Guide to Comic Binding

What is comic binding?

Comic binding is an interesting sub-hobby of comic collecting where you take a collection of (usually) 20-25 single issues comics and have them bound by a book bindery into a custom hardcover collection that can sit on your book shelf.

Why bind your comics?

There are a number of reasons to bind comics, including:

• Readability: We all have notions of actually re-reading our old comics sometimes, but how often do you actually read single issue comics that are in bags and boards?  Because of the hassle of locating the issues, remembering where a run starts and stops, TAPE, etc. most of these treasured issues never escape the long box.  Once you bind the issues, they’re on your bookshelf and easy to grab for a quick 15 minute escape into a story you love.
• Portability: Again, the bagged-boarded-longbox system makes single issues difficult to take with you.  Can you easily take 5-6 single issues to a doctor’s office to entertain you in the waiting room?  NOPE!  But, you can easily toss a bound hardcover into your backpack.
• Lendability: You probably have friends who are slightly interested in comics.  You might even want to lend them some of yours to try out.  Handing someone a stack of 30 single issues in bags and boards is really off-putting.  Just the bags and boards imply that they are somehow valuable and precious (when they’re probably worth a dollar each).  Not to mention that your friend has to keep them in order, that the stack of comics is always toppling over, that they worry that their kids will spill juice on them.  Not a problem with a hardcover.
• Space savings: All comic fans have space constraints and comics reproduce like rabbits.  Just the act of taking them out of the bags & boards reduces the space by ~50% and if you also remove ads and back covers, you’ll save even more room.  25 issues bound into a hardcover takes up about ~2 inches on a bookshelf.
• Respectability: Some fans care about this and some militantly do not, but I’ve always noted that non-comics people somehow find comic binding to be a “respectable” hobby.  Perhaps it is odd and quirky, but it seems to escape that geeky/deviant tag that we sometimes get nailed with.  And, regular comic reading seems to be able to hide under the halo of the comic binding.

Doesn’t it “destroy” the value of the comics?

THIS is always the concern for the first time binder: “Won’t it ruin the value of my comics?  What if I want to sell them?”

I have seen folks defend binding by pointing out how much bound editions sell for on eBay, and it is true that some bound volumes do sell for hefty sums.  But, I think it is more honest to say that it does destroy their value.  BUT, let’s be honest about what these things are worth.  Most back issues produced since the 80’s are worth about a dollar each (or less).  You may look at price guides that tell you they’re worth more, but good luck selling them for that amount on eBay or to your local comic shop.  And for issues that are “worth something” are you really going to sell it?  Really???  If you’re not planning to sell it, you might as well put it into a format were you can read it and enjoy it.  Or, if you happen to have something really valuable (like X-Men #94), you could buy a reprinted copy for binding purposes or pull the pages out of a trade paperback.

What can you bind?

The beauty of binding is that you can bind anything.  Want to bind all #1 issues of Marvel series from the late 70’s?  You can do that.  Want to bind the entire Secret Wars II miniseries with all of its tie-ins into a few volumes?  You can do that.  Want to bind a modern classic like Planetary?  You can do that.  Want to bind a bunch of random miniseries or story arcs into an anthology?  You can do that.  Want to bind trade paperbacks?  You can even do that.  The beauty about binding is that you can bind just about anything.

Most book binderies want the spine to be under 2.5 inches or they’ll charge you a surcharge.  I personally think that 2 inches is ideal and that equals about 20-25 single issues.  If you bind less, the spine gets narrow and you run out of room for printing titles and creators names on the spine.  If you bind more, the volume gets heavy and you may lose word balloons to “gutter loss” (the term for the place in a book where the pages meet).

Selecting a bindery?

There are a TON of binderies around the world.  Most are small, family-owned businesses.  There is no dominant national powerhouse in book binding.  Binderies do a lot of things besides comics.  They also do things like bind magazines for libraries and universities, bind graduate school theses, rebind old books that are falling apart for libraries, etc.  Prior to 2010, one bindery had begun to focus on comic binding to the extent that they sponsored comic podcasts and hence captured much of the market.  This company (Library Bindings) was pretty much loved by everyone, but it was acquired by a larger bindery called Houchen Bindery, Ltd. Some passionate comic binders stopped using Houchen because of the departure of some beloved employees of LBC and I’ve never used Houchen, but from all accounts they do a lovely job.   I exclusively use a California-based bindery called Herring and Robinson and have loved their service and their product.

Of course, there are a LOT more binderies in the world.  If you don’t want to use one of the ones mentioned above, you might be able to even find a local solution and avoid shipping your comics.  You could call your local university or libraries and ask them who they use for journal or magazine binding services.  There might be one in your hometown.

Preparing your comics?

If you’ve never dealt with a bindery, it is probably worth a quick phone call or email to find out if they have any particular preferences, especially if it is your first time and you’re nervous about “doing it wrong”.

Basically what you do is get the comics you want to bind in an ordered stack (out of the bags) and send them away.  They MUST be in the order in which you want them bound, the bindery cannot “figure it out” and while they might be so alert that they notice you have put the comics in the wrong order, you shouldn’t expect them to do so.

Then you need some way to keep the stack of comics in order.  Personally, I just put the issues in a bag (I save the bags that places like mycomicshop.com use for shipping) and tightly gather up the sides/excess of the bag with tape.  MAKE SURE TO PUT THE BINDING SLIP INSIDE (more on this below).  Some people put rubber bands around their issues to hold them in a “stack”, but I find that my method makes a nice “brick” of paper.  Pack them securely in a box and ship it via UPS or USPS.  You don’t have to worry about removing the staples, the binderies all have some mysterious process of doing this.  You don’t even have to pack them that securely. The most common way comics are damaged during shipping is getting dented corners and that becomes a non-issue because the bindery will usually lightly trim the edges of the pages to neaten up the volume and the fact that the bindery will “press” your pages (thereby removing most dents).

When preparing your comics you can tear pages out if you like.  Personally, I remove every double-sided add and back cover.  I also remove any of those 6-page previews that publishers put in the back for other comics.  This is completely up to you.  When I got started, I carefully removed pages with a razor blade, but quickly learned that you can just tear them out.  This saves a LOT of space.  I know some people like the old ads, but trust me….there will be plenty  that you won’t be able to remove due to their having story on the other side.  You couldn’t get rid of all those old Charlie Atlas ads even if you tried.

Adding things to the project?

I put a table of contents in each volume.  Kinda nice to know what is in there, huh?  You’ll just have to fiddle around with a word processing program to get the margins right.  I print the ToCs on nice, linen resume-quality paper, but any acid-free paper would be fine.  If you’re binding 90’s era comics, you might have all sorts of trading cards, posters and wraparound covers to deal with.  You CAN bind all of these into the volume.  Some things like trading cards will screw up how the volume lays flat, but it’s up to you.  An alternative with trading cards is to paste a nice envelope inside the back cover when you get the volume back and put the cards in there.  With posters I’ve carefully folded them so that they fold right out of the issue.  The big thing to remember is that you need to leave a “tab” for the binder to attach the poster to the spine of the volume, so you’re going to have to trim some of the poster away.  You also want to be aware of the fact that the binder will trim the edges of your volume, so don’t leave any folds flush with the edge.  Trust me, you can figure it out.  With wraparound covers, you can take a number of approaches: You can bind them as-is (i.e. so the back cover is at the back of the issue).  You can remove them, fold them back on themselves and place them before the issue in question (so you see the whole wraparound cover) or you can kinda fanfold them so that they pull out.

Binding options?

Each bindery will have a “binding slip”.  Usually this slip is available on their website as a pdf or jpg file and it is basically something you fill out to tell the bindery how you want your volumes bound.  You will always have to pick the color of the cover material, the color of the printing on the spine and the lettering on the spine.

The lettering on the spine is most important.  Every binding slip I’ve ever seen shows a tall, skinny box that is supposed to symbolize the spine of a book.  Here you just type (or carefully print) what you want on the spine.  If you visit some comic binding forums online, you’ll see plenty of ideas.  If you are picky about precisely where certain text is on the spine, include measurements from the top/bottom just to make it easier for the bindery.  Usually after the bindery has done an order for you, they’ll save your “default” layout and match it in the future.  Also, keep in mind how wide the spine will be.  If you’re only binding 10 issues, you might have to print vertically up-and-down the spine rather than horizontally.

There are a number of little “dress-up” touches you can add to your volumes.  I always add a ribbon to my volumes.  They look snappy and help you keep your place without using a bookmark.  You can also add things like die-stamps with the X-Men logo or the DC “Bullet” logo.  You’re basically limited to what die-stamps the bindery has on hand unless you want to pay for them to create a new die-stamp and thereby expand your library.  You’ll be amazed and what die-stamps other folks have created in the past that you can use.

The new(er) frontier in comic binding is custom covers.  Basically, you create a graphic file for the front/back covers and spine and email it to the bindery.  They print it and your bound volume comes out looking like a professional book you’d see in the store.  It isn’t something I’ve ever had any real interest in personally, but some folks have done wonderful things so if you have photoshop talent, you might want to check this out.

Shipping?

For shipping, your best bets are going to be one of the US Postal service’s Priority Mail boxes or old-fashioned UPS.  I’m usually getting 5-7 volumes done at one time and that won’t fit in a Priority Mail box, so I tend to use UPS.  It’s going to cost you ~$15 to ship your comics off to be bound.  I would caution you against using “media mail” as comics technically do not qualify for the media mail rate (because they have advertisements in them).  I used media mail for a long time before one day getting a nasty-gram from my post office saying if I did it again, I’d get a huge fine.  Be warned.

You can pack your comics with as much TLC as you want, but my system is pretty bare bones.  After you’ve prepped your comics, put the comics in a bag and tape it up.  I’ve found that if you gather up all the slack in the sides of the bag when taping the bags shut, your comics end up like a “brick” of paper.  I think these bricks are pretty impervious to minor jostling, so I ship them as-is.  Make sure your binding slip goes inside the bag.  Put all your comics into a box, fill the empty space around the comics with crushed paper, packing peanuts, etc. and ship it away.

How much does it cost?

Most standard volumes I’ve gotten bound have been ~$20 each.  There is often a “base” charge of around $15-17 per volume and then you start adding options (like the ribbon).  Printing on the covers and die-stamping logos seems to be a common extra-cost addition.  You can also do things like use faux-leather instead of the standard buckram cover material.  Probably is you went nuts with the add-ons, you could get your cost up to $35/volume.

How to get started?

A lot of new binders are attracted to having their X-Men issues bound.  I’d really encourage you to NOT start with something complex like X-Men.  There are entire websites dealing with the proper reading/binding order for the X-Men.  Trust me, figuring out how to navigate between X-events and crossovers while (a) keeping it to ~20 issues per volume and (b) not chopping events in half, can be a difficult process.  A great series to start with could be something like Y the Last Man.  It’s a great series that you’ll want to keep forever AND it doesn’t have any complex crossovers.

Other tricky issues…

Some more advanced topics do include how to deal with complex bindings like the X-Men.  One of my longer term projects is to have a “complete” history of the X-Men in bound glory, but figuring out what to do with all the miniseries and crossovers is maddening.  You also have to decide whether to include that stray issue of Daredevil that was labeled as part of the Mutant Massacre to sell a few extra copies, but had very little to do with the X-Men.

Binding currently on-going series can also be very tricky because you never know when a series will end or begin a HUGE crossover.  You feel pretty stupid if you bind the first 25 issues of a series only for them to announce that the series will end with issue #28.  Similarly, with the way Marvel/DC renumber series and do crossovers, you can get yourself into similar problems.  The best idea is to wait at least a year before binding anything.

What to do with miniseries?  Group them by theme?  I finally developed a bound series called Dean Presents and it is full of anything.  I fill it up with great miniseries from various publishers, one-shots that merit preserving, and even great runs from titles that I otherwise have no interest in binding.  Once you stop worrying about “doing it wrong” it is really rather liberating.  There really are no rules.

Just do it…

I just encourage you to do it.  Once you start ripping those comics apart and binding them, you’ll have all of that “old comics feel”, with none of the hassle/inconvenience/geekiness of single issue comics.

-Dean Stell

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