on and one under raking light is worth ten from the same angle.
What each one does to the grade
CGC's grader notes guide gives rough ranges for how far a defect can pull a book down, assuming nothing else is wrong with it. The exact grade always depends on the size, the position and everything else on the book, so treat these as the shape of the penalty, not a promise.
| Defect | Typical ceiling | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Light bend, no colour break | 9.0 to 9.4 | Flatness disturbed, ink intact. Often pressable back to nothing. |
| Moderate bend | 7.5 to 8.5 | Bigger or multiple bends. Still shape, still often pressable. |
| Heavy bend | 6.5 to 7.0 | Whole-cover distortion. Pressable, but may not fully recover. |
| One small finger crease | Down to 9.6 | A single light crease from handling costs surprisingly little on its own. |
| Subscription crease, colour broken | 5.5 or lower | A full vertical fold that has cracked the ink. Permanent, and it takes the book out of the high grades for good. |
Read that table from the bottom up. The one entry that says "or lower" is the one where colour broke along the whole crease. Everything above it is either shape, which can be fixed, or a small break, which is contained.
The old Overstreet guidance says the same thing in fewer words: no colour-breaking creases in the top grades. A 9.8 can carry a tiny colour-breaking tick or two on the spine. A full colour-breaking crease across the cover is a different book.
Why pressing fixes one and not the other
Pressing works by letting bent fibres relax under heat and pressure and then settle flat. If the fibres are intact and the ink is intact, that puts the cover back the way it was, and the defect can genuinely disappear. That is the non-colour-breaking case, and it is why a press can take a book with a stacking bend from a 9.2 to a 9.8.
If the ink has cracked, the fibres may relax and the paper may lie flat, but the ink that was on the fold is not there any more. A press cannot put it back. The book will look tidier in the hand and photograph a little better, and the pale line will still be there, and the grader will still see it. Anyone who tells you a press removed a colour-breaking crease is describing colour touch, which is restoration, which is a purple label.
There is a fuller explanation of what a press can and cannot do in the pressing guide.
What this means when you sell
Describe it. The buyers who pay the most are the buyers who trust the description, and nothing loses trust faster than a crease that was not mentioned turning up in the post. Say "light non-colour-breaking bend to the top right corner" or "colour-breaking crease across the lower left, about two inches" and take the raking light photo that proves it. You will get fewer returns and more repeat buyers than the seller who wrote "great condition" and hoped.
And when you are working out what a book is worth before you sell it, remember which list the crease is on. Non-colour-breaking means the price of a nicer copy is within reach with a press. Colour-breaking means you are pricing the book that exists, not the one it used to be. Sold prices for the exact grade, not the grade you wish it had, are what I use and what you should use too.
Questions people ask
What is a colour-breaking crease?
A crease where the fold has cracked the printed ink layer, so the paper underneath shows through as a pale or white line. It is permanent, because the ink is gone, and it counts against grade far more heavily than a crease that leaves the colour intact.
What is a non-colour-breaking crease?
A fold or bend that has changed the shape of the paper without cracking the ink. Viewed head-on it can be almost invisible. It still counts as a defect, but a much smaller one, and it is often the kind of defect a professional press can remove.
How do I check if a crease breaks colour?
Hold the comic under a single lamp and tilt it so the light rakes across the cover at a low angle. A non-colour-breaking crease shows as a ridge or shadow. A colour-breaking one shows as a pale line that stays visible when you look straight at it, and is most obvious across a dark area of the cover.
Can pressing fix a colour-breaking crease?
No. Pressing can flatten the paper so the crease is less obvious in the hand, but it cannot put ink back. The line stays, and so does the grade penalty.
Does a crease on the back cover matter as much?
Graders look at the whole book, so yes, though a defect on the front cover tends to hit eye appeal, and therefore grade, harder. Check both covers before you decide what a book is.
Got a crease you cannot read?
Photograph it under a lamp at an angle and send it over. I look at creases for a living and I will tell you straight what it does to the book.
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