Facebook location: David Banks, dpbanks@gmail.com

11/30 

It was a busy day answering emails and making customer requested changes to soft and hard cover designs.

11/29

11/28

No new books this week.

Dust jacket idea for a Capitol Bindery hardcover.

Four new books arrived to be made into Capitol Bindery hardcover volumes and two books arrived to be made into Snow Dog soft cover volumes.

Hardcover Score Card - Capitol
33 books at Capitol to be bound.
13 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery.(and 9 books have been put into storage for a customer who seems to have disappeared.)

Soft Cover Score Card - Snow Dog
15 books at Snow Dog to be bound.
11 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery.

Hardcover Score Card - Snow Dog
2 books at Snow Dog to be bound.
3 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery

Wednesday Comics auction.

11/27

Built to customer specifications.

11/26

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you and yours have a good one!

Three cover based on customer designs.

11/25

Took the night off.

11/24

Worked on several different softcover and hardcover designs.

11/23

I went over production schedules for Capitol Bindery and Snow Dog. Both are now booked up through the end of the 2009. That includes what is in both shops and what will be going to the bindery from my house by no later than 12/5/09.

That means new orders being considered won’t be worked on until January 2010.

11/22

I spent the day scanning images and elements for Snow Dog hardcover and soft cover volumes. While the scanner was running I moved my design operation from an Apple eMac to an Apple G5 tower with a flat screen monitor. The speed difference while working in Photoshop is amazing. Once I got the equipment setup I answered a lot of email requests.

11/21

Met with Kevin and Scott at Capitol Bindery. Dropped off two books to work on and picked up 6 finished books.

Hardcover Score Card - Capitol
33 books at Capitol to be bound.
9 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery.(and 9 books have been put into storage for a customer who seems to have disappeared.)

Soft Cover Score Card - Snow Dog
15 books at Snow Dog to be bound.
9 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery.

Hardcover Score Card - Snow Dog
2 books at Snow Dog to be bound.
3 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery

11/20

Up early to prep books. Met with Todd at Snow Dog to go over 15 softcover volumes, 2 hardcover volumes and silk screening for two Capitol Bindery hardcover volumes. Spent the rest of the day answering emails and doing project organization.

11/19

11/18

Shipped out 3 boxes of finished books plus a box of books being donated to the Mid-Ohio Charity auction.

Worked on book prep and administrative details.

11/17

Worked on minor customer changes to a batch of soft cover designs.

11/16

One book arrived to be made into a Capitol Bindery hardcover and three books arrived to be made into Snow Dog softcover volumes.

11/15

Spent the day working on a six volume Vertigo Comics softcover set. I will probably have 3-4 more hours before these are ready to email the customer.

11/14

Met with Kevin and Scott at Capitol Bindery. Picked up 6 finished books and dropped off 17 books and 1 slipcase for Kevin to work on.

I am scheduled to visit Snow Dog on Tuesday to drop off a large batch of books for Todd to work on including a cross over project which Kevin did the guts for but Todd is silk screening the cover.

Dust jacket.

Got these books photographed and packed.

One book arrived to be made into a Capitol Bindery hardcover volume.

Hardcover Score Card - Capitol
37 books at Capitol to be bound.
9 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery.(and 9 books have been put into storage for a customer who seems to have disappeared.)

Soft Cover Score Card - Snow Dog
0 books at Snow Dog to be bound.
19 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery.

Hardcover Score Card - Snow Dog
0 books at Snow Dog to be bound.
5 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery

11/13

Double checked books to be taken to Capitol Bindery on Saturday.

11/12

Nine books arrived to be made into Capitol Bindery hardcover volumes.

11/11

11/10

11/9

Back to designing/building covers. I have been asked how long it takes me to do a cover. About eight hours. That includes scanning the individual covers and elements, cleaning up those scans in Photoshop, measuring the content and setting up the design document, designing the cover and last but not least building the image as one large Photoshop document. Next are customer revisions. After that is preparing a proof for the binder and burning the PDF file to CD-ROM.

I do things in batches. First I do all the scanning, and then I do the entire cleanup, etc. You get the idea. So it will seem that all of a sudden I am cranking out a lot of covers over the next few days but in reality all of these have been in the works for awhile.  Another thing I like to do is present a group of covers to the customer. So if someone sends in six projects I like to give them all six covers at the same time.

Another thing I am asked is why some projects wait a week or so once approved to go to the bindery. Sometimes I have to wait for a production slot and I would prefer the books not be just sitting in the shop. That and shop space is at a premium.

Four books arrived to be made into Capitol Bindery hardcover volumes. One just needs a slipcase. One book arrived to be made into a Snow Dog imagewrap hardcover.

11/8

Took the day off from designing covers and concentrated on prepping books. For Snow Dog this included pulling staples and removing pages. For Capitol this included creating layout sheets and making notes for Kevin on things to be aware as he begins the binding process. This took seven hours. After that I got all the email pricing requests answered. Had an auction end for a copy of Wednesday Comics. Shipped this one to Canada. Wednesday Comics auction

11/7

Met with Kevin and Scott at Capitol Bindery. Picked up 6 finished books and discussed details for several more books that Kevin has in various stages of production. We discussed Long's-Roullet Bookbinders in Norfolk VA at length. Finding it interesting that they do the guts of their books like Snow Dog but the covers like Capitol or LBC. Time to experiment.

Seven new books arrived to be made into Capitol Bindery hardcover volumes.

Hardcover Score Card - Capitol
25 books at Capitol to be bound.
12 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery.(9 books have been put into storage for a customer who seems to have disappeared.)

Soft Cover Score Card - Snow Dog
0 books at Snow Dog to be bound.
19 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery.

Hardcover Score Card - Snow Dog
0 books at Snow Dog to be bound.
5 books at my house waiting to go to the bindery

11/6

Did book prep for more books to take to Capitol Bindery. Three new books arrived, one for Capitol and two for Snow Dog. Had a nice note from the owner of the 8 volume X-Men set.

11/5

Three more books arrived to be made into Capitol Bindery hardcover volumes. I received some nice comments on the Capitol hardcover books and dust jackets one customer received today. Did book prep for more books to take to Capitol Bindery. In the evening I continued to work on soft cover designs.

11/4

Up early to work on soft cover designs. In the evening I continued to work on soft cover designs. I was happy to receive positive feedback on the results of the Wednesday Comics binding project.

11/3

In the morning I shipped out 11 finished books. In the evening I continued to work on soft cover designs.  Later in the evening I was interviewed for another segment of the Comic Addiction Podcast on comic bookbinding.

11/2

In the morning I shipped out 4 copies of the group Wednesday Comics binding project. In the evening I continued to work on soft cover designs.

11/1

This turned out to be very challenging for Kevin to bind by hand but the results are stunning.

The ultimate Miracleman set.

A fun book by a favorite writer of mine.

Read every issue of this when it came out and was disappointed when it was cancelled.

Sad that the story was never finished.

A stunning set of Snow Dog hardcover volumes.

A great batch of comics by one of the nicest guys in the business, Mark Waid.

What follows is domestic and international ordering information for Capitol Bindery and Snow Bindery books:

Standard Ordering information (hardcover)-United States

Reservations are required. Email me at dpbanks@gmail.com for availability of production slots. Price: $50.00 (for three lines of type and up to 25 issues in one hardcover volume). Shipping: Return Shipping is FREE. Two book minimum per order or twenty book maximum per order. Payment expected with order. Accepted forms of payment: PayPal, Personal Check or Money Order. Make payment and ship books to: David Banks P.O. Box 45394 Omaha, NE 68145. Books produced by Capitol Bindery.

Standard Ordering information (softcover)-United States

Reservations are required. Email me at dpbanks@gmail.com for availability of production slots. Price: $19.95 (for 6 to 18 issues in one soft cover volume). Shipping: Fast $9.85 (as many books as fit in the flat rate box) / Slow $5.50 (2-3 books). Two book minimum per order or ten book maximum per order. Payment expected with order. Accepted forms of payment: Personal Check or Money Order. No PayPal. Make payment and ship books to:David Banks P.O. Box 45394 Omaha, NE 68145. If you are producing your own cover, the cover file should be sent on Disk as uncompressed Photoshop PSD file. Free assistance for cover design and production (Although tips to the paypal virtual tip jar are appreciated. Paypal id: dpbanks@earthlink.net) Books produced by Snow Dog Printing/Binding.

Standard Ordering information (glue-bound image-wrap hardcover)-United States

Reservations are required. Email me at dpbanks@gmail.com for availability of production slots. Price: $39.95 (for 6 to 18 issues in one hardcover volume). Shipping: Fast $9.85 (as many books as fit in the flat rate box 3-4) / Slow $5.50 (2-3 books). Two book minimum per order or ten book maximum per order. Payment expected with order. Accepted forms of payment: Personal Check or Money Order. No PayPal. Make payment and ship books to: David Banks P.O. Box 45394 Omaha, NE 68145. If you are producing your own cover, the cover file should be sent on Disk as an uncompressed Photoshop PSD file. Free assistance for cover design and production (Although tips to the paypal virtual tip jar are appreciated. Paypal id: dpbanks@earthlink.net). Books produced by Snow Dog Printing/Binding.

For International Orders some of the details are different for the number of books that can be ordered at one time and the shipping details.

Standard Ordering information (hardcover)-International

Reservations are required. Email me at dpbanks@gmail.com for availability of production slots. Price: $50.00 (for three lines of type and up to 25 issues in one hardcover volume). Shipping: International Shipping charges to be determined on a case by case basis. Two book minimum/maximum per order. Payment expected with order. Accepted forms of payment: PayPal (paypal id: dpbanks@earthlink.net). Make payment and ship books to: David Banks P.O. Box 45394 Omaha, NE 68145. Books produced by Capitol Bindery.

Standard Ordering information (soft cover)-International

Reservations are required. Email me at dpbanks@gmail.com for availability of production slots. Price: $19.95 (for 6 to 18 issues in one soft cover volume). Shipping: International Shipping charges to be determined on a case by case basis. Two book minimum/maximum per order. Payment expected with order. Accepted forms of payment: PayPal (paypal id: dpbanks@earthlink.net). Make payment and ship books to: David Banks P.O. Box 45394 Omaha, NE 68145. If you are producing your own cover, the cover file should be sent on Disk as an uncompressed Photoshop PSD file. Free assistance for cover design and production (Although tips to the paypal virtual tip jar are appreciated. Paypal id: dpbanks@earthlink.net). Books produced by Snow Dog Printing/Binding.

Standard Ordering information (glue-bound image-wrap hardcover)-International

Reservations are required. Email me at dpbanks@gmail.com for availability of production slots. Price: $39.95 (for 6 to 18 issues in one hardcover cover volume). Shipping: International Shipping charges to be determined on a case by case basis. Two book minimum/maximum per order. Payment expected with order. Accepted forms of payment: PayPal (paypal id: dpbanks@earthlink.net). Make payment and ship books to: David Banks P.O. Box 45394 Omaha, NE 68145. If you are producing your own cover, the cover file should be sent on Disk as an uncompressed Photoshop PSD file. Free assistance for cover design and production (Although tips to the paypal virtual tip jar are appreciated. Paypal id: dpbanks@earthlink.net). Books produced by Snow Dog Printing/Binding.

I was interviewed for a podcast about comic book bookbinding.