This came through on the Comic Creators Club.
I thought it would be good to post here too:

Advance Offset Press
1807 S. Washington #116
Naperville, IL 60565
Phone: 630-369-9400
Fax: 630-369-9465

American Color Graphic
1215 Fayetteville Quary Rd.
Sylacauga, AL 35151
(205) 249-3871
New Accounts Contact: Jeff Rosenthal
Diamond pick-up available.

Brenner Printing
106 Braniff St.
San Antonio, TX 78216
(210) 349-4024
New Accounts Contact: Monica Arocha
Diamond pick-up available.

DimeStore Productions Printing Service

Dream Weaver Press
Email: jdcone@dreamweaverpress.com

Harold Buchholz Printing Services
1325 White Marlin Lane
Virginia Beach, VA 23464
(757) 467-0763
New Accounts Contact: Harold Buchholz
Strictly an all ages printer but does do short print runs.

Morgan Printing, Inc
402 Hill Avenue
Grafton, ND 58237
(701) 352-0640
Fax (701) 352-1502 fax
New Accounts Contact: Toni M. Anderson

Port Publishing
PO Box 249
Port Washington, WI 53074
(414) 284-3494
New Accounts Contact: Bruce Gray

Preney Print & Litho
2714 Dougall Ave.
Windsor, Ontario N9E 1R9
Canada
(519) 966-3412
New Accounts Contact: Kim Preney

Quebecor Printing
8000 Blaise Pascal
Montreal, Quebec H1E 2S7
Canada
(514) 494-5401
New Accounts Contact: Angelo Messina
Diamond pick-up available.

Ripon Community Printers
656 S. Douglas St.
Ripon, WI 54971
(920) 748-3136
New Accounts Contact: Tom Welk

Simons International
No information on them at this point.

Small Publishers Co-Op
1521 S.E. Palm Court
Stuart, FL 34994
(561) 287-8117
Affordable printing for small self-publishers and zines.

Sullivan Graphics, Inc.
187 Zimmerman Blvd.
Buffalo, NY 14223
(716) 871-1077
New Accounts Contact: Jeffrey E. Rosenthal

http://www.transcontinental-gtc.com/en/ ... ontinental
1201 Marie-Victorin St.
St. Bruno, Montarville, Quebec J3V 6C3
Canada
(800) 337-8560 x4285
New Accounts Contact: George Bruno
Diamond pick-up available.

Udo Printing
Specializes in short-run and print-on-demand while doubling as a store
front such as cafepress.com.

Dimestore Productions
c/o Ian Shires
P.O. Box 214
Madison, OH 44057

Printing@dimestoreproductions.com

www.dimestoreproductions.com/Printing

Thanks for posting this list. Finding good printers, especially ones that can do comic books, is difficult.
I checked out the printers on the list and found the websites for several of them:

• American Color Graphic: www.AmericanColor.com
• Brenner Printing: www.Brennerprinting.com
• Dream Weaver Press: www.Dreamweaverpress.com
• Morgan Printing, Inc.: www.MorganPrinting.com
• Ripon Community Printers: www.Riponprinters.com

Small Publishers Co-op is out of business. Sullivan Graphics appears to be part of American Color Graphic now.
If anyone knows of any other comic printers or other comic resources, I'd be glad to hear about them.

Just thought I'd mention, I had a graphic novel printed recently by Sunray Printing. The price was very good, they worked fast, and the product was printed correctly and competently (a rare thing, in my experience). If anyone is looking for a printer, I would certainly recommend them (one caveat is that my book was 8.5" x 11". I'm not sure if they do "comic book sized" work).

Here's their site: http://www.sunrayprinting.com

I just found out about this place that does short-run print-on-demand comic book printing. I haven't used them yet, so I can't vouch for them, but their prices are very good for P.O.D.

It's http://www.ka-blam.com.

There's another Printer to add to the mix...

Rapid POD Printing, Inc.
Ken Whitman is the President
http://rapidpod.com/

I haven't used them but the samples I got were pretty good.

Terry

Holy cow! Thanks guys! That's a great list! Lots to check out and research. Unfortunately I'm not close to having anything printer ready and I'm pregnant with my second child so my productivity is slowly grinding down but I do have alot of questions about printers....

I've heard that going to a local printer is better because you can oversee the work yourself and possibly correct any mistakes before they get back to you. I have nightmare scenarios of my book getting returned to me with a page doubled or pages out of order or other issues with the quality. How do you trust a printer you can't check out yourself personally?

Perhaps my methods and questions are antiquated? I hope this is the proper place to post them.

Oh wow, that's a fantastic ist Terry! Thanks so much for sharing!

This is a REVIVED thread.
The original post was from Feb 2004 so some of the companies may be out of date.

Updates would be welcome.

Terry

No, finding a reliable printer is a difficult as ever, and everyone that's had anything printed has a horror story or two about it.

In my experience, using a local printer may be a little safer, but by and large the same rules apply. Get print samples before you buy, see if they have references, check for "grey areas" in the order forms (f'rinstance some quotes will include shipping costs, some won't). Even that doesn't guarantee good service, but it's the best you can do.

(I once had a printer print a book for me on much thinner stock than what I had ordered. When I brought this to her attention, she said I was wrong. Her explanation? They paper they used was exactly the same thickness as I had ordered, except for being thinner.)

All of these seem to be good advice great printing options. I know there is also a place called comixpress. I believe its website is www.comixpress.com

I have heard mostly good things, but as said before by some on this thread, always do your research, find samples of their work and look around at your options.

I got a print sample from Ka-Blam.com and I thought the quality was pretty good. So far, they're the cheapest place I've found for P.O.D.

Was it a standard 24 page comic? Full color cover? Black and white interior or full color?
Curious how the color came out.

Terry

It was an 8-page comic with color cover inside & out. There were interior 4 pages in color, 1 grayscale, 3 b & w.

Personally, I thought the color looked good. All in all, it looked comparable in quality to the average mass-produced comic on the stands.

I PLACED MY ORDER WITH COMIXPRESS.COM ON THE 12TH OF MAY. THE SITE SAYS THAT THAT I SHOULD RECEIVE A RESPONSE AND MY PROOFS IN ABOUT A WEEK. WELL, IT IS NOW THE 24TH OF MAY, AND NOTHING IN THE MAIL YET.

I HAVE CONVENTION TABLES TAKEN CARE OF, BUT NO COMICS, AND NO RESPONSE, (OTHER THAN A COMPUTER GENERATED,..."THANK YOU FOR CONTACTING COMIXPRESS" E-MAIL) OF COURSE THEY DONT HAVE A PHONE NUMBER.
I AM HOPING THEY ARE STILL A COMPANY.

ANYWAY, I'M GIVING THEM THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT . I WILL LET YOU ALL KNOW WHEN, AND IF I HEAR ANYTHING.

COMIXPRESS DID A GREAT JOB GETTING MY BOOK TO ME ON TIME.

Thanks for the follow up!
T

SURE THING.

I DON'T HAVE MY WEBSITE UP YET, BUT YOU CAN CHECK OUT MY MYSPACE PG. IF YOU WANT. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/TROYGILLOGLY
THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT

TROY

I recently had my magnum opus--er, I mean, graphic novel printed by ka-blam.com, and I thought I'd give a quick synopsis of my experience, in case it would be of any help to anyone looking to get something printed.

Price:
This is the cheapest POD place that I've found, and they offer a couple of different options to knock the price down even further. You can let them put an ad in your comic, or you can let them "back-burner" your order for a week or two for a fairly hefty discount (about $1 per book in my case).

Speed:
I was given a guaranteed ship date of Oct. 27, but the book actually shipped on Oct. 15. If I hadn't chosen to "back-burner" the book for the discount, the guaranteed ship date would have been Oct. 12, so it turned out to be only a difference of 3 days for a significantly lower price.

Quality:
I was very happy with the finished product. I personally believe it looks as good as any traditionally-printed book. (If you're not convinced, please feel free to buy a copy to see for yourself )

Miscellany:
For no extra cost, any book printed by Ka-blam can be listed for sale on Indyplanet.com, and Ka-blam will print and fulfill the orders for you. The listing process appears to be somewhat lengthy, however. I submitted my book over a week ago and it has not yet been listed as of this writing (I'll post again when it's listed).

-S

That's very good to know Sean. Thanks for the thread update.
I can't wait to get my copy of it!

Terry

Oh, and they also send a tracking # when they ship, which is nice for hand-wringers such as I.

-S

It was listed at Indyplanet today RIGHT HERE, so it was about a week and a half, give or take.

-S

Got mine today Sean - it looks great! Thanks for the quick shipping, good packaging and the BONUS SKETCH!!! Made my day!!!!!!!!!!!!