ARE BACKING BOARDS DESTROYING YOUR COMICS?

ARE BACKING BOARDS DESTROYING YOUR COMICS?

You may have seen the tooth whitener commercial on TV suggesting the "tissue test" by comparing how white the woman's teeth are next to a white tissue. We decided to do that with a couple of backing boards.

The one on the left is an unknown age because it was in a comic purchased at a store. The one on the right is only a year old. Both of them are lying on sheets of white paper rated at 92 brightness. And, just for grins, we even added a white tissue, because, you know, the commercial told us to!

As you can see, both backing boards are turning yellow.

Why? For the same reason the paper in your comics can turn yellow. Acidity.

This is important because acid always migrates to areas of lower acidity. That means your comics. This means it's possible for boards to add to the acidity and resulting yellowing of the comics you are trying to protect. The sad truth is most backing boards are. Don't believe the packaging when it claims that the boards are "acid free" because only two brands really are. And one brand qualifies for "Pants on Fire".