Binding your comics

[Shoegaze99]

Check these guys out

They'll take a mess of your comics (or anyting, really) and bind them into gorgeous hardcover volumes for about $5 - $60 each. Look how great they look!

If I had the funds, I'd get this done in a heartbeat. I no longer "collect" comics, I read them, so ruining the "value" of the comics by doing this is a non-issue in my eyes. And they're gorgeous like this!

 

[Brian G Turner]

I can see the appeal - but - ouch! - that's got to cost more than protective plastic bags.

 

[DeepThought]

God almighty! those are beautiful

 

[Nesacat]

Oh my those are lovely indeed. Expensive but gorgeous, especially if you are going to keep your comics and not sell them along or trade them.

 

[Talysia]

Wow, that's pretty impressive - both in appearance and price. As Nesa says, very nice if you're going to keep hold of your comics.

 

[imls1978]

they look good, but let me tell you what will look like crap. spread pages will not look good on that, they don't look good on the trade paperbacks, so i don't know how good it will be. just my humble opinion.
peace

 

[Shoegaze99]

In fact, they look fine.

(I've since gotten some collections done. They're GREAT)

 

[sloweye]

shouldn't they be kept in airtite boxes in dank basements

 

[Shoegaze99]

Bah! Comics are for reading, says I.

When I told my old man, who was also a comic collector, that I was getting some stuff bound he couldn't believe it. "But doesn't that ruin the value?" he asked.

Who cares, says I? I'm all set to ship out the entire King Conan/Conan the King series for binding in 4-5 nice hardcover volumes. The value doesn't matter to me as much as having those beautiful collections will.

 

[Stephen Aryan]

I've also passed out of the 'collector' phase and have become a comics reader. In fact I've sold off parts of my collections and those I know will be read several times have been replaced with trade paperbacks. Those that were lovely at the time but will never see the light of day have gone for good. There are some older comics I known that I know will never be collected so binding them this way would be ideal.

 

[hatman]

Nice, but what happens when you want to sell or trade?

 

[Contrary Mary]

Very, Ver nice. However, expensive unless you only have a very few comics.

 

[Shoegaze99]

Nice, but what happens when you want to sell or trade?

Then you sell them. People buy bound volumes all the time. The going rate on eBay is usually around $40 or so. Assuming you're not binding your ultra-valuable books, you're not going to lose a dime, and in some cases will MAKE money.

And even those valuable books can go for a lot of money. For example.

But really, why would you want to trade them? You're bot going to bind something that you don't want on your shelf and that you're not going to return to and re-read. That's the whole point. To have a nice collected edition of something you'll return to again and again.

Very, Ver nice. However, expensive unless you only have a very few comics.

It's not at all expensive, assuming you don't plan to do every comic you down. Binding a set of 20-30 comics can cost as little as $15.

For example, all 28 issues of GI JOE: Special Missions, done for $15:

Getting the entire 84-issue series of The 'Nam done cost me $60:

My bound edition of Jack Kirby's Eternals series cost be $20, which is a fraction of the $100+ the official bound edition costs:

 

[JunkMonkey]

I used to do it myself. Open them flat. punch holes up the centre with brad awl and sew them together. Take out the staples as you go. slap on some PVA and end papers, then into a cover. Sometimes hard cloth covered boards, sometimes laminated card with my own art for a softback. All kitchen table stuff. Off cuts of plywood and G cramps, flattened out plastic bags that sort of thing. Great fun. Just make sure you have the comics in the right order before you start assembling rhe book block Then check again before you apply any glue and you can still take the thing to bits and start again.