PixelPusher

I was curious about the artists leaving, so I did a comparison of their website's artist navigation between January 19th and today (February 2nd). I don't know how accurate this is, but I thought it was interesting enough to share.

Thanks again for the thoughtful responses. My frames arrive today and I can't wait to try them out. The 12x18 size might be perfect for my slightly larger than 11x17 boards. Everything you said about the backing paper makes sense. I did invest in a quality Rototrim paper cutter so I can trim some acid free paper to size.

Thanks for the super informative reply! I saw these exact frames before and they were very tempting. Good to know that they come highly recommended. The cardboard spacer between frames is very clever. How are you positioning the art when it's not quote 11x17? I spy some little black corner supports and a black background. Do you ever have to trim the art ever-so-slightly to fit it in the frame ? This is something I imagine I will run into and I'm torn.

I love the uniform look you were able to achieve. Can you share what you're using for the frames or are they custom?

I always wondered about this... when you go to a dealer's booth at a con, you see plenty of high end OA in toploaders. It seems like the most expensive pieces. Are the dealers really moving art from Itoyas to toploaders and back to Itoyas for every show? That seems like a lot of touches on the art because it can be a bit fussy inserting and taking out art from a toploader. Or are dealers keeping these pieces in toploaders year round?

I plan to do the same. I've had the HP 7740 since 2018, but I will switch to the EPSON Workforce at some point. My main issue with the HP is that it struggles with printing on thicker paper (like a typical comic art board). The Epson seems to handle thicker boards much better and I see it being a common choice for professional inkers who need to print out blue lines. The HP software has also become very annoying with requiring a login and being buggy on MacOS. When it comes to printing, HP also introduced expiration dates on printer cartridges. It's very annoying that some perfectly fine ink cartridges aren't able to be used because it has been deemed expired. This stuff isn't cheap. I'm hoping Epson hasn't gone this route but I haven't looked into it yet. I also bought a Professional Edition license for VueScan and it has been great for scanning.

I sold my first OA ever at this past ComicArtLive (woohoo!). One of the orders had to go to Germany and the purchaser initially requested Fedex. I've received plenty of dinged up and poorly packaged art so I wanted to make sure I used something legit for my first international sale. I used a great cardboard mailer I had saved from Cadence which was 18x12x1 and the weight came out to 1.5lbs. I brought it to an official Fedex shipping location and their cheapest option was $170 (~7 days to deliver) from California to Germany. Wow! I was really shocked at this. I asked what was the main driver for the cost and they said it wasn't the value I declared. They couldn't tell me much else except it'd be a little cheaper if I had an existing account with them. I then checked out ShipStation via Paypal and got plenty of reasonable quotes in the $50-$70 range, including multiple 3 day options for UPS. Can anyone explain why Fedex prices are over $100 the competition with a longer delivery time? Has anyone else experienced this?

My pleasure. I love these kinds of questions and I was happy I was able to help.

For the Batgirl jam, middle left looks like older stylized signature of Marcus To (https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1249022) and the middle right looks like Dean Kotz (https://www.instagram.com/deankotz/). Both are style matches as well.

I love seeing all the friendly discussion about how to best approach the layout! For the curious, I'll expand on my printer search journey. As you can imagine, finding a printer for this type of project is like finding that needle in the haystack. There are some factors that make this challenging: The extremely low quantity and the oversize 11" x 17" hardcover format. I started by requesting quotes from offset and digital printers I've worked with in the past and seeking recommendations. It was apparent that my low quantity would not make financial sense for them to take this project on. In addition, very few could handle both the printing and the hardcover binding. Even fewer could handle the hardcover binding at the 11" x 17" size. I then looked into the online "photo book" offerings out there which are popular for wedding and family keepsake albums. There are some beautiful options out there (including lay flat pages which would be ideal for the amount of double page spreads I had), but no one was doing anything over 12" and the cover wasn't always customizable. Page count was also limiting and these websites also pushed you towards using their online page builder and I just wanted to hand off a PDF formatted to their specs. I eventually came across the winning printer and took a gamble. They specialized in academic publishing so I had no clue how my color heavy pages would hold up. I was so happy with the result that I began planning out a book for next year. Putting the book together was such an enjoyable process. I found new love for art that I had put aside and pairing images together in spreads gave pieces a whole new meaning.

A similar book for your Bob Larkin tributes would be awesome!

Thanks! I appreciate the insight and that's one thing I went back and forth on.

I was lucky to find a place that was more of a turnkey process with a few printing options. You provide the PDF formatted to their specs and they do the rest. I felt the price was fair (especially considering my quantity) and I was pleasantly surprised by the overall quality. Currently trying another print job with them and hoping it turns out just as nice.

Exactly! I love how this gives the commissions another life and I found arranging the pages took on an unexpected bit of storytelling consideration. Pricing came out to ~$150 for 1 copy and shipping. Prep and design was about a week of my time.

Since 2018, I've been collecting mainly 90's era Wildstorm commissions as it's a very nostalgic time for me. As much as I love original covers and interiors from that time, I quickly found myself priced out of the original art game. It's been a blast seeking out artists and seeing their interpretations of the characters. For the penciled commissions, I'll usually get them inked and digitally colored so I can make prints for myself or a poster to put on my wall. A few months back I decided to design and print a book to showcase my favorite commissions over the years. The oversize format of IDW Artist Edition books immediately came to mind and I was able to find a printer who would produce a one-off book that met the specifications. It was a great feeling combining my graphic design know-how with my love of comic art. Luckily, I got in the habit of scanning commissions as they arrived over the years. Everything had been scanned at 600 or 1200 DPI and catalogued for backup purposes. This made the process more streamlined as I assembled the different spreads and determined the order of the book. Everything came together in InDesign and after a few back and forths with the printer (like adjusting the width of the spine to accommodate the pages), it was off to be printed! It arrived about 2 weeks later and I was really impressed with overall quality. The oversize format and full bleed throughout showcases the art in the best way possible. I find that I look at and appreciate my commissions more now since I have them in book format. It's easy to just grab it off the shelf and flip through. If you're reading this and interested in creating something like this for yourself from your collection, please feel free to reach out! I'll help in any way I can and offer advice. Design notes: Cover: 11.25 x 17.25 Hardcover, Full Color, Full Bleed Interior: 11 x 17, Full Color, Full Bleed, 156 pages Scanner: HP OfficeJet Pro 7740 Production: Images edited in Photoshop, Book Assembled in InDesign View more images here: https://imgur.com/a/xo4zdUf