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Since renovating, our local library installed display cases and has shown several private collections of different things, with the most recent being a large collection of Star Wars LEGOs.

We figured we'd offer to display part of our comic collection to see if they were interested and they were. (For about a month in September.)

Now the wrinkle. We've never done this before, so we don't know exactly what to expect. They require a release form for any collections so that they're not held responsible, which means that it'll be on us to get insurance for the comics we're displaying. Beyond that, we're not sure what other steps or precautions we should take.

Has anyone done this sort of thing before and have any tips, suggestions, or a general idea of what to expect while we do this?

That sounds pretty cool!

Definitely get pictures of everything and some type of insurance. What will you be displaying? Are they slabbed or just bagged and boarded? Who is responsible for setting up the display itself, you or a library employee?

You probably have nothing to worry about but it isn't bad to take precautions anyway. When you do it, I would love to see some pics here!

We're actually going to go ahead and get them professionally graded for insurance purposes (but not slabbed). (We keep meaning to get separate insurance for our entire collection, but keep putting off because it's such a monumental task.)

We still have a bunch of mylar bags and halfbacks that we got for our silver and golden age stuff, so currently we're planning that everything we display is going to go into one of those. (Though we do have 2 CGC/CBCS graded comics, that might or might not be put on display. A 2.5 ASM #15 and a 6.0 Neal Adams signed GL #76)

We'll be setting up the display (they'll provide the stands, since their regular book stands will work perfectly.)

On the plus side, the front windows are treated to filter out some UV and those windows don't get a ton of sunlight anyway, plus it'll get even less in September.

As far as what we're displaying, I'll probably put a lot of my decent grade ASM keys (that leaves my ASM #14 out, since it's a detached cover and pretty brown to boot.) I don't think my mom will be interested in putting up her JIM #83 (though she might put up her JIM #84 Gold Recrod reprint.) Probably a lot of the more iconic covers, like the Transformers #1 Change into a Truck and Detective Comics #880.

And I'll absolutely share some pictures when everything is set up!

So we've pretty much finalized what comics we're going to be putting on display, we'll be submitting the list tomorrow to the insurance company and see what kind of policy we can get.

Spider-man: ASM #40, #100, #121, #252, #301

Thor: JIM #125, Thor #1 (2007 Turner variant), Thor God of Thunder #1, Thor #1 (2014)

Batman: Batman #244, Detective #475, Batman #404, #608, Detective #880

Superman: Superman #233, Action Comics #583, #662, Superman (1987) #75

X-Men: Uncanny #135, 207, 268, X-Men #1 (1991)

Connecting covers: Gotham City Sirens #5-7

Pop Culture: Transformers #1 Change into a Truck variant

Retailer Incentive Covers: Transformers #1 1:10, 1:25, 1:50

Grading/Signature: Green Lantern #86 CBCS 6.0 signed by Neal Adams.

Size of Comics/Publishers: Golden Age/DC Superman #25, Silver Age/Gold Key: Uncle Scrooge #47, Bronze Age/Harvey Richie Rich #111, Bronze Age/mini size: DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #2

We'll probably add one more for the size/publishers for a modern one, though that'll unlikely be anything noteworthy.

We set up the display today and as requested, here are some pictures from it:

Full Case:

Batman & Graded comic

Superman & Pop Culture

Comic Size by Age

Spider-man

Thor & X-Men

X-Men & Connecting covers

Transformers RI covers left

Transformers RI covers right

Looks good

Looks fantastic, Chris!

Who made the information cards?

My dad did the full sheet on the history of comics, I did all of the smaller cards.

The librarian was surprised that I had put so much time into making them (I guess most people who loan stuff for display don't put any effort into giving information on them), but it seemed like doing that would at least be the bare minimum to me. Sure it's about displaying the art, but it's also about giving people information about it just the same, since it is a library.

Nice job. Looks great. Always good to promote the books, and the attention to detail reflects your passion.

Thanks for the comments everyone!

I went and picked up everything today and the library said they got a lot of positive feedback and they'd love to have us do another loan. I suggested April of next year, since Free Comic Book Day is the first Saturday in May and assuming that month hasn't already been earmarked for something else, it's likely we'll do that.

So any suggestions for themes/characters/comics to display the next time around? Any advice would be welcome.


My initial thoughts were to maybe do a single artist, but a cover with several different characters. Like a Jim Lee X-Men, Batman, Superman, etc.

Another would be to do cover homages/swipes, with the original cover and then a couple other covers that swiped it. (Not going to lie, that idea pretty much totally came from my love of the Transformers: Dark Cybertron #1 RE cover swipe of New Mutants #87.)