Got a comic room??? Showcase it here! 48 48

[ADAMANTIUM]

4 minutes ago, jdw1991 said:

Set up a comic wall this week.

 

[davebo357]

3 hours ago, jdw1991 said:

Set up a comic wall this week.

That's pretty slick. Any details on what you used or side shots?  Are they just held in place by gravity or somehow bound to the wire frame behind them?

Edited March 24, 2018 by davebo357

[jdw1991]

10 hours ago, davebo357 said:

That's pretty slick. Any details on what you used or side shots?  Are they just held in place by gravity or somehow bound to the wire frame behind them?

Thanks,  I got the idea either off the boards or YouTube.  Purchased everything from Lowes.

6 ft X 12 in Rubbermaid Linen shelf (246454)

fixed mount clips (246379)

end caps (137500)

Slabs are sitting freely on the rack,  tilted about 1 inch out at the bottom.  The bottom of the rack can swing out from the wall if you want more of an angle.

[davebo357]

Hah, we have that same rack in our utility room.  Never occurred to me to just flip it and mount it like that.  Clever.  I might end up stealing that since it's been months and I still haven't forced myself to go to Ikea for those mosslanda picture ledges.

[Doktor]

Decided that I didn’t want to leave my statues strewn around the house & constantly in need of dusting so I consolidated them & bought a cabinet at IKEA yesterday. Just need to figure out some lighting options now.

 

[davebo357]

On 3/23/2018 at 7:43 PM, jdw1991 said:

Set up a comic wall this week.

Thanks again for this idea.  I decided to do 12' straight across instead of rows, and got a couple more printed short boxes.  I did decide to tie some clear hanging wire across it just to keep things from falling off.

Got some old computers just used for video conversions.

 

Edited March 28, 2018 by davebo357

[jdw1991]

5 hours ago, davebo357 said:

Thanks again for this idea.  I decided to do 12' straight across instead of rows, and got a couple more printed short boxes.  I did decide to tie some clear hanging wire across it just to keep things from falling off.

Got some old computers just used for video conversions.

 

Looks good!

[Sweet Lou 14]

Hi everyone,

Hope you don't mind if I ask you for your opinions and advice on a project I'm planning ... basically, I'm completely redoing the comic book closets in my upstairs office / man cave.

First, I'll start with a couple of photos of the closets as they exist today.  (I've emptied them in preparation for the work.)  My office is in an attic space, which means the ceiling slopes down rapidly on either side with the roof line.  Hopefully you can see how that slope creates variable depth within the closets.

 

These closets were designed almost 10 years ago, when my collection was 99 and 44/100 percent raw.  I was able to fit all of my silver age books in short boxes along the top row, and then I used long "drawer boxes" in the bottom three rows (eight per row -- each cubby in the middle three columns holds two).  My entire collection (something like 15,000 books) fit in these two closets.  Life was good.

Then I went and got my whole silver age collection graded, and CGC books / boxes simply do not fit in the closets.  I've had boxes stacked all over the place while I tried to figure out a solution.  In the end I decided to pull out all the raw books and create a system of drawers.  The basic design looks like this:

With 18 drawers to either side of the TV, and another 8 below, these 44 drawers will give me plenty of space -- approximately 3,500 CGC books (if my collection ever gets that big -- right now I'm nowhere near that number).  I can always use any extra space for some of my more prized raw books.  The rest of the raw books are another matter entirely -- I will probably sell some (who's looking for a complete run of the Thing's solo book from the 80s?  Thunderstrike, anyone?) and stash the rest on the other side of the house.

I asked for a rendering of how it will look when completed, and here's what my designer sent me:

You'll see that she put comic book covers into each of the drawer fronts.  These would NOT be actual comic books -- I'm thinking of reproducing my favorite covers on cardstock and putting them into the drawer fronts to give the drawers some personality.  There is also room above the top row of drawers to decorate.

I was a bit concerned about the lack of contrast in this design, though.  So I asked for something that wasn't all the same color, and she came back with black drawer fronts:

So, that's what we have so far.  I'm trying to get this project done in April, so that means finalizing the design in short order.  I'm curious to hear what people think, just in case there are some good ideas I'm not thinking of.  Any feedback is welcome!

 

[spreads]

That looks pretty amazing to me - are you an engineer, the designs are so meticulous?  No suggestions for improvement it's pretty awesome.  My only question is, how are you going to sort them, alphabetically starting from top left? 

 

[Sweet Lou 14]

On 3/30/2018 at 3:23 PM, spreads said:

That looks pretty amazing to me - are you an engineer, the designs are so meticulous?  No suggestions for improvement it's pretty awesome.  My only question is, how are you going to sort them, alphabetically starting from top left? 

 

I'm a software guy ... those drawings and renderings are all from my designer friend, who is a pretty fascinating combination of left brain / right brain.  She's got all that interior design sensibility but she thinks like an engineer.

And yes, I was going to go left to right in alphabetical order ... CGC books first, then whatever raw books I want to keep around.  

Edited March 31, 2018 by Sweet Lou 14

[badback83]

1 hour ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

I'm a software guy ... those drawings are renderings are all from my designer friend, who is a pretty fascinating combination of left brain / right brain.  She's got all that interior design sensibility but she thinks like an engineer.

And yes, I was going to go left to right in alphabetical order ... CGC books first, then whatever raw books I want to keep around.  

I don’t have a suggestion for improvement either, just a comment.  That floor is gorgeous.

[zuckuss2003]

50 minutes ago, DocHoppus182 said:

I don’t have a suggestion for improvement either, just a comment.  That floor is gorgeous.

Yes, seriously, awesome office space. I do like the contrast but not sure about the black. Perhaps a slightly darker wood, Cherry perhaps.

[Sweet Lou 14]

18 minutes ago, zuckuss2003 said:

Yes, seriously, awesome office space. I do like the contrast but not sure about the black. Perhaps a slightly darker wood, Cherry perhaps.

Thank you!  I've confirmed with the designer that the cabinetmaker (this guy is good -- most of his work is custom kitchens, built-ins, etc.) will be mocking up a single drawer to start and he'll be giving me a bunch of finishes to choose from.  I agree that solid black might not be the best choice in the end.

[fatlab123]

I like it also...but did you consider the space above the books...maybe opening it up..shelve for Statues or anything else ..

[STORMSHADOW_80]

I think the size of that room needs a 1:1 scale statue

[Jayman]

2 hours ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

Thank you!  I've confirmed with the designer that the cabinetmaker (this guy is good -- most of his work is custom kitchens, built-ins, etc.) will be mocking up a single drawer to start and he'll be giving me a bunch of finishes to choose from.  I agree that solid black might not be the best choice in the end.

Is/was there a window in back of the tv in the original pic? Looked like I saw a bit of light maybe. If so I guess it's getting closed off now in the new design. It looks very nice, I like the two tone a lot better. Just make sure those closets are well insulated and have no drafts! 

[combiner1]

Great design, wish I had the $$$ and house to do something like this. Just love it. 

 

One recommendation, you better have some support in place when you open and pull out those drawers. If the drawers pulls out at least 3 feet, and full of slab books, the weight of the slabs plus the distance would create a lot of stress. One slab weighs close to 1lb, if you are able to put about 40-50 slab in there, you got close to 40lbs. The railing should be able to support that, even for distance of 3 ft. You also need a those railing to be bolted and secured properly. You don’t want them pivoting. 

 

GOod Luck

[Senormac]

On ‎3‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 2:04 PM, lizards2 said:

Ok - finally decided to take some photos of the comic cavern proper, and where it has barfed to.  You can withhold your hoarder comments.  We had a furnace fire last year that caused us to move the entire house into this room while we cleaned up, got new carpeting, new furnace, etc., and basically got rid of 1/2 of our possessions.  This is the last room I'm working on, and still has a lot of odds and sods stashed here, from guns and ammo, to paint/tools, dog crates, etc.  It is a work in progress.  And, since I'm currently trying to inventory and put comics away, it is extra messy.

Here is my comic cavern proper that I got 21 years ago when we remodeled the garage and made it into a family room + laundry/bathroom + comic room.  I never intended it to be a comic 'living room', but a dark storage room. The ceilings in this whole 'addition' are 9 feet.  I did shelving to the ceiling on both right and left wall.  The right wall shelving is deep enough so that it has short boxes two deep or a longbox.  The left wall is only one shortbox deep.  I used to be able to walk all the way to the back, but as books were added, they filled up the center too.

With 21 years passage in time, I've added a lot of books to my collection.  I can still stuff everything I have into the center space and close the door, but then the whole thing is inaccessible.  My wife has graciously let it barf into the family room.  I use the pool table generally as a sorting area, as I don't really care to play pool...., however it is a great working surface.  The temporary table set up outside the comic cavern proper is just to set boxes on and sort the new stuff while I inventory, grade and put it away.

 

I will probably never have the dreamy comic room a lot of you have, as my main emphasis is storage and some accessibility, with little or no display.  But like I said - it's a work in progress.  People always ask me "how many comics do you have?"  I do not really have a clue.  The right wall of the comic cavern is 2 short boxes deep x 11 across x 7 shelves = 154 short boxes.  The left wall is 1 short box deep x 4 across x 7 shelves = 28, + another 8-12 on the left, and 9 at the back.  It just goes on from there.  My limited goals are to try to get rid of a bunch of the modern/copper stuff, and winnow it down to my true passion of SA/BA - for example, get rid of all my FFs above #150 or something like that.

Just this pic alone is staggering Mike.  Wow.  You are a Beaver fan I think     

[Sweet Lou 14]

3 hours ago, fatlab123 said:

I like it also...but did you consider the space above the books...maybe opening it up..shelve for Statues or anything else ..

I don't think it's possible to open up niches, but I have thought about putting a shelf there.  I don't have much in the way of statues etc. but you may have noticed that Conan the Barbarian sword lying beneath the TV in the first pic (which of course could be wall-mounted without a shelf).

3 hours ago, STORMSHADOW_80 said:

I think the size of that room needs a 1:1 scale statue

1 hour ago, Jayman said:

Is/was there a window in back of the tv in the original pic? Looked like I saw a bit of light maybe. If so I guess it's getting closed off now in the new design. It looks very nice, I like the two tone a lot better. Just make sure those closets are well insulated and have no drafts! 

Nope, I think you're seeing some light reflecting off the top of the TV.  The only windows in the room are on the wall to the right of the closets.  You can see them in the renderings.

Temperature-wise the room and closets are good -- the room is very well insulated and never gets too hot in the summer time.  No drafts that I know of!

1 hour ago, combiner1 said:

Great design, wish I had the $$$ and house to do something like this. Just love it. 

 

One recommendation, you better have some support in place when you open and pull out those drawers. If the drawers pulls out at least 3 feet, and full of slab books, the weight of the slabs plus the distance would create a lot of stress. One slab weighs close to 1lb, if you are able to put about 40-50 slab in there, you got close to 40lbs. The railing should be able to support that, even for distance of 3 ft. You also need a those railing to be bolted and secured properly. You don’t want them pivoting. 

 

GOod Luck

You're absolutely right about needing to design for the weight of the books ... although of course raw books are actually heavier (by total volume) than slabbed.

The guy doing the work is an expert cabinet-maker and I've been assured that he's putting in place all the right structure to bear the load.  If possible I will try to get the specs of exactly what he uses and share them for the curious.  I'll also try to post some photos of work in progress once we get underway.

My next challenge is to pick my favorite 44 comic book covers from the Marvel silver and bronze age.  Should be fun!

[BuscemasAvengers]

I've posted some pics from the Cave before, but I've added a few things, including a desk and, of course, more books; still need to properly hang the signed Romita lithograph, and buy more shelves for the 13 long boxes on the ground; my pre-war Lionels guard some boxes on the shelves; a labor of love - always a work in progress!