Resources: Comic shops, webcomics, and useful links

I know this is old news to y'all back home, I'm in Perth ya see, but I recently heard my beloved Third Place shut down a while back. I am so saddened to hear this, I hope the guys are doing well for themselves now, I see Bruno has landed on his feet anyway, what about the other guys?

Now when I come home I have to get my order from somewhere else!! DAMN!!

Just wanted to say that.

Nathanual wrote:

Hi all...

Just wanted to start something where anyone who has found a good printer can put a link to them... This would be a POD, or just a shop in any Irish City that has good printing costs.

Long Stone is printing our own because we have someone helping us. Not everyone is so lucky. So can we share the info for those who want to start getting their work printed but don't know where to go...

Just a thought...
Stephen

while I understand the motivation behind this thread I should point out you might have a hard time getting some of the Irish indie press people to post on a public board about any good print deals they've managed to get. Its nothing to do with not wanting to share the information but rather that I know a few of them have given out that information before and had people be rude to the printers and stung them for payment and that reflects badly on the person who rec'd them.

This will most likely get mereged with the resources thread as I know the mods want to keep it all together and are working a revamping the whole resources stickies but I'll link to the three main comic PODs for the few people who might not be aware of them:

Comixpress is the main POD for comics - while not as big as the likes of Lulu, they do just focus on just comics unlike the aforementioned Lulu who offer all round printing. The quality of print and value for money with comixpress is pretty good - they are cheaper then lulu print wise but as they are based in New Jersey you might end up paying more for shipping depending where you live. The offer some good discount schemes - they hit most of the major indie shows in the states and give out money off coupons [which I have used for a decent chunk off printing] and they offer various advertising options. They also have an online store that you can sell your stuff through. The negatives to Comixpress is that they are slow and I mean really slow. Coming up to some of the big cons [esp coming up to June when you've MoCCA, Heros con and SDCC all coming one after the other or around september with SPX and now APE being very close together] you need to plan to make sure you get your stuff to them with plenty of time. They are very bad at responding to emails. If your printing something in colour you should get a proof copy [you should get a proof with any printer but more so with comixpress] While they can do good colour printing, they don't spot check the colours so you need to be super confident with the files you've sent to trust them to print correctly with out some sort of proof.

Kablam Like comixpress Kablam focus just on comics - they started pretty strong with alot of buzz about them at SPX two years ago. Their pricing is on par with Comixpress and the books I've seen printed from them look pretty decent. in the past couple of months thou I've heard some of the same issues people have with comixpress - very slow, don't reply to emails etc etc and a few of indie creators I know who switched to them went back to comixpress. They do offer some extras like flyers, mini posters, and t-shirts [coming soon]

Lulu are the big print on demand option - they cover pretty much everything not just comics. Cost wise they do work out bit more then comixpress but they offer better shipping rates and have a uk based office so might be the better option if your printing on this side of the atlantic. I've ordered books and printed with Lulu and for the most part found their work to be pretty decent - i think comixpress does a better print job but the difference between the two isn't massive and alot of times, I think, its down to the creator not understanding how to save the correct file rather then lulu printing it wrong. Their site can be a bit clunky to get around but a friend of mine who is useless on computers managed to print his comic with them so I guess its not that bad. There is small but noticable Lulu branding on their books that is optional but you have to really pay attention when printing to have them not add it. Their own reps when I asked them at a recent english con didn't know if it was optional or not. You can offer your stuff for digital download via lulu which I know is a big apeal for some people.

Now there are loads of other POD printers out there, like cafe press [whose work is rubbish], rapid [have only heard bad things about] and Dreamweaver [who stopped taking orders two years ago, said it would be temp but no sign of them starting again] but three above would be the most well known as far as indie press goes.

Just to clear up for a few people the different print options. POD's are always digital printers - they'd make no money doing litho printing for such small runs. The other type of printing is Litho or off set printing. Off-set printing is the main method of commerical printing. Its only worth looking into if your planning a big run. Quebecor would be the big litho printer for comics in north america.

Aright guys & gals, Just wondering, does anyone know anywhere in & around Cork that stocks/can order Rue Morgue Magazine? It's akin to Fangoria, but a great deal better, my subscription has run out, and I can't buy the issues online, as I currently have no Credit card. Any ideas, guys?

Okay, I have a question about getting Forbidden Planet to order a particular manga. The manga in question is "God of Japanese Comics" Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack. It's being released commercially in a normal paperback edition, and a hardback edition that includes an exclusive story (that won't be published in the normal version), but it's limited to 1500 copies and has to be ordered through Diamond.
Another guy on a forum mentioned filling out Diamond's Consumer Order Form and handing it in to a comic shop. So what I'm asking is, do Forbidden Planet/Sub City accept those forms or what?

Fysh wrote: »

Re: Diamond ordering - if you can find the solicitation code (normally of the form JUN081234) it ought to be possible to get Forbidden Planet or anyone else who regularly orders from Diamond, although whether they may be constrained by minimum order numbers is another matter...

Well, the book is actually listed on the Aug form. Do I just need to print out the first page and the page with the book listed on it?

corkstudent wrote: »

Are there any comic shops in Munster outside of Other Realms? Or any funny collectory stores like Hollywood Empire in Limerick used to be...

there is a comic shop in Limerick but off the top of my head I can't remember the name - I'll check with a friend who shops there and get a name and address.

corkstudent wrote: »

Pretty sure that closed down and is now just a small corner in another shop.

Maybe it has, haven't been to limerick in years. Theres comixstop in waterford - check back in this thread for a map and directions.


For people in the Kilkenny theres a small comic and game shop after opening on high street. I'm not sure of the actually address but if your coming from the castle its on the right hand side just before you get to city hall.