In 2005, after nearly a decade of freelancing for publishers large and small, Thomas Florimonte Jr. and Barry Gregory left the world of creative work-for-hire and formed Ka-Blam Digital Printing.
After a few months of preparation, Ka-Blam officially opened for business in early 2006.
The idea was a simple one, create a high-quality, low-cost printing solution for the underserved independent comics community.
Thomas and Barry created a system that would allow independent publishers and self-publishing creators to set print runs based on their immediate needs — not on quantity thresholds — and then to reorder in any quantity at their convenience as they needed. Such a system would allow creators and smaller publishers to focus on creating and marketing their comics, not worrying about how they were ever going to afford a print run.
Ka-Blam’s innovations didn’t stop there. Ka-Blam was the first comics printer to structure pricing in such a way as to make full-color comics printing easily affordable for anyone. At the time Ka-Blam launched, there was virtually no such thing as a full-color “small press” comic.
Ka-Blam was also the first to eliminate setup fees, further lowering the barrier to entry for small publishers.
In 2007, Ka-Blam launched IndyPlanet.com, the first print-on-demand online comics shop. There are now more than 11,000 comics available at IndyPlanet, with more added weekly.