Have you/do you plan to print your webcomic?

[jahillinbox]

that's awesome! Do you just use 8.5 x 11 layouts?

[mariusthered]

i dont print mine. i zip it and sell it in digital format via gumroad for just £3 per issue ($3.80) I have a button on my comics here on tapas that takes people to the comics for sale page. (link below)

aronmason

[jahillinbox]

Interesting...as a business model how do you feel this is working?...seeing that by and large digital comics are distributed free and/or free with patreon or some other support?

[mariusthered]

im just getting started on this so its hard to say, but i let people see some for free here on tapas and then when i put the issue out for sale it has extra stuff in that is new and cannot be seen on the net. (this way i can let the issues for sale be totally uncensored)

[Rasp]

Oh we have and stickers too... its funny these are the Spanish versions (if you look at the chapter names you can see it) since they were to be sold in Chile but the comic was written in English. We printed 20 copies of each and sold OUT. I was quite happy. My artist has good relations with the print shop so they cut us a nice deal..

Red Lilies: Empress of Veils | Tapas

[ben]

I used to self publish but I have a publisher now so I don’t have to deal with shipping it myself and distributing it myself. I currently have two books out with them, another coming out real soon. I think right now I have two finished books waiting for print and a couple more that are still in the works. One of the books in waiting for print was a featured webtoon I did last year and since everything I do is intended for print first and foremost I just broke apart the panels to fit the webtoon format and saved the full pages for print later on and now it’s TIME! But I try to also keep all my comics available online for free too. People will usually read it for free online and then purchase the book if they like it enough and the books still do well enough.

[KoreanTacos]

Been debating on making a kickstarter to make prints for my first two chapters. I want to donate at least two copies to my local libraries.

[Humbug]

I had a publisher print Book 1 of my comic. Unfortunately the publisher crashed and burned and the books never got distributed. And the copies are sitting in a warehouse somewhere that I can't get to. It was neat seeing my comic in physical form though.

[soapcahtoa]

I just funded a graphic novel kickstarter for my main comic and in the past have printed smaller runs.

Things become a lot easier when you originally draw in page format, I'm not sure if it's worth reformatting a vertical scroll comic into a book unless you hire someone tbh (tried this once and it took longer than drawing the actual comic). ALSO make sure your files are high resolution.

If you don't have a publisher prepare to wear a lot of hats! I manage marketing, manufacturing, packaging, fulfillment, and customer service all by myself & frequently attend conventions. You can of course outsource these things but it all costs $$$ and tbh after seeing so many collab projects flub I don't trust a lot of people lol

Printing comics isn't the easiest or most profitable thing in the world but it's hella satisfying to see your work in a physical book!

[MK_Wizard]

Do I plan to print? HELL YEAH!! But doing that takes funds which I am patiently waiting to build up. In fact one day, I even want my main project to be animated.

[FedoraSpooky]

I'd like to at some point! I'm making my pages in print format for that reason. XD I'd probably make extras and stuff to include in each volume... but I'll probably wait until I have more story done, and see if there's enough interest.

[Beatrush]

I printed a run of about 100 books for the first chapter of my comic (5x7). I think we sold 50 of them at the last convention I had a table at so definitely was worth it.

I'll probably print an omnibus (120 page+ book) after chapter 3 is done.

.

[BlueDragon]

I printed too early twice...

A word of warning for people printing the first time: be wary of predatory companies. I was younger, and naive, and Xlibris screwed me over hardcore. I won't get into details, but it suffice to say the end product wasn't a comic, and even though I know people who bought it from them, I was never paid. Just be careful out there!

I recently fixed a lot of the major problems, flipped it, and got it printed at a local printer. I liked the face to face aspect, and the level of accountability they'd have: I could find them and talk to them, or give them a good, or bad review that they'd actually care about. I got exactly what I wanted, the exact size and look I wanted. I'm very happy w/ it

I also did all the layout work myself to save money: the less they have to do, the cheaper. Yeah, they're paid, but fixing layout issues is frustrating and time consuming. They're not in your head or a reader of yours (probably,) so they don't know what it's supposed to look like. So, to save money, you can have it print ready.

But here's what I got :3 I was sooooo stoked to touch it...feel...smell it....er...that's not creepy at all XD (I haven't licked it yet )

If anyone has questions about layout (bleeds, safety, etc) feel free to DM/PM me! I use InDesign CS5, and I can walk anyone through page set up, if they're interested. I just wished I'd had help back in the day, so I'm open to give out information (no, I'm not soliciting paid work, just offering layout info.)

[IndigoShirtProd]

I do plan on printing my comic, but I'll probably just print it for myself. I don't have a big audience right now and also when I initially started the comic, I didn't plan to print it. The formatting, i.e. the colors are not for printing. It's all in RGB not CMYK. The colors won't look right, which won't bother me but it might bother others. If I did ever print and sell, well . . . I'd wait until there was more interest.

[BlueDragon]

Wow! That looks awesome!!! Congrats on the sales

[Shanny8]

@jahillinbox The original size that I work on everything is 11" x 17", staying in the 10" x 15" safe zone. Once I finish colors I then reduce the size to 7" x 10"; I do the lettering at that size. I flatten the layers, use a template to crop the excess bleed art, then send it to the printer.

You dont have to work at the larger size- I just prefer to.

The printers that I use are Ka-Blam and Greko Printing. Both are POD(Print on Demand)- with Ka-Blam, you can print as little as 1 or as many as you need; with Greko they have a minimum print number of 25. Greko is slightly cheaper than Ka-Blam(and their cover stock is brilliant); I print my Clique comic series through Ka-Blam and I print my Ray Thunder comic through Greko.

@IndigoShirtProd with the companies I just mentioned RGB isnt an issue. You can submit your RGB files- you just need to make sure the file formats are what they require(Ka-Blam accepts TIFF and PDF files; Greko accepts only PDF). They use digital printing, and I believe they convert the files to CMYK themselves before printing.

Also keep in mind- the book needs to be even paged- they print in increments of four, so your book needs to be 20, 24 pages. If your comic is 23 pages, add some extra art(a pinup or a character profile) to even it out. Also, you need to be aware that the cover stuff is another 4 page area you need to take into consideration. I usually have the front cover, the credits page on the inside front cover, an ad on the inside back cover(an ad for more of my art OR an ad for someone else's comic), and the back cover. With Ka-Blam, you can use their ad(I highly encourage so- it gives you a discount), but their ad is on the back cover only(their rules); with Greko you can place their ad on the inside back cover- my Ray Thunder book has a back cover I designed...I put the Greko ad on the inside back cover.

[Rhonder]

Yes, I'm absolutely planning on printing copies of my comic once finished Probably just a few at first, for myself and friends, but someday if I table a convention, they would be fun to try and sell, I think~

[Iris-Grimoire]

I'm planning to, and the pages are all on A4 format to make that a little easier in the long run! I go to cons so that is a good product to offer. It will take money I don't have though because I'll probably do the first few chapters, so I might offer it digitally with bonuses first or an Indiegogo(I don't think Kickstarter accepts international campaigns? Can't remember).

[Lunar-Turtle]

I do! When my little comic grows enough, I want o put it on paper. I love physical books.

Synastry

[tchotchkeco]

I plan to do prints after the first volume is done (around April 2020). Luckily my comic is already in the traditional format so I don’t need to make hard changes. Though I do plan to do a few clean ups before printing.

I’ve had thing a printed before both from USA and China. Not sure who I’m going to go with when the time comes but I’ll just pick when it gets closer to printing.