(no subject)

[yendi]

Quote from Joss Whedon on Fray:

"Oh God, I will [finish], I promise, I'm sorry," Whedon said in an interview. "I don't know the date. I think I'm just marginally ahead of the artist on pages, because he went to CrossGen [Comics], and because my life imploded. We both got really behind. I'm so embarrassed about it, but it will only take me a couple of weeks to finish the last issue and a half that I have left to write. Then it's a question of how we can schedule him to do the pages. I really want to get it out. I'm very embarrassed about that. I've known the ending since I've started it. All I have to do is write it down."

You heard that right. He hasn't fucking finished writing the series, and the art is in limbo. This is a fucking eight-issue mini-series, but they couldn't plan for it properly.

Folks, it's things like this that are driving folks away from the industry. It's things like this that are making folks decide to wait for the graphic novels, because we can't rely on companies to produce the issues in a timely manner, and we don't want to wait on a cliffhanger for eight months.

I actually blame the publisher more than I blame Joss. Joss may have time management issues, but Mike Richardson (head of Dark Whore) was the one who decided to solicit the series before it was finished. He's the one who made a judgement call on his freelancers, and decided that they could turn in something in a timely manner, and he was clearly wrong. I don't hold the creators responsible because that's a contract between them and the publisher, but I do think there's an implicit contract between the publishers and me, and too many of them break it.

Next time I hear Joe Quesada or any other pro whine about folks who just wait for the graphic novels, I'm going to whap him upside the head with a copy of The Dark Knight Strikes Again #2, shove a copy of Fray #6 where the sun don't shine, and pick any random issue of Quesada and Smith's Daredevil run to shove down his throat.

Comments

[yendi]

Thing is, none of those really bother me. Thanks to the Internet and good friends, I can get recommendations from lots of places. And I don't need the browse factor that much. It just doesn't do as much for me, although I like hitting a shop every once in a while to just sample something randomly (which is how I found Wandering Star and Shades of Gray, two of my all-time favorites).

But New Comics Day just doesn't do it for me. Dunno why. I like the thrill of having them show up every couple of weeks, instead. Feels like opening a present.

[gallowglass.livejournal.com]

Yeah but that only works if they show up regularly when they're supposed to, doesn't it? I've got mail order problems largely because the large supplier I use won't staff their subscriptions department properly, so things have tended to be late a lot of the time the last year or so. I mean, I'm on a group which is discussing issue 12 of a comic and I've only just received issue 11, thanks to the vagaries of international shipment and distribution inside the UK, makes things tricky at times.

I don't have much option, given my location. Mail order is the only way to get things without making round trips of hundreds of miles at a time and when the parcels do finally arrive it's great but it does add to the number of factors which can cause delays.

Of course, I don't think I'd make nearly as many informed choices if I was still going up to Central London every month, on past experience, so it's a bit six of one, half a dozen of the other.

[yendi]

That's why we switched back from the friend who's not reliable to Westfield (which does ship internationally, but I doubt it's worth it). We're just in the two-month transition period. Are there any other mail-order houses over there aside from the one you're using?

[gallowglass.livejournal.com]

Well, there's the other one that I'm using as well. <.g> More reliable, much more reliable (so I use it for the independant stuff, while the other one is largely for orders from the mainstream companies)but I'm not sure if it isn't a bit more expensive and FP lets me run a standing order, paying for what's ready to go out when it's finally shipment time, whereas the other place is still money up front and this pain in the backside refunding system if and when stuff I've ordered gets cancelled. I have enough 'fun' with that on the small monthly order I already make, so I'm not keen on adding the rest of it in as well.

Anyway, I'll probably stick with FP since I have a long-standing relationship with them, about 20 years now, almost half of that on mail order. It gets me a little slack when I need it from time to time, assuming I can get hold of the right people in the office.

And, most importantly, if I did change over, I'd have nothing to gripe about except more serious things and this helps keep my mind off them. ;-)

[yendi]

That's how Westfield works, too. It doesn't bother us too much, since after two months, you're basically paying the same as always, and they handle the refunding nicely.

And there is something to be said for a store with whom you have a good relationship.