MEETING COMICS

WATERCOLORS

I have begun the process of painting watercolors for subscribers to my MIDDLE MANAGEMENT tiers at my patreon. I’ll be shipping them a bunch of little pieces of art along with their comics! Some of the images will also go into Style & Fashion zines! Here are some Val watercolors!

MISADVENTURES IN PRINTING

I’ve posted about this on patreon and as a kickstarter update already, but here it is in the newsletter!

Hey, folks! When I received all the ingredients for No Raccoons in Hell last week, I checked the box to make sure everything looked correct since I knew I wouldn't be able to assemble the comics - I collate, staple, trim, and fold all my comic issues - until the weekend.

When I got ready to put my little assembly line together, I discovered that only the top dozen or so covers were printed on the right stock. Here's a photo of one of the covers on the correct paper:

and here's a picture of one of the covers on the incorrect paper:

That's right, they printed most of the covers on interior stock.

I reported this to the printer and asked for replacements. Hopefully they'll get them to me this week and I'll be able to put them together to start shipping soon.

This order has been a hassle across the board! I've been ordering from this printer since 2018, and a couple years ago, they added a step to their process where they consistently try to add a white border to my interior pages even if I tell them repeatedly that I don't need them to do so because I have laid out the page to be printed at full size myself. I have to assume this is because they have to deal with people who don't understand how printing works on a regular basis, but it's aggravating that I always have to reject my proof and tell them, no, not like that.

On my most recent order, I included in the notes to please print my interior pages as sent at 100% size without adding a white border. I also included this information in the file names. I then got back a proof telling me they'd added a white border to my interior pages since I didn't order them full bleed. Full bleed, in case you aren't aware, is the term for printing to the edge of the paper. 

I rejected the proof and told them that there was already a white border built into the art, so please print at 100%. I received an additional invoice to print those pages at full bleed. I emailed back saying, "I do not need full bleed on the black and white images. I just do not need the margin to be added as is it already built into my art, and I do not want the art pushed more toward the center of the page. If you run the black and white copies at the size I sent, without full bleed, that is what I want."

This got it done... but it didn't account for the covers, where they printed mostly on the wrong stock! 

Oh, and they also added a divider page between each copy of the interior of Peeks & Valleys, which I didn't ask for. It's the yellow here:

You might notice two identical Vals. That, of course, is because those zines are designed to be 4.25" x 5.5" when assembled, meaning they're printed on 8.5" x 11" paper  which will be chopped in half. Ah, process!

Anyway, I will be collating the pages in with the cardstock covers anyway, so it's not going to take all that much time for me to remove the extra paper, and hey! I can use free scrap paper, but still, it's the third "that's not what I asked for" of this order.

Will I find a new printer for future issues? I doubt it. All my local copy shops are national chains which cost way more than this company, even considering shipping.

These are all mild aggravations, and the comics will still ship soon, but I thought that for a few people, at least, this would be an interesting peek behind the scenes.

OK, great! Take care!

Thanks for reading!
Andrew Neal