Crooked/Warped Squarebounds

Crooked or warped spines of square bound books are a result of the glue that is used to attach the cover to the book.

A constant bead of glue was very hard to maintain, and very often an excess dose of glue would be applied to the cover prior to it being attached to the book. When the cover was stuck to the body pages, the spine is ran across a roller to flatten it and give it the square shape, then another pair of rollers flattens it out on the front and back covers. If there was excess glue, it would cause the various warping defects. Square bound books are made the same as stitched books with one exception; the body pages are grouped into eight page “sections” and stacked on top of each other. The stack is stitched (stapled) front to back to hold them together, instead of through the center of the book as on a traditional comic. Finally, as touched on before, a bead of glue is applied to the spine and the cover is wrapped around the body pages.

This defect of a warped spine is very common on such books as Giant-Size X-men #1 or any other square bound book.