From: AP's Matt <[a--ta--c] at [texas.net]>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.alternative,rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Re: Self Publishing:  Colour
Date: 14 Feb 1996 05:45:16 GMT

In article <[legacy 1202961741520001] at [annex01-ppp-46.accent.net]> Adam
Swan, [l--ga--y] at [accent.net] writes:
>Most comics are 32 pages long with 4 covers. 
>It isn't economical to print anything below 10 000 units in colour. Last
>year, before the latest round of paper price hikes, printing a standard
>comic in full colour cost: 

Adam, since you're from Canada and responding to a Canadian query, I
assume the dollar amounds you quoted are in Canadian dollars?

>32 page + 4 covers
>Full Colour
>40 lb Mandoprime (interior)
>60 lb Miraweb (exterior)
>With final negative film provided.
>
>10 000 $6 763  or      .6764/unit      and     .3046/unit for extras
>15 000 $7 205  or      .4804/unit      and     .2648/unit for extras
>50 000 $16 473 or      .3294/unit      and     .26.48/unit for extras

Here are the prices for us, with 32-page interiors, 50# glossy
interior paper, 70# glossy cover stock, including all film and
pre-press costs:

5,000  -  approx. US$4,000  (.80 per)
10,000  -  approx. US$6,000  (.60 per)
25,000  -  approx.  US$10,000  (.40 per)

>For optimum quality in a colour comic, you want to be able to scan at 2008
>dpi. 

Actually you only really need to scan (and work with) 300 dpi files. 
At 300dpi, a full-sized comic page will be about 24.3 Mb in size. 
However, when you output the page from computer to film you want the
highest resolution possible (2000+ dpi, 133 line screen) in order to
get the optimal effects on shading and color gradations.

>You should budget another $3000 for the pre-press work, meaning that the
>total cost of printing a full-colour comic will be easily over $10 000
>(Canadian) or more than $1 per book. Since distributors work on a 60%
>discount and charge 2% S&H, you will have to set the cover price of your
>comic higher than $2.65 to make any profit on a print run in the 10 000
>copy range. You will be paid 38% of whatever the cover price is, by the
>distributor, and so obviously, 38% of the cover price has to be more than
>a dollar for you to make any money. Also, these figures are outdated,
>because of the paper price increases, so you will probably be looking more
>around the $1.10 or &1.15 area for a break even on a 10 000 unit print
>run. 

We are able to do all of our color and/or scanning in-house, so our
total pre-press costs are relatively low.  Our 32-page color comics
have a cover price of $2.95 US ($4.10 Canadian), and we get about 34%
of the cover price.  So, we can (barely) break even at around 5000
units sold on a color comic.

Just another publisher's views,
  - "Travelling Matt"