The Bat-Utopia Completed

This is the main wall, this gives you an idea of how everything kind of all fits together nicely. I've had a few people look at this wall and be totally intimidated by the size and scope of the collection. I'll admit it, that was a great feeling.

 Shelf Porn! As you would expect that I have more than a few trades and graphic novels. I'll admit to being a man that dips in and out of most characters as long as I know that the story is going to be worth my time to read it. On the bottom shelf are mostly collected Judge Dredd books. And next to the Asterix and Obelix hardback is the start of all my 2000ads. This 'shelf' goes right around the room.

Next to the Trades sits the DC books. Top two shelves sit, in alphabet order (because I'm sad), DC runs such as Animal Man, Hitman, Doom Patrol. Superman gets his own space. And then... the Batbooks start to take over...

Each upturned board either signifies a 'hundred' in the run or a break in the characters title. This is mainly because I needed a way to find something when I needed to. Yes, it looks a bit tacky, but I'll have to wait a while to improve this system.

The bookshelf on the right side of the wall is Marvel. And, like the bat-books, the big runs of Hulk, Daredevil and Punisher are free of magazine files.

And then we get to the Bat-Books

This free-standing bookshelf section starts as independent character runs like Spawn and Hellboy and the turns into 'Creator' boxes. That means all Grant Morrison three-part Vertigo things, or all of the dozens of projects for different publishers Frank Miller has done can all live together. All together, I reckon I have potential for expansion of about a few more hundred books, and there is another shelf in the room that carries proper books should the collection outgrow its designated area.

As for the inevitable questions... These are bookshelves from IKEA and are the 2m tall Billy ones. If there is one issue I had when I set this thing up (and is crucial to know should you try and do the same) is that the middle shelf in the bookcase is fixed and that this may scupper your plans of setting up a shelf plan.

The Magazine Files were also bought from IKEA and are known as 'Flyts'. And they can hold anything between 30 to 40 books comfortably.

I conservatively estimate the number of comics I have in this collection is between four and five thousand. And yes I'm sure that number will grow!

As for those that are wondering whether the light will destroy, bleach, yellow and fade my stuff, the room usually has it's blinds down therefore living in mainly darkness. While all of my precious books still live well away from this area.

So this is the end of a comic collecting ambition: to pull together my collection into an ordered, aesthetically pleasing state. And have not a single white long box anywhere near it!!!

Building A Bat-Utopia Pt 5

So by this point you'll notice that I have started to fill these gloriously fine shelves with lots and lots of comic books.


Next, the finished utopia in it's clean and tidy form, and the obligatory very, very boring tour of the shelves!

Building a Bat-Utopia Pt 4

What with the bookcases up, I had trouble deciding what should go where. The Trade Paperbacks eventually found themselves on the right hand side of the wall, and on the bottom shelf would be my 2000AD collection.

As for the magazine files, I had two things to sort out. Firstly, did I want to label what was what. And, secondly the actual magazine file was too tall for the shelf to be allow full comic storage effectiveness. To resolve the first issue, I decided that the only person that really, really needed to know what was in the magazine files was me. And seeing as I knew what was where, I felt that spending hours with photo-shopping, messing around with the printer and using glue, was time I could better spend reading their contents! As for the second problem... I used a pair of scissors.

Building a Bat-Utopia Pt 3

As you can probably tell I was a man on a mission here, building these things totally turned the house upside down, but as you'll see the process was a hell of a lot of fun...

Building a Bat-Utopia Pt 2

 

Yes I own a hammer.