DIY GN's - how do you bind yours ?

[Marbles]

I'm not normally a fan of chopping up old comics, but for reasons of space I'm toying with such a heresy. For instance I recently got 3 old 'Best Of 2000AD's' with the complete VC's in them, interspersed between various Dredd reprints. It would be nice to rip 'em out, put them in the right order and nicely bind them somehow for a DIY GN. Similarly for 'Harry 20' which I've also just got in the same format. Might even do it for some of the old Megs 'Button Man' reprints. Plus (to digress) I want to get some old 'Heavy Metal's' with Pat Mills strip 'Sha' in it (Jan 99, Mar 00, Mar 01 since you ask) and make a nice GN without all the rubbish t&a strips printed with it.

Anyway I don't wanna start doing this without a decent way of binding them etc. Someone on another thread mentioned 'heat binding' or somesuch ? What is that ?

Has anyone who has done this sort of thing have any advice or tips ??

nb I should add I'd almost certainly buy proper GN reprints of the above if and when they were available.

[JamieB]

Hopefully there'll be some VCs (and maybe even Harry 20) next year. Button Man is creator-owned and thus a different beast altogether.

*J*

[paulvonscott]

Jamie that would be great.  Harry Twenty...

Colononel.  I wouldn't chop em up watcher, if you get the stories in another format they'll be worthless.  not in price, but it means no one else could enjoy them.

I did do my own GN of Zenith Book 3 once, that was comb bound.  But fortunately I have the GN's now.  And I did Nemesis Book 2, but again, that will one replaced by the GN when it comes out.

I've kind of given up on the idea, it was a lot of effort for something that really wasn't that good.  You'll only regret it later.

Cheers

Paul

[petemaskreplica]

I remember attacking Nemesis Book 2 with the scissors myself. it seemed like such a good idea at the time...
'heat binding' sounds like a thing we used to have at work, you basically weld the pages together with a strip of glue. trouble is, the glue goes brittle really quickly, so the whole thing falls apart. Not recommended.
Paul's right, this sort of behaviour can only end in tears. don't do it!

Pete

[John Caliber]

Thermal binding is great. I've got collected editions over two years old and they are still in good condition. I got them all done at Prontaprint (my former employer). I added a card backing and an acetate cover with ain index sheet behind. The thermal bind is very durable - you can shake the book by half a dozen pages and the binding will hold. Highly recommended.

As I typically don't care for at least half the content of any prog, I just tear out the pages I want, bind them and whiz the rest in the bin.

- TCC

Link: http://www.jdrpg.com/jdss" target="_blank">THE JUDGE DREDD STREET SIM

[roystead]

I just pop all the progs in a magazine box from Ikea and put the box on a bookshelf.

It seems to work quite well...

Roy

[opaque]

It works really well until you need 7 large boxes just for the weekly progs, 2 more for the megazines, one more for specials, another for the us sized small ones, 3 more full of merchandise and could fill another 4 boxes with related items such as figures.

[roystead]

Well, I don't do "figures" and so on, but all the 2000AD progs fill one bookcase and the other is filled by all of the Megazines/specials/annuals/Starlord/Scream/Crisis/Revolver/Blast/Marshall Law/spin-off comics (Best Ofs/Classic 2000AD/Complete Judge Dredd/DC Dredds/Lawman of the Future/Diceman/etc)/etc and maybe a dozen graphic novels.

It seems to work well for me - and they're all readily accessible.

Though I'd like to be able to download this site's DB, so I could use it to generate my own printed index cards to pop in each box with the progs.

I think someone asked earlier, but - the magazine files are Ikea ones (cardboard, 5 for a pound) and I'm using nearly 60 of those (eight of them neatly fill one shelf - the annuals/yearbooks/GNs don't need to be boxed). The bookcases are silver "Billy" bookcases, also from Ikea. Two of them is sufficient for the complete run of everything (so far, anyway, though I the 2000AD progs bookcase will probably overflow in a few months time).

Roy

Link: http://www.ikea.co.uk/product_presentation/show.asp?productnumber=70023121&type=ART&id=3038" target="_blank">Billy Bookcases

[roystead]

PS/ The "magazine files" I mean are something like this, but made of cardboard, rather than wood.

Royhttp://mediaserver2.ikea.framfab.se/product_images/PE066181.JPG">

[opaque]

That must look really nice.
If I had my own place and the room thats the sort of thing I'd like to do. They need showing off properly. I'd have a 2000ad/Dredd room.

The boxes I'm talking about are 40cm deep, 26cm across and 32cm high.
And add to that 2 shelves full of graphic novels 80cm long each.

Has anyone got any suggestions for preserving/storing (but ability to see) artwork? I was thinking of some sort of binder but this artwork is 42cm long by 15cm high.
They are safe now but I'd rather have them in something which means I can see the now and again.
I've got loads of posters and related pictures as well which I'd like to do the same with. I put them in frames but haven't been able to put them up so they are propped up gathering dust.

[paulvonscott]

5 for a quid, nice, I bought some rubbishy ones from Stationary box for much more.  Dman my hide.

I like the wood ones, on the ikea site it says they are ?2, if so thats great, but the price sounds  abit cheap to me.

Still, may have a look up.  Cheers.

[Matt]

Good Idea, but what do you do when you have over 1100 progs? Mine are all laid down in reinforced comic boxes, with the issue numbers printed on the lids. Trouble is I had to move house once to rehouse my collection, now my new house is filling up & I don't want to put them up in the loft for fear of damp. What next for my progs, a loft conversion with central heating?

[Trout]

"I'd have a 2000ad/Dredd room."

I actually do have a room devoted entirely to comics, books and assorted junk.

Officially it's a spare room, but I've discouraged people from using it by refusing to put a bed in it.

The problem now, however, is I'm running out of space in it.

I'm going to have to buy a bigger house.

- Trout

[roystead]

All of my 1300+ progs (prog 4 to the present, no gaps) are sitting on a single bookcase, so it works with large numbers of comics.

Yup, the wooden magazine files from Ikea are ?2 each - but the card ones a tenth the price, and do the job just as well, if you ask me. So I use card ones.

Each magazine file holds between 30 and 50 progs (the more recent progs are thinner than the old newsprint-paper ones) very comfortably, and you get 8 magazine files to a shelf and four A4-height shelves to a bookcase (plus 2 paperback-book-height shelves, to break the monotony, visually).

So that's 32 magazine files per bookcase - easily enough for 1300+ progs.

On the second bookcase, the Megazines take up 8-and-a-bit (so that's 9) files, the Best Ofs/Complete JD/Classic 2000ADs fill 8 files and the 2000AD/Starlord/Judge Dredd/Tornado/Dan Dare/ Rogue Trooper annuals, yearbooks, MegaHistory, 2000AD Diary & GNs take up the same space altogether as 7 magazine files on a shelf.

So that lot fills 3 shelves on the second bookcase.

All of the specials (Winter, Sci-Fi, Rogue, Mega-Specials) and cross-overs (Batman, Lobo) use up 2 files, Starlord, Crisis, Scream, Revolver, Blast! & Toxic fill 4 magazine files. The other 2 files on that shelf are filled with Best Of/Complete JD specials/Diceman (one file) and DC Dredds and Lawman of the Future (second file).

In other words, two bookcases is enough - and if I need more room for 2000ADs/Megazines on a bookcase, I can always shift Crisis (which I'm reading at the moment, and which I've yet to find a decent story in) or Revolver/Toxic/Blast! into the spare room, since they're not even in the same ballpark as 2000AD, as far as their writing quality is concerned as far as I'm concerned (though I haven't read Toxic yet).

Roy

[Marbles]

Found these cool 'Portfolio Files' at Muji - the bizzo for putting together old comic strips...

Link: http://www.mujionline.com/shop_uk/productpage.asp?PID=183" target="_blank">Muji Portfolio Files