Friday, June 29, 2018

Why do IDW's comics make comic bags all wrinkly?


There are strange observations a comic book collector makes after acquiring a lot of comics over the span of a few decades. Some companies print their books at a slightly different size than others. Some books have a distinct smell to them. And some books make comic book bags wrinkle up after a few days in storage, which I've noticed for quite a while about the majority of books published by IDW.


I'm not sure if the pictures I took do this justice, but I think the angle and the light reflection serve to illustrate the point fairly well. I grabbed two recent IDW books from my stack and snapped these pictures of them. I've probably had them bagged and boarded for about two months. You can see the ripple along the bags. The bags have a slightly weaker or looser feel to them, as if they have lost some of their sharpness and form. Most other books from different companies don't have this effect on the bags I put them in.


I've always wondered just why this happens, and why it happens primarily to books from IDW. A few days ago, I found this possible cause:


This makes plenty of sense, of course. A higher acidic content would have to affect plastic bags in some manner, right? Can anyone confirm this?

And yes, the phrase "segregate your IDW books" makes me slightly uncomfortable.