Thanks to the commitment of a private individual, we have the opportunity to preserve an original edition from 1934 of TINTIN. The interior drawings of this strip are printed in black and white, but there are also some illustrations printed in color.
The main preservation problems were in the back (formed by a piece of red dust and a strip of paper glued to it). The red substance was damaged by the load that this part has accumulated due to its use and also by an earlier procedure in which part of the back was glued to the mesh.
In addition, the corners of both covers had damaged the covered paper and cardboard.
To remove fingerprints and dirt, a smoke sponge and a kneading gum is used for the most greasy dirt.
To strengthen the back, the fabric is cut on one of the sides. Then the old paper was removed because it was rusty and not strong enough anymore. Because half of the back was glued to the mesh, part of this glue was also removed with a scalpel.
Then Japanese paper was attached to consolidate some pieces of broken mesh. Then all the mesh was reinforced by pasting Japanese paper. To consolidate the missing parts of the spine, Japanese papers were between the booklets and the cover. They were first dyed, with a similar color of the fabrics. To give the flexibility back to the back, a curved paper was also placed between the fabric and the mesh. One of the sides of this paper was glued to the mesh and the other was glued to the paper that had previously been attached to the dust. In this way, a space has been created to make the structure more flexible, leaving a space between the mesh and the spine.
In the final stage, retouching, the missing part of the image in the cover is retouched, as well as all the angles and some missing lowercase letters. Some pieces of Japanese paper from the inside have also been retouched.