Hey what's going on,

I'm thinking about printing my comic soon, and have been looking around.

ComixPress.com seems really cool, the prices are nice, and they have the option to sell your comic directly through the website.

Has anyone used them, or another place that they recommend?

Thanks, as always,

Brian

KaBlam has been recommended to me before, I linked their FAQ so you can get right down to comparing the sites. There's also Lulu, but they are primarily interested in books. From what I've heard, Kablam has great quality and no set up fee either (I found this out just now reading a discussion over printing companies) A lot of glowing praise and so far I've only seen one complaint regarding the service, but you'll always get at least one person who didn't get a good deal anywhere you go. I'd try looking at discussions in art forums about print on demand sites, because the people who've used it themselves will have a wealth of info that is conveniently left out of FAQ's.


Oh, and good luck on printing, I hope it turns out great where ever you decided to take it!

I've moved your thread to a more appropriate forum.

Might want to check out this thread too: http://www.drunkduck.com/community/view_topic.php?tid=51166&cid=238

There are probably several other self-publishing threads in Tips and Tricks, or maybe Comic Discussion...

I had my comic printed with Comixpress back in 2007 and just got issues 1-6 in from KaBlam.

KaBlam is hands down far superior! In quality and especially customer service and convenience.

Comixpress had the most horrible customer service you could imagine. Actually it was a lack there of. I never could get them to respond back to me on much of anything. Even if they asked me a question.

After trying to get another order from them for half a year I gave up with them.

I finally tried KaBlam this year and the transaction was so much smoother. I didn't have to worry at all. They kept me updated on the site of their progress and shipped on the exact date they were supposed to. The items arrived in 3 days. Seems they Print in Florida so if you live far from it it would take longer. They use UPS to ship.

For their lowest price you can ask for a month and a half in advance. But they can get them done in a week if you absolutely need it. Though IT WILL COST YOU =p

So don't wait till the last minute if you need them. I highly recommend them. Though I guess Amelius gets the referral credit >:-(

Don't forget to put her name as a referral though ;-)

I concur with the votes for Ka-Blam. I've done 8 books with them now, and its been a good experience all the way through. Their standard rates are typically for a ship date that's a month out, but that's a guarantee date, and in my experience they usually beat that by a day or a few days... it just depends on their workload.

The customer service there is great, albeit sparse. Meaning, if you have a question, you have to post it to their internal message service, and they typically don't answer it until their actually working on your files. So if you have a question, sometimes it takes them a while to get back to you. That's my only gripe, but its never been a hassle, and the people (particularly Jenni) are more than helpful when they do answer.

I have no direct experience with Comixpress, so I can't really comment on that, except to say I've heard good and bad with them. On a side by side comparison, though, I like Ka-Blam's final product better.

No experience with Comixpress yet and generally good experience with Ka-blam. So far all I ordered was a print copy of my own book, which is a anga/digest sized trade (5x7.5 inch). So how does it look like?

Colors printed pretty well. There's something slightly off with some blues (there's a thin line of thicker blue near black lines but only onthe shades I used for the sky, other shades printed fine) also colors came out slightly paler than on my screen BUT that's because my screen is dark and has oversaturated colors (so grey seems to be slightly brown whereas it prints fine). Overall, red is red, blue is blue, no weird discoloration or tint issues, even the few spots where I went out of gamut with my colors (the warning question mark in photoshop next to the color, meaning it might be unsuitable for CMYK printing) came out fine.

Paper is ok, it could be a little thicker but as it is it holds ink well and there's barely any see-through. Generally it is BETTER than paper used on a lot of Vertigo trades.

There are two issues with trade printing though.
First: pages may end up slightly shifted. You better make damn sure you don't put anything near the edge of the page, it might be trimmed. I believe my book printed 3mm shifted towards the spine and the text is readable only because I decided not only to stick to the safe area of the page (as suggested by their template) but also move away all word balloons/captions from the inner edge of that area.
Also, couple of pages seem very slightly rotated, something like a degree or half or so.
I assume this is related to the trimming of pages.

Second problem is the cover itself. While printed very nice, these tend to curl outwards while reading plus the lamination foil applied to them likes to peel at the edges. Also, being glossy (as opposed to matte paper inside), it prints a bit darker so you have to be careful not to get it too dark.

As far as I know both problems are trade related, since stapled comics are cut differently and the shifts in there are supposed to be minimal or even nonexistant.
No idea whether the cardstock covers for stapled comics behave the same way as the trade covers do or not, but I think standard covers don't (or at least haven't seen anyone complaining about that).

My next book will be a b&w sketchbook, so I'll test that format then too.

Edit:
So, I'm overall happy with the quality (minus minor cover problems) the only problem I found is that the price on color trades is NOT very good. I had to price mine at 19.99$ and there isn't much interest in a 136 page color 5x7.5inch book, it's simply too pricey.

So if you're going the TPB route, it'll have to be b&w.

Stapled comics on the other hand are priced much better (lower price per page) so you can almost compete with printed comics (a 24 page ka-blam color issue can be sold for 3.99 if you put in the ad, that puts you pricewise at the level of some Marvel and IDW books and only 49cents worse than Shadowline titles that are at 3.50).

That's with prices that can be used on comicsmonkey that is.

I also am in the recommending Ka-Blam boat. I just some comics printed with them, and was very happy with the quality and service.

They colors were pretty much spot on with what was on my monitor.

I haven't gone the TPB route with them yet, so I can't comment on that. But if you're printing a 24 page standard comic, I think you"ll be fine.

They also give you the option to sell through their Indyplanet store.

Guess I'll play devil's advocate with KaBlam.

I've worked with KaBlam for awhile, and wasn't impressed. I actually prefer comixpress. KaBlam's glitchy, I felt rather disorganized, and doesn't even have the same payment services you'd think it should have.

KaBlam's site always looks weird on different web browsers, save for me on Safari. It may work for your web browser, but the site should work for anything. I shouldn't have to switch web browsers just to look at one site. Also, it took forever for them to get one of my comics on the online store, about a month after I requested it.

They've messed up my order before, too, from not understanding that I wanted blank inside covers (it doesn't even have that option when you select comic covers. Why?) and actually counted them as interior pages when you're setting up a comic. Of course, everything goes by 4. I had a 24 page comic. By most industry standards, that's exactly what you need. KaBlam counted it as 26 with the interior covers. So, I basically need to put in blank pages for a comic that was made to be the right page number to begin with.

They also messed up by sending me a comic short of what I ordered. They promptly sent another one when I sent them a message, but that was right on my first order.

KaBlam also only will take Paypal payments. Comixpress will take Paypal, cards, checks, whatever. KaBlam also has these really weird ways of how they want their comics given to them. No PDFs? Why not? It has everything right in order that way. Why separate files with naming them a certain way? Comixpress skips that and just asks for a PDF, making the process much more to-the-point.

Comixpress I felt was also very prompt with customer service. I've asked a question and gotten an answer in good time. KaBlam is good about this too, I'll admit.

KaBlam has a weird ordering method as well, charging you far too much if you want your comic within a month. What if I need something within about two weeks? They charge an ungodly rate for it. Comixpress prints and distributes in about two weeks, every time. None of that "wait for a month" BS with KaBlam. I've had orders nearly double in price just because I needed it quicker with KaBlam.

So, I think comixpress is superior to KaBlam. I'm just waiting for my proof in the mail (which is already shipped, again within two weeks) before I set my comic up for online purchase.

Edit: also, comixpress doesn't have a fee anymore for start-up or making comics. You just pay for when you print comics.

We had reverse experiences with Comixpress and Kablam. =p
This is actually the 1st time I have ever seen something like this said about KaBlam.

Thanks everyone! I printed my comic at BOTH Ka-Blam and ComiXPress. Here is the verdict:



Ka-Blam
Pros: Best color, best paper, faster turnaround (2 weeks, with rush option), automatic integration in their online store, great customer service (I asked three different questions, and got helpful responses in a day).
Cons: Website has some flaws, definitely only attempt in Internet Explorer. File uploading is a little precarious (no built-in browser uploader).

ComiXPress
Pros: Easy to use website. Files are easy to send. Slightly slower turn-around time. Slightly cheaper than Ka-Blam (by about 5 cents per 54-page comic).
Cons: Color is not as accurate as Ka-Blam. Slow customer service (they did not respond to my inquiry for a week and a half, finally did after I asked again). They have an online store, but my comic still isn't on yet, even though I ordered more than two weeks ago.

KA-BLAM all the way! Of course, this is just based on my experince. I encourage you to try both, since neither have setup fees.

theends
since neither have setup fees.

And they shouldn't either, not if your work's all in the right format to start with. I think they're all digital, so it's not like the run around people have with other reproduction methods.

Anyway, Congrats man! :)

I always thought you'd go through a publisher. Always thought your work as A1 commercial quality.

There's always a third alternative; a local digital print-shop.

Make sure they have digital-printers since making "off-set" reproductions could cost more depending of the quantities. Example "off-set" (regular press) may be cheaper if you make 1,000 or more copies and when I say cheaper I only mean mean the price per unit (price per comic) but "Digital-prints" are more convenient if you only want to print less than 100 copies of your comic. The convenience of having a face to face contact with the printer is priceless and sometimes you can even ask for a sample print before doing the final copies. I had the experience that I could adjust the color after I noticed the printed sample was very dark. Sadly there's also some minor set-backs like having a local print-shop with bad customer service.

There its also a fourth alternative. Buy your own laser color printer. A friend of mine did and prints looks awesome. The only set-back are that a good pro printer can be pricey and you need to do all by yourself; manage inks & paper, print, fold, staple and trim the comics. The good thing is you gain a great deal of experience doing so.

About ComicXpress or Ka-Blam some of my friends prefer Ka-Blam.

Jabali
There its also a fourth alternative. Buy your own laser color printer. A friend of mine did and prints looks awesome. The only set-back are that a good pro printer can be pricey and you need to do all by yourself; manage inks & paper, print, fold, staple and trim the comics. The good thing is you gain a great deal of experience doing so.

I have a beautiful Okidata C9500; duplex laser tabloid printer. Had to buy it with insurance money after a family member died. No kidding on that one.

I also have a pair of saddle-staplers, and a paper trimmer designed to cut through reams (though those are on indefinite loan to a local art center). DIY, with good equipment, takes quite a bit of start-up. On the other hand, if I get back into self-publishing, I can make orders on demand. I'm proud to say that the binding on my handmade TPBs last longer than some professional services.

Ultimately, I don't know that it's a route I'd recommend, though. I have to replace the fuser before I can do any professional printing again- maintenance costs sneak up on you pretty quick when you own the equipment.