Big Sister Breakdown post! (Patreon)

Big sister was one of my first self Risographed comics, and very first self printed book with two colors instead of one. I was still pretty new at making books and I made some big mistakes! I talk about some of them here so hopefully you don't make the same mistakes as me. Below is also my Riso layer breakdown in red and blue as well as a PSD screenshot to see how I lay out my book files.

My first huge mess up was I gave myself NO BLEED for this book lol. Anyone who works in the book industry knows that bleed is a necessity and self publishers find out quickly that it just makes our already difficult and time consuming self-production so much easier. I just didn't think about it and I didn't know. I wanted a small, pocket sized book so I drew them at 8.5x5.5 and printed two at a time on 8.5x11 paper. I also didn't know I should beware of MARGINS...so some of my book was slightly cut off but, luckily, didn't make it unreadable. What I should have done is drawn about an inch past where I intended to cut, made a cut line that wouldn't show up after cutting and make the book slightly smaller before sending to print (or printing on 11x17) to make sure there was plenty of space for the margins that the printer automatically adds. I also added no space for interiors to move because I drew right up to my half page mark instead of adding panel margins for the fold.

So, because I decided to print two books on one 8.5x11 piece of paper with NO MARGINS I quickly realized I had to be SUPER careful when cutting to separate them. It's not too hard to get a clean cut now that I've done it a ton, but I wish I didn't have to be so careful, it takes up a lot of time. I learned my lesson the hard way with Big Sister.

Self Published Comic Assembly-Line Basics-- When making the book I like to separate out all the pages in a row around me on the table in stacks. Then like an octopus I grab the cover and interiors in order and place them in a pile directly in front of me. Soon I'll have a pretty large messy pile and I have to stop because my arms hurt, so I move to folding. I organize the pages, make sure they're flush then fold the pages as close as I can to half. When I'm folding I like to use a large bone folder (don't skimp out on a cheap small one, your hands will regret it) and I get a sharp, clean fold with it. Then I bring out a booklet stapler (I like these better than long arm staplers since I've already folded the books when I get to it, but long arm staplers are better for getting PERFECT staple spots). Only after all the stapling do I cut any part of my book! I usually like to cut the messy right side first, then the top and bottom and then the middle cut to separate the two comics. This makes my comic production 10x faster!! 

Here's a breakdown of the Riso colors for Big Sister~~ Below is the red how I made it and what I reference when printing but this image is not what I send to the printer. I have to send a black and white version for the Riso to read. Right now if I sent this file to the printer I'd get a very, very light image since it reads the information in black and white and this red is very light. When I send the image to the printer the solid red line will be black. 

And the blue!

Here's the PSD screenshot--

After making each red(R) and blue(B) layer I make a copy group that holds the entire book and start desaturating and playing with the values of the individual red and blue layers in black and white. Once I start to print I like to make a new black and white Group copy for every time I change a value. When printing sometimes the value on the Riso print can look different from what you intended so there can be several tweaks if you're not used to it. It's really important to document these tweaks in case you want to take a step back! I also tend to write what I want changed directly on each new master print (first test print) so I can keep track, sometimes tweaks can be so small and seeing the prints side by side are really important.

I hope this helps any self publishers and Riso printers! Next week I'm going to document an illustration so it won't all just be comic/riso stuff. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments and I'll get back to you asap ^0^ Thanks!