As you know, we recently brought you the early news on ComicsMonkey, the new distrubtion system offered under the auspicies of Ka-Blam. We spoke with Barry Gregory, of Ka-Blam, ComicsMonkey, and IndyPlanet, for some quick answers on the overview.
Newsarama: What motivated you to get involved in distribution in this fashion?
Barry Gregory: Direct Market distribution was a part of our plan from the beginning. We considered it a phase two project. Phase one was establishing Ka-Blam as a viable printing solution for independent creator/publishers. Phase two was to create opportunities for independent creator/publishers increase their audiences and sell their products. IndyPlanet.com — our indy comics webstore — was our first phase two project. We’ve got almost 2,000 items there now, with more being added almost daily, and sales have been steadily climbing since we launched it.
We’ve had ComicsMonkey specifically on the drawing board for over a year. We had planned to launch a brief pilot program of sorts later this spring with a limited catalog and a few volunteer retailers, then take what we learned from the pilot program, retool, and have our official launch sometime in late summer or fall. But then circumstances changed and we realized we had to scrub the pilot program and move our launch up significantly. Even if it meant a rockier start than we’d like.
NRAMA: Which qualities, in your opinion, make your operation well-suited for this kind of endeavor?
BG: Well, Ka-Blam’s been around since late 2005 and we’re pretty confident in our model for digital printing. We’ve built up a pretty good reputation among independent creators and publishers. We’ve got almost 4000 registered users and it’s growing daily. So given our operating model and the reservoir of good will we have among independent creators and the volume of product we have available from them already at IndyPlanet — most of which will also be available at ComicsMonkey — we think we’re uniquely positioned to offer a print-on-demand distribution service.
It’s a daunting task and we don’t take it lightly. No one’s really done this kind of thing before, so we know there will be challenges aplenty. But no one’s in a better position to give it a go than we are.
NRAMA: What are some pitfalls that other distributors have made in the past that you believe that you can avoid?
BG: Well, eliminating advance ordering will remove a lot of the pitfalls. With a print-on-demand model there’s no advance ordering, no warehousing, no purchase orders, no shipping from suppliers. Everything is digital. We store digital printable files for each product available in the catalog and we print to order. If it’s in our catalog … it’s available NOW. You can order it today and it could be on your shelves in a week or so.
When your model relies on advance ordering you have to worry about product shipping late from suppliers, items being canceled, or delivered in a state inconsistent with what was advertised at the time you pre-sold it. None of that applies to us.
We know where some problem areas lie and we’re working to avoid those, but as the saying goes, “it’s not about what you’re sure of … it’s about what you don’t know”. At least our mistakes will be uniquely our own. 
NRAMA: What will your biggest challenge be in the first sixth months?
BG: There are no shortage of challenges. We wrote the business model some time ago — it’ll change and evolve as we go, but it’s written. We’re building the site now, writing the software we’ll need to integrate comicsmonkey.com with ka-blam.com, etc. Soon, we’ll begin building the catalog and registering retailers. All that will be challenging.
But for me, I think the biggest will be managing the expectations of creator/publishers.
We’ve been thrilled by the response we’ve gotten from the independent comics community. Folks are genuinely excited about this … to the point that I worry some of them have unrealistic expectations. I believe this model will work and work well. There are many independent creators/publishers who will fare much better in our system than they have in the existing distribution system. But it’s not going to happen right out of the gate. It’s going to take time and a lot — a LOT — of work.
Our challenge will be keeping everyone focused and working towards what the model can and will be and not allowing them to get overly discouraged if the results are less than they’d hoped at the beginning.
NRAMA: A number of publishers believe that the paradigm is shifting into online delivery systems; as you see it, what is the future of comics as a print medium?
BG: Oh, I think someday in the not too distant future almost everyone will be reading their comics off of a backlit screen. I read webcomics, I love webcomics! But we’re all afflicted with a collector mentality. If we like something we want a piece of it. If we love a comic, then we want a copy, even if we already read it online. As a matter of fact, the best selling comics at IndyPlanet are the printed editions of certain webcomics.
So, I think print’s not going away any time soon. There’s still has a lot of life left in the printed page.
We’ll be speaking to Barry Gregory again in the near future.
February 9th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
This is exciting, but Barry’s right, everybody needs to manage their expectations and realize this isn’t going to be flying like an SST right out of the gate…
February 9th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
no retailer would take part in this beyond a special order level until the retailer’s discount is raised. no retailer is gonna risk dollars and shelfspace on something at 35% plus shipping costs. this is gonna be presold orders only.
plus at the per-book prices of print on demand (which are fine when the creator is selling direct to the audience), i can only imagine the cover prices are going to be astronomical to account for retailer’s discount and still be profitable for the creator.
the idea has merit, but if i’m being honest i don’t see the current model working.
February 9th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I think this will work just fine.I’ve already talked to a few retailers in my area and there looking forward to ComicsMonkey,as much as ,or even more so than i am as a publisher.I think it’ll be a good outlet for Indy’s and Self- Publishing.
February 9th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Ziggy,
We’ve yet to even announce our discount structure. We’ve said only that 35% will be the BASE. There will be additional discount levels, as well as incentives, and even free shipping options.
February 9th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
I agree with Ziggy. This thing is nice, but it will not work in the long run. These guys are trying to save their printing business. Most of what they print will be cut by Diamond. It would be nice to see about 10 distributors around with no EXCLUSIVE contracts.
February 9th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Bert,
We’ve shipped over 10,000 orders in the past three years and I can count the number of times we’ve shipped to Diamond on my fingers and toes. That’s hardly “most” of what we print. That’s less than one quarter of one percent of what we’ve printed.
February 9th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Stupid math error on my part … actually less than 0.002 percent of our business. But you get the idea.
February 10th, 2009 at 7:19 am
35% + shipping doesn’t seem worthwhile for shops, BUT we won’t know the viability for this model until someone tries it so lets not pass judgment just yet.
February 10th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Rock on, Barry. Loving the emergence of Comics Monkey. Best of luck.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I appreciate Barry taking the time to actually counterpoint a lot of the posts that bring up the possible problems with the new KA-Blam distribution ideas. Not to take away anything from the ones who see a flaw in the plan, but it seems every time somebody tries something different, there’s always people who have to look at the negative aspect of it only. That’s just the internet culture, I guess, the reality of it is that no one worth their salt ever got into comics to be rich and whether ComicsMonkey succeeds or fails it would be nice to be able to have an alternative source to get one’s individual creative voice out there.
I’d rather sell my work outright and promote it myself than to pander to every small press company to publish my book, which considering the economy, is next to improbable these days. Not impossible…improbable. Even if it means only selling less than 20 copies of a book, that’s 20 more than I would have gotten trying to get SLG or AVATAR to publish it.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Wow, that last post of mine was all screwed up formatting wise. Apologies. Let me try and do this another way and take Bert’s post one by one.
Bert, you said they are just doing this to svae their printing business. Really? You have some kind of inside info on this, because I’d really love to hear it if you do. I’ve had projects printed through them for a few years now and feel I know them fairly well and from all I’ve heard and seen, their printing business has been going great for quite a while now. Again, if you have some inside info please share it with us.
You also said that most of what they print will be cut by Diamond anyway. Well, Diamond won’t distribute comics or GN’s printed at POD printers last I checked. And, even if they did, as a publisher you’d have to be a complete idiot to use a POD printer to distribute through Diamond because of the cost involved.
You mentioned it would be nice if there were 10 distributors around with no exclusive contracts. Well, here is ONE in ComicsMonkey that is trying to give it a go, so instead of writing it’s obituary before it’s even been born why not give it a chance? Will this new distribution be perfect?–No. But, it’s a start and an option which is all we can ask for in these times. And, I’m not sure if you were implying that to use ComicsMonkey you need to sign an exclusive contract, but they do not require you to sign an exclusive contract.
February 10th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
“With a print-on-demand model there’s no advance ordering, no warehousing, no purchase orders, no shipping from suppliers.”
This is the part that I noticed immediately. People don’t seem to understand that a purchase order is a *contract*. It establishes the amount of books that the distributor is agreeing to buy from the creator. It’s mutually beneficial for both parties.
It’s nice that there will be more options out there for creators other than Diamond, but I fail to see how this will be financially beneficial for creators. It’s perfect for “vanity projects” – those people who just dream of seeing their books in comic shops, but have no real intention of making money on it. Without purchase orders and some sort of expectation of sales, I fail to see how a creator will make any kind of money off this model.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding the timeline/process, but it seems to me that the a la carte print-on-demand model would end up costing a creator more in the long run than if he had a small print run that he ended up sitting on as inventory. It’s the lease-a-car vs. buy-a-car model.
At least with a purchase order, you have an idea of the climate for your book. You have an “idea” of sales, even if that might change down the road. With the print on demand model, with no real forecasting, all you have to go on is that given moment in time. It all sounds good, but it sounds too good to be true.
February 10th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
i don’t mean to be a negative nelly about it. i really do HOPE everything works out great for comics monkey and ka-blam. i just don’t see how it can work out under the model as it’s currently being presented.
retailers are already having a hard time justifying shelf space to independents at diamond’s 50% discount. in this pre-order/no-returns business, every unknown book a retailer decides to order is a huge gamble. it’s sell it or eat it, for the retailer at least.
POD has a higher per-book cost than traditional printing. that’s no secret. the savings are in the lower print runs. but the higher per-book costs means higher cover prices. add that on to the 35% discount and you have an extremely high cost for the retailer. basically turning the huge gamble into a tremendous gamble. unless the book is pre-sold at the retailer level, which is why i said retailers will probably only use this service for special orders.
if i can make a suggestion, and i don’t know if this is viable or not but it’s just a thought, why not take some of the burden off of the retailer? enact some sort of returnability, or limited returnability, policy. looking at the information available, the creator has no upfront cost, and i can only assume shipping one or two copies of a book to stores is profitable for you (as it appears to be the basis of your model), so the only people in this equation really being asked to TAKE A CHANCE is the retailers ordering the books for their shelves. returnability would help share the burden. otherwise it looks like this just asks too much of retailers for them to fully embrace it.
February 10th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
POD is wonderful in theory, but the reality of it is much less appealing. I just did a quick scan of IndyPlanet and the one thing that struck me was that the majority of work I scanned was of amateurish quality and generally derivative of popular genre material. What makes anyone think that a retailer will want to wade through a catalogue devoted to small press material if the predominance of it is work he/she is unlikely to stock anyway.
I’m sure there is a gem or two in the sea of work available, but nothing I have seen makes me think of a young Sim, Eastman and Laird or Pini. POD remains a largely vanity press for the aspiring.
Also, I doubt the average fan is going to make the leap of faith to buy POD books based on the quality of the printing. I’ve seen some nice stuff being done, but its still not at the level where its going to replace offset.
Perhaps more people would stand up and pay attention to this sort of delivery system if a few name creators could be talked into taking part. Imagine if Sim released his next big book through ComicsMonkey.
Its a great idea, I just don’t think it will take.
February 10th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
I’ll Say this. There are a lot more goofs out there in the world then I thought. Does anyone wonder why the comic book market is falling into the toilet faster than the global economy?
February 19th, 2009 at 1:25 am
I also think this will be a great outlet for comic book artists trying to get their creative voice out there. I agree with Nate Foster–You’ll have a better chance selling your work by just being yourself and showing your stuff off than trying to submit to and compete with the big guys in the comic book industry. I know two people who’ve tried this and are happy knowing that they have made fans, not just customers, out of people who see their work.
In the comics business, an aspiring author must learn to appreciate their work and know that it has merit. I don’t believe there’s a comic out there with amateur art. Even some of the most “weak-looking” art has garnered kind comments and even awards.
But hey, that’s just my opinion =)
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March 2nd, 2011 at 10:24 pm
I have been dealing with Ka-Blam for the last few years and all I can say, is that they provide a great service. I have published a few of my comics through them and have been more than happy with the print quality, binding and customer service all around.
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