As promised a while back, here are some examples of binding by the HF Group, located in PA. In general, they prefer the smythe-sewn method for comic books
rather than oversewn. (For more info, click over to this
thread.)
I had 26 volumes bound, but only 22 of them were comics-related. Here are some of them:
As you look at the photos, note that HF didn't do any trimming. The volumes of newer comics (like Ruse) that HF did for me really don't seem to need it anyway, things are pretty close to flush all around. The volumes of newsprint comics (like Micronauts) would look a little nicer IMO with some trimming. The Fat Man gave me a rotary blade for Xmas, so I can try doing little bits of trimming to see how that goes. The reason that HF doesn't do any trimming on comics is because they prefer where ever possible to do things by machine rather than by hand... they are concerned that when they trim comics that they will cut too close.
This was my first batch of binding projects with HF (or anybody else, for that matter). I deliberately gave them a variety of projects to see how issues like gutter loss, wraparound covers, different types of binding for the original materials, and different size comics would all be handled. Overall, I was very happy with the job that they did. I'm working to put together another big batch that I hope to take to them sometime this spring. (I have the money saved, the bigger problem is carving out the time to prep up contents pages and binding slips and so forth.)
Snapshots of the Micronauts volumes! This is volume 4. The flap that you see is an extension of the endpaper and is present because the book was smythe-sewn. You only have the flap between the first two bound comics and the last two bound comics.
I started Micronauts volume 1 with Annual #1 because the stories begin chronologically the day before Micronauts issue #1. The annual was squarebound like other Marvel annuals of the day. I'm happy with how they handled incorporating the issue into the book. (Annual #2, present in volume 2, did not present any problems either.)
A look at volume 2. The gutter loss that you see in this photo is really from the thickness of the book, i.e., the curvature of all of those pages. (Open up one of the really thick Marvel Omniboo and you'll see the same thing.) Although it doesn't show it very well in the picture, in real life you can see the full image right down to real close to the edge of the page.
Volume 3 was the fattest of the Micronauts books I had done, and was probably the thickest out of all 22 books that I had done. I included all of the "direct sales only" issues in that volume. Many of the issues had wraparound covers. Smythe-sewing a single leaf signature would be problematic, and the glue used to hold the sewn signatures against each other would have probably seped through the staple holes. So HF took the route of making the wraparound covers foldouts. Given the limitations of the smythe-sewn method in dealing with something like this, I find this to be a reasonable approach. (The alternative would be to make scans of these types of covers, print them out, and then have those pages bound into the book as extra pages. I might do that in next time around just to see which approach I like better.) I made a note about the wraparound covers in the binding slip and marked each wraparound cover in the stack of comics with a post-it. HF did not miss any of the wraparounds that I had marked.
Another look at Micronauts volume 3. As with volume 2, what looks like gutter loss here is really just from the curvature of all of those pages being in one book. Holding the book in your hand rather than just laying it flat on the floor, you can see all of the artwork except for maybe a tiny sliver.
Aztec Ace, all in one volume. I chose this because the artwork goes very very close to the gutter in the original comics. No artwork loss because of the smythe-sewn method. This book is a lot thinner than the Micros volumes 2 and 3, so page curvature is not a problem in this photo.
Marvel's Fear, issues #1 - #9. Most of these issues were squarebound like the Micros annual, but not all. In this case, HF elected to go the oversewn route. Since none of these stories have full-bleed artwork, there was not a problem with gutter loss.
Crossgen's Ruse, complete in two volumes. (Archard's Agents one-shots were included at the end of the second volume.) Lots of full-bleed artwork and two-page spreads. These volumes are more similar to the thickness of the Aztec Ace book than to the fat Micros volumes. The smythe-sewn route was definitely the way to go for these!
Inspired by Gormuu!
OK, this next book was a challenge for HF and that's part of why I tossed it into the stack of things for them to bind...
"Batman Family And Other Stories" includes Batman Family #11 - #20, DC Special Series #15, and Detective Comics #481 - #483. These issues contain artwork by Golden, Chaykin, Starlin, Russell, and Rogers. If these issues were bagged filed away, I'd probably never look at them. Put them all in one book and it's a compilation of some of my favorite artists' work from a two year timeframe that I will take off the shelf with some regularity.
Why it was a challenge: (1) thick book, almost as fat as Micros v3; (2) a couple of issues had wraparound covers; and most importantly (3) the issues had slightly different heights. I requested that HF make the tops of the books flush (they normally default to making the bottoms flush). Here is a look at the finished product. A view of the bottom of the finished book shows you how big a pain in the neck this volume probably was... it's so bad that they couldn't put in a tail band!
Here is the open book, viewed from the bottom edge:
And now a view from the top edge (book is open to the same pages):
All in all, I'm just as happy with how BF&OS came out as I am with the other books from this order!
I had 26 volumes bound, but only 22 of them were comics-related. Here are some of them:
As you look at the photos, note that HF didn't do any trimming. The volumes of newer comics (like Ruse) that HF did for me really don't seem to need it anyway, things are pretty close to flush all around. The volumes of newsprint comics (like Micronauts) would look a little nicer IMO with some trimming. The Fat Man gave me a rotary blade for Xmas, so I can try doing little bits of trimming to see how that goes. The reason that HF doesn't do any trimming on comics is because they prefer where ever possible to do things by machine rather than by hand... they are concerned that when they trim comics that they will cut too close.
This was my first batch of binding projects with HF (or anybody else, for that matter). I deliberately gave them a variety of projects to see how issues like gutter loss, wraparound covers, different types of binding for the original materials, and different size comics would all be handled. Overall, I was very happy with the job that they did. I'm working to put together another big batch that I hope to take to them sometime this spring. (I have the money saved, the bigger problem is carving out the time to prep up contents pages and binding slips and so forth.)
Snapshots of the Micronauts volumes! This is volume 4. The flap that you see is an extension of the endpaper and is present because the book was smythe-sewn. You only have the flap between the first two bound comics and the last two bound comics.
I started Micronauts volume 1 with Annual #1 because the stories begin chronologically the day before Micronauts issue #1. The annual was squarebound like other Marvel annuals of the day. I'm happy with how they handled incorporating the issue into the book. (Annual #2, present in volume 2, did not present any problems either.)
A look at volume 2. The gutter loss that you see in this photo is really from the thickness of the book, i.e., the curvature of all of those pages. (Open up one of the really thick Marvel Omniboo and you'll see the same thing.) Although it doesn't show it very well in the picture, in real life you can see the full image right down to real close to the edge of the page.
Volume 3 was the fattest of the Micronauts books I had done, and was probably the thickest out of all 22 books that I had done. I included all of the "direct sales only" issues in that volume. Many of the issues had wraparound covers. Smythe-sewing a single leaf signature would be problematic, and the glue used to hold the sewn signatures against each other would have probably seped through the staple holes. So HF took the route of making the wraparound covers foldouts. Given the limitations of the smythe-sewn method in dealing with something like this, I find this to be a reasonable approach. (The alternative would be to make scans of these types of covers, print them out, and then have those pages bound into the book as extra pages. I might do that in next time around just to see which approach I like better.) I made a note about the wraparound covers in the binding slip and marked each wraparound cover in the stack of comics with a post-it. HF did not miss any of the wraparounds that I had marked.
Another look at Micronauts volume 3. As with volume 2, what looks like gutter loss here is really just from the curvature of all of those pages being in one book. Holding the book in your hand rather than just laying it flat on the floor, you can see all of the artwork except for maybe a tiny sliver.
Aztec Ace, all in one volume. I chose this because the artwork goes very very close to the gutter in the original comics. No artwork loss because of the smythe-sewn method. This book is a lot thinner than the Micros volumes 2 and 3, so page curvature is not a problem in this photo.
Marvel's Fear, issues #1 - #9. Most of these issues were squarebound like the Micros annual, but not all. In this case, HF elected to go the oversewn route. Since none of these stories have full-bleed artwork, there was not a problem with gutter loss.
Crossgen's Ruse, complete in two volumes. (Archard's Agents one-shots were included at the end of the second volume.) Lots of full-bleed artwork and two-page spreads. These volumes are more similar to the thickness of the Aztec Ace book than to the fat Micros volumes. The smythe-sewn route was definitely the way to go for these!
Inspired by Gormuu!
OK, this next book was a challenge for HF and that's part of why I tossed it into the stack of things for them to bind...
"Batman Family And Other Stories" includes Batman Family #11 - #20, DC Special Series #15, and Detective Comics #481 - #483. These issues contain artwork by Golden, Chaykin, Starlin, Russell, and Rogers. If these issues were bagged filed away, I'd probably never look at them. Put them all in one book and it's a compilation of some of my favorite artists' work from a two year timeframe that I will take off the shelf with some regularity.
Why it was a challenge: (1) thick book, almost as fat as Micros v3; (2) a couple of issues had wraparound covers; and most importantly (3) the issues had slightly different heights. I requested that HF make the tops of the books flush (they normally default to making the bottoms flush). Here is a look at the finished product. A view of the bottom of the finished book shows you how big a pain in the neck this volume probably was... it's so bad that they couldn't put in a tail band!
Here is the open book, viewed from the bottom edge:
And now a view from the top edge (book is open to the same pages):
All in all, I'm just as happy with how BF&OS came out as I am with the other books from this order!
