This is a lot harder then I thought it would be.

[luco]

So, I'm still hunting, but I think I suck at it, and I'm very annoyed about that. Then again, it would probably help if I wasn't too damn shy (yes I'm shy so shut up!) to ask other artists about it.

I mean, I just want to be able to print 'Legend' (and a few other ideas I have worked out) but I can't find a place around here that will help me out ;____; And it's driving me insane! You would think going to an art school would help but noooooo....everyone seems to think their printers are a closely guarded secret and won't share the info. DA artists seem to be the same way and it's really starting to annoy me.

I mean, everyone else seems to be able to find a printer they can afford and I can't.

And I really want to.

I want to be able to take all those sketchy comics I've done and finalize them. I want to put a whole bunch of extra pretty stuff in there and be able to offer it to you guys. I want to be able to sell them at a bit of profit. Enough that I can take that money and work on more art and slowly start getting stuff together so that one day I can do some original stuff (while still doing fan-based stuff because there are some characters I'll NEVER get tired of playing with...) and I want to make a living out of it.

*sighs*

Never thought the first step would stump me.

Guess, I'll stop growling at my computer and go back to packing. I'll be moving back to Toronto this weekend where I will be cleaning and organizing my room and studio. Even without a damn printer I still want to have a place where I can seriously start to work on all these ideas.

Actually...

I'll ask you to be brutally honest.

Do you think people would want to buy Legend and other things I've done?

Comments

[travellyr.livejournal.com]

Ne, Luco- I dunno what you want to print, besides your comics, but an artist friend of mine who works at a print shop (they do brochures and flyers and business cards and such) said lulu.com for comics. I have a book printed by lulu.com- they do good work.

She also said "posters? Just search for local copy shops in the area, call for price comparisons and take a look throug examples of their printed work. Print shops may have poster-size stuff but on the level of mine it goes up to 13-19" since we use a digital color copier. The quality of the Xerox Docucolor 240/250 is extremely high and I am quite pleased with its results. So I endorse that printer.
"Printers that use offset presses and 4-color presses will often require a high run to make it worth their while, so you'd have to order several hundred copies in advance usually. It's a lot of labor for setup.
"Copies themselves tend to be cheaper if you get a lot. Making a comic book is feasible if you make enough copies. I'm making a 20-page book that will boil down to 10 black and white copies per book, at 50 books that's 500 copies, so it gets pretty cheap for me to run. It ends up like 60 cents a book that way. I'm binding them myself because Tiffers has a special stapler for this sort of thing. If they had to saddlestitch them there'd be a fee."

Did that help any?
She'll also be at Otakon selling prints and koozies and stuff, if you're going. She may look FIERCE, and actually, she IS fierce, but fear not! She's actually very nice and loves kittens.

[travellyr.livejournal.com]

....blasted girl kept talking after I hit "post comment"....


"But Lulu will do comic books and you don't have to put an money down and you have unlimited orders that way, so I'd suggest doing that.
"And HAVE EVERYTHING LAID OUT AND ON A CD. CALL AHEAD to ask what format they will accept. DO ALL OF YOUR OWN SETUP because if they have to do anything except hit print, you will probably pay a fee. At my shop it's $15 setup."

(and if setup is difficult, and you're being a 'tard about it, the print shop graphic workers will call their friends and RANT about it. How do I know this? Oh, no reason.... *whistles innocently*)

Final words: (I think)
"Avoid name-brand places and chains like Kinko's and stick to local businesses. Kinko's is equivalent to assrape. And remember paper may change cost. Oh, and if it's fanart, most local places won't care. Kinko's has a rule against it."

[luco-millian.livejournal.com]

All of that has helped quite a bit. Thank you very much. I think I kinda know what I'm doing now ^___^

[travellyr.livejournal.com]

Yay! Glad this was helpful for you. ^^