Little Deaths: Artbook

Shipping this week!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Aug 28, 2020 at 07:42:48 PM

Good news from the distributor, they tell me all your items are heading out this week.

For some reason some of the rewards left the printer a week after they'd been scheduled for pick up with UPS, and since they arrived I've been waiting for the distributor to do their thing. Which is happening now.

Wish it was quicker, but nothing seems to run as smoothly as it used to. At least it's still August which was the original shipping date, so not too bad.

Thanks again for backing Little Deaths.

More news soon.

Cheers

Monty

Perfect binding upgrade! All items in transit!
almost 4 years ago – Sat, Aug 01, 2020 at 03:28:05 AM

Good news! I shelled out extra for perfect binding on the artbook. We didn't reach that stretch goal, but I wanted Little Deaths to be the best quality possible in the circs. And we're also on track to ship on time, in August. Phew! 

Finally, all items for this campaign are in transit to the distributor. They're all scheduled to arrive there Friday 7th August, and will mail out to your addresses from there. I'll keep you updated as I get news on progress. I'm very interested to see how fast and efficiently they can do it - much quicker than I could I'm sure.

The prints were so slow coming I couldn't believe it. Not only slow, but wrong. I paid for 922 and they sent me 812!!! Unbelievable. It took ages to sort through which ones they'd missed. Still, we sorted it out 100% correctly. This is was happens when your regular partners are locked down. I've found over the years there are companies I can trust completely for comics, others for prints, others for gold foil covers and special items, and others for tees. Every printing company has its strengths and specialisms, and some try to do it all, but I've yet to find a company that can do everything brilliantly. It's important to stick with what you know works. Hopefully, more places will continue to get back to normal as the year unfolds. I like to stick with the guys who've always delivered the goods over many years, and keep supporting them through tough times. I need my comics and rewards to look amazing, and I want all my partners to stay in business and keep on with their fine work. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, that's my approach. We're all in this together. Sadly Mr "10% of your order was missing and it was weeks late anyway" won't be getting any repeat business, not when so many other printers have always gone the extra mile.

The prints looked amazing mind you. I was really happy with the quality of it all. That's always the minimum requirement with anyone I deal with - amazing looking artwork.

There's a couple of special customers I need to attend to now - custom art commissions and so on, They will be mailed separately from the other rewards direct from me to you.

Thanks so much for your backing during these strange times. It's truly appreciated.

All the best

Monty

Delivery Update for prints
almost 4 years ago – Fri, Jul 17, 2020 at 01:15:38 PM

Okay, Covid 19 has affected things a little but it's not too serious. It's just meant further delays of three weeks or so on the prints. The books are fine, it's the packs of art prints we're waiting for. It's annoying, but these are the times we live in. We'll still ship on time in August, but I was looking forward to shipping early in July.

I'm 100% sure that if I'd been able to use my normal printer you'd already have your stuff. (Apparently they're reopening in September). Anyway, the printer I've now employed has emailed this week to say they "didn’t realise how big the job was." and they've "started the job, but have run out of stock, so will need to order more."  I don't really understand how you can quote for 922 prints but not understand the scale of the task, but I guess these are strange times for everyone. They tell me the prints will be ready to pick up in 10 days time. It's an unimpressive service, as I was expecting the whole project to be done by now  -- but rest assured I'll be back with my normal printers for future projects. 

I'll update you again in ten days, when the print packs are ready.

Thanks again, and sorry the news isn't better.

Cheers

Monty

Little Deaths print proofs have arrived!
almost 4 years ago – Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 03:26:09 AM

Good news. The print proofs arrived this week and they look and feel great. I've just been making a few small tweaks to saturation levels and sizing on some pages, to get it all perfect. I'll finish that today, and order the full print run this week. That means all the books should be with the distributor in two weeks time and start to be posted out to you the same week - a month ahead of schedule.

The caveat is the post office tell me they are dealing with extraordinary volume right now. I've been sending out 200 or so parcels of comics and graphic novels in the last week, which has given me plenty of time to chat to the postmaster. Apparently there are more items of mail in the global system right now than at Christmas and massive staff shortages! A lot of people are off with Covid-19 symptoms. The upshot is an unpredictable mail system i.e. while some packages arrive at a normal rate, others are much slower. I heard of parcels arriving internationally a month later than normal (not mine, other peoples) and letters taking twice as long - even when they're sent priority tracked or first class. 

I'm keeping an eye on it. I'm also a little worried that with the increase in coronavirus cases across the USA there may be another lockdown which affects part of our delivery pipeline over there. I keep in touch with everyone regularly and I can tell you that's not the case at the moment - everything's operating professionally albeit with a little more variation in delivery speeds. So it's full steam ahead unless I hear otherwise.

I'll update again when all the rewards arrive at the distributor.

Thanks again.

Stay cool

Monty

Print process started!
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Jun 11, 2020 at 01:28:28 PM

Thanks for filling out the surveys! 

The good news is I've sent all the art files for the book off to the printer. So that process has begun. I'll keep you updated as the print proofs and then the full run of books arrive.

Next, I've got to do the print packs. Normally that'd be dead simple, but the printer I'd arranged all this particular work with still isn't open. They're actively planning to open, but it's not happened yet. I'd ideally like to still use them, as they have a good grasp of the work required. (I've tried a new printer in May, for something else, but we just ended up wasting weeks going back and forth as the work wasn't up to scratch). I'll get in touch with my regular printer tomorrow and see how they're progressing.

More soon.

All the best 

Monty