BOUND COPIES

[abacus]

I have seen a number of bound issues of comics on sale and got to wondering whether these were shop bought like this or whether they were created by someone who did bookbinding as an hobby.I know that before the advent of television and other distractions people had many hobbies from rug making to fretwork etc .I do not own any of these bound comic editions but I do own a bound collection of THE MILLION magazine beginning from 1893 I think though this was probably published like this.The interesting thing about this magazine where each copy spans 16 pages is the fact that for 3 whole pages of each copy all the drawings are in colour.With bound comics as with this the thought is always there to try and separate each copy from the binding but then I think better not.

[Lew Stringer]

I have seen a number of bound issues of comics on sale and got to wondering whether these were shop bought like this or whether they were created by someone who did bookbinding as an hobby.I know that before the advent of television and other distractions people had many hobbies from rug making to fretwork etc .I do not own any of these bound comic editions but I do own a bound collection of THE MILLION magazine beginning from 1893 I think though this was probably published like this.The interesting thing about this magazine where each copy spans 16 pages is the fact that for 3 whole pages of each copy all the drawings are in colour.With bound comics as with this the thought is always there to try and seperate each copy from the binding but then I think better not.

Some of the bound comics you'll see on eBay are the file copies of the publisher that have found themselves in the hands of collectors by various means. (Although some have been bound by collectors themselves.)

In the case of some older magazines, such as The Strand or The Windsor Magazine, the publishers issued bound collections every year or six months or so. It sounds like The Million book that you have may be one of those official bound collections.

It's probably best not to try and separate them as they'll tear where they're glued together and the results won't look good. (I tried it years ago with the Double-Double Comics. )

[stevezodiac]

I have quite a few bound volumes and my mate Steve offered to sell me his but I declined and he has sold them on ebay through a third party so they may be his copies. I have quite a few disbound comics and magazines so it is possible to separate them.

[Phoenix]

I have quite a few disbound comics and magazines so it is possible to separate them.

As you say, Steve, it is of course perfectly possible to separate them, but not only do they look ragged at the spine, they have almost certainly been trimmed on the other three edges. I have quite a few of them in my collections but I don't mind because I only want the story content.

[stevezodiac]

On the plus side the disbound copies are usually in superb condition having been stored away in bound form and read like a book - turning the pages while laid flat. But yes they are usually trimmed all the way round losing the serrated outer edge. Some of my Victorian copies of Funny Folks have been trimmed a bit too severely losing a line of copy from the bottom of the page. Ephemera fair in Bloomsbury this Sunday so hoping to find a few gems - perhaps a box of Magic comics that the dealer doesn't know anything about

[abacus]

Just for clarity and not knowing much about this type of bookbinding , as I understand it sometimes a type of stitching is used to attach pages or is it just a case of the spine of the comic/magazine being just glued to a backing strip and if so is the separating process easy.

[Phoenix]

Ephemera fair in Bloomsbury this Sunday so hoping to find a few gems - perhaps a box of Magic comics that the dealer doesn't know anything about

Well, good luck with that one, Steve! At least the dream doesn't cost anything.

[stevezodiac]

Last time i resolved to buy the 100+ Rovers from 1970/71 for £75 but the dealer wasn't there. Maybe he'll turn up this Sunday. I don't really want them but I just love bringing them home and going through them page by page. Might be some pink inserts in some.

[felneymike]

Why would you want to seperate them? I suppose individual ones can be sold for more seperately, but do you want to sell them? Binding a collection keeps it together, and better-preserved for the future.

As some people have said, you can get publisher's own file volumes, amateur bound efforts (or, ones collectors sent to a professional binder!), or "official" bound volumes. Easy-to-collect papers that were sold in this format include The Boys'/Girls' Own, Chatterbox and Chums. The annual volumes often came out near Christmas - making an ideal present! And this is obviously one origin of the "annuals", which still survive today (though, usually in the form of a few original stories and lots of puzzles - but Viz still reprints old content!).

Chatterbox is interesting, because it actually existed in both forms of an "annual", first a bound collection of weeklies, then (for two years) a collection of monthlies, and finally the annual stood on it's own, as a much thinner book with a few adventure stories. The final two years of Chums were also "annual only", though these annuals were just as thick as the earlier ones! (also, earlier Chums volumes reprint the issues complete - even the adverts! Usually official bound volumes left these out).

[stevezodiac]

Before I read the last post I was looking through a Girl's Own Paper Annual yesterday which is a bound volume of one years issues and thought "I wish these were individual issues". I just prefer to handle comics and magazines as individual items rather than in book form. I do have hundreds of Boys and Girls Own Papers that have been disbound including the very first Boys Own and the subsequent years worth of issues.