Making Batman Wall Decor Using Old Comics

The idea of this project came when my friend showed me his collection of comics which was kept in a box in one corner of the store room. I borrowed some from him and decided to re-purpose them for an amazing installation.

In this project I spent around Rs 650 ( 10 $ ) to build this.

After Batman, I made Superman Art too. I will post that soon.

For Base Frame:

• Cardboard Sheet
• Comics
• Adhesive
• Packing Tape
• 1\2 inch brush
• Wood Beading
• Nuts & Bolts

For Batman Emblem:

• Pine Wood Sheet (Acrylic or Cardboard can also be used. It will not impact the outcome of this project.)
• 12V LED Strip (You can use your favourite colour.)
• 12V 1A DC Power Supply
• Nuts & Bolts

Tools:

• Soldering Iron
• Screw Driver
• Clamps
• Wire Cutter
• Utility Cutter

• I had a 5mm Pine Wood sheet available in the workshop so I cutout the Batman Emblem from it.

Acrylic Sheet, cardboard or any other wood sheet can also be used. It will not impact on the outcome of the project. For cutting I used CNC Router machine but a Laser Cutter or even a Jigsaw or Dremel can also be used.

• If CNC or Laser cutting machines are not available then simply take the printout of the emblem, stick it on to the Wood Sheet and then follow the outline of the emblem using Dremel or Jigsaw whichever is available. I am sure there are more ways to cut it out :)

The file for different Batman emblems is uploaded in the file section so you can select your favourite one and use it in your project.

• I recently moved to a new place so I had a bunch of big corrugated packing boxes lying around. I unfolded the boxes to plane sheet and joined them together to make one big sheet using lots of glue.

• Now having a base sheet, it was time to paste comics pages. I carefully removed the stapler pins form the comic book to unbind it. The comics were very old with worn-out edges so I cut 1 cm off the edges of the pages from all sides.

• I used Fevicol adhesive mixed with water in 1 to 1 ratio to make the adhesive thinner and pasted the comic pages on to the base sheet. My friend helped me to do the job faster. To spread the adhesive I used a 1/2 inch painting brush. (only that was available :p )

• After pasting 48 pages in an arrangement of 4 rows and 12 columns, the extra cardboard sheet was cut out to give a final dimension of 5ft x 3ft.

• I taped the edges of the base with brown packing tape to secure the edges and fixed wood beading on border with 8 mm diameter, 20 mm long Phillips pan head Nuts and Bolts. I fixed them all around the border with uniform gap.

Nuts & Bolts are serving two purposes here:

• Keeping the wood beading fixed to the cardboard base providing it structural strength.
• Nuts and bolts are giving a good look to the frame.

• I glued one small wood block with thickness of an inch on the back of the batman emblem then clamped and left it for an hour to dry. Block was glued to give some gap between the Base and the Emblem so light can spread on to the comics. The block was then drilled and fixed with two bolts in the block with Bolt head inside the block and threaded side coming out of the block. This I used to fix the emblem on the base in the end.
• LED strips are self adhesive so its easy to fix them on a surface. I used Red on border and Warm white in centre to give it fire effect.

LED Strips are available in different colours like Red, Green, Blue, White, Warm White and even RGB LED which can form many colours mixing RGB. To fix the LED strip cut the LED strip to the desired length. Make sure you cut at one of the cut marks with contacts on them or you will end up damaging the LED Strip.

• After fixing the LED strip I connected the LED strips together by copper wires. Make sure you solder positive of one Strip to positive of another strip and do same with negative. If you are using RGB then make sure which colour corresponds with positive and negative.

• After connecting LED Strips I connected the 12v DC power supply with the LED and using hot glue i fixed it on the back of the emblem.

• At last I made holes in the centre of the Base Frame for bolts coming out of the Back of emblem and tighten the Nuts from the back. Another small hole was done to take out the wiring of power supply from the back of the Base Frame.

This project is very simple to make and can give your room a very cool look. I hope you enjoy making it too!