Artists Alley Information Thread

Selling at Cons is best during the...

Spring	11.5%	[ 117 ]
Summer	29.4%	[ 300 ]
Fall	7.2%	[ 73 ]
Winter	5.5%	[ 56 ]
Any time!	46.5%	[ 474 ]
Total Votes:			[ 1020 ]

[Jayde Panda]

The largest prints I do now are 8.5 x 11, so no poster prints here. But thanks for the advice on the Canon.

Fiammetta: I've never used Artscow, so... can't help you there.

[Vicemage]

The charms from Printsess have arrived. The borders seem a little wider than I expected, but the quality is very nice, and it's not too tough to peel off the protective liners, either. Plus, if the counts on the bags are right, they slipped an extra five charms in each bag. biggrin I'll have to start adding lanyards to them now and get them packaged to sell.

[CuteyHoneyChan]

Vicemage

The charms from Printsess have arrived. The borders seem a little wider than I expected, but the quality is very nice, and it's not too tough to peel off the protective liners, either. Plus, if the counts on the bags are right, they slipped an extra five charms in each bag. biggrin I'll have to start adding lanyards to them now and get them packaged to sell.

Oooh, they look all shiny..... whee Are they durable???

That reminds me, I have to get my comic out to the printers by next week if i want to get started on MY cell phone charms...(Damn homework...:/)

[Jayde Panda]

This is a question for Vicemage: I was looking at ordering from comixpress.com--you'd recommended them. What kind of turn-around time would I need for a 28 page minicomic do you think? As in, how much time do I need to give them for printing and shipping? >_< I'm running behind, and I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to be able to actually get finished by the convention.

[Vicemage]

On ComiXpress, I recommend about a six-week turnaround (yes, really), since they seem to get randomly backlogged during times of conventions I don't know about. ^^ They've recently added rush services, but I don't know what that runs or how fast it really is (as I've never tried it).

Ka-Blam is also an option (the prices run about the same, but you're very limited on sizes from Ka-Blam); I've used them when I ran very low on time, and still got the books in time. They're really only good for smaller books that fit their default sizes, though; they're quite expensive for longer graphic novel-sized work.

(This all reminds me that, in the next couple of days, I should try to get my tutorial on printing comics updated, since ComiXpress's prices have drastically changed.)

As for the charms: Yes, they're supposed to be quite durable, and they are very shiny. biggrin I did chip the top of one of them a bit while experimenting with adding loops and lanyards to them last night, but the two I pulled out are for my durability test, anyway--they're on my phone now, and we're going to see how they deal with the beatings my poor phone somehow gets every day.

EDIT FOR ONE OTHER COMIC THING: Sort of forgot... it's supposed to be a 28-day turnaround at ComiXpress, which is the BARE MINIMUM I would say to go with for them unless you're doing a rush order, however, I've been using them quite regularly for three years (regularly enough that I'm getting the maximum returning customer discount already, only a few months after they instituted it, since it was retroactive), and in that time there was only one time, when they were having some problems anyway, that they missed my "absolutely need by" date. Just set it a couple of days before your true "absolutely need by" date, and 99% you'll have them on that day.

[Kyousouka]

Six weeks? Looks like I need to get off my lazy, project-doing a** and get my cover painted so I can submit my book.

If I go with my original plan (to send it to them at the end of April), I'll be cutting it too close to con-time.

[ninniku]

I will say for Ka-Blam, if you're getting a s shorter work, you can get a custom trim size up to a maximum dimension that I can't quite recall without it adding to the price. And when you first sign up and order, you get a $25 credit. At least they had that when I signed up . . . awhile ago.

[Vicemage]

That might be either an older policy, or a "special request" sort of thing, as when I checked their site again just now, it still gave only two choices of size ("comic" and "manga" ). I can't remember what the first-time order thing was, as it's been ages since I signed up with them, either. (ComiXpress is a 10% discount on your first order; you used to be able to elect to put it on the quantity order if you did that separately from the setup/proof order, but they've since dropped the setup fee, so it just goes to your quantity order.)

And of course, with either printer, if you're getting a rush order done, you will pay much more. So it's better to get it together as early as possible. smile

[Cetriya]

@Fiammetta Rey

I recently listened to a podcast about copyright, since artcow ships from china, keep in mind that licence holders can 'block' things/bootlegs from coming into the country. They may think your fan art is bootlegged and just deny it.


About Ka-blam, you can get custom sizes between 8x10 to 5 x7, you just need to note it in the type in field that ask where your files are. I just got a book at the 8x10 size.


any of you have any idea how to get rid of old print stock the fastest with out giving them away? other then putting them on sale (I think I have about 50 total varies ones) I dont know what else to do.

[Vicemage]

About Ka-Blam, that's good to know! I'll keep that in mind for future projects... I'm still trying to come up with this year's project, and it may end up being some variant on an art book...

[Jayde Panda]

Alright, so my convention is Memorial Day, so that would mean having the comic completely ready by early next week. @_@ I wonder if I mad draw if I can get it ready by then--I have it written out and ready to draft. I was looking at comixpress's 28-pg. mini-comic. I don't remember the exact dimensions, but I think it was about 5x7. Thanks for the info. I'll put off some of my other print/badge stuff and see if I can do this. Go go super motivation power. whee

If anyone who does comic books has any advice on putting these things together, I've got open ears--this will be my first attempt at doing something like this (at least seriously attempted). I'm excited about it though.