Sometimes, paper is severely degraded at the spine in spite of being flexible at the leading edge.  This is often not discovered until such time as I begin to remove the staples from the book's interior.  In the case of this Mad Comics #1, the spine of the book cracked completely as I started to remove the staples.  What was to be a project involving tape removal and restoration of the cover, became a huge undertaking where each folio had to be reinforced.  After localized leaf-casting each folio, I treated the cover with solvents to remove the tape and tape stains.  For the more severe staining, I applied bleach locally to the stained areas.  Small areas of loss on the cover were infilled and then all areas were inpainted to recreate missing artwork and graphics. Each folio was then refolded and the entire book reassembled and pressed.