This project only focuses on preserving the physical manga as is. No discussion of rebinding or digitization will occur. Those are separate issues to deal with.
Protecting from
Damage or Further Damage
~(Follow the suggestions about Manga storage)
~Manga should be placed in phase boxes
If manga has lose pages, keep the lose pages in page number order inside the manga. Do not separate them. Then place the manga with its lose pages together in a phase box. If a manga does not have lose pages, it should still be placed in a phase box. You can either buy phase boxes that fit the size of the manga or you can make one yourself. You have to first measure all sides of the manga, including length and width of each side. Then buy non-acidic glue, cardboard and tape. Cut the board up to fit the size of each side; expect the spine, but enough that it will not suffocate the manga when placing it in the phase box. Take the tape and tape up the cardboard together that corresponds to each side of the manga to create a phase box. When taping up the cardboard, remember that the spine is the open end of the phase box. The manga spine should be the only visible part of the manga when placed in the phase box.
~Manga should be placed in upright position
As if it was placed by itself in a bookshelf, the manga in the phase box should be placed upright.
~Manga should be placed in non-acidic bookcases or shelves
Since the manga is already acidic from birth, place them in bookshelves, possibly aluminum, that will not further damage the manga and the phase box.
~Saving your place in a manga
Do not fold the pages of a manga to keep your reading place. Since manga is already acidic, folding the pages of a manga will further weakening the strength of the page. You should use a non-acidic bookmark to keep your reading place. No metal bookmarks!
~Do not stuff the manga
Placing a bunch of items in the manga, whether it is paper based or not, will weaken the spine of the manga. It places the spine under a certain amount of stress, which will weaken the strength of the glue. As a result, pages of the manga will fall out.
~Food and manga = bad combination
You should not be eating food or drinking while reading manga, because if the food or drink spills on the manga, it damages the manga and its contents. Food can also attract insects and rodents. Keep unwanted pests away from manga.
~Manga that is wet
Do not get the manga wet. If the manga becomes wet, the pages will change in shape and possibly the content will be removed due to water. Dry out the manga by having it in a fan like open position and stick paper towels in between the pages to sponge up the water. Change to a new dry paper towel to prevent further water damage. Also have a fan in front of the manga to dry it out, but keep the fan setting low enough to dry it out with out damaging the pages. No sun drying! No hair dryer or blow dryer!
~Manga that smells
Manga that smells is due to the acid base materials it is made from. Unfortunately, you will not be able to get the actual smell out of the manga. Once it stinks it will continue stinking.
~De-acidification of manga
Although manga can be replaced, which is cheaper than getting a preservationist or specialist, if manga is to one day not exist or be limited in existence, de-acidification maybe the thing to help preserve manga. If you have the money consult a specialist or professional about de-acidifying the acid manga.
Dark Horse Comics and Archiving
I thought this is pretty cool so I decided to add links to a few articles about Dark Horse Comics, Inc. founder and president Mike Richardson and executive vice president Neil Hankerson donating their comics to the Portland State University Archives. Below are a few articles, but I will see if I can dig up more to share with you guys.
Dark Horse Press Release
Dark Horse Comics collection celebration on October 16 video
Dark Horse Comics collection celebration coverage
Dark Horse Comics, Inc., Donates Complete Collection to Portland State University Library by Office of University Communications, Portland State News September 17, 2008
Dark Horse Donates Complete Collection To Portland State University by IcV2 September 19, 2008
Portland State Library Celebrates Donation of Dark Horse Comic Collection, Oct. 16 by Office of University Communications, Portland State News September 24, 2008
Pow! Zowie! Comics in the library by J. David Santen, Jr., Portland State News September 25, 2008
The Country's First Comic-Book Archive, Courtesy of Portland State and Dark Horse by Matthew Perpetua, New York Magazine September 30, 2008
Comics 101: This month Portland State University and Dark Horse Comics open the country's first comic book archive by Kristen Hall-Geisler, Portland Monthly Magazine October 2005
Downtown: Dark Horse Comics finds home at PSU by Jessica Machado, special to The Oregonian Thursday October 02, 2008
Portland State gets a whole lot of Dark Horse by Kristi Turnquist, The Oregonian Wednesday October 15, 2008
Dark Horse, ' Doctor Who' and 'Heroes' in Everyday Hero headlines by Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times October 23, 2008
Every Dark Horse comic avaliable at Portland State University by Aaron Humphrey, Publishers Weekly The Beat blog October 23, 2008
Acknowledgments and Thank You's
Sites I used for my project, but they are not manga preservation sources:
http://www.biblio.com/unbound/2008/6/preservation.html
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/preservation/chlm/
http://www.loc.gov/preserv/care/books.html
Thank you Brooklyn College Archive and Special Collections for letting me burrow their facilities for this project.
Thank you Slava Polishchuck from Brooklyn College Archive and Special Collections for teaching me and helping me with this project.
Thank you Mike Gombos from Dark Horse Comics, John Fuller from Kinokuniya Bookstore, Ali Kokmen from Del Rey Manga and Kensuke Okabayashi author of Manga for Dummies for helping me out with the manga part of this project.Student Project: Preservation of Manga Part 1 Introduction
Student Project: Preservation of Manga Part 2 Handling
Student Project: Preservation of Manga Part 3 Storage Area
© 2008 Linda Thai
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