Fantasy Co-op Publishing House for Webcomic Artists

I can't decide if the joy of literally rolling in a pile of comic books I made outweighs the torture of orchestrating it all.

I wrapped up Acid Monday orders today.
I was up till 5:00 am.
I can not tell you how fucking amazing it feels to get that done with. I've spent countless hours organizing spreadsheets, reimaging pages for prepress, and packaging so many boxes until my hands bleed. All while in college, which requires so much time itself. The time I had to spend on the books really ate into my homework time (the job didn't help either). I was stuck in a vortex of responsibilities and ambition.

But don't get me wrong. I shit my pants when I got the books. I can't say much for being proud of the content, because, well, it's really bad. But at some point I stopped caring about what the book was about and started just concentrating on getting it out there. I think I'll be able to appreciate this more once the stress from turning my tiny apartment into a publishing house blows over.

When (and if) I self-publish again, I will have to seriously consider having a direct handle on the books. I liked having the control of the printing, but when it came to organizing the physical objects, all hell broke loose. My apartment kind of looks like a post office monster exploded in the living room. I'm thinking that next time I might just send the books directly to a book store or to Amazon. But I guess that takes away the advantage of having presales to financially assist me. I know the big printers like Lulu (which has awful printing quality so I've heard) will handle this all for you, but they lack the control I found so awesome with a smaller printer. I would be all for outsourcing a shipping/handling business to handle the grunt work, but then I think a) do those even exist? and b) oh no not more money.

I mean, this business already doesn't make much money as it is, and relying on presales to pay for the printing runs makes it even harder. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a co-op for webcomic artists looking to print their books? Getting everything moving to publish your book by yourself is incredibly difficult. If there were a co-op that could assist webcomic artists in things like printer connections and pre-press and (especially) shipping, I think I wouldn't be as afraid for my future as I already am. I know I'm basically talking about starting a publishing house, but what the important part is that it would be directed towards webcomics. If a comic artist is hired by a publisher (like tokyopop or vertigo) to create a comic, they don't want the whole comic already, right? But with webcomics that's kind of the way it is. There's a kind of artistic freedom that comes from not working for a publisher. You don't have to get your script approved or your sketches edited. You wouldn't have to work in a specific style to fit the boundaries of the company. I mean have you seen the manga asiles at B&N? They ALL look the same. (in format and style)

That's why a co-op publishing company specifically directed towards artists that already have their work out there on the web is something that I think could attract a really diverse collection of work that appeals to the internet-hungry generation. Maybe even developing into an industry with popularity-based salaries through advertising on webcomic sites. Maybe I'm fruitless in trying to create a fantasy middleman that will make what I'm doing a profitable career, but I can dream right?

Maybe it's something for a future project.
For now I'll keep blindly making webcomics.