Comic Book Binding

[Dick Grayson]

Does anyone know if the binders would allow for/give a different price if I sew the books myself but want them to do the rest?

Your best is to contact the bindery (or binderies) you are considering using and ask them directly. Having worked with both Houchen and H&R, they usually respond to email queries relatively quickly, though you could always call as well. Houchen's site is: http://houchenbindery.com/
And H&R's is: http://www.herringandrobinsonbookbinders.com/

[PLEDGE]

Dick Grayson, you are doing the Good Lord's work my friend. I have never custom bound anything before, but you have certainly planted the seeds of interest in my head. Especially for things like Knightfall which didn't get collected properly. Then again, digital solves this problem too. Hmm....

[Winterboy]

Can't wait to make my first one. I just have to get Titans Secret Files 2 (and find time to actually reread the series) and I can get the ball rolling on my Devin Grayson Titans book.

Same here.
I''ll start with my Stormwatch PHD collection.

[Judge Dredd]

Dick Grayson, you are doing the Good Lord's work my friend. I have never custom bound anything before, but you have certainly planted the seeds of interest in my head. Especially for things like Knightfall which didn't get collected properly. Then again, digital solves this problem too. Hmm....

If you do want to bind a run it is well worth doing, I have a few books that Kirk did and they are fantastic. Got all of Mark Waid's Flash done and truly amazing job and just the re-readability of the books goes up so much as they are in a nice well done hardcover batch. Cannot wait to get the next batch back and post some pics of them the art looked great cannot wait to get them in hand.

[Dick Grayson]

Dick Grayson, you are doing the Good Lord's work my friend. I have never custom bound anything before, but you have certainly planted the seeds of interest in my head. Especially for things like Knightfall which didn't get collected properly. Then again, digital solves this problem too. Hmm....

Ha, thanks Pledge! It's really about convenience, and if you're cool with digital, that is (usually) the cheaper route and certainly takes up less space. I wish I could get into digital more, but there's no substitute for having the book in my hands, which is why I got so into binding. I've done Knightfall myself and for JBatman05 here on the board, putting in the prelude issues, the Search, and various other things the newer trades left out. I did a couple posts about it actually:

Part 1: http://comicbindingpro.com/post/1269...post-that-uses
Part 2: http://comicbindingpro.com/post/1269...d-anatomy-part

And Judge, thanks man! I am just as interesting in seeing those books as you are, methinks Hope you post plenty of pictures once they're done.

[Batgirlfan]

Been thinking about doing all of this for Hack/Slash merging the DDP and Image stuff all together in chronoloical order. Have every issue, just need to locate the chronological reading order again. I do think Hack/Slash would be awesome ut together

[PLEDGE]

Ha, thanks Pledge! It's really about convenience, and if you're cool with digital, that is (usually) the cheaper route and certainly takes up less space. I wish I could get into digital more, but there's no substitute for having the book in my hands, which is why I got so into binding. I've done Knightfall myself and for JBatman05 here on the board, putting in the prelude issues, the Search, and various other things the newer trades left out. I did a couple posts about it actually:

Part 1: http://comicbindingpro.com/post/1269...post-that-uses
Part 2: http://comicbindingpro.com/post/1269...d-anatomy-part

And Judge, thanks man! I am just as interesting in seeing those books as you are, methinks Hope you post plenty of pictures once they're done.

Awesome, thanks for the links! Just a general question when it comes to binding..do you generally hunt for individual issues and then bind them or do you sacrifice already existing tpbs?

[Dick Grayson]

Awesome, thanks for the links! Just a general question when it comes to binding..do you generally hunt for individual issues and then bind them or do you sacrifice already existing tpbs?

If you want the books smyth sewn then you can't use trades (smyth sewn opens flatter and has less gutter loss, but you have to use floppies and cannot remove any pages typically, as the comics have to retain the signature); I usually get my books bound DFAB as the gutter loss is acceptable and I can use trades and floppies and remove double-sided ads and back covers, etc. If I already have a series in trade that I want to bind, I'll use the trades, and augment them when necessary.

If it's something I don't have, it just comes down to price and availability. If, say, the first 12 issues of a series are in trade and the floppies are expensive for the first few issues, I have no problem using the trade instead of the floppies. If I find an ebay lot with a whole series that happens to have the first chunk of issues in TPB, unless there are a boatload of ads (in the case of 80s and 90s DC, most of the ads can usually be removed, unlike Marvel where you can't remove any usually) I'll stick with the floppies.

This is me being long-winded, so the short version - it's personal preference, really.

[JBatmanFan05]

Awesome, thanks for the links! Just a general question when it comes to binding..do you generally hunt for individual issues and then bind them or do you sacrifice already existing tpbs?

I 95% use any existing tpbs (of course a lot of what I bind has little as far as existing tpbs (Looking at you Bronze Age Batman)). I think comic binding started more with fans binding their years-won individual issues into volumes, but I think there might be a trend toward using any existing tpbs, especially as DC is doing better & better in that dept.

but you have certainly planted the seeds of interest in my head. Especially for things like Knightfall which didn't get collected properly.

I've done Knightfall myself and for JBatman05 here on the board

My Knightfall volumes are real, and they're spectacular. Probably one of the most fan punch the air moments for me is when I got mine in the mail. Finally, it was right...I put right what DC kept getting wrong. Dick knows Knightfall inside and out now, not a better map/order on this Earth.

[PLEDGE]

^Thanks for responses guys, it's all new territory for me and very interesting! Will definitely look into this further at some stage (if I can one day finally finish my backlog lol)

[Hellboydce]

Just back from the most excellent Dick Grayson.......

[The Whovian]

Just back from the most excellent Dick Grayson.......

Wow! Those are really cool!

[Dayle88]

Sorry to change the subject quickly but does it really matter that much if a large hardcovers page block sags to the shelf? Thinking about it made me realise the strain on the top of the binding goes as soon as the paper touches the shelf. All my big books have post it notes to support the blocks but I was curious.

[sax]

Lovely ! Excellent choices.

Just back from the most excellent Dick Grayson.......

[TomSlick]

Just back from the most excellent Dick Grayson.......

Fuuuuuuuuuuuck

Speechless. I want everyone one of those now - even the Shadow, which I felt dropped off at the end (but still)!
I'm a little surprised DC hasn't done anything with Wildcats. That was an amazing series under Casey (and Moore).