Universal Press Syndicate has partnered with Lulu.com to launch a storefront in efforts to create a new way to produce and distribute their books. Lulu.com is a print on demand solution and this deal appears to give cartoonists and fans an opportunity to create their own books and calendars. Initially, the features that will be available include: Karen Montague-Reyes’ Clear Blue Water, J.C. Duffy’s The Fusco Brothers, and Real Life Adventures by Lance Aldrich and Gary Wise. Other features are to become available later.
This is a potentially big development for comics fans (and cartoonists themselves). I know there are many comic strips that I enjoy that aren’t being published into a yearly collection. Using Lulu, I could create my own collections for myself. I can’t wait to see how this works.
Wow! I was looking into self-publishing options just this week and stumbled across Lulu.com. ANd now this!!
I don’t even have my comics ready yet and I’ve already got a book draft started with an estimated price depending on page number and if I go B&W or full-color (I want full-color with the way my comics will be online, but it costs 7 times as much per page.)
My main concern was Lulu being too obscure for the uninitiated, but with Universal Press now doing this, at least the name will be out there more in general. It would be cool if they added some kind of independent cartoonists buy-in to the storefront, kind of like a Comics Sherpa for cartoon books.