User:Beardson/sandbox

Comic binding

What is comic binding?

Well the simple answer is that you take a group of comic books and bind them as a book that is a one of a kind vertion. You can bind the books by hand yourself I myself have no experince with this or you can send them to a comercial book binder such as houchen which is what I have experince with. Now the next question you are probably asking is why would I want to do this when I can just  get the official grafic novel.

breakdown showing a custom bound book

reasons

one there are just some things are never colected or not colected in the way you want them to be. example most events only colect the core issues and no tie ins though there are some exptions. you may want to create a book with the tie ins were they logicly take place in that case most of the time you would have to create your own book.

Example I have the trade for infinate crisis but if I want it to include all the tie ins I can take the base grafic novel and get the comics for the tie ins and order them how I wish making a more compleate compendum of the event then just the core 7 issues.

two if you already pick up the issues it may be more practical to bind them depending on invidual value and preferance personaly I like hard cover books and some comics only get paperback releases for example a lot of the main DC rebirth serises got a Deluxe hc colecting the first two grafic novel releases for those I sell the comics and get the deluxe hc but some like green arow have not goten a delux hc so I would bind it.

three with binding you take the individual comics and make them into a hard cover book this strengthens it and making it easier to read as its a book and you can just keep it on an easily accessible shelf. also they look nice all lined up

I personaly folow a few guied lines when deciding what to bind

do I want to keep it and read it again

do I have the correct issues and everything needed

is there an official omnibus collection or deluxe hc like the ones they are currently doing with most of the rebirth books.

so were do you start

once you have decided that you want to bind comics you have to decide were and how you want to bind the comics. as for there where i have only ever used houchn bindery and do not

so were do you start

once you have decided that you want to bind comics you have to decide where and how you want to bind the comics. As for there where i have only ever used houchn bindery and do not have any experince with any other binderys however I have good heard good things about hering and robinson and the canadian one. There are many factors as to chosing the right one for you such as location and extras. A closer bindery measn less shiping costs and you could potentualy drop them off in person if you can make the drive.

im going to walk through binding with houchen in mind becase that is what I have experince with. there are limitations that difer depending on what binding you want to go with. there comes a point when a book is just to large and unweily. How far you can push it can vary but general rule of thumb is 20-25 leaning more towards 20 is reasonable for normal sized comics there are ways to help with this such as removing unnessary ad pages you may be suprised how much of a diffrence this makes. that said each bindery has there limits when it comes to size and with houchen that can change depending on the binding examples

DFBA, pur, and oversew are all at a limit of 25 comics or 2"

wile smyth sewn is a max of 19

now this is a good time to go into chosing the binding method there are disadvanges and advanges to all of them

to start off with the most economical aka the cheapest mothod DFBA or insert long name. This is a type of glued binding  the trim the folds off and create perferations on the end giving the glue somthing to hold onto this creats a durabe book with minamal gutter loss there are certan papers taht dont hold as well with gule such as glossy paper.

pur is a thermal glued binding and is simmar to DFBA but with more guter loss

and now onto the swen methodes over swen they treim the edges and then machine sew all the pages together this creats a bit more guter loss but is even more durable then the gued bindings.

smyth swen is a binding procsess were they sew threw the folds creating a strong bind that is able to lay flast this is a bit more labor intensive so it costs a bit more.

example I am binding the entire run of Gwenpoole it is 25 issues that is more than 19 and i can live with some gutter loss as wile I enjoyed the run I didnt egnuf to break it into two books to get smyth binding so I will use DFBA binding for this one and cut out unessary pages to to help with the bulk

second example I am going to do a second volume off Ms marvel I have about 17 issues to ninf and i realy like ms marvel so I plan on using smyth as im under 19 and it creates a nicer reading experince with almost no guter loss

every book will be slightly difrent

now that binding has been chosen you have to decide what to do with the cover, you could go with a classy bucram sype cover with hanfoiled leters like oldscholl books or opt for a grafic cover

with the cloth cover its just a mater of looking at the choises and then filling it out on the slip as you see fit. I would note though that the extra bells and wistels can add up.

the grafic covers are waht I have primarlaly used, you take the dimentions you are given and then breate a cover in a program such as photoshop. you should be able to get by using gimp if you dont have photoshop if you dont feel up to this you can always have the bindry desighn the cover but it can get costly

at this point its just a matter of preping the boox and sending them out an starting the  long wait.

Comic binding draft 2

what is comic binding

hello my name is beardson and today I'm going explain what custom comic binding is and why you would want to do it.

(pick up book)

This is a custom comic book with a graphic cover they are made by taking a number of comics (pick up or cut to stack of comics) and binding them together then they glue them into a hard cover outer shell. There are several methods of binding to chose from such as glued and sewn they all have advantages and disadvantages. But that's something we will go over in detail when I do the video on the process.

(VO)

now that you know the basics of what what a custom bound comic is, your probably asking a few things such as why would you want to do that and wont that destroy their value.

first thing im going to touch on is the value and yes if you have a comic that is worth big bucks (picture of action comics 1) it might not be a good idea to bind it. But for most comics you find they aren't worth that much, I often find interesting books in the quarter bin such as a good chunk of geff johns jsa run or about half of 52. If you look you can find some interesting comics. you have to ask yourself am I collecting comics because I like to read them or because I think I can make a profit off of them if its the later then this not for you and good luck as that's easier said then done. if you collect comics to read them then this can hold several advantages for you.

first space savings the amount of space taken up by bagged and boarded comics is rediclous if  you think about it and if you end up with a lot of comics it will add up. When you bind the amount of space the books take up is greatly reduced because your compressing the comics into one solid block of pages most of my 20 to 25 issue binds have a 1.5  inch spine or less it really depends on the comics them selves as some paper is thicker and heaver than others.

This goes into my next reason, its easier to read,(skit of trying to open comic bag) no fussing with the bags and getting the comics out. (shot of picking up the book and reading it) You can just pick up the book and read it.

also hard covers are just nice and there are a lot of runs that don't get them or even some times a trade paperback. Binding is a good way to collect those especially if its a series that you were picking up monthly and you already have all the comics. I myself bound the 8 issues of the unstoppable wasp series I had from reading it monthly, wile there were trades I had the entire run and i enjoyed it egnuf to want to keep it.

lastly even if there is a trade or official hc it may not have all the material for example the trade for infinite crisis only has the core 7 issues but none of the tie ins and the omnibus for a long time was out of print. so if you wanted those together and in the correct order than then binding your own is the best way to go.

that's a quick run down of what a custom comic bind is and why you might be interested in giving it a try. If you are click here for part two were I go into the details on how to go about getting one made.

how to get a custom grafic novel made

now once you have decided you want to get a cusom grafic novel made what do you do.

first  gather the books you want bind you want to keep you max issue count to 20-25 leaning twards 20 the higher you get the more unwhealdy your book gets. this also depends to the thikness of the individual comics moder comics tend to be a bit thinger so you can push them farther but older ones are thicker so you might want lean twords a lower number. this is all just a guide line it comes down to personal prefernce and what the bindery alows.

second you have to check them and decide how much you want to edit them for ecample any cardbord inserts will cause issues tith pages staying down its best to remove them if you can in most of my books i have mosly only removed what i had to and left them be not even removing the staples but if you want to remove pages its best to rmode staples makes it easyer

once you have evrything in oder and edited you just have to prep them to be shiped by filling out the order sheet to your specificacations this is when you decide how you want it to bind and what extras you wnat

The issue with first issues

For a wile now there has been an trend in the comics indusry to reset a comics numbering with number 1's on what feels like a regular baises. This trend has mostly been marvel but wile not as much of an ofender DC has done this as well in fact the recent news that when brian michal bendes takes over superman they will reset the numbering. Is what got me thinking about the topic again, the practice in general anoies me and can get confusing as to witch numeber issue you are refering to especialy when a comic had two number ones i the same year such as with the squirl girl comics. the issue is not just with the confustion but the actual effects of the practice as well (look it up). Due to the Colectors culture that still leangers in comics number one's usualy mean a slales spike wich is great in the the short term but over all it fatigues the market. Marvel launched renewal intuatives for many years in a row. the law of diminishing reterns is in efect by making it a regular ocurance it becomes somthing that is no longer special and can put off the normal readership. This isnt always the case to be fair I didnt care about the number resets they did for rebirth over at DC but that was becase they had stayed consitent unt for 5 years since the new 52 relaunch but it is has only been two years and and hofully dc isnt making the same mistakes marvel has.

main charicters

io - age 17 An introvert realy speeks up in school but when he plays the game he often takes the lead in the game where unlike life it is easy to make destions adn take the lead after all in the game unlike life there are no realy consiquesnses plays human fighter

Sam- age 17 stong willed and always out to help others even to his own detriment as he is unwilling to let a little thing like comen sense stop him from doing the right thing plays half elf ranger

nora- age 17 inteligent and tech though she hides it she is likly the smarted student at the shool sam's girlfiend they have know each other for years buy only dated for a few months sam manged to convince her to give the game a try of course he had used knoledge he had from knowing her for so long to stack the deck he convinsed the dm to let her play a special hombrewed fairy race plays varient fairy- wisard

sister- age 12 sam's younger sister who he was tasked with babysiting she decieded that the game sounded interesting playing Drow- cleric

Prologe

kyle had wondered into the kitchen as he know that his timer would go off. Sure egnuf just as he turned to the oven he saw that it was seconds from going off. He quicky cancled it and started to take the pizza out of the oven taking in the fresh baked pizza smell as he did so.

"Kyle could you be a good man and get me some moutain dew" one of his players yelled.

Kyle put the pizza down to let the pizza cool down and replied "sure thing"

Within a few seconds kyle was at the refrigerator door and had it open only to discovered they only had diet mounten dew. kyle frowned at this he swore he saw at least a whole pack but not much he could do about it at this time. He grabed a Diet moutain dew and walked to the room they were playing the game. He had to do a duble take becase he was not expecting what he saw and to be fair no body in there right mind woud have.

The room kyle had walked into was a mess chariter sheets and other bits of paper and tech had been scatered all over the room haphasardly. The thing that most stood out however was the smeel of burnt wood well that and the what coould only be described as a chest aside from it not being there before it was a simple wooden chest. the illution however was broken when it sudenly sprouted spider legs and scurried off the table. kyle froze for a second in disbelife unable to turn and follow the box. He sudenly came back to reality when he heard a thud turning twards he saw that the chest had aprently ran strait into a wall and knocked itsself out.

"guys?" kyle said to the empty room he had a very bad feiling about what just happenend.

.........

Io suddnely found himself in a white void last he rembered he was just playing DnD with his friends and kid sister. Before he could contimplate more on his perdicament a young woman poped into existance in front of him, the woried look on her face was not comforting. She looked around avrage hight, her blue eyes and pink hair stood out especiualy against her plain functional dress.

"Im sorry" was the first words out of her mouth "but whats done is done"

she visably sighed as Io asked "what have you done? am I..."

"No your not dead.... you and your friends have been chosen as heroes in a time of need."

"Heroes I like to think of myself as a good person but im no hero"

"that is corect and thats why Im so sorry I goofed"

"goofed?"

she paused thinking of the best responce "I picked up on your game as... well... reality, when I chose you all I thought you were already hero's"

"thats a fairly big goof, as I dont think we will be much help best we can do it try not to die" Io said wanting to be mad but could not as he could see how much she regreted her actions.

The young woman smiled weekly "True if I left you as you are you would not likly last long unless you found a quiet place to stay out the way, but I wont be leaving you as you are It won't be easy but I can at least give you a fighting chance.

"A fighting chance?"

"yes wile I relized to late that you were the wrong choices for summond heroes I did not do so to late to help that said I had to ack quicly so I couldnt consult you before seting the changes in motion"

"Changes?"

"yes  your world and is quite difrent from the world you are being sent to thus you have to be converted to fit within the new reality im using the charicter you were playing as a base your game operates very simmialrly to the way reality works over here so it wasnt that hard"

"so your teling me Im becoming a half elf fighter"

"yes a lvl 1 half elf fighter" she said " this should hopefully give you all a chance"

"and you cant just send us back?"

"no, my power is waning after this ill be powerless to help you if you stop the dark lord I ma be able to amas the necisary power"

"well can you at least tell me about the wor...." Io started to say when he was interupted.

"sory times up"

Al'ieca had just finished her wish to the godess and nothing happened no flash of light no indication that anything was going to happen. she didnt have to wonder for very long a motly crew sudenly just poped into exsitence and landed in a pile in the midle of the shrine to the godess

"chosen heroes I thank for your aid in this time of need" she regaly said before giving a bow of respect. As the pile sperated she looked closer at the chosen heroes a half elf in full plate armor, a half elf in sensable lether armor, a fairy seemed to be having a panic attack, and a beast kin feline in scale armor.

The half elf in plate armor was the first to respond "I think chosen is a strong word"

"if the the godess chose you then there is a divine plan at work"

"if there was one she said it her self she it her self she goofed"

"Goofed?"

"as in made a mistake"

"I KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!"

scientist mage

"Your peers veiw you as a quack, they see this sience as a foolish study when you can emerse yourself inthe arcane and gain power that way a proven way. But you know that by understanding why somthing happens will help understand the foundations of magic"

By studying the fudamentls of science you are able to use this knowledge to augment your spells and create new ones.

New cantrip

magishot

Through study you have realized that even a small object can be deadly at the right speeds. also that it is far easyer to fling a ready made object then to generate fire or somthing simerly energy intensive. In base use are efecivly carying a back of small rocks and pebles that you fling at the enimy. In its base form its is hard to controll persicly

attack roll with no modifires 1d6 damage

Ignite

Through study you have realized that it can be more effeciant to spark the the flame then to produce it. Creates a spark that will cause a fire on most flamable objects and the harder ones will require an attack roll.

distracting crack

through study you have learnd that if you displace a small amount of air the suden rush will create a loud crack

Class feature

spell improvment lvl 2,6,10,14

you have through obervation and testing been able to improve one of you spells

improved magishot

you have observed that there is a better way to direct shots and have built custom apraratis to aim and direct shots

attack roll with profciancy and dex mod 1d6+dex

ignited magishot

by coating your ammo in a flamable material you have leaned how to fire and ignite the projectile

1d4 burning damge added

exploading magishot

you have figered out how to put a small amount of explosive in your ammo and inite it at the perfict moment to deal extra damge

limited rounds produced requires metal to create rounds from and some kind of explosive

1d8 explosive damge crit fail penatly you blow up your magishot aperatis roll to see if you ignight the rest of your amo 1d20 10 and lower equals fail 1d8 per round that explodes

sub classes

Sniper

You have realized the potentual of the magishot cantrip and have worked to increase the range and acuracy

subclass feature

rifled magishot

you have figured out rifling and have extended the efective range of your magishot

Demolitionist

fire and explotions are in your blood you are using the fundmanls of what causes explotions to make them bigger.

Grenade

you can create 3 grenades per day as long as you have the materials

chemist

you have a facination with the inate way to comnine ements and make new concotions and ways to enhance them with magic

concoction

you can create 3 concouctions per day