[MadMikeyD]

I have read and heard alot about having individual comic books bound into hardcover books.  I was just curious if anyone has tried printing out any of the comics they've downloaded here and having them bound into a hardcover (or softcover) book.  I have been considering trying this, particularly with the "Daredevil Battles the Claw" stories from Silver Streak Comics.  As great as this site is, I like to be able to hold my comics in my hands.  Just wondered if anyone else had tried it and if they were happy with the results.

Here's an example of the comic binding I'm talking about:

[Frost]

That is a good idea but who will bind it? i think it will have legal consequences, perhaps if a short tutorial were to be posted that would help the persons interested.

[Lanfeust]

That sure makes one's collection look great. And as for PD comics, there wouldn't be any legal problems to produce them - as long as the pages scanned are good quality.

But I think printing one volume would cost dear...

[MadMikeyD]

Well, if I use the printer at work (shhhh), it wouldn't cost much.  And Library Binding Company will bind them starting at $15 + shipping.  Most any company that binds stuff for libraries (re-binding old books, binding magazines, etc.) would do it.  Several libraries actually have comics bound to put on their shelves, and a lot of people do get their own comic collections bound.  You can read more about it here:

Homegrown Hardcovers Forum

[citaltras]

I had also the same idea time ago,
but never tried it seriously.
Why don't you try to print just one issue and tell us about the results?

[Aussie500]

But binding comics is a lot different to binding something that has been printed up on a home printer. Paper is different, size being individual pages instead of folded ones would make it hard, personally l do not see a professional binder being willing to handle them. Also when getting even original comics bound, you will lose some of the artwork to the binding since the comic will no longer open as much as it used to.

There are no legal consequences to getting your original comics bound, Marvel, DC last weeks comics you purchased are all OK. Even though the scans are public domain l think a binder would quibble at doing home printed comics of something they might think is copy protected, they are hardly going to take the time to work out if they are public domain or not. But you could ask and see what they say.

[John C]

Actually, on the subject of binding home-printed pages, that's how I had to get my Master's thesis ready, back when wooly mammoths roamed the Earth (I'm not quite old enough for dinosaurs, yet).  I took control of the computer lab overnight, printed up four copies, and ran them over to the bindery (which you'll find at least one of in the neighborhood of any large school--ask any PhD advisor for directions).  As I recall, that cost me $25 per copy.

But especially if you're not working in bulk (that is, as long as it doesn't look like you're going into business), they probably don't care what you're binding, so I'd say it's worth a few bucks as an experiment.

[narfstar]

You could use spiral binding for much cheaper and can buy the equipment and spiral spines cheaply

[Aratak]

I know ya'll will think me a godless heathen, but I've actually come to prefer scans to paper. The convenience is nice, no dust, no pulling five longboxes to find the one that I want... and, in the end, the detail is so lovely on my nice big monitor. I really can't imagine going back to paper, much less printing and binding.

Of course, don't take this as a "don't do it," kind sir. I've got far, far too many mad projects under my belt to deter anyone from their own madness!

[ericinwisconsin]

This is an interesting thread.

Personally, I love the feel of a comic book in my hands, but I realize that not everyone can own an issue of, say, Spider-Man #1, so I' grateful for the comics that Marvel put on CD's a few years ago.

Better or worse, digitized comics are the wave of the future, and hopefully a way of preserving the past. Think of having a whole set of Fawcett horror books on CD or DVD. How amazing that would be!

I haven't done much in the way of scanning old comics, but I wish I had. I had a beautiful collection, full of old DC and All American comics from the 1940's that I had to sell years ago to pay my late wife's medical bills. I wish I'd had the means back then to scan and store them. So much that we'll probably never see.

Marvel and DC should be leading the way in preserving their history. Their own archives should include digital versions of every scrap of paper they possess. They should hold on to the paper, but before it crumbles to dust, they should digitize it all.

And we in fandom should be working to preserve the output of publishers who no longer exist.

[Privateer]

I have actually been planning on doing just this for a while now.

There is a lot of good information out there on book binding and with a decent laser printer, you can print in full color for as little as 7 cents per page, possibly less.

If you use softcover perfect binding, nice covers should run around a dollar per book. For a 50 page comic, you could do a full color reproduction for about $4.50. Bind 5 together into one book and you could likely do it for under $19.00.

I stumbled across this site while looking for a place to do just that. As soon as I scrounge up the money for a color laser printer I am going to build a perfect binding press and have at it. The final product should be a nice quality set of comic books bound as a single book with a cd or dvd in the back ( containing more comics to check out ) along with information on where to get these comics for free on the internet. I am fairly certain that there is a market out there for people wanting comics they can pack around and/or not read on their computers and figure that they will pay for the service. If not, at least they will know where to get good golden age books

As I also do some private enterprise comic trading, I come across older books every little bit. If I stumble across any that are not here, but in the public domain, I will gladly scan them in and add them.