Decently priced comic printers?

topic posted Fri, April 6, 2007 - 9:07 AM by  Angi the Lost
Trying to self publish my work, and looking around online I've found myself severely discouraged... I'm trying to find a non-sleazy, decently priced printer for short runs (maybe 100 at the most) of comics. Black and white interior, maybe a color cover...

It's difficult when they want to charge you $5 for the printing, then the store that carries them is going to want a cut, then my costs. Sheesh.

Any suggestions of people you've worked with or heard good things about?
posted by:
Angi the Lost
Boston
  • Re: Decently priced comic printers?

    Fri, April 6, 2007 - 1:12 PM
    sorry; but the way the comics industry works (and the printing industry too...) is volume. It costs the printers the same amount of money (and yes... expenses are involved) to set up a job for 100 peices that it costs to set up a job for 10,000. You get a much better deal per unit in volume. The idea is to get the costs of the individual comics as low as possible through bulk printing (done in China these days) and then mark them up as much as the market will bear. (A regular comic goes for $3 US; whereas a no-ad pestige format comic can go for between $5 & $7.)

    You'd have more luck with web promotion (ie: set up a website and upload comics by the page; ask for donations from members...) than trying to print just 100 of them. Your only other option is to seize the means of production by investing in your own off-set press.

    good luck!
  • Re: Decently priced comic printers?

    Tue, June 26, 2007 - 12:44 AM
    I read Davey's post but I do have to say that Comixpress throws some good quality prints. I, also found them a little hard to contact, but the second time I called with just a general question, they remembered me and were very friendly. Also, they were very friendly when I met them at APE. The comics themselves are good quality. My 2 cents
  • Re: Decently priced comic printers?

    Thu, September 13, 2007 - 7:52 PM
    AH! Don't know if it's too late to tell you this yet..but judging from the post dates..it probably is :-\

    Well I'll say it anyways....here at Alterna Comics, we use 2 printers that do fantastic jobs. One is Estrada Media (site looks a little dingy but their print work is SOO much better than kablam or comixpress AND it's cheaper in price!) and we use MIRA printing for our graphic novels (they do regular comics too but at about $1.80 a piece whereas Estrada does it for about $1.35.

    MIRA is superb though when it comes to making our perfect bound graphics and trades and I couldn't give them a higher recommendation.

    I hated dealing with kablam and comixpress because of their lack of response when we needed help and their constant printing delays. I'm glad we found these two printers!

    You can go to our site - www.alternacomics.com - and click on our printers link to get more info!

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