I wanted to show some of my recent bindings from Houchen Bindery.

Robin was an amazing title from DC – even after it was relaunched as Red Robin. This title was ended and Red Robin began after the Batman: Battle for the Cowl mini-series.

My map brings this title out to 12 volumes. I could only fit 10 in the box. Mapping Robin was not an easy task. I got a lot of help at The Comic Forums. Crossovers like Batman: Murderer, Batman:Fugitive and War Games have their own binds. I simply placed a notice in the appropriate volumes of when to see those stories.

The recent Batgirl title with Stephanie Brown was one of the best titles DC has put out in a long time. It is one of the casualties of the reboot and was killed well before its time. The final pages of the final issue left us with a taste of where Bryan Q. Miller could have taken the title.

I cannot stress how good this title was.

I went with Herring & Robinson Bookbinders as the binder for this title.

This was a fairly easy map. The title ran 24 issues with a brief crossover with Red Robin. One issue was supposed to be continued into an issue of Batman, Inc. But the delays on that title put the issue after the reboot.

edited to clarify binding Map -Donny

I decided after DC Comics rebooted their comics that I would Bind volumes 1 and 2 of Birds of Prey. This came out to 8 volumes. I went with >Herring & Robinson Bookbinders.

I worked on my map for Birds of Prey for quite a bit. Crossovers like Batman: Murderer and Batman:Fugitive have their own binds. I simply placed a notice in the appropriate volumes of when to see those stories.

For Comic Binders,

I have created a custom cover template generator (http://www.donnyd.com/comics). There are a lot of binderies out there that can handle custom covers like Library Binding did.

The template will be at 350dpi at a height of 10 1/4″.

Enjoy.

I am sorry to say that LibraryBinding.com has been purchased by Houchen. I am not sure if they are going to be carrying on the fine quality work that Jim, Jeanette, Will and everyone at Library Binding performed.

I am going to see about other alternatives for binders in a similar price/quality (over-sewn and glued, extras like ribbon markers and die stamping, etc) range.

I have not had any direct communication with Houchen and therefore cannot comment one way or another on the quality of their work or even if they will work with individuals like Library Binding did. From what I understand, a lot of the larger binders do not take into account us one-off customers. You know the customer who is only getting a couple of books bound – unlike a library or school that would be getting hundreds or more bound at a time.

There is a new mini-hobby out there for Comic Enthusiasts. How often have you wanted a collected edition of your favorite stories, but the publisher hasn’t created one or it is out of print? That is where Comic Binding comes into play. You gather together the comics you think should be in a trade in the order you think they should be in and send them to a book binder like Texas Bindery.  In a few weeks, you will be holding in your hand the volume(s) made the way you want them made.

I am going to provide photos of a set of volumes I had created a few months ago along with the map, order of issue placement in each volume.  A great resource for binding is at the Binding Forum on TheComicForum.com and from the Comic Geek Speak podcast.

Want to hear an awesome song just in time for Green Lantern’s Blackest Night?

Check out “Ring Capacity” by Kirby Krackle on YouTube.

Go to Kirby Krackle’s website to hear more of their music.

http://www.kirbykracklemusic.com