While going through the Mark Nevins minicomics collection–a deep dive into global cartooning!–we came across a seemingly innocuous anthology from CF, called Burning, with this lovely Ron Rege Jr cover:

Upon opening it, however, we discovered…a live match, and a burned section of the first page. We felt it wouldn’t be entirely prudent to place a live match in our priceless print collections, so down to our in-house conservation lab it went.

There, the match head was neutralized, and the friable paper strengthened. For those who might be nervous, regardless, a helpful note was included: “match was treated by conservation.”

And, for the finishing touch, this $2 minicomic was placed in a beautiful custom case.

What this all shows is that, no matter what the value of the material in our collection, each piece is given serious consideration and treated with care. The safety of our collection, and the protection of its contents, is paramount.