Paper Jam!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock…(or maybe you’ve had your nose to the grindstone working on your own comic or reading one from your favorite creator) you’ve by now heard about the paper shortage. For comic creators, it’s raised printing prices and scattered release dates.

This isn’t an indie comics problem either, it’s affecting the entire industry at large. Bad Idea Comics issued a statement

“Due to the ongoing labor and paper shortages in the printing industry, Bad Idea is taking the preemptive measure of moving the Monster Kill Squad #2-4 release dates from the first week of the month to the second week. Issue #2 will now arrive Wednesday, October 13th, issue #3 will arrive Wednesday, November 10th and issue #4 will arrive Wednesday, December 8th. We anticipate that this will not be the last release affected by the ongoing crisis facing the printing industry and will share updates on future changes as we have them.”

DC and Marvel have rescheduled books even having to scrap some planned collection releases altogether due to the printer’s inability to produced square-bound books currently.

Publishers that Indie Volt spoke with told us they’ve been told that this “bump” in the road is more like a creator and will continue WELL into 2023.
Publishers seeking relief may be forced to reduce orders to find a printer able and willing to print their wares within a few weeks but that opens up a whole new host of fulfillment issues and leaves publishers with larger demanding fanbases still without a remedy.

Has your upcoming title or favorite comic been sidelined by the shortage?  Let us know in the comments below.