US-sized comic "binders"?

[Mattofthespurs]

http://www.hollingworthmoss.co.uk/index.htm

They charge (or did at least when I last used them, about 6 months ago) £15 approx per volume, using buckram as the cover. Everything that you have on the spine is included in the price. They do use a courier system to return your books to you which, last time I used them, was £15 regardless of how many volumes you were getting sent back.

Hope this helps.

[Mattofthespurs]

A couple of pics so you can get an idea of what they are like.

The outside of the bind is in dark blue buckram with silver lettering. I have the comics trimmed (at no extra cost) so it all matches up and looks purty.


As you can see from the pick below there is very little (to none) gutter loss (when the art work gets sucked into the guttering of the book). I have my binds sewn rather than glued. I have a header and a tail added and a red silk book mark. If memory serves the header and tail are 10p each and the bookmark was free.

[TordelBack]

That is, as I believe the cool folk say, 'sweeet'.  How many 'standard' issues do you bind into a volume like that, Matt?   

[Mattofthespurs]

They can do anything up to about 2 and a half inches thick. With the Batman ones I usually do about 25-30 issues per bind but I have done up to 45 issues before. I tend to try to keep storylines in one volume so I had "Knightfall" (which is about 25 issues) in one volume, the "Knightquest" in another, which was smaller at about 20, and then "Knightquest vol 2" and "Knightsend" in one volume and that was nearly 40.

I want to do 2000 AD's but because of the different sizes of the comic down the years it's going to be tricky to keep all the volumes looking uniform. I've done 11 volumes of Batman so far from 1986 (issue 400 of Detective Comics) up to 1994. I have another 4 volumes prepped and ready to go.

[Mattofthespurs]

Here are some pics of the last volume I did which is about 40 issues thick.








If I get round to doing 2000 AD's I'll be doing 50 issues per bind.

[TordelBack]

That's wonderful - never has such dodgy material been treated so well!     I have to say I am completely in love with the execution - but having just boxed up the last 6 years' worth of 2000AD for storage, I can't believe 50 issues in a binder would be remotely manageable.  I'd have thought 25 was the comfortable limit. 

The notion of having ongoing stuff like Berlin and Age of Bronze bound like this, rather than buying trades of material I already own, is so seductive...

[Mattofthespurs]

I ended up selling my Batman trades and the prices I got from eBay basically paid for each bind anyway.

I think you maybe right, 50 issues of Twoth does look a tad heavy. Could do it by year and split each year into two volumes.

I do think that if I do ever bind up the Twoths then I will go the whole hog and splash out for leather binding instead of buckram and make it look really classy. That will probably push the price right up to £40 a volume but hey, it's Twoth 

[Colin YNWA]

Chief, who used to frequent these parts showed me his bound volumes at Kapow last year and I have to say they were wonderful. I've always intended to get around to this but get a bit scared taking a razor to my precious Ka-Zar comics!

I'd tend to agree keeping it to 20-25 comics (based on the ones he showed me) certainly meant for a more pleasant read, but of course does bump up the cost.

[SmallBlueThing]

Now, that's lovely. I'm going to seriously look into this- it's becoming increasingly obvious that effectively "doubling up" on precious material (longboxes and trades) isn't conducive to a happy life. Since trades are roughly the same cost as binding them, and since I don't buy comics to sell in some far-off future, this is definitely the way to go.

SBT

[Mattofthespurs]

I don't disfigure the comics I bind in anyway, shape or form.

I know some like to take out the ads, and some even take off the covers (or at least back cover) so that the story runs together better but I can't bring myself to do that.

I bind them in order as they are. I was just fed up with having to lug a box down, open it, take out a comic, unbag it, read it, bag it back up again and then repeat the process over and over again.

With a bind I find it takes up alot less room and looks pretty 

[Mattofthespurs]

Now, that's lovely. I'm going to seriously look into this- it's becoming increasingly obvious that effectively "doubling up" on precious material (longboxes and trades) isn't conducive to a happy life. Since trades are roughly the same cost as binding them, and since I don't buy comics to sell in some far-off future, this is definitely the way to go.

SBT

Beware that getting into binding can be seriously addictive. Each batch I send off takes between 2-6 weeks (depending on how many volumes I'm having bound) and as soon as you get them back you want to do another batch.

I also enjoy the fun of getting each batch ready. Getting them in order and discarding the hateful bags and boards 

[James Stacey]

seems a more worthy past-time than slabbing them.  I've had books rebound before and they have cost a fair bit more than that. It might be that rebinding a hardback is harder to do than fresh binding but I wouldn't have thought so. Looks fantastic though. It's actually surprising how many book binders are out there. Anywhere with a university should have one for thesis binding.

[Mattofthespurs]

Just received my latest four binds back from Hollingworth & Moss.
3 Batman binds plus Armageddon 2001 annuals plus Alien Agenda.
Sadly they are a Xmas pressie for me so I don't get to see them until the big day.
Kudos to Hollingworth & Moss though. They recieved them on the 5th and got them back basically within 2 weeks.
Pretty good going. Wasn't expecting to see them until the new year 

[glassstanley]

L

[Mattofthespurs]

L

Couldn't agree more.