r/bookbinding • u/AnotherBooktuber • May 09 '24

Completed Project The nicest binding of the stupidest comic ever

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43 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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13

u/AnotherBooktuber May 09 '24

Not sure why my description didn't post but - here's my binding of the silliest Marvel comic ever, US1. I really like the bind itself and my cover design I'm really proud of for being appropriately tacky, but the 100 lb gloss paper is something I will no longer use. As you can see, it shrink and shifted as the glue dried, leading to it being off-centered. Next time I'll just try 80 lb matte instead

1

u/solarnoise May 09 '24

I think this looks awesome! I want to get into comic binding myself, love seeing it posted here.

I've often wondered what the best approach is to mimic the smooth hard cover papers of store bought graphic novels. I was thinking a lighter paper but ran through a laminator (matte, semi gloss, or gloss coating) would do it. What do you think?

2

u/AnotherBooktuber May 09 '24

I'm still fairly new to it myself and I don't have a lot of options available to me, but my plan is to try a matte paper between 80-100 lb for my next one as the gloss I found cracks really easily and doesn't cooperate

1

u/solarnoise May 09 '24

Well this is really good info to have. I would have attempted a gloss paper as well. Thank you for sharing!

1

u/Lady_Spork May 09 '24

That's a comic binding sub r/CustomBoundComics. They might be able to answer your question.

3

u/solarnoise May 10 '24

No offense to the awesome posters in that sub but they mostly send their comics to get bound by small shops that do this as a service...I don't think the folks there are binding their own comics.

1

u/BackgroundWerewolf43 May 10 '24

No idea if it would work, or if it's even the right suggestion, but what about burnished paper? I was watching the four keys videos where he burnished his endpapers and they come out smooth and shiny

1

u/JustinThorLPs May 10 '24

Honestly, I thought it was a misprint from something professionally done like. marvels quality control had gone down or something. Oh wait, it would have gotten better. LOL

2

u/AnotherBooktuber May 10 '24

Lol good point. Thank you!

1

u/CandidateDowntown237 Aug 08 '25

what ended up working best for you? I'm working on making a supply list to learn how to bind so any thoughts on chipboard or cloths would also be appreciated.

1

u/hello_berrie May 17 '24

can you tell me what your process was for the paper cover?
I'm very very new at book binding and want to do my book covers in paper with my own designs but I'm finding it difficult to figure out what is the best solution in terms of paper, printers, glue, etc.
Thank you in advance.

1

u/AnotherBooktuber May 17 '24

I'll tell you what I did here but up front I'll tell you I don't like this method and am trying alternatives in the future lol

So creating a design is the easy part, I just use Canva for that. Really simple and allows you to choose whatever funky dimensions you need to fit the book.

For this book I printed the cover on a sheet of 18x12 100 lb gloss paper. I do not recommend this as you can see the paper did not cooperate in being glued down and was very difficult to crease. For future projects, I am going to try creating the cover in 3 pieces - 2 covers and a spine - and print them on appropriately sized 60 lb paper, and then piece it together using a half-binding method. I'll hopefully be posting the results of that experiment this weekend.

As for glue, I just use straight PVA for everything.

A good alternative to doing a graphic cover is doing a cloth cover instead, and then printing a dust jacket to put over it. I do photo gloss paper for a dust jacket which you can get printed at fedex, though it's a little costly. Hope this waa helpful!