Doug: How are you at waiting?
Doug: I'm terrible at it. Like right now. Back in June I pre-ordered IDW's Herb Trimpe's Hulk Artist Edition. The thing was supposed to ship back in September, but you know how that goes. I saw earlier in the week that it shipped on the 11th. But as we all know, that was Veterans' Day, so even if it did ship it would not have been until Thursday. I've heard nothing from the company, there has been no further charges made past the nominal deposit I'd made months ago. So I'm really not out anything other than $5. But I still hate waiting.
Doug: I've also become really curious about the Rich Buckler retrospective we told you about a year ago. That's right -- I said A YEAR AGO! I've inquired twice about this book, neither time getting a response. I did make a deposit with the Kickstarter or GoFundMe or whatever it was. Silly me.
Doug: Shoot, I get impatient just waiting for an order from Amazon. How about you?
I can remember ordering items back in the pre-internet days and it would take 4-6 weeks on anything that you ordered. Now, I get impatient if it's not here within 7-10 days. I'm not sure if Amazon does those drone deliveries in my neck of the woods, but I'm sure I would be impatient about that, too.
ReplyDeleteYep, Graham, I remember those 4-6 week waits as well. That taught me patience, which serves me well now that I'm no longer living in the U.S., and the wait for anything ordered from outside of the country normally takes up to 3 weeks, but sometimes longer - it's always a pleasant bonus when something arrives really fast, like a week to 10 days.
ReplyDeleteOho, Hulk #116-- right smack in the middle of my first favorite run! It was still in the midst of Herb Trimpe's brow-crease-instead-of-actual-eyes experimental phase. I do wonder if this will be mentioned if/when you do finally receive that volume, Doug! The other page is from Hulk #131. Don't worry-- Greenskin survives I.M.'s desperate boom-lowering. That sort of wide-angle, eye-level action frame was a particularly cool hook that Herb used a lot to very good effect. This naturally makes me want to pull that box out of the racks. . .
ReplyDeleteI've gotten more patient with waiting on Amazon orders-- and I've generally been pleasantly surprised with how quickly most of them come. That may be an advantage of living in the mid-Atlantic region, though. And I do tend to be mindful of shipping origins when making a purchase choice. The one thing that has always baffled me, though, is that you get these fairly prompt "Your item has just shipped" notices, and yet somehow it can still sometimes take two weeks for it to travel, like, a couple of hundred miles. . . !?! I mean, what the heck? I could literally walk the item faster than that! Where does it go? Is it engaged in a low-cost relay delivery from one postman's walked route to the next?? It seems like it would almost take more effort to keep it from being delivered more quickly. . . !
My work does require me to order a wide variety of sometimes-odd materials & supplies & parts & thingies-- and a company that I would kiss on their corporate lips at this point is McMaster-Carr (largely hardware/industrial). Their phone staff is simply delightful and genuinely personable (in an era where so much of that has the aura of "mandate" undermining its sincerity) and their simple "you'll have it tomorrow" at the end of each transaction has never, ever failed. There was one instance where I received a little package of bearing bolts less than twelve hours after I'd made the order. I nearly wept.
You guys remember "Libby the Kid"?
("That's Billy the Kid spelled sideways. . . sort of. . . ")
He was a short-lived cartoon character for Libby's Foods commercials (the kid-friendly TV dinners in particular, I think)in the early 70's. With a few proof-of-purchases and 50 cents or so, you could mail-order a genuine 100% plastic Libby the Kid mug with 3D effects on it (!!!).
Three months. Thuh-REE MONTHS!! That's how long it took to finally arrive! I'd completely given up hope of ever seeing the dad-blamed thing. I did treasure it for about a week and a half (hot chocolate in the summer!). And then my Mom decided the Do Not Wash In Dishwasher warning didn't actually apply if you didn't really feel like doing any handwashing ("Oh, I'm sure it'll be fine")-- and I wound up with a ghastly piece of modern art that looked like it had suffered an early transporter mishap. The cheap 3D panels in particular were downright disturbing to look directly at. And yet. . . I kept that poor artifact on the shelf in my room for YEARS, because it was, like, the ONE TIME I had mail-ordered something, and by god I was NOT gonna let it go!
Hoooo--- tangenting all over the place again-- perhaps one needs a support group. . .
HB
I used to get really impatient waiting for stuff, but now I'm kinda past that. Another sign of being grown up, I guess...that's a scary thought; I don't wanna grow up!
ReplyDeleteMike Wilson
Definitely a sure sign, Mike! Obviously I'm not there yet ;) .
ReplyDeleteHB, the routes that packages take, when you can see the detailed tracking, boggles the mind. It's sort of like flying with layovers - how can those routes be in any way efficient? I have a colleague who I see each summer at the USHMM. He lives in western Mass. and flies out of Hartford. A few summers ago his return trip was from Reagan National to Charlotte, NC to Hartford. What the?!? When I would fly out of Midway Airport in Chicago a few years ago there were no direct flights once ATA went out of business. My flights to DCA made stops in Detroit (OK - on the way...), but the return flight always routed me through Atlanta. No way that's efficient. And as I said, the USPS and UPS seem to function in the same manner.
As I've sold my comics, I've almost exclusively used the USPS's flat-rate mailers. They are guaranteed for 2-day arrival. It costs a little more, but nearly all of my buyers who've left feedback comment on the speed of arrival.
See, Mike -- I'm not the only one who's impatient!
Doug
Hiya,
ReplyDeleteI just got my copy of a book regarding the principles of comic book coloring that I sponsored on Kickstarter. It wasn't quite what I thought it was and only got here about a YEAR late but that seems to be par for the course with such projects.
By the by, remember a couple of years ago when some jerk raised the money for his board game, I think it was something like 'Doom Comes to Atlantic City,' took the proceeds and squandered the money on himself and basically told everyone to kiss off because what could they do to him?
The Feds made it very clear what they could do to him. Part of his plea agreement was to have absolutely nothing to do with projects like this ever again and if they ever discover that he still has some of the funds in hiding he does not pass Go, does not collect two hundred dollars but goes straight to jail.
Sometimes you've just gotta love the Feds.
Seeya,
pfgavigan
By the way, I should clarify -- the Artist Edition was to have shipped from Diamond to retailers. I've received no notification that my pre-ordered copy is on the way.
ReplyDeleteHB, the Hulks contained in the Trimpe book are #s 127, 131, 134, 146, 147, 153 and 156, plus a nice selection of covers.
Doug
Uh-oh-- red flag on this volume then, Doug--
ReplyDeleteDefinitely some fine Trimpe artwork on display with some of these issues, although 131 & 134 aren't particularly distinctive. But #153 (apart from being a rather lame issue in general)IIRC is much more Dick Ayers than Herb Trimpe-- the difference was rather jarring for us fans, as Ayers is just about as non-descript/by-the-numbers/conventional as it gets, and one of Herb's greatest strengths was his wild panel layouts and very unconventional POV-usage even while telling a great visual story. I can't imagine what the editorial thinking was with this choice. That and #152 are probably my two least favorite issues visually in the scope of Herb's time on the title.
Hunh. Now I wish you'd get it, 'cause I'm curious to hear your take on it!
HB
Hiya,
ReplyDeleteHey Humanbelly, was that the 'Trial of the Hulk' story line that you referenced? I agree it was nothing spectacular, but the historical irony of Nixon and Agnew putting Banner on trial is quite amusing!
<< Quick trip to an online dictionary! Yeah, I can use 'irony' in this context. No Morissette moment for me!! >>
Seeya,
pfgavigan
Yep, "Trial of the Hulk" was it, PFG. A poorly thought-out, implausible curiosity by Gary Friedrich that was an inexplicably out-of-the-blue interruption of Archie Goodwin's very fine run on the book. I could, of course, go on at length about its weaknesses, but. . . heh, this isn't the Greenskin's Bronze Age Grab-bag blog, after all--
ReplyDeleteHB (Who lives a life filled w/ seven degrees of separation from either the Hulk, Gilligan's Island, or the Beatles, it seems. . . )
You and me both Doug! Disclaimer : I don't have ADD (attention deficit disorder)!
ReplyDeleteYes I confess to manically checking all my emails to see if an item has shipped and logging on to Amazon every minute to track how far my packages have travelled. A few years ago I made the mistake of ordering some books and having them delivered to my local post office. Not only does that take a very long time but the Trinidad post office is notoriously inefficient. Let's just say a few months passed before I even saw those books. It's probably better now but I can't even remember the last time I set foot in there.
Now, I use my brother's skybox service whenever I order stuff. I can see why most people pay the extra money for this service - you get your stuff delivered right to your home or office, and the time for delivery is very fast.
I recently ordered 2 things - a Flash logo T-shirt for my nephew which came exactly one week from ordering to Miami, then another 2 days to ship down here to T & T. My second order surprised me - I ordered a manga comic for myself from Japan. This was the first time I'd ordered stuff outside of the US and the seller said it would be delivered within 1 to 3 weeks. Japan to Miami is a very long distance, thousands of miles, so I was prepared to wait at least 3 weeks; I ordered on 1st Nov, it shipped on 3rd Nov, and I checked my email again on the 13th - the book came in and is on its way down here to T & T. I've heard horror stories of people either losing stuff or waiting an extremely long time to get their stuff. Ten days from Japan to Miami doesn't sound so bad in retrospective.
- Mike 'now if only they can reduce the wait time at the motor licensing office' from Trinidad & Tobago.
One thing that I ordered that I never heard back from which did eventually have a happy ending was the E-Man trade from First Comics. I ordered this online when I first heard about it and began my wait. I never heard anything, and nothing arrived as the book was anticipated, then seemingly published and available at conventions, and then it seemed difficult to get. I tried with little success getting in touch with some folks, but mostly forgot about it. Over a year later, maybe longer, I saw the book pushed again and made comment of it on my blog about how I'd not gotten my copy. A representative of First somehow became aware of this post and sent me an e-mail apologizing and before you could say "Alec Tronn" the book was in my hands. Good stuff...finally!
ReplyDeleteRip Off
I won't be waiting on the Trimpe Artist Edition any longer. This morning I received a refund of my meager deposit with a blah blah blah about how they were shorted by the distributor, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe company in question is BadAss Collectibles out of Pennsylvania. I would not order with them if I were you -- I never will again. In the past five months I've had two refunds on deposits for pre-orders and another order canceled immediately. Don't waste your time with this vendor.
Rip -- great story! Wish it were me...
Doug
To update:
ReplyDeleteI was just notified via Twitter that the Buckler book will happen. Rich Buckler has publicized it recently at con appearances, and the Steranko forward is in hand. So hopefully early in 2016 this book will be available.
Doug