Cel bags

[teppy]

I did a search and couldn't find relevant info hence this topic...apologies if I missed it.

Where are people finding cel bags and what is the correct size to buy for standard cels? I know some have mentioned bagsunlimited.com. If so, is this the right product category for poly bags - and which is correct/which item do people prefer? http://www.bagsunlimited.com/c-81-poly-bags.aspx

Any help is appreciated!

[sensei]

I stock up on the ones Bags Unlimited name "Large Life Magazine" (aka "Large sheet music"). That is just big enough to hold a standard cel with the wide side inserted and with a generous fold in the back. It is also just big enough to hold a standard background with the narrow side inserted and with a little fold. Nearly all oversized cels will also fit. I personally use polypropylene but polyethylene is also safe and archival.

Be sure to slit one side so the cels will vent fumes to the outside air, as these will eventually collect and cause trouble if the bag is sealed airtight.

[teppy]

I stock up on the ones Bags Unlimited name "Large Life Magazine" (aka "Large sheet music"). That is just big enough to hold a standard cel with the wide side inserted and with a generous fold in the back. It is also just big enough to hold a standard background with the narrow side inserted and with a little fold. Nearly all oversized cels will also fit. I personally use polypropylene but polyethylene is also safe and archival.

Be sure to slit one side so the cels will vent fumes to the outside air, as these will eventually collect and cause trouble if the bag is sealed airtight.

Thanks so much for your reply. This is exactly the information I needed (and thanks for the tip about the slit - however, can't one leave the open side unfolded and accomplish the same thing?).

Also, I know this is off topic, but I enjoyed your last RS update on Microid S.

Thanks again.

[sensei]

Thanks for the comment on the Microid S update. Now that Unico at last has a worthy English version, with Triton of the Sea and Atomcat soon to follow (not to mention the translation, now set for July, of Shigeru Mizuki's classic Hakaba Kitaro, his 1959 manga adaptation of a kamishibai series he'd previously created), I'm hoping that Tezuka's highly-regarded manga will soon get an English version.

Concerning the slit: yeah, any means you can develop so that fumes don't build up inside the cel bag is OK. It used to be standard to clip a corner of the cel bag (I once cut off the corner of a cel once doing this in a dim way). But from what I'm reading on long-term acetate celluloid conservation, the more access to open air, the better. So I slit the side of the bag, facing the open end of the sleeve of the cel book. The puckering you see on old cel bags is indication of where fumes from the cel are damaging the plastic, and they will do the same in time to the matrix of the cel if you're not proactive.

My new additions to Syrius no Densetsu/Sea Prince and Fire Child are sad examples. One cel, happily a minor one, came in an airtight bag with an obvious and odoriferous case of vinegar syndrome, which had caused other cels in the shipment to begin to buckle. The culprit went out with the trash, and the others got 2 weeks open-air venting in the closet to get rid of as much of the acetic acid fumes as possible. Even so, they remain in quarantine (with a few other vintage cels similarly affected) layered with microchamber paper.