DCML digest #106

[Don Rosa]

From: "Fernando Ventura"
>>>I like to ask to all the members from the list how you conserve yours
comics?

The best way to conserve/preserve comics or any old magazines, etc., is to
come as close as you conveniently can to the following: keep the comics
packed fairly tightly, standing on edge like books, in archival-quality (no
acid content) cardboard file boxes in a cool, dark room with the ideal
humidity of 50%. You do NOT (and I am eager to answer anytime anyone asks
this question in order to dispel this silly myth), repeat, you do NOT need
to, and in fact SHOULD not keep them in "comic bags" with or without
"backing boards". Those things are good when the comics are in the hands of
a dealer where they will be moved around and handled frequently by
shoppers. But the bags not only do not help preserve the comics, they
actually do damage to them in the long run due to the chemicals in the
cheap plastic.
It is not a *bad* idea to keep older comics in Mylar comic bags, but it's
pointless to use the expensive ones that cost $1 each. I do put my older
issues, more or less any of them that I did not persoanlly buy off the
stands since 1965, in the things called "Mylites" (very thin Mylar) simply
so that I do not have to worry about handling them. But even the Mylites
cost 20 cents each or more, and that can run into some $ if you have lotsa
funnybooks. Just remember that the bags never preserve the comics, only
protect them from handling if they are fragile. Comics (at least American
ones) are printed on cheap paper that will decompose within a century no
matter how you store the things... which doesn't bother me much since I'll
do the same thing and be beyond caring at that point. Rare or historical
books are preserved at the Library of Congress by being dis-assembled and
put through chemical baths and drying processes... but doing that to a
comic book would so change it from it's original integral beauty that it
should sooner be photographed and digitally stored on CDs, and then the
original allowed to turn to dust in its own sweet time.