How to store comics
so they keep their grade.

I have collected comics from lofts in Gateshead, garages in Sheffield and a conservatory in Gloucestershire, and the story is the same every time. The books were bought new, bagged, and put somewhere out of the way for twenty or thirty years. Nobody read them. Nobody bent them. And they came out tanned, wavy, foxed and rolled, because the room did the damage the readers never did.

Storage is not glamorous and nobody makes videos about it, but it is the only part of collecting that protects the grade you already own. This is how to do it in a country where the weather is damp and the houses have lofts.

The three things that damage paper

• Moisture and temperature swings. Paper takes on water from the air and lets it go again, expanding and contracting every time. Do that a few hundred times and you get waves, ripples, loose staples and, if it gets damp enough for long enough, mould and foxing. Swings are worse than any single steady number.
• Light. Ultraviolet fades ink and yellows paper. Sunlight through a window will fade a cover on the shelf in a couple of summers. Even bright indoor light does it slowly.
• Pressure and lean. Books stacked flat take the weight of everything on top. Books stood up loose lean and roll. Both are shape defects that a press can sometimes fix, and both are entirely avoidable.

Everything below is just a way of controlling those three.

Bags: the three plastics

Comic bags come in three materials and the difference is how long they stay inert.

Two rules regardless of material. Never PVC: the soft, glossy, slightly sticky bags of the 1980s give off plasticiser that damages paper, and any book still in one should come out today. And whatever you buy, get the right size. Golden Age, Silver Age, "current" or modern, and magazine sizes are all different, and a bag that is too small crushes edges while one that is too big lets the book slide and bend.

Whether you seal the flap is a matter of taste. Tape the flap to the bag, never to the board or the comic, and never use a tape that will creep. A thumbprint of the wrong adhesive on a cover is a defect forever.

Boards: acid-free is the floor, buffered is the standard

The board behind the comic does two jobs. It keeps the book flat, and it sits between the comic and whatever the bag is made of. Cheap boards do the first job and fail at the second, because cheap board is made from pulp that turns acidic as it ages, and the acid migrates into the comic.

• Acid-free is the minimum. It means the board was neutral when it was made. It does not mean it stays neutral.
• Buffered acid-free boards have an alkaline reserve, typically calcium carbonate, that neutralises acid as it forms. For anything you want to keep past a decade, this is the one.
• Lignin-free is worth looking for on the packet too. Lignin is the part of wood pulp that yellows.
• The coated side faces the comic. Boards have a smooth, coated face and a rougher one. The smooth face goes against the book.

Boards are cheap, so upgrade the boards on everything before you upgrade the bags on anything. It is the best value protection in the hobby.

Boxes: upright, snug, lidded, off the floor

The standard short and long comic boxes are fine if you use them properly, and the archival versions in acid-free board are better for anything valuable. The material matters less than the method:

1. Upright. Comics stand on their bottom edge, spine to the left, like books on a shelf. Never flat stacks. Flat stacks cause stacking bends and staple impressions in every book below the top one.
2. Snug, not crushed. A box that is too loose lets the books lean and that is how spine roll starts. A box that is rammed full crushes spines and makes every book a fight to get out. Use dividers or a folded spare board to fill a gap.
3. Lid on. Keeps light and dust out and slows the air exchange that drives humidity swings.
4. Off the floor. A pallet, a shelf, anything. Floors are where the damp is, where a leak goes first, and where a spilt cup of tea ends up.
5. Not against an outside wall. Outside walls are colder, colder walls condense, and a box against one sits in a damp microclimate all winter.

The room: temperature, humidity and the UK problem

Most archival guidance clusters around 18 to 21 degrees Celsius and 40 to 50 percent relative humidity, and above all it asks for stability. Below the mid-30s in humidity paper dries out and gets brittle. Above 60 or so you are in the territory where mould can take hold, and the higher and longer it goes the faster that happens.

The problem in Britain is not that our houses are too hot or too dry. It is that we put collections in the rooms with the widest swings. In rough order of how often I see the damage:

• Lofts. Below freezing in January, oven-hot under the tiles in July, and every book in between goes through that cycle every year. Tanning, waves and brittle paper are the result.
• Garages, sheds and outbuildings. Damp, unheated, with the door opened to the weather. Foxing, mould and rusty staples.
• Cellars and basements. Cool, which sounds good, but damp, which is worse.
• Conservatories. Sunlight and heat swings. The covers fade and the paper cooks.
• Next to a radiator on a timer. Dry and hot for two hours, cool for six, repeat.
• Bathrooms and kitchens, or the wall next to them. Steam.

What you want is an inside wall in a heated room that stays roughly the same temperature all year: a bedroom wardrobe, a cupboard under the stairs that is not the damp one, a spare room. A cheap hygrometer will tell you the humidity for the price of a couple of comics, and a small dehumidifier in the room solves most British storage problems on its own. Silica gel sachets in the box help at the margins and need drying out now and then.

Light

Keep boxes closed and out of direct sun. If you display a book, the choices are a frame with UV-filtering glazing, a slab (the holders block a fair amount of UV, though not all), or accepting that the display copy is going to fade. Never display the copy you care about in a window. The fade is gradual, permanent and it counts against grade.

Handling

Clean, dry hands, a clean flat surface, and take the book fully out of the bag before opening it rather than reading it half in. Open it flat rather than bending the cover back. Do not stack anything on it while it is out. Most finger creases and reader creases are made in the thirty seconds between the bag and the box.

Graded books are not exempt

A CGC or CBCS holder protects the comic from handling, not from the room. Slabs stored in a damp garage still let the paper age, and holders left in sunlight still let the cover fade. Store them upright in a slab box or on a shelf, out of light, in the same conditions as the raw books. And do not stack slabs flat in a tall pile; the weight scuffs the cases and scuffed cases sell for less.

How to tell a collection has been stored badly

If you are looking at a collection you have inherited or been offered, these are the tells. Waves and ripples along the edges mean humidity swings. Brown edges and tan pages mean heat and age. Reddish-brown spots mean foxing. A musty smell means damp, and it does not come out. Spines curling towards you mean the box was loose. Diagonal bends across the front cover mean flat stacking. The good news is that the first and last two on that list are shape problems that a press can often improve. The rest are permanent, and they should be reflected in what you pay or what you ask. If you are not sure, that is what the free valuation is for.