Beginners Guide to Custom Comic Book Hardcovers

[@JoeArnold333]

You making this video and then 21Roy helping me out figuring out other small details have made my first custom omnibus experience go from being a hectic overwhelming mess too literally answering all my questions in the span of like 10 minutes! Thank you so much for this helpful video man! 🤙❤

[@thecomicarchive]

Very happy to hear it helped!

[@shademarbleclaws]

thank you! i recently bought a 70 lot of all shade the changing man, and was worried about all the individual issues getting lost or damaged. i am new to comic collecting, i like to read them, i like to bring them places. knowing theres a professional place that can get them all together for me saves me so much stress about ruining my comics. thank you again :)

[@thecomicarchive]

Very happy to hear it!

[@kobegarcia-jk7zb]

Thank you so much for making this well detailed video. I'm glad I can always refer to this video whenever I have a question about custom book binding.

[@xJohnWolfx]

This is the best custom binding guide I have seen on youtube. Great job!

[@thecomicarchive]

Thanks so much!

[@xJohnWolfx]

@@thecomicarchiveNo problem. I'm expecting about 12 custom binds from Houchen soon. Would love to come on and do a video with you.

[@jeromelacap2245]

@@thecomicarchive i had no idea Comic binding is a form of art 🙏🏻

[@PrimateSoul]

I have a ton of old magazines and comics that have tatered binds. Im interested in doing custom binding to preserve. Glad there is a lot of support network out there. Though binding supplies for magazines are difficult to find and same word brings up ammo too much.

[@thecomicarchive]

I’ve bound magazines as well and it’s a great way to preserve them and leave them readable.

[@loverboy110790]

What a great video! So clear and informative. Reminded me of the 'how it's made' segments from Mister Rogers.

[@jamesontravis2650]

instablaster...

[@NFLDude56]

Great video! Your video about binding Optic Nerve introduced me to the world of custom binding.

[@thecomicarchive]

Awesome! Glad to hear it. What’s your favorite bind that you’ve gotten done?

[@NFLDude56]

@@thecomicarchive I still haven't done one yet. Recently I've considered hunting down Shade, the Changing Man and doing a bind for it.

[@magufrog]

Awesome video! Thank you! I recently completed my X-Factor vol 3 set, but I'm undecided how I want to arrange my custom binds. Do you recommend by arcs or by number of issues? If I do it by arcs, then I'll have complete stories but different size HC, so it might look funny on a shelf, but if I do it in sets of 12, then they'll look even but then the stories will be weirdly divided.

[@thecomicarchive]

I’ve tried to do things kind of half way between what you described. Like for a JLA bind I usually did more than one arc in a book but tried to break things up in a somewhat natural place. The volumes didn’t match size perfectly but they are close enough that it doesn’t bother me.

[@recordx6246]

Can you do this with a regular book? I've created some custom cover art, and maps for the Game of Thrones books, and was hoping to create my own set of books that nobody else had.

[@thecomicarchive]

Absolutely! In fact that’s most of the books that go through Houchen have done. They do a lot of binding for schools trying to extend the life of their books.

[@jamesl4857]

Great imformative video. I do have a question hopefully someone can answer. Is it possible to create custom bound books from scans of a collection? Most of my paper comics are no longer in my possession, but I have hard disks full of scans that my father did for me after I moved to Europe.

[@thecomicarchive]

Thanks so much! As far as printing technically yes, as you can bind pretty much anything on paper. Just be ready for the cost, high quality printing can quickly rack up the bill.

[@jamesl4857]

@@thecomicarchive Thank you, I'll keep that in mind in my search.

[@jamesl4857]

@@thecomicarchive Are there binders who accept Paypal?

[@thecomicarchive]

I don’t know a full run down but I have paid for binding at Herring & Robinson with PayPal.

[@kurogane2x]

I wonder if buying a compedium the having it converted to hc would be more cost effective hunting down few hardcover volumes? This is what I'm thinking of going for invincible if the cost is not gonna be cheaper

[@thecomicarchive]

I think volume. 1 of those invincible compendiums is getting really hard to find. This would be a pretty good way of getting that in hardcover. Plus you could add in stuff that wasn’t included. I know that some folks have added in the spin offs and making exceptionally complete invincible sets.

[@yeonjunismyson]

Have you used them since they switched to HF GROUP binding? Ty :)

[@thecomicarchive]

I have used them since then. Have been just as good as always. I didn’t notice any change in quality.

[@yeonjunismyson]

@ awesome tysm for getting back to me! Is there any other binding company you prefer or is it mainly hf group? Ty again :)

[@thecomicarchive]

They’re the ones I personally like best and go to for my binds. They have a lot of options for how your book is bound and have remained consistently great in quality.

[@strykervylon9039]

Can you do less than the recommended issues per volume? Like with Smythe Sewn Binding would you be able to do something more along the lines of a 14-15 issues sized book?

[@thecomicarchive]

Oh absolutely. I have some that are as short as 10 issues.

[@alimallett2140]

would it be possible to bind existing TP's and single issues, would the different paper types and existing binding types a problem?

[@thecomicarchive]

It’s possible. I have a couple of books where I mix them together. The only thing to keep in mind is that sometimes the paper size can be a little different between collections and single issues.

[@rickywhitman9224]

I just bought the complete starman run off of eBay and am curious if it matters what type of condition the issues are in. Most of them are very fine/near Mint, but I just wanted to know for future binds.

[@thecomicarchive]

If you want them to be cleaned up a little then definitely have the binder trim the edges. It will make everything clean and uniform. They take off a very small amount and it should effect the reading experience. I personally go for fine to VF copies and have them trimmed when I bind single issues.

[@rickywhitman9224]

@@thecomicarchive thanks! Do you have a binding method preference?

[@thecomicarchive]

I personally love smyth sewn binding as it allows the pages to open fully. But if you are using trade paperbacks you’ll need to use glue binding such as dfab. If you don’t mind a little gutter loss I know a lot of people prefer glue binding because you can bind more issues together and remove ads.

[@rickywhitman9224]

@@thecomicarchive thanks!

[@ericksegundo9473]

So I’ve been wanting to bind together my Cassandra Cain Batgirl trades, but I don’t know if I have to break them up page by page and send it in? Or if I could just send them in and they do it for me? Also they do customs dust jackets as well right?

[@thecomicarchive]

I haven’t ever broken up a book page by page. If you want stuff reordered or if you want certain bits taken out many binderies ask that you do that before you send in the books. Houchen does do graphic covers and dust jackets. You can design them yourself, have Houchen do that, or hire a third party to design.

[@CapitalDOOM]

How many trades can I put in 1 book? About 30 issues/3 trades?

[@thecomicarchive]

The most I’ve gotten was five trades in one book for Transmetropolitan. The best way to think about it, since issue count and paper quality have such an impact, is the thickness in inches. The biggest one I’ve done is about 2.3”.

[@Therealchee]

Just found your video and was wondering if this would work for manga as well? I have 12 Viz Big Vagabond volume and want something better for the amazing art work. kinda like Darkhorse has done with Hellsing and Berserk

[@thecomicarchive]

I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work. Binderies have a lot of experience preserving books by upgrading them from soft to hard covers. They do it a lot for libraries. I’m not sure if they do the embossing like are on those dark horse books, but there’s still plenty of fancy things that can be done.

[@Therealchee]

@@thecomicarchive glad to hear it’s possible as I have a good amount I’d like to turn into omnibus like “I am a hero” so I appreciate it

[@Therealchee]

Another question would be, if there was a comic or manga that never made its way to the west but found the scans online, how can I get it printed on decent paper or is there a company that can do it for me?

[@thecomicarchive]

There aren’t any companies I know of that will do that for you because of issues of legality. From what I’ve heard these ventures are fairly expensive to pull off, though I haven’t looked into them very much.

[@Therealchee]

@@thecomicarchive Yeah, that’s understandable seems I’ll have to explore that side in the future haha. But overall thanks for answering my questions!

[@alaay1864]

This is way informative that any video i saw thank you! Do you know how much appx a comic book binding cost? Given the simplest requests...

[@thecomicarchive]

I think that using the base options you’re looking at about $25 from most binderies.

[@shinigamikiro]

This is so cool thanks for sharing

[@1MightyR]

Glue binding sucks!😂 Those books just fall apart over time! Sewn rocks! 😊Great episode!

[@boombapdoom493]

Agreed

[@Deathmoths]

hey, thanks man. didn't know about this.

[@helious5056]

I had a question, can and does houchen bind manga and in general smaller comics or is it exclusively normal comic sized comics and bigger, I really want to know cuz I have some manga I want to bind alongside a smaller sized indie comic made by a good friend of mine that I want to get bound

[@thecomicarchive]

They do all sorts of sizes. I think they have a surcharge for books above a certain size, but obviously in the case of manga that isn’t a problem. I’ve gotten that size bound before myself and it’s not a problem for them.

[@helious5056]

@@thecomicarchive sweet, that means I now know what the first book I'm going to get behind is going to be, it's going to be the obscure manga series Dinosaur King based on the trading card game of the same name, it only had two volumes released and has some truly excellent art, and since I already have the two volumes I can start prep work and then send it in, although I gotta make sure I put everything together right and get it bound the right way, that may be a bit tricky cause it can be easy to mess something up with something like this I imagine, also do you have I recommendation on the kind of mind I should use on this project, I'm thinking defab but I'm all new to this so I'm not sure

[@thecomicarchive]

I think for manga you are going to want to use dfab glue binding. If the cover is glossy switch to PUR glue.

[@helious5056]

@@thecomicarchive awesome thank you so much, I'll go with dfab for this project then and hopefully get it done in the near future, thank you a tone for the help

[@ares9610]

@@helious5056 how did it go?

[@Shade_91]

how is the "eye" with the DFAB and PUR binding?

[@thecomicarchive]

They’ve been good on the books I have. Probably varies a little from binder to binder. They aren’t as flexible as a sewn binding but you still get a nice one.

[@Shade_91]

@@thecomicarchive ok I was curious because I was on the houchen site and it says that the oversewn doesn't lay as flat and has more gutter loss than the glued which is pretty much the opposite of what ive read elsewhere

[@thecomicarchive]

It’s important to note that oversewn and smyth sewn are really different. Oversewn is pretty close to glue binding. Smyth sewn is what is used for omnibuses that marvel and dc put out. Smyth sewn opens the most and has basically zero gutter loss. Any type of glue binding, as well as oversewn, do have gutter loss and in my experience they are pretty similar in the amount. Neither glue bindings or oversewn will lay flat.

[@alexbraun3595]

Do you remove the staples yourself, or do you usually have them remove them for you? I’d love to bind a couple of books, but I’m always worried about ruining it.

[@thecomicarchive]

I don’t but I know that a lot of people do. I would check with whichever binder you are working with what they prefer.

[@RockandrollNegro]

Binding your comics does ruin them. They're essentially worthless afterwards. Why sweat a staple?

[@thecomicarchive]

I mean I’ve seen plenty of custom hardcovers sell for good money on eBay. But you’re right that if you have a valuable comic I wouldn’t bind it. Custom hardcovers are more about making a book you’re going to read over and over and I’m not reading my amazing Spider-Man 298 over and over again.

[@alexbraun3595]

The Comic Archive I wanna know what type of binding works best for the square bound comics, because I’m buying up doubles of all the Appleseed comics that I can find and bound it into a omnibus set.

[@thecomicarchive]

Alex Braun you have two options, glue or oversewn. The glue you’ll use will be either DFAB or PUR. PUR is really for when the comics have a glossy finish on the cover. Oversewn will also work and is super durable. Really up to you as both options are great.

[@PookaLuka]

Do you get your binded comics trimmed? I'm on the fence about it. I'm afraid I'll loose too much.

[@thecomicarchive]

I’ve done both. For a long time I was really into not having mine trimmed for the same reason. But lately I’ve been getting them trimmed because there wasn’t too much lost and it feels really nice in the hand.

[@PookaLuka]

@@thecomicarchive I'm currently working on collecting all 36 issues of the maxx. Planning on binding two books out of them.

[@thecomicarchive]

That’s awesome. I love the Maxx. I had my issues bound a while back. They were trimmed and I think it turned out great.

[@PookaLuka]

@@thecomicarchive that's awesome, I wish I could see your maxx binds

[@joshuaalexandros6686]

Does Houchen Bindery receive international packages?

[@thecomicarchive]

To be honest I’m not sure. You can reach out to them easily to find out.

[@THE-Ayala5090]

I hade no idea I could do this . . .

[@thecomicarchive]

Glad you found this video! It’s a lot of fun and a great way to make your books more durable and easier to pull off the shelf to read.

[@THE-Ayala5090]

@@thecomicarchive I have BOXES and BOXES and BOXES and I would much rather have books on a shelf. Man oh man, I am thinking bound over TPB (graphic novel) look on a few series. I am sending this video to friends that did not know this could be done. Thank you

[@СокрушительЗла]

i am sick

[@boejiden4190]

Good for you buddy