Independent publishers

[Danny]

Update: I did get that ka-blam order I was talking about and the print quality was not as good as comixpress plus they managed to royaly screw up my comicbook images (they looked like poorly compressed jpg's).

So the quality on ka-blam is not as good as comixpress, but EVERYTHING else about ka-blam kicks comixpress' butt. That order queue, turnaround time --I was even blown away by the shipping with the comics wrapped 10 at a time in plastic bags and then put in the box and well packed with stuffing.

so yeah, I almost switched all my books to ka-blam... but the print quality stopped me (they are using an rgb printer, not cmyk)

just a head's up,
~Danny
PS: the print quality (or random screw up) was so bad, I had to send ALL the comics back to ka-blam, then I told them to cancel all my orders. But keep in mind, my stuff is a lot of solid colors and smooth gradients, which happens to be the worst possible case for an rbg printer.... my friends who used ka-blam admit to the quality being lower, but say the end view would never know if they hadn't seen the original image.

[Seth Wolfshorndl]

Just to put my two cents in and update this thread a little...

I have printed four books through Ka-Blam so far, and I would highly recommend them to everyone. True, our first book (printed two years ago) had minor color issues on the cover, but since then they have been spot on. Great quality overall. There is no setup fee, customer service has been great (they recently setup a message center on their site to make it even tighter), and the turnaround blows away comixpress (from what I've heard from many who have used them). You can customize when you would like to get your books. If you need them next week, of course it will cost extra. But if you're in no hurry, you can choose the slowest processing and receive a noticeable discount off your printing cost. Or something in between. And as mentioned before, the IndyPlanet store is a nice bonus.

It's great to have companies like this on the web to help us out.

-Seth

[Lichi]

This info is SO helpful, I am so happy I found this website!

[AgentHelix]

How's Ka-Blam for B/W & Grayscale?

[ryancody]

How's Ka-Blam for B/W & Grayscale?

Pretty good. I was happy both times they printed b/w stuff for me. An occasional double-printed cover, but nothing bad. I'll be using them for a full color book in a few months. I hope the quality and service keep up.

[themightyadam]

Drawn.ca mentioned this neat little thing:

http://drawn.ca/2008/09/03/dear-lulu-sa ... -printing/

A book designed specifically to test the capabilities of Lulu.com. They made the PDF available for download, so you can send it to the printer of your choice.

[Salgood]

Didn't see anyone mention Create-space, i'm using them for Revolver. The do take custom cut orders, so you can to a TPB bound book in comic book dimensions, though i'm opting for a standard cut 8x10, so i can use their extended distribution option. You can get an idea of their prices using this [scroll down for the price calculator]. For a B&W book the numbers are great. For POD, their color books are also well priced. You can get cheaper still doing a traditional run, but not much better for POD on a trade paperback. Perfect for graphic novels, and i'm doing Revolver as a 52 page quarterly with a spine so book shops and libraries will consider it so that works for me.

One of the partners in the create space set up is Lightning Source, i've read there may be some advantages with just going to them too.

Shipping to canada can be a pain, they use DHL and UPS, UPS is ok but DHL sucks balls. And you randomly get charged duty some times and not others. Best bet is to bulk ship to one location a larger batch and use Publications Mail to move things around canada. And if you know someone just the other side of the boarder and you can drive there, ship your stuff there withing the us and pick it up yourself to save on hassles and cash even more.