If you ask any indie creator/self publisher what they consider to be the main obstacle in achieving the finished product, most will tell you it is print affordability. I suppose, if they are like me, self discipline and distribution are equally problematic but finding a printer that won’t stiff you is by far the biggest pain in the arse. Ed Doyle and I used to do our own thing, a decidedly punk approach that resulted with my descent into stationery store nerd-ism. One thing I learned as I sought cheap photocopying, big staplers, glossy paper ( the type that doesn’t make you fire twenty pound notes out of your backside ) and various inkjet/laser printers that was, as a general rule, service in this country is poor. I used to work for a stationery retailer ( see, told you, nerd-orama ) and I have seen it from both perspectives. For example customers used to stomp out in disgust at the price of inkjet cartridges ( I check how much cartridges cost before I buy the machine, all you cretins that have stomped for the same reason ); some would come in demanding a refund on a glue stick!!!! Forty-nine bleeding pence!!! Some thicko’s brought in products, expecting a refund, which had never been in our range. As a consequence of that experience, one realises that people are split 50/50 between either nice and normal or rude half-wits, regardless of race, gender, background or sexuality.

Unfortunately, the same applies to the staff I’ve encountered at print shops and stationers over the years. You get the helpful chap at the copy counter at Staples, who is genuinely interested in what you’re doing or the spotty herbert that moves at a snail’s pace, chews gum and uses the word ’random’ far too often. I’ve also encountered a rather strange side to the British business mindset that somehow accepts that it’s OK to turn trade away. My qualifying example may seem petty, you decide, but when I wanted to experiment with formats I wanted to get a few reams of paper cut to US comic book size and thought to myself, ‘Oh, I know, one of those store fronted printers will have one of those huge guillotines.’ I entered a local store and made my request, making it clear I was happy to pay whatever reasonable charge they put on the service. The pissed off person behind the counter informed me, in a manner that made Morrissey seem like Peter Kaye in comparison , that they didn’t do cuts of anything they had not printed on the premises. Off I went, in search of a business that would take my money, eventually finding a very helpful printer that I would continue to use for some time because, in part, my initial request for a simple cut was not greeted with indifference. Incremental sales are essential to develop business but I suppose there are those businesses that are happy to plod along in a selective manner.

Fortunately those days are behind me now ( though I did purchase a thermal binder last year, I told you I was bit of a stationery weirdo! ), as Ed Doyle and I opted to use the Smallzone comics printing service and latterly a printer in the Republic of Ireland, Courtney Print Ltd. We haven’t looked back, as both companies do excellent work at a very reasonable rate per copy. By my calculations it worked out about the same ( if not less ) per copy as when I was trying to do everything myself and, obviously, the professionally printed stuff looked ten times better than my DIY-print-finished-products.

Be careful, though. I have shopped around for print and I can tell you it is a scam. I don’t mean to offend hard working people that run printing companies who charge reasonable rates but the wild variances that one sees with print prices suggests to me that some companies will add a bloated mark up to their prices because they can get away with it. It’s not that materials are super-expensive (though I appreciate that this may be a factor in the future) otherwise; the two companies that we’ve used would not be competitive.

An increasingly used option is that of using printers in the USA, who are incredibly affordable when compared to their British counterparts. Just enter ’comic book printing’ into your search engine and I assure you that you’ll get a huge range of companies to choose from and you’ll be amazed at their prices, not to mention the willingness to tackle smaller print runs. I remember speaking to James Reddington ( God rest his soul ) about the print issue and he told me that he had all of Portent Comics printed in the States and shipped over at a cost far below anything he’d been quoted in the UK. Now, what does that tell you? Does US business, in general, have a far greater ‘can-do’ attitude? Are we in Britain, for the most part, being ripped off? I think the answer is a resounding yes. I understand margins and I know the real cost of a lot of the products that Tesco claim are wonderful value. Just think how little of that margin covers wages.

Happily there are exceptions and I would urge you to at least try and find a UK/Irish printer. The two we’ve used can be found as follows: For Courtney Print Ltd email them on sales[at]courtneyprint.com and for the Smallzone associate service go to www.smallzone-comics-shop.com/printing they are both very good at what they do and very reasonable, I recommend them both. Any feedback is welcome and if you know of a great value, good service printing concern, share your knowledge with us when posting your comments.

Chris Atkins writes a column for RedEye magazine and has self published comics himself, as is currently working on "Urban Serial" with Ed Doyle.