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!

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

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!

Kablam, www.ka-blam.com, not too bad, especially if its bw on inside....

I recently won a Xeric award (it's a grant to self-publish comics) and have been researching the hell out of printing prices. I met with Chris Staros from Top Shelf Comics last week and he recommended Lebonfon Printing in Canada. They beat the best price I'd found by nearly half the cost! I'm doing a run of 2,000, so I'm not entirely certain how they'd do regarding a 100 book run, but it can't hurt to ask for a quote. Plus, Chris assured me that they're quality is excellent.

I'm trying to document my struggles/triumphs with self-publishing for anyone else hoeing the same row, so feel free to check in on my blog at theholyyost.com for any tips I can offer. You can preview my book at www.birdcagebottombooks.com as well.

Good luck!