AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Joe Kubert was a comic book artist legend, working famously for DC Comics creating Sgt. Rock and Hawkman, among others. His drafting desk was recently gifted to the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Cary Graphic Arts Center to be the center piece of the Cary Graphic Comic exhibit. Before it could be presented to the public the desk required undergoing some conservation treatment which required creative and collaborative process to solve its challenges. I am a book and paper conservator and initially asked to work on this project to find an unobtrusive solution to obscuring the prolific private contact information that covered the desk, without making it look like it was obviously redacted. As the project unfolded, much more needed to be done. Kubert’s desk required reattachment of handmade cardboard shelves that topped the desk all over. These were originally created and attached by various kinds of tape some of which had failed or were weakened These cardboard shelves also needed to bear weight as their contents had to be replaced. Their reattachment required creative use of linen tape, rare earth magnets, and adhesive combinations. Overarching all of this was the need to keep the aesthetic appearance as much as possible to 1) be as similar in appearance as when Kubert last used the desk and 2) the desk would be viewed closer than six feet within the exhibition space to minimize distractions. This project became a collaboration among myself, the curators, and other object conservators who assisted me in answering questions about the options and alternatives for the different challenges that came up along the way. This project was a joint effort between the Rochester Institute of Technology Cary Graphic Arts Center and myself, Heritage Conservation and Consulting.