Bound books

[grendeljd]

Donovan - which books did you have with you when I saw you at FanExpo in 2013? Didn't you get a Dave Ross sketch in one?

[Donovan]

Yeah! I got Dave Ross to do a Spylocke in my Rai custom hardcover!

As for the variants, yeah, I bind them where I can. Sacrilege!!!!

[grendeljd]

Yeah! I got Dave Ross to do a Spylocke in my Rai custom hardcover!

Yes!! That's the one!

As for the variants, yeah, I bind them where I can. Sacrilege!!!!

Unholy blasphemer!

Im not into the binding fetish, but they look great side by side in there.

[Langiy]

So I’m looking for some advice as I prepare my complete Valiant (pre Acclaim) universe for binding. I’ve followed the boards’ map with a slight edit here and there, but I’m still not too sure what to do about some final touches. My biggest concern is about consistency between the different volumes. I’ve decided what I’m doing on covers, foils and all that stuff. Now I’m just sweating the details.

Covers Before the Issue Vs. a Cover Gallery

This one I keep going back and forth on. Part of my bind map has me using a few graphic novels (Solar Alpha and Omega as well as the Unity collected books) while the rest are regular comic books. On one hand, having the cover before the actual issue allows me to easily find the breaks in stories, as well as being able to reverse the covers that extend tot eh back of the book for a cool look. On the other hand, having a dedicated covers gallery could be good looking, and that’s how the Valiant TPB’s did it in their books.

I’d love comments from people how have done both, and how happy you are with the end result.

Title Pages, TOC and Credits Pages

I feel like I have to do title pages to help keep consistency across the collection. What I’m not too sure about it the TOC and Credits pages. Credit pages seem really redundant because all that is included in the first or second page of each issue. BUT I don’t want to overlook a cool book feature.

TOC also could be interesting, but do you break it out by issue or storyline?
Again, looking for comments from people with experience.

Bonus Features

I plan to include a few bonus features as warranted (Magnus Robot Fighter’s trading cards, early letters from the editor, etc.) but I’m not sure how to execute some of the larger parts (The Alpha & Omega, Unity covers, the MRF poster, etc.). Do I need to leave extra gutter so it could be bound in the book and still unfold cleanly? Is there any benefit to including the trading cards that were strewn out among the mid-year books? The SSN contest cards and the explication? I also have a complete set of first gen trading cards I’m trying to incorporate in some why, so ideas are welcome!

Laser Vs. Ink

So along with the Bonus Features, I may need to copy a page or two to make my bind map work, as well as some of the more difficult covers (Solar 10!) to find in good shape. For the title pages and any comic reprints, I really want it to match a close to the original as I can, so I’m thinking ink jet (I should add that I work for a large printer manufacturer so I can get great print quality) but if there are issues, I’d like to know before I start printing stuff out. I’m planning on using 24lb white paper. For covers, are lasers closer to the cover? Is there a special paper I should consider?

Thanks in advance. If I think of more questions, I’ll post them.

[omega_override]

Bound books is the best kind of porn, been interested in this kind of stuff since I came across a photo of a stack of books that contained every single issue of Nickelodeon Magazine

[Joshua]

Anyone have any of their extras they want to share, like cover galleries, ToC, stuff like that? I am no good on photoshop and plan to bind my VH1 run.

[caxiotis]

I started a new hobby right before my daughter was born.......binding comics by myself. I built a book press, researched it, bought all of the supplies from a book binding supply company in my home city (surprised me), bought a rudimentary hot foil stamper, etc. As of today I have bound 20+ books, and having fun with it. I took a long break from binding when my daughter was newborn, but have started again recently with binding the L.E.G.I.O.N. series from '89-'94. Here are some pics of my latest set.



















I felt like sharing today

[Chiclo]

That is pretty interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[nscc]

Hey, great idea there! and great job on those.

[mkb28]

Great job, Chris! Those books look awesome!

Mkb28

[caxiotis]

My binding hobby continues. I have upgraded my hot foil stamper a few months ago, and found a company that makes stamping die for a reasonable price. That being said I remade my LEGION 93 book, and my old Hellboy Universe bind (never showed to you guys Hellboy before)

Old LEGION books with new LEGION 93 book for comparison




And then I got both these books signed at C2E2





Honest I pretty happy with these books, so happy to share the photos

[mkb28]

Awesome! Looks great, Chris! I should be close to picking up my latest binding project- 185+ issues of Green Arrow. I will share pics when I get them.

Mkb28

[Aport]

I just did my frist binding, Punisher (1995 series). 22 comics in all. It was only $27, but you have to add shipping cost to the binding company and the shipping cost from the binding company back to you.
For one book....about $50 with shipping.
Its better to do more than one book at a time which decreases the shipping cost per book.
I will try to post some pics.

[mkb28]

Hello Everyone:

You can check out my GREEN ARROW bound HC's here:

http://www.valiantfans.com/forum/viewto ... =4&t=47818" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks,

Michael
mkb28

[caxiotis]

If anybody is interested I recently made an East of West bind and am taking orders to make some for people. Below is my facebook page and more photos of the book and the binding process

https://www.facebook.com/CLABindery/pos ... 5749939516" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jmatt]

Looks fantastic!

[Shadowman99]

I'm quite intrigued by the idea of binding my comics some day, but one thing that concerns me is that a reasonable amount of the spine-end of the page is hard to see (or 'gets lost') because of the binding process - is that a common thing or does that just happen if a comic is bound badly?

Advice?


P.S: Chris, your books look amazeballs

[caxiotis]

I'm quite intrigued by the idea of binding my comics some day, but one thing that concerns me is that a reasonable amount of the spine-end of the page is hard to see (or 'gets lost') because of the binding process - is that a common thing or does that just happen if a comic is bound badly?

Advice?


P.S: Chris, your books look amazeballs

What you are referring to is called gutter loss. If your book is Smythe bound then the book will open flat and there will be no gutter loss (option offered by most binderies). The books with gutterloss typically are oversewn bound (a stronger binding than Smythe), but I don't think the gutterloss is that big a deal. Here are some photos of the east of west book being oversewn and some other books I have made. The gutterloss is negligible (to me it is like the gutterloss you get with a TPB).









Here's a book that was made in a bindery with oversewn binding (not sure which bindery as I bought book off of eBay)



Typically they say with an oversewn book you lose 1/4" of the book from the spine, but I feel it is more like 1/8". Also, to me it is similar loss as a TPB, as a TPB does not open flat. So to me gutterloss is not that big a deal

[caxiotis]

If you guys want to follow my page on facebook, you can see real time books I am working on as they are completed

https://m.facebook.com/CLABindery/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Shadowman99]

I'm quite intrigued by the idea of binding my comics some day, but one thing that concerns me is that a reasonable amount of the spine-end of the page is hard to see (or 'gets lost') because of the binding process - is that a common thing or does that just happen if a comic is bound badly?

Advice?


P.S: Chris, your books look amazeballs

What you are referring to is called gutter loss. If your book is Smythe bound then the book will open flat and there will be no gutter loss (option offered by most binderies). The books with gutterloss typically are oversewn bound (a stronger binding than Smythe), but I don't think the gutterloss is that big a deal. Here are some photos of the east of west book being oversewn and some other books I have made. The gutterloss is negligible (to me it is like the gutterloss you get with a TPB).

Typically they say with an oversewn book you lose 1/4" of the book from the spine, but I feel it is more like 1/8". Also, to me it is similar loss as a TPB, as a TPB does not open flat. So to me gutterloss is not that big a deal

Cheers, that answered my question brilliantly, particularly with photos for reference, great stuff

Just my opinion but gutter loss on oversewn books doesn't look like that big a deal to me
Definitely heading over to follow you FB page now!

[Phoenix8008]

So I’m looking for some advice as I prepare my complete Valiant (pre Acclaim) universe for binding. I’ve followed the boards’ map with a slight edit here and there, but I’m still not too sure what to do about some final touches. My biggest concern is about consistency between the different volumes. I’ve decided what I’m doing on covers, foils and all that stuff. Now I’m just sweating the details.

I know your post was from nearly two years ago, but I'm at about this point now, and I thought I'd answer you in case you're still getting prepped or for helping any others thinking about the same things.

Covers Before the Issue Vs. a Cover Gallery

This one I keep going back and forth on. Part of my bind map has me using a few graphic novels (Solar Alpha and Omega as well as the Unity collected books) while the rest are regular comic books. On one hand, having the cover before the actual issue allows me to easily find the breaks in stories, as well as being able to reverse the covers that extend tot eh back of the book for a cool look. On the other hand, having a dedicated covers gallery could be good looking, and that’s how the Valiant TPB’s did it in their books.

I’d love comments from people how have done both, and how happy you are with the end result.

I hadn't thought about doing anything other than leaving the covers where they are in front of each book. That's how I'm planning to do mine. I've already done enough cutting and pasting for my project, so I don't feel like cutting out all the covers to put them together somewhere.

Title Pages, TOC and Credits Pages

I feel like I have to do title pages to help keep consistency across the collection. What I’m not too sure about it the TOC and Credits pages. Credit pages seem really redundant because all that is included in the first or second page of each issue. BUT I don’t want to overlook a cool book feature.

TOC also could be interesting, but do you break it out by issue or storyline?
Again, looking for comments from people with experience.

I hadn't considered doing a title page for mine. I had wondered about doing a TOC, but I would have just done a list of individual issues included. Now I'm considering breaking the list out by story-line where possible, kind of like they would for a TPB these days; something like: "Faith: Hollywood & Vine (issues 1-4)"? More thinking required.

Bonus Features

I plan to include a few bonus features as warranted (Magnus Robot Fighter’s trading cards, early letters from the editor, etc.) but I’m not sure how to execute some of the larger parts (The Alpha & Omega, Unity covers, the MRF poster, etc.). Do I need to leave extra gutter so it could be bound in the book and still unfold cleanly? Is there any benefit to including the trading cards that were strewn out among the mid-year books? The SSN contest cards and the explication? I also have a complete set of first gen trading cards I’m trying to incorporate in some why, so ideas are welcome!

I don't have a lot in the way of bonus features to include in mine yet. I plan on taking the Alpha & Omega super panel poster from the TPB and just sticking it in the bound book like a bookmark. The Magnus card pages I've decided not to bind into my books (I'm missing some of them anyway). I do like the scan of all the card pages together that someone upthread bound into his book so that if folds out to show the whole thing. I plan on keeping all my ads, letters pages, and back covers in my bound books.

Laser Vs. Ink

So along with the Bonus Features, I may need to copy a page or two to make my bind map work, as well as some of the more difficult covers (Solar 10!) to find in good shape. For the title pages and any comic reprints, I really want it to match a close to the original as I can, so I’m thinking ink jet (I should add that I work for a large printer manufacturer so I can get great print quality) but if there are issues, I’d like to know before I start printing stuff out. I’m planning on using 24lb white paper. For covers, are lasers closer to the cover? Is there a special paper I should consider?

Thanks in advance. If I think of more questions, I’ll post them.

I haven't made any copies of my books yet, so I can't comment. I just bought multiple copies of the comics themselves and cut them up to include as needed (although it pained me to deface a 2nd copy of Magnus #5 to get that one page twice with Magnus story on one side and Rai story on the other. Even then, I would have wound up with an upside down page of story showing in two spots, so I got creative. I cut out extra Valiant ad pages from the remainders of the leftover books, and glued them over the offending upside down pages! I felt a little crazy playing 'arts & crafts' with my old Valiant comics, let me tell you!

I'm sorry I don't have more practical experience to answer your questions with. I hope you've accomplished your binding by now, since it's been nearly two years. If you have, I'd love to see some pics and advice from your experiences!

[TheFerg714]

So I've only bound one series before (Jeff Lemire's Green Arrow), and I just found out that Omaha has it's own bindery and I'm wanting to do more. If I had unlimited money I'd probably be binding most of my VEI series, but that's probably not really an option. I'm considering binding the entire Harbinger Wars 2 event (which I'm assuming is going to be massive) immediately after it's finished.

I would also love to see my entire 50+ issue run of Venditti's X-O in one (or probably two) bound volumes.

[Phoenix8008]

Just got a package in the mail last night. Check out my early Christmas present to myself! You might say I spent most of last night going "Squeeeeeeee!"













I'm so very happy to have these first bound books back! Now I gotta prep the last 2 volumes of my 4000 AD collection to finish it out. #5 will match how #4 looks with coloring and the Psi-Lords symbol on it (which anyone can now use thru Herring & Robinson since they created for me for this project). #6 will look like volume I with the red color & gold lettering and have the Magnus symbol again. Maybe in a few months, I'll have pics to show of them all together.

[mkb28]

Wow, that is a nice early Christmas present! Looks amazing, Brother!

[mkb28]

So I've only bound one series before (Jeff Lemire's Green Arrow), and I just found out that Omaha has it's own bindery and I'm wanting to do more. If I had unlimited money I'd probably be binding most of my VEI series, but that's probably not really an option. I'm considering binding the entire Harbinger Wars 2 event (which I'm assuming is going to be massive) immediately after it's finished.

I would also love to see my entire 50+ issue run of Venditti's X-O in one (or probably two) bound volumes.

I used Houchen Bindery which is just west of Lincoln for all of my bound comic books.