Boxes and More Boxes

A couple big packages were delivered to the office today — one that was scheduled for today, the other wasn’t expected for another week (card boxes). I grabbed my phone, box cutter and started cracking these open.

I’m going to need tuck boxes when I start selling the first trading card box set on the shop, so I checked in with TheCustomBoxes and before I could begin browsing their website the little chat box in the corner dinged and I started chatting with a rep. The rep was very courteous and helpful — even more impressive was the fact that they were able to accommodate my custom specs for the dimensions of the box without any issues.

It was just over $300 for an order of 300 boxes, wrap around custom art (1C), which was designed in-house by myself, with an aqueous matte coating. The boxes came pre-glued and flat… but there were some issues.

Some of the card boxes were damaged straight outta the box. The package came from Pakistan and took a bit of beating… I once worked as a dock worker for DHL, which is the carrier that handled this package and lemme tell you, there’s a reason I’m obsessive about quality packaging! Luckily not too many of them were ruined but another thing I was worried about was the quality of the print and the trim of the boxes.

The boxes are naturally off-white and I opted for a 1C (K) custom art printing, so the white edges are very obvious. Luckily, when the box is folded up it looks decent aside from the glued edge protruding ever so slighty. The print came out just okay, with the finer text and logos a bit distorted and blurry, but at least the trim was preserved and everything seems to be uniformly aligned throughout the entire job. The saving grace for these boxes is the aqueous matte coating, which is by far my favorite finish across all paper and card stocks.

Overall, I’m still just okay with this vendor. I would use them again, but mostly to test out their consistency. I have one more card to design before I send the next batch of trading cards off the printer. Once I receive them, TCS (Trading Card Set) 2019-2020 will be available on the Etsy shop (ETA, a couple weeks from now).

As for the other package, I was really happy with these.

Very similar to BCW boxes, these budget mailers came from Packola. Unlike TheCustomBoxes that has a damn broken website, Packola has a wonderful website with a great user interface and awesome 3D view of the products they offer, complete with animations and custom options. I ordered 100 of the 7 x 5 x 1.5 inch budget mailers, which came up to about $80 plus shipping which totaled up to $106. Took over a week to get here, but I’m really happy with the way these came packaged - none of them were damaged, so that’s already a big plus in my book.

Very easy to work with, quick to assemble, they look good and will protect the contents in transit. What more can you ask for in a mailer?

I put together a mock-up order with a trading card set and acrylic standee. That’s just regular red packaging tissue keeping the items nestled comfortably in the box, but I’ll probably order some newsprint packaging paper to better secure the contents and use a layer of tissue on top for that nice presentation. Hey, packaging aesthetics matter!

Slapped on the new Murakumo Comics logo stickers I got from Sticker Giant and the package is pretty much good to go! Anyway, that just about wraps it up for this report!

Acrylic Standee Review

Yesterday the acrylic standees came in! The most surprising thing is that FedEx delivered on-time — absolutely unprecedented! It’s a good thing they were on the ball, as air mail express comes at a premium. Ouch.

So I’ll start off talking about what was on my mind, the product itself and then go over the vendor and the ordering process. I wanted to purchase 100 count to start off with. This normally isn’t a good idea if you’re sampling a vendor but I was feeling ballsy. Luckily for me it worked out, but there are a couple of issues that could have been prevented had I done a smaller sampling. I’ll get into that later, for now, let’s inspect the product.

I ordered double panel acrylic standees. There are a number of options for creating these standees. You can do a single panel with the image printed on one side without a finish, but the chances of the art scratching off are extremely high and it’s not recommended. Getting a clear epoxy coating will protect the graphic print on the panel, but I opted for double panel which prints the graphic on two separate panels. This way the graphic is sandwiched between them, giving the optimal amount of protection and durability.

They came packaged in a box — 5 large zip seal bags containing 25 units a piece. Each individual unit came packaged within a flap seal bag.

They were haphazardly tossed together, so my main concern was scuffing and scratching. None of them were cracked or snapped as the double panel acrylic is sturdy AF. Upon opening the first unit I noticed the base and standee were really frosty… I was immediately concerned.

Upon closer inspection I noticed visible scuffs and scratches as well as bubbling and some fluting along the surface. For a second I thought I was going to have to ship the order back, but then realized it was just the protective film. Similar to the panels on computer chassis, these were coated with protective film and fed through the laser cutter, leaving a perfectly fitted layer of protection on both sides of the panels.

Removing the film on these units is a royal pain in the ass!! Once you’ve got it lifted you get a nice, satisfying peel, but finding that entry point is a hassle. I gotta find my heat gun, I figure that’ll make removal a lot easier. If it wasn’t so good at protecting the acrylic surface, I would’ve repackaged every unit myself. But even standees that have deep scratches on the film are perfect once that layer is peeled off, so I feel good about shipping them as they are.

The acrylic is very clear, and the print job is perfect — as it damn well better be, I supplied them with the raw 600 DPI source file. Some of the units have harsh edges that aren’t visually noticeable, but could really use a good deburring. I wonder if there’s a way to get chamfered edges on these… but then they’d have to reseal each unit with a new layer of film. And it’s questions like these you want to bring up with the manufacturer, to see what options are available. Speaking of which…

The partner I used to create these is Firebird Gifts in Dongguan. They’re a Gold Supplier on Alibaba and I chose them based on the samples displayed. They were very easy to work with and had excellent communication, but I’m going to place a small order with a Verified Supplier next week and see what they can produce. Unfortunately, when it comes to producing these type of goods, we don’t have too many choices domestically and the ones that we do have are usually brokers that outsource to China anyway.

It took less than a day to get in contact with Firebird Gifts, provide the specs, the files and process the payment to get the order started. The next day I was provided with a proof, and then a revision with a thicker insertion point at the base (it was too thin with the first proof, following the outline of her legwarmers, so they fanned it out towards the base to provide better stability). One week later I got the notice that the order had shipped. Two days after that the package arrived at my doorstep.

The only thing I need to change in regards to the design are the colors. As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, you want a small sample size to see how the product comes out. In this case, I want to brighten up the colors just a bit, and also get the copyright and Murakumo Comics logo stamped on the base. But now that I’ve got a hot press machine, I could order a custom head with the Murakumo Comics logo and copyright on it and emboss it myself!

Anyway, that just about wraps it up for this report!

The Daily Grind

Right outta bed, I go do the thing (hygiene) and go straight to the computer and start answering emails. A really exciting reply showed up in my inbox this morning - we’ve secured our first featured guest artist for the BMKB2 campaign! Not going to say who just yet, but this person is one of the top 3 artists on the list of candidates I wanted to reach out to. I’ve admired their work for a long time, I’m honored and elated to have them onboard.

The acrylic standees just shipped out. They should be in the studio in a couple of days according to the estimated delivery date… but it’s FedEx, which is a guarantee that it will not be delivered on-time. Maybe one day I’ll chronicle all the shipping mishaps and delays that were caused by that accursed carrier…

Y’know, a lot of us romanticize about how cool it is to make comics, but then there’s this side of production that’s not really talked about. It’s not nearly as glamorous but it’s just as important. It includes all the tasks that corporate would cover with their various departments and teams, but for us, the small indie creators, we gotta wear all the hats.

I just responded to a dozen emails and inquiries from customers regarding order status, available goods, suggestions and requests. I also got through a handful of correspondences with print partners, vendors and freelancers. All the while I’ve been waiting for a couple of phone calls to come in this morning and afternoon from new potential print partners and manufacturers.

Every 2-3 days, I process the bulk orders on Etsy and get them shipped out. And, of course, I have to find time to actually write and draw the comic, each and every day! If you’re not a one-man show like myself, you’d also have to coordinate with your production team and make sure everyone else is pulling their weight. It’s a lot of work, but I can’t even begin to describe how great it feels when the project comes together, you produce the comic and get it into the backer’s hands. It’s the best, and I love being to able to do what I do!

Now, I gotta go make a phone call, because one of those calls I was waiting for should have came in an hour ago… XD

Hot Foil Press, Acrylic Standees and Trading Card Box Set

Time for my annual blog post!

I finally got around to giving the site a much needed update, though I still need to upload some new entries for the portfolio… not really as important as it was before, seeing as how I’m no longer a freelancer seeking work. A lot has happened since my last post but I’m not about to reminisce - that’d take forever and I don’t have that kinda time!

But, I figured I could put this blog to use and start posting up some production reports. So here we go!

Unfortunately, it turns out not too many printers outside of China want to do, or are even capable of doing, the sequential hot foil numbering for the books… and by not too many I actually mean none! Some of them, straight up, said it was impossible… Seriously!? It’s not like it’s a particularly difficult task! You take the cover parent sheets over to an automated hot foil press machine prior to binding, that’s it.

The Japanese printers I’m talking to are able to do a 4c (CMYK) sequential numbering job, but that doesn’t give the same impression of quality and exclusivity that the stamped foil does. So I figured, fuck it, I’ll do the foil stamping manually, in-house!

So today the hot foil press machine came in. I originally placed an order on Alibaba but then found another brand of the exact same machine being sold on Amazon for much cheaper and comes with the top line model, all the bells and whistles included. One of the flimsy mounting bracket guides snapped because the packaging was atrocious but luckily some Gorilla Glue fixed that up, no problem.

The press came with no instructions, but there wasn’t too much assembly required. I still have some loose components and I have no clue what the hell they’re for. But it works, and the stamping comes out even cleaner than the job PrintNinja was able to produce. Now I just gotta wait for the automated numbering head to be delivered - the dial number head that automatically marks up with each press.

For anyone interested, here’s the Amazon link to the press I bought.

I’ve also got some acrylic standees for BMKB in the works. I’ve already approved the proof and the factory is manufacturing an initial 100 count order. I opted for the double acrylic panel option, as I feel it’s the best bet in terms of quality and sturdiness. I won a couple Macross standees from an Ichiban Kuji a few years ago - they were double panel acrylic, and so I’m hoping mine turn out to be just as good.

Then there’s also the trading card box set. I’m taking the MC2019 A and B sets, combining them and adding a couple new cards to create a boxed set that I’ll be selling up on the shop. I’ll also be inserting the left over rainbow foil cards from the 1S campaign into the boxes randomly, so they ended up becoming a chase card after all!

That just about wraps it up for this progress report!