Catwoman 81 cover restoration by James Pascoe

This is another cover I was hired to restore. It provided a restoration problem which has become much more typical in the era of computers: a major element of the published cover was dramatically changed from the actual cover drawing. In this case, the figure of Catwoman was noticeably shrunk and moved up on the published cover (image one). You can see how much larger she is in the actual art (image two), and how she's at the bottom of the page. The first step in making this drawing suitable for framing or selling was restoring the logo and text. I digitally retrieved that from the published comic, removed the colors, sharpened the text and resized everything. After printing the result on color matched, stat-like paper, I pasted it up on the cover art with archival adhesive( image three). The next decision was: would a buyer or seller want to display the piece as it was drawn or as it was published? Fortunately, you don't have to choose! using my drawing and inking skills, I re-created by hand the Catwoman drawing at the smaller size, on Bristol Board that I cut so that it would cover the larger Catwoman drawing but allow the large female figure to show through. Instead of pasting the new drawing down, I taped it to the left hand border of the page, so it can be flipped up or down. Flip it up and you can display the cover the way it was drawn (image three) - flip it down and display the piece as it was printed (figure five)!

(James is available for hire to replace missing logos and lettering on comic book and comic strip art and to do cover re-creations and commissions. Please contact him with any questions or for a price quote. If you wish the restoration work to be private, upon your request, no images will be used in James’ public galleries.)