tarotbear
Kinda sad, isn't it? It's like all those tattoos that men got during WW2 that basically turn black and indistinct with aging. Then, too, in one of my Eden Grey books the book illustrations look like that black, smudgy version, too. Sometimes I think it has more to do with the process by which the copy (and it's copy down the road a few generations) was made - nothing like the laser-sharp HD stuff we have now! Too much work (and $$$) to have someone clean up the copies.