My entire long box of 90s comics got soaked in a basement flood last month

I was moving some stuff around in my basement and found a big puddle under my main comic storage area. The plastic bin I thought was waterproof had a tiny crack along the bottom seam. It must have been there for a while, but a small leak from our water heater finally found it. About 300 books were in there, mostly from the 'Death of Superman' era and the early Image launch. The bottom third were stuck together, and the colors were running on the covers. I panicked, but then I remembered a tip from a forum. I carefully pulled the worst ones apart, slid wax paper between every single page, and laid them flat with fans on low. It took three full days, but I saved about 80 percent of them. The ones that were a total loss were mostly duplicates, thankfully. Has anyone else had to do major comic rescue work? What's your method for drying them out without making the pages wavy?

3 comments

3 Comments

blair_green862mo agoOG Member

Saw a video where a guy used those silica gel packets you get in shoeboxes. He put the damp books in a sealed tub with a bunch of them, said it pulled the moisture out slowly without warping the pages. Might be worth a shot if you ever have to deal with it again lol.

river_gonzalez663mo ago

Oh man, that's rough but great save. Just a heads up, wax paper can sometimes leave a residue or stick if it gets warm. Next time, try plain white paper towels or unprinted newsprint between the pages, it soaks up the moisture better without any risk.

elizabethblack3mo ago

Used to swear by wax paper for everything. Had a cookbook get weirdly sticky pages after a hot week and that changed my mind. White paper towels are the move now.