1992 MARVEL MASTERPIECES 30th Anniversary Book

[IndySportsCards]

Hey Joe, thought you'd appreciate this.. Got this in today from CGC.

[DynaEtch]

edit nvm

[jdandns]

The book is spectacular, with a forward by new MM artist Dos Santos, a lengthy photo-illustrated memoir by Jusko, promotional material, and a fantastic presentation of sketch and published art, every piece annotated by Joe.

As an aside to Dyna, it shows Joe's complete background painting for Marvel Universe series 3, mostly unadorned. I don't think I'd ever seen that before.
He explains how it came about and how he did it. He says he found the original in a box a few years ago and sold it, and hopes it's hanging in a man-cave somewhere.

[BipolarBear]

Originally Posted by BipolarBear

Just want to repost my earlier comment that, having somehow missed this during campaign, I'm happy to buyout the interest of anyone who wants to back out.

*cough*

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by jdandns

The book is spectacular, with a forward by new MM artist Dos Santos, a lengthy photo-illustrated memoir by Jusko, promotional material, and a fantastic presentation of sketch and published art, every piece annotated by Joe.

As an aside to Dyna, it shows Joe's complete background painting for Marvel Universe series 3, mostly unadorned. I don't think I'd ever seen that before.
He explains how it came about and how he did it. He says he found the original in a box a few years ago and sold it, and hopes it's hanging in a man-cave somewhere.

Well glad to know it's a great book. I was hoping it would include a lot of set content beyond just the card images, and sounds like it does. Super happy that Joe annotated each card like in the IDW book- in a lot of these art books you dont get that. I am choosing not to look at any preview of this book. I prefer a book in front of me to read, so will wait....and wait it out- if it ever comes, that is.

Pretty cool nugget about the 92 Marvel Universe space background. I wish I was aware of that being offered for sale, would have been all over it. Closest thing I've seen of it was an old print picture of Joe working on it, from an old comic or magazine- I believe Marvel Age.

[Dukefett]

I was shocked when I saw they just threw out March casually as the expected ship date now. Weren't these things shipped already? How in the hell does it take 8+ weeks from now to get these in hand. These guys are absurd and are absolutely not telling the truth.


I truly don't get people who are always rah rah around companies, especially ones like this that literally haven't given you crap before. I'm also in the 'Not reading the PDF' crowd. What a joke they're giving that out! I hope it's low resolution.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by Dukefett

I was shocked when I saw they just threw out March casually as the expected ship date now. Weren't these things shipped already? How in the hell does it take 8+ weeks from now to get these in hand. These guys are absurd and are absolutely not telling the truth.


I truly don't get people who are always rah rah around companies, especially ones like this that literally haven't given you crap before. I'm also in the 'Not reading the PDF' crowd. What a joke they're giving that out! I hope it's low resolution.

Totally agreed, something is not adding up. Im no expert on cargo shipping across seas, but if it was all finished by mid-Dec, I just dont see how it takes until March to cross the ocean. What is this, Columbus crossing on the Santa Maria? (also Im doubting we even get them by late March. Make it post-summer or even into next year as a random guess).

The jubilant, non-questioning tone of many backers will continue no matter how long it gets delayed- this is what offering random lotto prizes to only some backers turns out to be (this should not be allowed on Kickstarter, as it stifles backers from posting the legitimate questions and concerns, and encourages brown-nosing).

If what FPG is saying in the comments about two USA printers going defunct is true, yea that's unforeseen, and cant be controlled. But why did we as backers hear nothing about this major issue at all? Instead last year all we got were the continual optimistic updates (well looks like it'll be next month, etc). Nothing about having to ship overseas. It took a commenter to ask what's going on since the campaign said US printing, THEN they tell us about all this including the foreign printing. That is terrible transparency and communication. And it continues to be bad even now, as this timeline doesnt make much sense.

[glorbgorb]

Honestly I dislike the random prizes almost as much as I dislike the delays.

I just looked at my pledge--I am only in the $295/Limited Signed & Numbered Edition. I can see why some of you are far more upset than I am.

[BobCollects]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

The jubilant, non-questioning tone of many backers will continue no matter how long it gets delayed- this is what offering random lotto prizes to only some backers turns out to be (this should not be allowed on Kickstarter, as it stifles backers from posting the legitimate questions and concerns, and encourages brown-nosing)

I asked Kickstarter about this and they didn't address it in their response, just vaguely told me to contact the creator directly. I get the impression Kickstarter doesn't care about backers.

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by jdandns

The book is spectacular, with a forward by new MM artist Dos Santos, a lengthy photo-illustrated memoir by Jusko, promotional material, and a fantastic presentation of sketch and published art, every piece annotated by Joe.

As an aside to Dyna, it shows Joe's complete background painting for Marvel Universe series 3, mostly unadorned. I don't think I'd ever seen that before.
He explains how it came about and how he did it. He says he found the original in a box a few years ago and sold it, and hopes it's hanging in a man-cave somewhere.

I just read the memoir section and I very much enjoyed it. I particularly liked the part where Mr. Jusko discussed his humble beginnings, working odd jobs as a young kid to make small amounts of money to buy cards and comics. He collected non-sport cards like his fans.

A few tidbits that stood out to me (WARNING: spoilers):

-- He used mixed media for the artwork -- I did not know this, but I can kind of tell when I look closely at the artwork.

-- His fifteen '93 MM paintings were originally made for the comic books, as well as the five "lost cards" sold in the tin set.

-- He was offered the entire '93 MM set. He pleaded with Marvel to give him an extra month or two more than the '92 set. Marvel wouldn't, so he declined -- he barely made the three-month deadline for the '92 release and it was taxing on him physically. This, even though the '92 release sold out fast in large quantities and was a massive success. Jim Lee apparently only needed one month to do his '92 X-Men set, which is hard to believe.

-- 70% of items he signs at conventions are '92 MM cards.

-- He laments modern MM cards not being mass produced and accessible to kids.

[bub838]

Man, this sounds like a great book. Maybe I’ll get mine in my hands one day.

[jdandns]

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

-- He was offered the entire '93 MM set. He pleaded with Marvel to give him an extra month or two more than the '92 set. Marvel wouldn't, so he declined -- he barely made the three-month deadline for the '92 release and it was taxing on him physically. This, even though the '92 release sold out fast in large quantities and was a massive success. Jim Lee apparently only needed one month to do his '92 X-Men set, which is hard to believe.

On the speed of Jim Lee, Jusko did point out to the art director that those were smaller, pen & ink drawings, but even so, it didn't persuade Skybox to give him the extra time he needed.

[exotechktx]

Originally Posted by jdandns

On the speed of Jim Lee, Jusko did point out to the art director that those were smaller, pen & ink drawings, but even so, it didn't persuade Skybox to give him the extra time he needed.

Definitely much easier to fire off a bunch of pencils - IIRC I don't believe Jim did the inking for the set either - than it is to paint a whole set.

[bub838]

Bumping this one as we're now in February. It had fallen to the third page!

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by bub838

Bumping this one as we're now in February. It had fallen to the third page!

Project continues to be so disappointing. This has become a complete 'boy who cried wolf' situation if there ever was one, as I dont for a second believe the end of March (as late as that is) actually will be when we get these. People arent fooling themselves now, after each of the 8 or so times they announced time frames, it didnt end up happening.

We were told the books were all finished back in mid Dec. We as backers have no way to know if that's true or not. I have a hard time believing sea freight would take this long, we're talking 3+ months out.

I would love to know if the books actually were finished back in Dec, or if we were just being told something to keep us appeased. A company you'd think would be answering to backers funding a project, providing stuff like evidence the books have indeed be printed and finished, evidence they are in shipment- something....instead there is so little transparency.

[DynaEtch]

The kicker is the near total non-questioning attitude of many of the comments from backers, in many cases congratulatory and near jubilant, after how badly this is shaping out. Im not fooled by it, it's directly related to some extra goodies going to some backers and not others, and the brown nosing is a result. It's almost surely less about being that virtuous, understanding and patient backer, and more about hoping for extra goodies in self interest. Not saying all of it, just likely a lot of it.

[bub838]

Update sent out. No actual update, I guess they’re just checking in.

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by bub838

Update sent out. No actual update, I guess they’re just checking in.

They mentioned again that the books are finished -- so why is it taking so long to deliver them?

This has got to be one of the weirdest crowd-funded book campaigns ever.

[Fenian95]

To give them one tenth of an ounce of credit worldwide shipping is a MESS right now.

Suez Canal at reduced capacity, Panama canal running at 30% due to drought. Ships in the Red Sea being fired on by rebels.

I work in shipping/receiving and things are really screwed up right now.

[jdandns]

The digest looks pretty cool.
A year passes like nothing for me these days, so another couple of months will barely register.

[DynaEtch]

I agree that digest looks nice....and I will say, at least they are posting a pic of something actually physically in hand, which I dont think I've seen to this point.

Im still skeptical we'll get these in March, but would love to be proven wrong. I was not aware freight shipping would take 3+ months to cross the ocean, like back in Columbus days. Guess I learned something.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

This has got to be one of the weirdest crowd-funded book campaigns ever.

Yep. Not that I've much experience with kickstarter, but from I've heard from people who back projects, this has not been normal. The weirdness for me started with that super out-of-place drunk driving post very early on that turned out they were…hacked? I knew when I saw that, this was gonna be a lonnng, and different project to say the least. And here we are, more than a year out. Transparency has been subpar throughout.

[BobCollects]

Here's the comment from January 3rd about printers in the United States going out of business:

Hi Tim, even the best laid plans go afoul. We are all human. Printing outside the USA was an entirely unexpected issue that we did not have when the project started. The two USA printers we contracted with both went out of business, which as you can imagine caused us a panic to find another printer that can produce the quality books that we demand. And we DO have great empathy for the printers that closed their doors due to Covid problems that they faced. Yes, those problems are real. Look how many great comic shops we lost, restaurants, movie theaters, everything. It is certainly not "covid crap" to the folks who's lives are upset down. They are very good people, with successful companies pre-covid and did not deserve their fate.

I would ask for calmer heads everywhere.

And here's a comment from December 12th, 2023 that I hadn't seen before:

After 35+ years in the business we know what we are doing. Covid unfortunately does not make for a normal couple of years. We get that in this climate there are folks that just have anger issues and we hope that we mostly can calm them down. BUT unfortunately not always. As you already know, you received a full refund so not sure why you are still so angry... Please write to Joe or me (Sammy) directly if you still have a problem. I show that your refund went through. If not, PLEASE let me know!!

I'm not an expert in public relations but I don't think accusing people of having anger issues is good business. And maybe, just maybe, people are upset because of the abysmal communication from FPG.

[glorbgorb]

I've now contributed to almost 60 Kickstarters. Literally every one has been for printed goods--books, comics, or trading cards. This is the only one with these sorts of delays. Yes, there are many creators; yes, there are many printers. But this is the one that has extensive delays?

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by BobCollects

I'm not an expert in public relations but I don't think accusing people of having anger issues is good business. And maybe, just maybe, people are upset because of the abysmal communication from FPG.

Completely agree. Communication has not been good. Instead of being upfront when they decided to go overseas and just tell the backers (major thing connected with printing the project), which would be regular, decent communication.....we had to find it out after the fact only after pressing about the continual delays.

Im taking almost anything they say about this project now with a grain of salt. I dont know what to believe, and wont believe anything until I have this book in hand. Plenty of the comments imo have been unprofessional, some with what seem to me like digs at posters who 'dare' question anything. So instead of getting a constructive dialogue happening about the production of this project, including so many sorely-missed specifics throughout the last many months....we just get this continual stream of "You guys rock!", "Im so stoked, can wait as long as we need to", etc....from many posters no doubt keeping in mind only some backers will get certain extra goodies....

It'll be interesting though, since I still am skeptical we get anything in or near March, based on the project's track record. But as the months go on....that will be a harder and harder thing for them to explain: if the books really *were* finished in mid-Dec as they claim....I dont think it's possible at all it could be, say fall 2024, and we still dont have them. Delays or not, sorry no one is going to believe it took 10+ months over the water. So that could be interesting to see how it plays out.