On the Wall

So I've got a lot of comics. Not as many as I used to have, having parted with about 2000 of them a little while back just to clear space in my house and to avoid moving them again. Those boxes are heavy. So while I don't have as many as I used to, I've still got boxes and boxes of comics that I've gotta find a home for, and where some of my coolest comics just sit inside a box and are never seen.

However, I want to see them. I want to show them off. And since showing off (and giving you ideas on how to show off on your own end) is the point of this blog, I needed to find a way to do that.

I mean, you can't exactly show off when your whole collection essentially looks like this:

21 long boxes of comics, while slightly impressive, is also an eyesore. Where do you put them? How do you avoid having 21 big white boxes stacked in a room? And how do you show off or even get a chance to catch a glimpse of any of the comics inside them when they're just hidden in the dark all the time. That's no way to appreciate a collection.

I mean, do people that collect those hideous collectible plates hide them? Hell no. They show that shit off! Even if nobody in their right mind wants to see it... but they SHOW THAT SHIT OFF!

So if you're like me, you're wondering "How do I even start showing some of these off? And which do I show off?"

A quick browsing through my collection brought me a couple books that, while not good enough to be sent off for CGC grading (something I'll get into in a later blog), were pretty awesome to look at, have historical value to other comic fans, and were in pretty good condition.

I pulled out about 5 books that I thought fit this bill. I picked out:

Uncanny X-Men 141, Uncanny X-Men 142, New Mutants #98

The final 2 books that picked were signed by a favorite (but dearly departed) artist by the name of Michael Turner. Soulfire #5C Supernova Variant and Shrugged: Beginnings Pittsburgh Comic Con Limited to 750 variant.

While the Uncanny X-Men and the New Mutants had some monetary value due to their historical significance (The Uncanny issues were the Days of Future Past storyline that the upcoming movie is based on as well as just being a really cool story, and the 1st appearance of Deadpool in New Mutants), the 2 Michael Turner books were picked simply because they were just cool looking covers. And they were signed which is also a nice little novelty, even if it doesn't really help the value that much.

I suggest that anyone picking out books that they'd like to try a project like this with, picks books that they like the cover of, books that have monetary value, or those that have a historical significance to the comic book medium. Even if it's something as simple as the first appearance of your favorite character or something like that. And the best part of this project is that you can swap out the books if you want to change it up in about 5 minutes.

Now the question was... what do I do with these books? I've pulled them out but wanted to do something with them. That's when I got the idea that it might be cool to frame them. But I'd have to find frames that actually fit a comic book. And 7'x10" frame isn't exactly normal sized but an 8.5 X 11 seemed to be a very common frame size. I opted to go with that and do some sort of matting around it. But frames are expensive. Even cheap ones, are pretty expensive. And while these were nice comics, they weren't really worth that much effort. 

Thankfully, DollarTree had 8.5"x11" document frames for diplomas and the sort for (obviously, because it's Dollar Tree) $1 each. This was a much more reasonable option than finding actual comic sized frames which can be relatively expensive and difficult to find in an actual brick-and-mortar store; or buying something nice from Michaels or a craft store and paying upwards of $10. This was supposed to be a cheap and quick project. And $1 picture frames are exactly the kind of cheap I was hunting for this project.

Since the comics don't fit perfectly in dimensions and the cardboard backing to the frame is exposed, I wanted to do something to clean it up and opted for some sort of matting. I went for simple black cardstock/poster board. The thin floppy kind, but solid enough to not tear or fall apart either while still covering the cardboard and making it look a little nicer than a cheap plastic dollar store frame.

I opted to keep the comics inside their acid-free bags and with their backing boards intact over removing them, however you could probably do either way. I didn't like the idea of the comic potentially shifting in the frame and blunting the corners any more than they already were, and also liked that the way that added thickness of the bag and board helped keep pressure both on the glass in the front and the rear board of the frame at the same time, thereby reducing potential shifting of the comic inside the frame, since it's an oversized frame and the matting is simply sitting behind the comic, rather than overlapping any of the edges in the way it would with a higher-end piece of art. But it's up to you how you want to do it. But fair warning that since the comics aren't secured in any way inside there (and doing so would damage the books), your only hope of keeping a comic secured is with the pressure pushing on the front and rear of the book by the glass and cardboard backing. So any extra thickness, as long as it's within reason, that adds to the pressure there couldn't really be considered horrible.

I simply cut the cardstock to size, using the cardboard backing of the frame as my stencil rather than bothering to measure. 1 36" sheet of standard cardstock that you'd get from Michael's made enough mattings for 6 frames with a little left over.

After cutting the cardstock, I laid the comic against the glass of the frame, face down, and centered it as best as I could without securing it in place. I then laid the cut cardstock into the frame and then re-attached the cardboard backing of the frame and secured the folding tabs on the back of the cheap frames. If there's some bulging and the folding tabs don't push all the way flat against the back of the frame, don't worry. It's OK and I had the same issues. Just be careful that you don't crack the glass by trying to get them too tight. As long as they're mostly re-secured, you'll be fine.

After that, I simply found a space to hang them.

I picked this space because I liked the aesthetic of the straight line of comics top to bottom and the way that the smaller picture size of a framed comic fits with the skinny wall space here. Plus, there were already centered and properly spaced hanging nails to do it. So it appealed to my lazy size too. I told you this was a quick & cheap project. This was Uncanny X-Men 141 and 142. I have space above and below to add at least 1 above and 1-2 comics below these and I think that doing issues 140-145 might be cool. And this skinny span of wall really works for that.

Here's a list of the supplies you'd need to do this project:

Comic books in bags & with backing boards
$1 each for the 8.5"x11" frame from Dollar Tree
$2-3 for a 36" sheet of cardstock/poster board (enough for 6 frames)
Scissors or exacto knife
Pencil
Hammer & small penny-nails.
Tape measure
Level
Optional: Straight edge or ruler

I don't recommend using picture hangers for this project since the idea is to get the frames to hang as flat as possible and picture hanging hooks would just make them tilt forward a little too much with something like this. A penny-nail is all you really need. The frames have a hanging loop on the back with teeth to grip the nail head.