# Comic Book Buffs: When did full-bleed printing on int. pages become common?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-book-buffs-when-did-full-bleed-printing-on-int-pages-become-common/524329>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 9, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-book-buffs-when-did-full-bleed-printing-on-int-pages-become-common/524329 "2010-01-09T21:24:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-book-buffs-when-did-full-bleed-printing-on-int-pages-become-common/524329/1 "2010-01-09T21:24:11Z")

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I’m working on a project that includes an homage/spoof to classic comics, particularly old DC comics. I need to know one obscure detail: When did full-bleed printing on interior pages of comic books become common? I don’t want to include any full-bleed images if they didn’t exist way back when. (A cursory search of old scans shows no full-bleed pages. Did they only come about in the modern, post-newsprint era?)

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**Author:** ![Postariti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Postariti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Postariti)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-book-buffs-when-did-full-bleed-printing-on-int-pages-become-common/524329/2 "2010-01-10T00:36:24Z")

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I’m not a comic geek, but I read comics up until the 1980s. I’ve never seen a full bleed comic page. If by “way back when” you mean the 30s or 40s, I can’t imagine using what would have been an expensive technique on comics, which were printed as cheaply as possible.

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**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comic-book-buffs-when-did-full-bleed-printing-on-int-pages-become-common/524329/3 "2010-01-10T02:05:56Z")

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It was fairly common in the mid-80s, esp. with comics on “Baxter” or “Mando” paper; DC and Marvel were experimenting with more expensive formats on whiter paper and went a little berserk with the color (See: **Marvel Comics Super Special** [Kiss, Weirdworld, et al], **Marvel Fanfare** and **Camelot 3000** ). Around 1990 Malibu Comics developed an improved computer coloring system that made bleeds easier and introduced Photoshop-level coloring to comic books; in 1994, Marvel was so impressed by the coloring that they bought the company and started coloring their whole line in this manner. DC developed a competing system and now all major comics companies look like this.