See-Through Chromium Errors

[Chiclo]

I have been on a bit of a kick picking up cheap VH1 error Chromium covers. I am not sure what to call them, "see-through?" or Chormium-less?

First up was this Bloodshot, from Hawaii.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/355358620876

The interesting thing is, this guy put up another auction with the same picture, so he might have multiples?

Then I got this Ninjak - I have seen Ninjaks where you can see through the orange panel in the large N in Ninjak but never one where it was so see-through as this one. I think it has seen some hard use over the years and some of the colour has come off from inside the cover.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/404241497416

There are a few Ninjak 1s with the see through N panel on eBay right now but they are all $20 or more, more than I am wanting to spend.

And this seller of the Ninjak 0 had this Shadowman 0. I was not totally sure if this was see-through or not but what finally convinced me was the dark bar over the big Jack face's shoulder.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/404241490992

I remember the topic of these errors has come up before but I just remember the Ninjak? Has there been any wider discussion of these on the board that anyone can remember?

[THEWGZK]

Those are super fun to collect. It's interesting to see all the varying levels of missing chromium on those covers. I don't think I have a Psi-Lords, but I have different Bloodshot's, Ninjak's, Shadowman's and even a Geomancer.

[Chiclo]

Those are super fun to collect. It's interesting to see all the varying levels of missing chromium on those covers. I don't think I have a Psi-Lords, but I have different Bloodshot's, Ninjak's, Shadowman's and even a Geomancer.

Have you got a pic of a Geomancer? Are they easy to tell apart, like around the logo?

[daniellew61]

I wonder if so many of these came out because of the extras the printer was skimming for themselves (Jim Shooter mistakenly likes to tell the story about this as "Bootleg comics" lol) or if it was just a genuine lack of quality control at the time since soo much was coming out! Chromium is super pricey.

[magnusr]

Cool idea to collect these.

/Magnus

[Chiclo]

I wonder if so many of these came out because of the extras the printer was skimming for themselves (Jim Shooter mistakenly likes to tell the story about this as "Bootleg comics" lol) or if it was just a genuine lack of quality control at the time since soo much was coming out! Chromium is super pricey.

These books had print runs in the mid-to-high six figures and the same type of error is found in several different books that use the same gimmick cover. That doesn’t sound like a likely candidate for skimming to me? Maybe so, using overrun and erroneous covers? Were these skimmed comics that common during the early 90s boom? Is it a problem still? I had only heard about this skimming in the context of pre-Unity comics, which were sort of valuable once upon a time.

[daniellew61]

Oh it’s allllll possible

[nycjadie]

I've noticed these far more on Ninjak. Slightly fewer on Bloodshot. None on Shadowman and very few on Geomancer and X-O.

I love them all and keep every on I find.

[THEWGZK]

Those are super fun to collect. It's interesting to see all the varying levels of missing chromium on those covers. I don't think I have a Psi-Lords, but I have different Bloodshot's, Ninjak's, Shadowman's and even a Geomancer.

Have you got a pic of a Geomancer? Are they easy to tell apart, like around the logo?

I will dig it out and get pictures. The one I have isnt super noticeable, almost skipped over it in a dollar bin.

As for skimming, there was no need to skim these books in such high print runs(I agree with another response). Its chromium acetate, low print ink and bad QC are likely the culprit.

I dont think I've ever seen an X-O one though.