November 18, 2004

1:03 PM

I've noticed that most newspaper comic pages are horrendous. What would it take to publish my favorite web / underground comics in a newspaper-like format, and distribute it across my metro area of choice?
posted by sandking to (7 comments total)

Money (for syndication). Marketing savvy (if you're not just going to give these away).
posted by neckro23 at 1:26 PM on November 18, 2004

You'd have to pay the artists or otherwise syndicate or get people to give you the comics for free.
You'd have to sell advertising or charge subscriptions to otherwise pay for printing (cheap, but not that cheap) to otherwise pay for and distribute it.

I could see it happening with the rise of web comics now, though. PVP, at the very least, is free to publish.
posted by SpecialK at 1:50 PM on November 18, 2004

look and see if yr local urban area, has a city paper, i know baltimore and dc both do.
posted by ShawnString at 2:57 PM on November 18, 2004

Don't forget, you will also need to arrange to get print-ready artwork from the artists you want to publish.
posted by furiousthought at 5:46 PM on November 18, 2004

Permission from the creators, of course this permission comes from negotiations. You could easily do it all digital and pay a printer to print them out in a format you like, cheap newsprint is the way to go, unless one of your artists demands glossy paper or somesuch (if they do just drop them, pretentious types arent worth the trouble.)

A business license. Some boiler plate legal forms.

Of course, you'll need some initial investment money, but probably not much.

Distribution might be a bitch. If youre going to mail them then its going to seriously cost you. If you are going to drop them off in certain places for free pickup then it wont cost you as much. Local business will ask for x amount for you to leave a stack of anything on their premises. Some will do it for free, but dont bet on it.

To remain profitable you can do ads or subscriptions.
posted by skallas at 6:11 PM on November 18, 2004

How big is your format? You want to kick down some samples?
posted by squirrel at 10:32 PM on November 18, 2004

sandking:

Let me know if you get this started. I'm currently selling a strip to a local newsweekly, but am very interested in syndication.
posted by jpburns at 5:07 AM on November 19, 2004