Liz,

Have you considered the following:

Get large, archival quality page protectors.

Get a large, high quality, three-ring binder (preferrably one of the positive locking styles -- I'll show you an example next time I'm over -- but a D-ring will suffice.)

Insert comics into page protectors (no cardboard), and then insert page protectors into binder (otherwise, you're likely to misjudge the final bulk).

If you have a really high quality binder, you can store upright, but if not, on their sides, or (best), use hanging binders, and hange them vertically in appropriate "milk" crates or an honest-to-God filing cabinet.

Richard (Who made the mistake of unbinding *all* of his T:2000K 2Ed gaming stuff to do this. For individual pages -- very bad idea, too much loose stuff .)

-- R. A. Randall (rrandall@iname.com), August 04, 1999

Answers

I thought of sticking the comics in page protectors and putting the page protectors in binders, but there are two problems with this:

The first, and least significant, is that page protectors that are of high enough quality to hold comics are sortof expensive. Likewise, large, high-quality binders.

The second, and most significant (to me anyway) is that you still have to pull the comic books out to read them.

I really like the holders I've got, actually. They fit about 15 to a cheap 1-inch binder (68 cents at Staples!), the binder is stiff and therefore will stand up on a shelf, and I can pull it down and read through the comics without having to screw with anything.

If I was into collecting comics, rather than simply reading them, I might go for the page protectors.

But thanks for the suggestion!

-- The Dragon Herself (brooksliz@hotmail.com), August 04, 1999.

I think for readability Liz's way will work better in the long run. But you shouldn't be tearing your nails over this, silly! Get a good piece of plywood (or a cutting board you don't mind scratching all to heck) and cut the suckers apart using a utility knife. Or, if you need to sorta saw the suckers off, use something like a steak knife.

-- Karen O. (lisl_1@yahoo.com), August 05, 1999.

Karen -

An Exacto-knife won't work for this for the same reason it wouldn't work for shelling peas - the seam is already there, and using a knife to pry it open would be way too time-consuming because you'd have to line it up carefully.

-- The Dragon Herself (brooksliz@hotmail.com), August 06, 1999.