“L’avventuroso (1936) Project”: first studies for the characterization of printing materials in comics
Anchisi A1, Rovetta T2, Fiocco G2, Malagodi M2, Lazzari M1, Merlo C1*
1. Laboratorio di Diagnostica Applicata ai Beni Culturali, Scuola di Restauro di Cr.Forma, Corso Giacomo Matteotti 17, 26100, Cremona, Italy
2. Laboratorio Arvedi di Diagnostica Non-Invasiva, CISRiC, Università di Pavia, via Bell’Aspa 3, 26100, Cremona, Italy
Abstract text
The history of modern european comics began in the first half of the 19th century, as a representation of ideas by images, often combined with text or other visual information [1]. Like any art form, comics has its own medium-specific properties that allow to express ideas that can’t be expressed in any other way. For these reasons, original hand-drawn pages and historic printed comics should be considered in some cases object of artistic and cultural relevance, needing appropriate conservation methods. The object of this research is represented by an issue pressed in 1936 of the Nerbini series “L’avventuroso”. This was the first Italian “ballooned” story dedicated to the superheroes adventures, a genre that was already very popular in the United States, but subjected in Italy to the fascist censorship. The editor Nerbini (Florence) was probably in the first half of the 20th century one of the most famous printer of mass papers, party publications i.e. L’avanti! Della Domenica and the Italian publisher of Mickey Mouse.
“L’avventuroso Project” deals for the first time the characterization by non-invasive diagnostic techniques of the materials used in the printing process in comics, in particular during the Italian fascism. Before the restoration process, a multi-analytical approach was applied starting with imaging investigation (i.e. UV-induced fluorescence photography, IR reflectography and IR false-color), followed by spectroscopic measurements through FTIR (ATR and diffuse reflectance mode) and XRF (single point and Mapping). XRF maps were post-processed by PyMCA software to find out correlation between elements (Figure 1) [2].
From the results, many information about the characteristics of the paper support and the color printing materials were collected: the used paper is slightly pre-treated (carbonate and sulphate) [3] and contains wood pulp, cyano/blue and black colors were made by prussian blue (band at 2089 cm-1 and high Fe signals) probably mixed with zinc oxide and carbon black respectively; yellow was
chrome yellow (Cr and Pb XRF signals); red was made with chrome yellow and lead oxide, probably mixed with lithopone (S, Ba, Zn); the green was a mixture of prussian blue and chrome yellow [4]. Furthermore, the pH test on the sheets showed the tendency to acidity (pH 6.0-6.5), probably due to the presence of lignin. The restoration intervention was developed in subsequent steps: initial dry cleaning, washing in deionized water, restoration of gaps with leaf casting machine with paper pulp, Japanese tissue and methylcellulose and, finally, resizing with methylcellulose of the whole sheet.
Further analysis will be performed on other later issues of this comics series (1937 and 1938) in order to compare the pigments and verify the state of conservation of the materials. In conclusion, this research presents the first non-invasive analysis of historical comics materials with the primary aim of favouring recovery and valorization of such historical artworks.
Reference list
[1] Randy D., Smith M.J., The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture. Continuum International Publishing Group, New York, 2009
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panel painting, Radiation Physics and Chemistry, (2017) 139:10, pp. 100-108, DOI: 10.1016/j.radphyschem.2017.04.002
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CaSO3.0.5H2O–CaSO4 .2H2O mixtures by FTIR analysis and its ANN model, Mater. Lett., (2004)
58, pp. 723-726, DOI: 10.1016/j.matlet.2003.07.008
[4] Eastaugh N., Walsh V., Chaplin T., Siddall R., Pigment Compendium, A Dictionary and Optical Microscopy of Historical Pigments, Elsevier, Oxford, 2008
Figure 1. VIS image of the “L’avventuroso”; UV-light image and color maps of the elemental correlations of a detail can be seen in the upper right corner and lower right corner respectively.
