I was reading on Armagideon Time about Andrew taking a newly-acquired complete run of Atari Force and having it professionally bound, and I was kinda blown away. That's a concept that had never occurred to me, and it's not outrageously expensive. I have thought that there are some comics I'd be more likely to re-read often if I didn't have to futz with longboxes in a closet. Have any of you done anything like this?

This looks a lot like the style of bookbinding services which are hired to rebind school textbooks which were utterly destroyed by the students.

Not much of a stretch to see some comic book collectors using the same services to bind together multiple issues into a hardcover book.

I have thought about something similar. I had some workbooks for a work project I wanted to slice the binding off right at the edge and three-hole punch and put in a binder because that's my preference for that sort of thing. Never did it because I couldn't figure out the best way to slice the binding, but it's always been in the back of my mind.

I really like this idea for comics a lot. I have probably 75% of the classic Marvel run of G.I. Joe, maybe 90% if I found the rest at my parents' home, and have tracked down issues here and there (still haven't read the final issue, my subscription ran out the issue before!). I've held off on the TPBs because part of the fun of those floppies is the wave of nostalgia with the ads, letter columns, etc.

Tracking down the last few issues and doing the binding job could be a fun project. A little money better spent than on fast food, the thrill of the chase, and a nice product at the end. I could use a little fun, these days. Oh, pandemic.

A good friend of mine does this for a company called Omaha Bound. He used to work for a book bindery and started doing it on the side, and has even bound collections for comic creators. Let me see if I can find some of his work.

Here's one of his versions of Atari Force. Here's the site with the details https://www.omahabound.com/start-her...c-book-binding, and here's a link to more of his stuff: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zxxd62taz...pLX0Qu4za?dl=0 :

I used to visit a comics forum that specialized in collected editions and many members were getting their comics hardbound when there wasn't an official such release of their favorite titles. It was a whole hobby unto itself, many folks were into making really attractive, professional looking compilations.

I worked at a book bindery for 20 years and always intended to do this. I was going to do one for the first 20 or so issues of Excalibur and I designed a foil stamped cover and a dust jacket. I think it was the table of contents page that I got hung up on because I wanted it to look like something Marvel would have produced and my design skills were not up to my own expectations. At this point just about everything Marvel has ever put out had been collected, so I kind of lost interest. I left the bindery about two and a half years ago, but could still get something done there if I changed my mind.

If you hunt around eBay, you'll find examples of custom-bound comic book runs for sale. I think their growing popularity is what initially led to DC and Marvel getting into the omnibus business. I was tempted to get my Justice League International complete run bound in this manner but thankfully DC got around to printing up an omnibus. I came across someone doing this with the complete Alan Moore Swamp Thing about ten years ago.

They definitely look cool and seem fairly easy to read, though longer runs end up being broken up into several volumes.

People have been doing this for decades, and there are binders that specialize in binding comic books.

A few caveats...

1) This will destroy the comic books you bind, so think twice about binding anything that is valuable or could become valuable. So if it's possible that that copy of Captain Mustard #21 that jumps up to $800 in value because of the first appearance of The Salad Tosser, you don't make a decision you'll regret.

2) Binding can lead to some gutter loss -- depending on the binding methods and how the comics were printed -- so two-page spreads may suffer, as well as dialog that's close to the spine.

I have considered getting my Grendel: Devil By The Deed (Dark Horse reprint), Grendel #1-40, and Grendel: War Child #1-10 bound into a couple of hardcovers, going all out with foil-embossed covers/spines, graphic endpapers, etc., but haven't gotten around to it yet.

I wouldn't bother with older comics where the pages have yellowed and the ink faded. I can barely read those issues.

But newer stuff, printed on better paper? That would work well. I may do that for my Spider-Girl collection (the issues from 51-100, there will be a third TPB next year going up through issue 50).

That would be really cool. I wish Thunderstrike had been printed on better paper. Marvel doesn't seem inclined to compile that series for some reason. (One Epic Collection would cover the entire 24 issue run.)

Isn't Thunderstrike an early 90s title? I think Marvel had switched over to better paper stock by then for all of their books.

I have lots of 80s books that look atrocious; the Silvestri run of Uncanny, in particular. The scratchy pencils, scratchy inks, and muddy colors didn't print very well on the cheap newsprint they were using.

I also had some Alan Moore Swamp Thing books I sold off a while back because the ink had bled through the paper, rendering them nearly unreadable. I had the full run in trade paperbacks by then, so I didn't need them any more.

The copies I have are all yellowed and the ink is fading. Not horribly, but they're only 25 or so years old.

I wish they had used better paper stock.

I just hope to see an Epic Collection for Thunderstrike in the next 2-3 years.