To Preserve and Protect Comic Books
Paul Adams
To Preserve and Protect
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Version : 1.0
Date : 27 Sep. 1993
Written By : Paul Adams
e-mail : pa...@erc.msstate.edu
Confused about how to protect and store your comic books, or whether you
need to at all? I certainly was and since people in the Usenet group
rec.arts.comics.misc often post contradictory information, I went and did
a bit of research and this is what I found. Comments, constructive
criticism, &c. are welcome. Flames are ignored.
As always, no warranties are expressed or implied; this document may
contain errors; any action you take based off information in this
document is done at your own risk; I disclaim all liability for
direct or consequential damages resulting from use of this information.
In short, you are responsible for your own actions.
Paul Adams
Protecting Your Comics ( Short Version )
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Why bag a comic book?
- Bag your comics to protect them from damage from water, insects, and people.
What type of bag do I need?
- For long term storage use only Mylar bags. For intermediate storage,
meaning for about two years, polypropylene or polyethylene bags will do.
What type of backing board do I need?
- For long term storage use only "acid-free" boards. For intermediate storage,
"acid-free-at-time-of-manufacture" will do.
What is a good way to store the comic books?
- For long term storage buy a cardboard comic book box and store in a dark,
cool place. For intermediate storage, store in a dark cool place using a
a cardboard box ( I use old Hammermill boxes as they are used to carry
acid-free paper ), a chest - preferably cedar, a drawer in a desk or
chest of drawers, or something similar.
Protecting Your Comics
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Before looking at how to store comic books, one needs to understand a
bit about how paper is made and what causes it to degrade over time.
Understanding how this degrading process occurs will help you in knowing
how to protect your entertainment and monetary investment in your comic book.
Paper and its Deterioration
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Paper is generally made from wood pulp that is suspended in water and
matted into sheets. This can be done in one of two ways. The first way
is take logs, shred them, and form pulp. This is the cheaper of the two
ways and is thus used most often in newsprint and comic books, but it
leaves impurities in the paper. Up to one-third of the paper can be
composed of these impurities such a lignin, a complex woody acid. Lignin
breaks down in the presence of oxygen and ultraviolet light. This
light-induced oxidation of lignin is what turns newsprint yellow.
The second method has the wood fibers being prepared by digesting wood
chips in chemicals. During this process, much of the lignin and other
impurities are removed. This process is more expensive and is thus used
most often in stationary and hardcover books.
Other ways paper can deteriorate, other than light-induced oxidation
of lignin, is by oxidation of cellulose and acid hydrolysis. Oxidation
of cellulose occurs when oxygen molecules in the air attack the cellulose
fibers in the paper causing the paper to darken and increase in acidity.
Acid hydrolysis is a reaction involving heat and acids. The acids can
come from the lignin, the air itself, oxidation by-products, &c.
Acidity and alkalinity are measured in units of pH on a scale from 0 to 14.
A pH of 0 is the most acidic; a pH of 7 is neutral; a pH of 14 is the most
alkaline. The pH scale is based on powers of ten, thus a pH of 3.5 is 100
times more acidic than a pH of 4.5. Newsprint usually has a pH of around 4.5
when it is new while degraded paper may have a pH of 3.5. Although some
paper today is being made acid-free, the paper from which comic books are
currently being made are not.
Finally, extremes of humidity and temperature, insects, rodents, mold,
small children, careless friends, &c. can cause a comic book and the paper
it is printed on to deteriorate.
Protecting Against Damage
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Simply storing comic books flat in a cool, dry, dark place and properly
handling them will go a long way towards preserving them. A cool place
helps prevent acid hydrolysis; a dry place protects against humidity damage;
a dark place will help prevent light-induced oxidation of lignin. Storing
them flat and proper handling will keep the comic itself in good shape.
Storage in this manner, though, will not protect against all the
possible damage nor natural aging. For that manner, even bagging and
using backing boards will not keep the comic book from natural aging.
Since bagging and boarding comic books will not stop them from aging,
why should you bag your collection? You should bag your collection
for the simple reason that you need to protect your investment, whether
investment means enjoyment or monetary. Often comic books are damaged
by insects or water. You can protect against this by bagging. Insects
do not seem to like to chew on plastic as much as they do on the paper
that comics are made out of. Similarly, bags protect against water
damaging your comics.
Bagging, as stated earlier, will not halt the aging process. This
is because bags are not airtight To try and halt the aging process,
one might consider deacidifying the pages of the comic and/or sandwiching
the book in lucite, but deacidifying pages is controversial, and
sandwiching the book in lucite is expensive.
Upon deciding to bag, the next question is what kind of bag do
you need to buy? The answer to this depends on your budget. You
do not need to buy a bag for every single book if you cannot afford
it. Instead you can put two in a bag back-to-back so that both
covers show. For those on a real budget, more can be put into a
bag if needed. If money is less of an impediment, then one bag
per comic is best. But still which kind of bag do you need?
Comic Bags
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There are three main types of plastic used in making comic bags.
Polypropylene
Uncoated and untreated polypropylene is excellent for archival
purposes. Unfortunately the only means of sealing it is to add
polyvinyl dichloride, PVDC, a relative of polyvinyl chloride, PVC.
This is harmful to the comic book in the long run. Additionally
it contains other solvents and additives to assure clarity and to
increase the flexibility of the plastic. These are also damaging
over the long run. Eventually even the bag itself will turn yellow.
On the plus side, polypropylene is inexpensive, costing around 5 cents
a bag, and will prevent much of the damage discussed above.
Polyethylene
Uncoated and untreated polyethylene is a good moisture barrier, but
has a high gas transmission rate. It also shrinks and loses its
shape under warm conditions. Additionally it contains other solvents
and additives to assure clarity and to increase the flexibility of the
plastic. These are also damaging over the long run. Still, it is
inexpensive costing around 4 cents a bag.
Mylar
4 mil Mylar ( 1 mil = 1/1000th of an inch ) is the most expensive
type of bag as well as being the best for archiving your comic book.
It does not degrade or turn yellow with time except when exposed to
UV light. Thus it is inert and is very impermeable to water. Its
disadvantages, besides its expense, is that in relation to the other
poly- bags, it is stiff. This may damage the comic book if one is not
careful. Another disadvantage is that it does not have a sealing flap
like the prior two do. Mylar type D is made by DuPont Company and is an
uncoated polyester film. An equivalent material is Melinex 316 by
ICI Corporation. Either is the preferred material for archiving valuable
documents in according to the U.S. Library of Congress.
Mylites
In order to remove the disadvantages of 4 mil Mylar, 1 mil thick
Mylites comic bags have been introduced. Since it is thinner, it
is not as stiff and is less likely to damage the comic book.
It also has the sealing flap found in the polypropylene and
polyethylene comic bags.
Backing Boards
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Backing boards are used to help support your comic books in upright storage
and thus keep them from damage by bending. Like paper, cardboard is itself
acidic and can contribute to the damage of comic books. Backing boards have
additives to protect against this. There are two basic types of backing
boards for use in protecting comic books.
"Acid Free at Time of Manufacture" Backing Boards
Such boards are generally spray coated with an alkaline substance.
This will protect the comic book for awhile, but eventually this
buffer will wear off and cause premature aging. It is best for
intermediate storage only, but it is less expensive being about
10 cents a board.
"Acid Free" Backing Boards
Such boards that have a 3% calcium carbonate buffer throughout and have
an alkaline pH of 8.5 or greater meet the U.S. government's minimum
standards. Since the entire board is alkaline and not acidic, there is
no buffer to wear off and no acid to cause premature damage. It is
more expensive costing around 25 cents a board.
Storage
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Once the comic book has been bagged and boarded, the question is how
to store them. Cardboard boxes are acidic and may not be the correct size
to prevent the comics from shifting around and damaging themselves. Short
comic book boxes can handle around 200 comics and cost about 4 dollars.
Long comic book boxes can handle around 300 comics and cost about 5 dollars.
It is best to store comics so that they are snug in a box instead of loose.
The reason is that if snug, the box, backing boards, and comic books work
together to support your comics.
Summary
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For short-term storage and small budgets, you don't need to spend a fortune
to protect your comics. Polypropylene or polyethylene bags, "acid free at
time of manufacture" backing boards, and a cardboard box will do nicely.
More damage will be caused by mishandling than by less than archive quality
bags and boards. For valuable comic books - you decide what is valuable to
you - then Mylar bags, "acid free" boards, and comic book boxes should be
used
Sources
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Biggers, Cliff, Batty, Ward, ed. _Comics 101 : 1993 CSN Collector's Guide_,
Comic Shop News, 1993.
Cole, William M., "Preservation and Storage of Comic Books", _Comic Buyer's
Guide 1992 Annual_, Krause Publications, Inc. Iola, WI, 1991.
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Copyright 1993, Paul Adams. All rights reserved, but no harm askin'
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\ ___ / Paul Adams
\ /___\ / pa...@erc.msstate.edu
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