Comics UK

I saw a recent blog post from someone who had bound copies of the Beano &Dandy. They were bound into 6 monthly volumes and cost about a fiver per volume. It set me thinking. Would this be a good thing to do with by 2000AD collection particularly the early issues? So I'd like to tap the collective experience of the forum on the following before I look for book binder:

• Has anyone actually bound early copies of 2000AD?
• Will the IPC paper be suitable for binding?
• How much is trimmed by the binding process?
• What's the best thickness for bound volumes?
• Does binding really make them more readable?
• Is the cost quoted a good average?

Please add anything else you think might help.

Thanks.

This is only my opinion and other folk might well disagree strongly. With that in mind, I think it's a bad idea. Please keep each issue (or 2 issues back to back) in a proper 2000AD bag. This way you maintain the integrity of the comic, protect it from moisture etc., slow down the degradation of cheap newsprint and when you take a comic from a bag to read, it is, to all intents and purposes,in the same condition as when you bought it - or put it in the bag. I hate the idea of putting holes in comics to bind them. Or compressing the left hand side when they go in a spring holder. Or gluing them in and any other nasty things.
Your comics are important to you and keeping them in as good nick as possible can give a warm feeling. It also involves a bit of discipline to do it well and I repeat that binding is a bad idea, imo.

I agree with Paw. The only bound comics I've seen are the publisher's own. Yes, it keeps the pages super flat, but you can't see the centre spreads properly and the edges of the pages are prone to yellowing.

It's a pity a method couldn't be found of attaching the comics to non-harmful 'extensions' within bound comics volumes, that would enable the comics to be read fully and easily without cropping or making it difficult to see the centre page spreads.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:It's a pity a method couldn't be found of attaching the comics to non-harmful 'extensions' within bound comics volumes, that would enable the comics to be read fully and easily without cropping or making it difficult to see the centre page spreads.

Some of those partwork binders had wire clips which held the issues at top and bottom, allowing the spreads to open fully. But I presume vexillia is talking about proper binding, which wouldn't be as forgiving.

That said, if you look at the photo of the bound comics on Irmantas' blog Kazoop! You'll see they look nicely done. I still think it'd be a struggle to read the centre spreads though and there'd still be the problem of yellowing edges after a while:
http://kazoop.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/en ... nd-up.html

I've never been very interested in collecting comics for investment but it's worth bearing in mind that if you bound a run of early Superman comics, for example, it'd instantly knock thousands of dollars off their value. Admittedly British comics have never fetched the sort of silly money asked for their US equivalents but I have noticed a sharp increase in prices over the last few years so you can't know what mint copies might be worth in the future.

I do think that bound comics volumes look very cool up on the shelves, though: much classier than a lot of boxes of loose comics!

On my first visit to D C Thomson in June 1984, I was delighted to see a bound volume of 1969 SPARKY up on the walls [amongst other delights]: my first sighting of this booty in 15 years----at the time this seemed to be the most desirable goods on the planet!

Dandy Editor [then] Dave Torrie kindly let me look through the contents and on a later visit one of the office subs actually photocopied my favourite I SPY episode for me, which was great of course, however as Lew pointed out in Post 3 above, because of the method used in binding, the area near the centre pages was distorted like you see in thick 'phone books.

I wasn't complaining, though.

I have several bound volumes of very vintage comics 1900s to 1940s. I notice in some they would pull the centre spread forward so that the middle isn't within the binding. I also have some loose issues of Funny Folks from the late 1800s which have been disbound and in some issues they have trimmed them so close that some of the copy (text) is actually missing.

Where did somebody get comics bound for "a fiver per volume"? 1922? I took an already-bound volume of Chums to be repaired and it cost me nearly £80!

I have heaps of Roy of the Rovers and the 70's Wizard I would love to bind one day, when I have the money. I can get them up on the shelves sitting pretty, rather than all in a box.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:It's a pity a method couldn't be found of attaching the comics to non-harmful 'extensions' within bound comics volumes, that would enable the comics to be read fully and easily without cropping or making it difficult to see the centre page spreads.

I use these magi-clips to put comics and magazines in regular ring binders without damaging them, but still allowing you to read them. They're not cheap, but it's worth it to keep them ordered and yet still be able to read them.

http://bit.ly/196MdPL

Here's a couple of photos of some of my whizzer and chips (just as the first example near my desk) in a binder.

yes: that is the sort of thing I had in mind, JakoB; many thanks for showing us your clear and helpful examples.

This is the route I would go and will hopefully I will take this one up: my recent efforts have seen me putting 6-months of vntage SPARKY in those box-files that look OK but really are a bit too 'office-like' and characterless----I am toying with the idea of printing out comic frames and logos in colour and lamenating the images onto the boxes.

vexillia wrote:I saw a recent blog post from someone who had bound copies of the Beano &Dandy. They were bound into 6 monthly volumes and cost about a fiver per volume. It set me thinking. Would this be a good thing to do with by 2000AD collection particularly the early issues? So I'd like to tap the collective experience of the forum on the following before I look for book binder:

• Has anyone actually bound early copies of 2000AD?
• Will the IPC paper be suitable for binding?
• How much is trimmed by the binding process?
• What's the best thickness for bound volumes?
• Does binding really make them more readable?
• Is the cost quoted a good average?

Please add anything else you think might help.

Thanks.

Back in the late 80s/early 90s I had my first few years of 2000AD bound. They are as good now as the books were at the time.

I have a lot of my comics stored in these Leitz clamp binders a perfect solution if you don't want your comics permanently bound together

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leitz-39440085- ... 89-7039742