I looked everywhere for a solution but finally came up with this frame hack. It holds 10 comics inside and stands by itself or hangs on the wall. You can open the front and take out the comics with the bookmark ribbons. It keeps my comics clean and dust-free and proudly displays the book of my choice on the top of the stack: a BRPD #1 comic singed by the entire Dark Horse team, creator Mike Mignola, colorist Dave Stewart, artist Guy Davis, and editor Scott Allie!
Best of all it's super easy to do: cut two wood spacers, paint them to match and glue them in place with the ribbons underneath. Bazinga!
I found the perfect frame to start with: it’s a Studio Décor front opening shadow box, 8" x 10" size. If you want to find a different one I suggest you take an actual comic book with you to the store to test out frames. The dimensions of the inside (where the comics will go) aren’t always exactly the size as listed on the frame. I chose this particular shadow box as the inside vertical dimension, 10 3/16", is a perfect fit for current comics. Older comics are a different size so check with the comics you want to use.
All I had to do was make some spacer bars to go on both sides to hold the comics in place. I wanted a snug fit so I cut two bars, ¾" wide by 10 3/16" long out of ¾" plywood. Check the fit inside the frame and sand the bars for smooth edges and faces. Paint the wood on five sides with flat finish black spray paint. Leave the backs plain and unpainted.
Check the fit before painting! Leave a little extra sideways clearance for the thickness of the ribbons.
When the paint is dry add some ribbons (they’ll make it easy to remove the comics later). I used ¾" black velour ribbons. They visually disappear inside the frame. Cut two pieces about 9" long. Hot glue the ends of the ribbons to back of one of the bars.
When the glue is set slip the bars inside the shadow box. A tiny bit of hot glue will keep the bar in snugly in place. Done!
Place your comics inside on top of the ribbons. The shadow box frame will hold up to ten comics. Flip half of the comics the other way so that that the thicker stapled side are distributed two ways.
You can use the easel back to display the frame on a tabletop or shelf.
Or you can hang the frame on the wall and open the front and remove your comics for reading or to change the top displayed comic cover. Of course if you have really valuable comics (like Action Comics #1!) it’d probably be best be to use actual archival storage and keep them UV protected, etc. — but I’m really enjoying displaying my comics this way!
Lift on the ribbons to remove the comics without dog-earring them.
