Making MKR minicomics - process pics! (Patreon)

So I've been working on making mini comics with my home studio, and have worked on enough prototypes to almost be ready to make a bunch. I just gotta finalize the cover art and stock more interior and cover paper.

For my most recent prototype I took pics of the whole process, for those curious.

First the finished product:

Ignoring that the front cover is a smidge too narrow and I misplaced the staples the first time (oops), it looks pretty good!

1) Ran smooth cardstock (cover) through my inkjet printer

2) Then again thru laser printer, this time only printing the title - the foil bonds with toner when heat is applied but not the dye of the inkjet

3) Then I cut and place some Deco Foil over the title, hold it in place as I feed it through my laminator - I don't tape the foil down because since the cardstock's thickness keeps the foil in place when going through the rollers. Then I just peel off the foil (I save the negative space in a small container in case I can think of a use for it)

As you can see, its not perfect, and maybe printing in black would be better but my idea was that the spots would match the rest of the colors, maybe look intentional? Who knows, I'll goof more with it later.

4) I then trimmed the cover and the interior pages (printed from a PDF booklet-style)

5) Stapled them together and very lightly folded them...

... and placed them in my DIY makeshift manuall "square back" machine. Basically I learned about square back spines, which is when a machine folds/presses a stapled saddle stitch zine in a way that squares the fold to create a flat spine, which can display a title and also keep the book laying flat.

I accomplished this with wood the sandwich the comic, clamps and a bone folder. Just clamped the book with the spine sticking out a little and firmly ran the folder over the stapled spine until it flattened.

The nicks in the paper are from my stapling badly and having to redo them.

aaaand done! There's room for improvement and some design to finalize but I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.

I'll post more progress stuff as I work on the minis and stickers, cuz its fun.