diff --git a/dosagelib/comic.py b/dosagelib/comic.py
index 8225fbbe2..0864e60b3 100755
--- a/dosagelib/comic.py
+++ b/dosagelib/comic.py
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ class ComicImage(object):
         """Set URL and filename."""
         self.name = name
         self.referrer = referrer
-        self.url = url.strip()
+        self.url = url
         self.dirname = dirname
         filename = getFilename(filename)
         self.filename, self.ext = os.path.splitext(filename)
diff --git a/dosagelib/util.py b/dosagelib/util.py
index 8ad9b1836..73b02f2a1 100644
--- a/dosagelib/util.py
+++ b/dosagelib/util.py
@@ -270,10 +270,12 @@ def unescape(text):
 _nopathquote_chars = "-;/=,~*+()@!"
 
 def normaliseURL(url):
-    """Removes any leading empty segments to avoid breaking urllib2; also replaces
-    HTML entities and character references.
+    """Normalising
+    - strips and leading or trailing whitespace,
+    - replaces HTML entities and character references,
+    - removes any leading empty segments to avoid breaking urllib2.
     """
-    url = unicode_safe(url)
+    url = unicode_safe(url).strip()
     # XXX: brutal hack
     url = unescape(url)