Custom Comic Book Hardcovers Bound by Houchen Bindery 

I've never worried about copyrights for the covers. It's a one off thing for yourself. I mean you could sell it on eBay but I think the value would mostly be in the bound books. I'm no lawyer but I'm pretty sure that this falls well within legal bounds.

I might be biased but I think it's a great way to keep your collection. Maybe not great for valuable comics, but most of my collection isn't worth that much.

Hey there! Thanks so much! I designed my covers myself but there is a huge community of folks who you can find and hire to help you out. You can find them through the Unbound Omnibus group on Facebook. I know Houchen also offers design services but I haven’t used them and can’t speak to the process.

Oh and to your question about singles vs tpb’s I have done binds using both before and it usually turns out pretty well. Using singles you have a few more options for binding methods than with tpb’s but both are very viable. I’ve also done it with books that combine both and it’s a pretty smooth transition that ia mostly dependent on how similar the paper stock is. I do have another video on the basics of binding that you should check out.

Exactly! Plus it kind of invites you to read them more than a bunch of bagged and boarded comics do.

+The Comic Archive oh I completely agree...I'm not sure how many times I've wanted to re read a run on something only to realize I'd have to dig it out then deal with bags and tape and yeah lol

+Mister Mog For the main series by Masamune Shirow i don't actually think it's ever been printed in the US at the smaller size. Dark Horse was the first publisher to bring it over and they printed at standard American size. That's what I used here. Currently Kodansha is publishing it and they too only have released English translations in the larger size. Although I think they publish the Stand Alone Complex series in the smaller format.

They don’t. They just take whatever books you have and bind those.

I would reach out to the binder you’re using. Their printer may have an upper limit on dpi that it can accommodate. I will say that 300 dpi produces really great results. Sharp text and fine details in images.

There might be. I mean photoshop has an iPad app. I don’t know about Android options.

like $30 for the book alone, with all the trimmings like he did. Then you gotta pay shipping both ways

I’ve heard good things but don’t have any direct experience with them. If you’re looking for a service that takes care of everything OmahaBound is a company I can recommend.

+Tim Shea I love smyth seen books. On fatale it is smyth sewn though I'm not sure I would recommend it for that many issues. Because it is the whole series. If I had to do it again I would have gone with two separate volumes for fatale. It keeps things cleaner with the binding and the paper.

He just found them online

There are a lot of photoshop tutorials out there. Including a ton here on RU-vid. I'm not using all of its features for this though. Mostly just bringing in images and arranging them, then adding some text on top. If you feel like it's beyond your skill set I think Houchen will help design some covers for you, though they probably something they change for. What books are you going to get bound?

+The Comic Archive I've been binding books for about 10 years, but have never tried to design my own cover. I can scan images from my comics ok, but Houchen's website seems to be down at the moment. Could you send me the specifics file from your video? I am currently binding Dark Horse's Star Wars series, Conan, Crossed, and some various Fantasy Anthologies.

+Seth Vatt the photoshop file might not help you as much as you think because the measurements are different between all the books since they vary in thickness depending on how many books are being bound.

+Seth Vatt here is a link to the flat tiff file. I think will be the most helpful. www.dropbox.com/s/b8dz9r2z1g9k71h/OPTIC%20NERVE-FINAL.tif?dl=0

+The Comic Archive Thanks! Watching the work in Photoshop is actually the biggest help for me. I don't want to get too far down the line and then have to backtrack. Someone should create a Photoshop template for this with all the guide markers and boundaries... To be modified with specifics after the binding is done, of course. Did you opt for glue binding or oversewn, flat or rounded spine?

+Chris Ferguson I bound most all of Miles' adventures including Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Spider-Men, Catclysm, miles morales: ultimate Spider-Man and ultimate end. Because I got these smyth sewn if you bind too many books together the pages can crinkle a little by the bind. So there is an average of 18 issues per volume. If you use a different binding method, like a glue, you can get more issues/pages in per volume. Though with the number of comics I had bound I only could have knocked that down to maybe two.

Hey, thanks for the reply! It seems obvious now that I think about it, but I just figured I'd throw everything into one book and it would turn out the exact same as if I were to cut it in half. I already have the first two hardcovers, which include the first ten issues, and one of those is signed by Bendis, so my plan is to bind issues 11-28, 16.1, Cataclysm 1 (or maybe the whole event; haven't decided yet), Cataclysm: USM 1-3, 200, Miles Morales 1-12, and maybe the first issue of the new series. I don't want to include Spider-Men because I can't reconcile the continuity, and Spider-Men II kind of makes me feel like the first one was just a special one-off that has nothing to do with the main series. I'm also planning on binding the Divided We Fall/United We Stand crossover, in chronological order, as well.

I would love to see what you included in each bind.

Sorry I didn't see this sooner. The comics I used are standard modern size. One of the reasons I wanted to make the custom bound book, as a lot of the later stories are only collected in those smaller editions.

@@thecomicarchive thankyou

+_ Phronesis _ just on hiatus. I’ve been working on a graphic novel and haven’t had time to work on the channel. Hopefully I’ll have some process videos to share from that soon enough.