Shelf Bound: From Comics To Books!

Do your comics spend more time in longboxes than in your hands? Does the thought of unbagging & rebagging an event’s worth of single issues give you carpal tunnel nightmares? Are you resigned to hell freezing over before a career- and publisher-spanning Collected Works of Richard Corben sits on your shelf, waiting for some Halloween evening enjoyment? If comics-reading quandaries like these and more keep you up at night, then worry no more. Comic binding (having your comics bound into books) is the solution you’ve been waiting for, and Multiversity’s newest column Shelf Bound is here to tell you all about it.

Of all the entertainment media we regularly take in, comics has to be the most labor-intensive. Just think about the accepted routine for a second:

1. Buy that week’s (or month’s) comics at the local comic shop.
2. Read those comics.
3. Seal those comics in individual tape-sealed polypyrene sleeves, each with their own individual non-acetate backing board.
4. File those comics away in systems ranging from a lone shortbox to an off-site storage facility rivaling the warehouse from the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
5. Rinse. Repeat.

That’s as much time spent preserving comics as enjoying them, if not more. Why? If keeping them pristine for later flipping & profit is your answer, then congratulations on the panic attack you’ll get the week we talk about ripping out pages and tearing off covers.

Just keeping them neat & organized for repeat reading is fine, but I gotta ask you: how often do you actually DO that? Especially since reading ‘a story’ in mainstream comics today involves multiple comics more often than not? Before we even consider free time (or lack thereof), just dealing with longbox logistics required can be a powerful deterrent. How powerful? Let’s use some Comic Book Math(TM) to find out!

d = Energy expended on each trip digging out a particular single issue or chunk of issues from your longboxes

b = 1/10d = Energy expended unbagging/rebagging each issue without snagging it on the tape during reading,

i = Number of issues the particular storyline you’re reading at that sitting contains, and

s = Number of stories you’d like to read at that sitting,

then the hassle cost of each reading sitting (h) can be expressed as:

h = d x b x i x s

Therefore, the hassle cost of, say, the Absolute Carnage 20-issue event (the namesake mini and contemporary tie-ins) would be:

h = 100d x 20b x 20i x s

h = 100d x 20(1/10d) x 400 x 1

h = 100d x 2d x 400

h = 200d x 400

h = 80,000d

h = . . . ummmmmm . . .

Comic Book Math(TM) can be as straightforward as Comic Book Science(TM) most of the time, but trust me when I say from experience that 80,000d is a LOT of hassle.

And before I get accused of playing favorites, we all know the same equation could be run on the equivalent DC event of your choice for the same result.

“What if we don’t buy single issues?” you ask. “What about digital-only folks? Or trade-waiters?”

Glad you asked! Let’s look at those options, shall we?

DIGITAL ONLY

For our purposes, ‘digital only’ means skipping the brick-and-mortar comic shops AND online retailers completely and buying comics directly from ComiXology or any individual publisher’s specific app/portal.

Buying comics at 2am in your jammies truly exceeds the wildest dream of our comic-reading forebears, but simply having a comics-buying option not tied to a local comic shop at all can be and has been a gamechanger for many fans, especially those whose LCS options are either shitty, or flat-out nonexistent. Falling behind on books is less of a worry as more publishers go digital day-and-date with print. Plus, those longbox ziggurats can be banished to the trash heap of history, right? Your infinite library now lives in The Cloud, waiting for you to access at leisure . . . until you can’t.

Buying digital comics doesn’t work like buying paper comics. Some publishers offer DRM-free PDF or CBZ file downloads that can be stored locally in a semblance of the analog model, but they are far from the norm. Otherwise, buying digital comics today means paying a one-time or monthly fee for permission to view images of the comics in the manner and duration of the venue/publisher’s choosing. No big deal ninety-nine times out of a hundred; keeping content available as a revenue-generator is in their best interests. But content can fall prey to changing licensing deals (a la Conan’s jump from Dark Horse to Marvel) or other calamities very quickly. Keep that in mind when issues you bought suddenly disappear from your vast digital library for content reasons, or get retired Netflix-style. Here today, gone tomorrow.

And those ziggurats did give you the advantage of having your collection in one location, massive though it might have been. Maintaining and accessing your digital comics collection spread across multiple apps and platforms can be almost as much of a hassle as digging through longboxes. Of all the lessons comics can learn from television, splintering content shouldn’t be one of them.

ADVANTAGES:

• Purchasing time and effort eliminated.
• Storage space limitations no longer apply.

DRAWBACKS

• Lack of LCS support.
• Content access concerns replace content storage concerns.
• Lack of a single hub to access a broad collection from.

TRADE-WAITING

Again, for our purposes, these trades can be purchased through either a brick-and-mortar LCS, online retailer, or a physical/digital hybrid retailer such as DCBS. Buying digital collections, however, is considered a digital-only choice.

Following 24-page chunks of ongoing narratives every 30 days isn’t for everybody. Trade-waiters forgo that monthly fix in favor of binge-reading the serialized material when the collection is published. Since most collected material nowadays is produced with the collection as the end product, reading it like this probably matches the creators’ intent the closest of all options. Collections are usually priced comparably with the sum cover price of the material included. Storing collections requires no specialty boxes or supplies; any bookcase or shelf will do.

That said . . .

Trade-waiting alters the way practitioners’ engage with other comics readers. Reading material at least 6 months after everyone else divorces trade-waiters from most day-and-date comics discourse, and makes spoilers exponentially harder to avoid. Physical books still take up physical space, even without longboxes, so storage concerns still exist.

Insurmountable problems? No. Depending on your opinion, pulling back from zero-day comics chatter might be another benefit instead of drawback. Fans looking to keep their personal library size manageable have lots of options, from eBay or consignment to donating to libraries/correctional facilities/servicepeople overseas/hospitals/general charities/etc.

Trade-waiting’s biggest drawback is jeopardizing a collection’s chance of being released at all.

The North American comics ecosystem survives on comic shop Wednesday Warriors (be they Marvel Zombies or DC Diehards) buying their books like bees pollinating crops. Fan dollars keep the shop doors open, and fan dollars tell publishers what to publish. Those deep-discount trades on Amazon were all subsidized by fan dollars buying the single issues at the comic shop. All of them.

Think I’m exaggerating? Let’s ask Axel Alonso:

If you adopt the mentality that you’re going to wait for trade, what you’re doing is contributing to the cancellation of the series (emphasis mine).

Comics count on people being there once a month to pick them up . . . It’s important to support that small book. If we were to launch an Iceman solo, support that book. Don’t go, `That first issue was great, I’ll wait for the trade.’

That’s the former EiC of Disney-owned Marvel Comics saying, out loud and in public, his company will ONLY publish & print material in the final and preferred format their expanding mainstream readership will consume it in going forward IF a small subset of fans subsidize it by buying it in a format they most likely don’t prefer first.

Even allowing for the separation of finances among subsidiary divisions of a corporation, that is an insane bit of logic boardering on extortion (and a topic Mike Romeo and I have talked about elsewhere in some detail). Marvel isn’t alone in this thinking; DC and Warner Brothers comport themselves in the same way, as does every other publisher I can think of. I mention Marvel specifically to show that if THEY do it, then it’s an industry-wide practice. Movies and streaming television may steer Big Two publishing lines, but those lines don’t survive without fan dollars.

Image may seem the exception to the rule, until you take into consider Image is much closer to an established league of self-publishers than a single publishing house like DC or Marvel. Image Central may be flush with cash to help out any of their individual titles make certain publishing goals (end of the arc, trade release, and so on), but I’m willing to bet nine times out of ten it’s up to the individual creators and their income from the single issues that determines any type of future for their properties.

Shrink publisher size and fan dollar impact increases proportionately. Boom? Oni? Dynamite? Alternative? Iron Circus? SelfMadeHero? Or even just small self-publishers? The fan dollar, YOUR dollar, goes even further.

That’s what we want, right? Vote for the books, publishers, shops, and creators doing the best work? Then the best way to do so and have your ballot count is buying the single issues.

ADVANTAGES

• More likely to get a complete story (or a sizable chunk) with every purchase.
• Spines better facilitate bookcase storage for easier access.
• Price point usually equivalent to or (in the case of most first-in-a-series trades) less than the cost of the single issues themselves, even before retail discount.
• LCS support still possible, instead of Amazon.

DRAWBACKS

• Removed from the comics news/review cycle.
• Physical storage still a concern.
• Physical availability still a concern.
• Lack of support for serial releases could endanger collection.

COMICS BINDING

“So,” I hear you say. “If digital-only is potentially precarious, widespread trade-waiting could kill comics as we know it, and the alternative is (Comic Book) scientifically proven to be a pain in the ass, how is comic binding the alternative?”

Again, glad you asked! Let’s see how it stacks up against the other options:

DIGITAL

• Supports:
  • the PUBLISHER (eventually), and
  • the CREATORS (eventually).
• Does not support:
  • the LOCAL COMICS RETAILER.
• Solves storage problem but comes with accessibility concerns.
• Lacks a central hub for comics access in most cases.

TRADE-WAITING

• Supports:
  • the PUBLISHER,
  • the CREATORS, AND
  • the LOCAL COMICS RETAILER.
• Relies on other uncontrollable factors to make content available to you.
• Either solves or merely delays storage problem.

COMIC BINDING

• Supports:
  • the PUBLISHER by buying the initial release product,
  • the CREATORS by buying the initial release product and therefore showing their clients (the PUBLISHER) the market demand for their services, and
  • the LOCAL COMICS RETAILER by buying that initial release product from them.
• Endproduct:
  • Fits regular book storage furniture.
  • Has no content availability concerns as material has already been released.
  • Saves storage space by eliminating the need for additional bags/boards/boxes.
  • Easily accessible.
  • Completely customizable to owner specifications.

Comic binding has a lot going for it, as you can see above and as we’ll get into going forward. But having said all that, I don’t want you leave with the impression I think it’s the only proper way to enjoy your comics. Singles in longboxes, digital, and trade-waiting are ultimately still all in service of the comics we love. You do you, as the kids say. But if you’ve got boxes of comics to read and no idea how to make that less of a chore and more of a new and exciting aspect to the endeavor you’re already on, then Shelf Bound is here to help.

Thus endeth the sermon.

Next week we cover the “how” of comic binding, talking about topics like how to choose a binder, acceptable gutter loss, why Smythe sewing can be your best friend, buckram vs Arrestox covering, and more.

The following week has some food for thought on types of binds possible, and how my binding experience ties into Shelf Bound.

And starting October 15th, Shelf Bound switches over to its regular schedule and format with showcasing a different “bind” each month from several different angles. Why bind THESE comics? What are the chances of an ‘official’ release? And if there’s no chance, how can I make one for myself?