1992 MARVEL MASTERPIECES 30th Anniversary Book

[HiltonL]

To be fair to KS, all kinds of half-baked and not-ready-for-prime-time campaigns get posted there. Two of the first KS I backed fell through due to the artist being a flake.

The one thing any of us has been most critical of is - why lie about any of it? Just tell the truth

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by Fenian95

The book was greatly delayed due to several unavoidable reasons, including that the art scans/film that FPG was told would be available was unfortunately discovered to have been lost over the years.

Rather than cancel the book when that reality became apparent they instead chose to track down each individual piece to reshoot from collections around the world. That obviously took an inordinate amount of time and to make up for that delay they kept adding bonus after bonus to compensate for the delay.

So why didn't they just tell backers the truth? Why all the lies and vague updates? I'm sure backers would have been understanding.

And why doesn't Mr Jusko himself ever post in this forum? No one is blaming him for the delays, but it would have been nice for a follow-up to the thread he started.

Things just don't add up. Clearly there were other issues that haven't been disclosed. It's a shame this project was so dysfunctional.

Anyway, enough with this nonsense. I've decided not to open my books because the experience ruined them.

[jdandns]

I'm leaving mine sealed, too, but because I already read the book some time ago from the PDF they sent us.

[PumpnDumpling]

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

So why didn't they just tell backers the truth? Why all the lies and vague updates? I'm sure backers would have been understanding.

And why doesn't Mr Jusko himself ever post in this forum? No one is blaming him for the delays, but it would have been nice for a follow-up to the thread he started.

Things just don't add up. Clearly there were other issues that haven't been disclosed. It's a shame this project was so dysfunctional.

Anyway, enough with this nonsense. I've decided not to open my books because the experience ruined them.

So you say but i would argue to the contrary. How many less people would have pledged if the stated turn-around was what it ended up being?

The man doesn't want to get into the weeds with whiners? He may have bigger and better fish to fry, what is to be gained from his perspective? He has been paid, he met his obligations.... the few that harbor ill will from ks delays are likely not worth a second thought

I honestly cannot fathom being so fragile that you would rob yourself of experiencing this gorgeous artwork in printed form due to ks delays/bad coms but you are entitled to feel however you want.

However, when you post something so ridiculous on a public forum be prepared to hear about it

[jdandns]

It's kind of his brand.

The delay was unfortunate, but really, with the books now in hand (for most), I see that as a very much "water under the bridge" kinda thing.

The digest book alone has already sold twice earlier this week on Ebay for $80.
FPG has delivered, albeit later than intended, tremendous value here, in every sense of the word.
(I mean, I guess you could've died while you were waiting for it. Let me know if that's you, and I'll give them some what-for on your behalf.)

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by PumpnDumpling

So you say but i would argue to the contrary. How many less people would have pledged if the stated turn-around was what it ended up being?

The man doesn't want to get into the weeds with whiners? He may have bigger and better fish to fry, what is to be gained from his perspective? He has been paid, he met his obligations.... the few that harbor ill will from ks delays are likely not worth a second thought

I honestly cannot fathom being so fragile that you would rob yourself of experiencing this gorgeous artwork in printed form due to ks delays/bad coms but you are entitled to feel however you want.

However, when you post something so ridiculous on a public forum be prepared to hear about it

I thought the long wait time was due to unforseen conditions? I don't see why backers wouldn't have been understanding with delays caused by unusual circumstances. Just be transparent and show that you're making a good-faith effort, and people will understand -- we're all human.

As for Mr Jusko having bigger and better fish to fry, as you so eloquently put it, so do many of the backers -- including myself. If he truly has no desire to deal with his customers, then I feel sorry for him. It must be awful not liking the people who are his biggest fans and supports.

As for my fragility, you presume to know my emotional state. No, I'm not overly upset or triggered by this experience. I, like Mr Jusko, have other ways to spend my free time. I can choose to open a book from a project that was dysfunctional and filled with drama and grief, or I can enjoy myself doing other things that carry no baggage. I've just decided to move on. I recommend others do the same -- just move on from this project and Mr Jusko.

[HiltonL]

Glory be! A package appeared magically on my doorstep this afternoon containing books.

Once opened, the package revealed a custom-printed slipcase featuring the original art I was assigned. It's not what I envisioned (a window for the original art) but I will give props that the custom slipcase was delivered at all.

(For me) the long national nightmare of this Kickstarter is over!

[DynaEtch]

That’s great Hilton, glad yours got there safely.

The custom full slipcase is what I was expecting. I think I like that even more than an empty window where the art would show through. Some people probably already have the art separately framed at this point. All a matter of personal taste though. It’s cool how the art matches with the custom book.

If you were in OA round 2, was the main book the Wolverine cover or was it a different one for the round 2? Is it numbered?

I’m waiting for mine in transit and will probably be one of the last to get it…what’s a few more days at this point.

[PumpnDumpling]

Originally Posted by jdandns

It's kind of his brand.

The delay was unfortunate, but really, with the books now in hand (for most), I see that as a very much "water under the bridge" kinda thing.

The digest book alone has already sold twice earlier this week on Ebay for $80.
FPG has delivered, albeit later than intended, tremendous value here, in every sense of the word.
(I mean, I guess you could've died while you were waiting for it. Let me know if that's you, and I'll give them some what-for on your behalf.)

Oh no doubt

You know you are a sad individual when you are collectively branded as such on an anonymous trading card forum

[cjbblue]

Received book last night, never received tracking information.

[HiltonL]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

That’s great Hilton, glad yours got there safely.

The custom full slipcase is what I was expecting. I think I like that even more than an empty window where the art would show through. Some people probably already have the art separately framed at this point. All a matter of personal taste though. It’s cool how the art matches with the custom book.

If you were in OA round 2, was the main book the Wolverine cover or was it a different one for the round 2? Is it numbered?

I’m waiting for mine in transit and will probably be one of the last to get it…what’s a few more days at this point.

Wolverine cover for the main book. Numbered 23/124 and signed

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by HiltonL

Wolverine cover for the main book. Numbered 23/124 and signed

Cool that it’s Wolverine. Numbered and signed is a nice bonus too. 104 in round 1 + 20 in round 2, so the /124 makes sense.

They did respond in the comments section way back that the round 2 book covers were to be a different character (perhaps surfer or something), reducing the round 2 book way down to /20, quite the rarity. So I guess that didn’t happen, not that I’m surprised given the long and windy trajectory. But I’m learning things about Kickstarter- basically take anything said by a company in comment section etc with a huge grain of salt.

It’s grasping at straws I know…basically gotta take what we can get, and it all does look very nice. I suppose it could be argued that with the custom slipcase it’s essentially a 1/1, even though the book is really /124.

[Xazark]

Originally Posted by HiltonL

Wolverine cover for the main book. Numbered 23/124 and signed

That's really cool that its signed and numbered, I was surprised when the Kickstarter didn't mention the $2500 tiers being signed, I almost bit the bullet and purchased one of the extra 20 when they got released but being signed was important to me as I knew I would never get it signed in person living in another country, probably for the best tho, I know I would have been far more annoyed at the delays if I had of spent that much.

Thankfully mine arrived this morning, signed and #55/500 only taking an extra week to get to Australia is pretty good. It looks like the Signed page was glued and inserted into the book after printing not extremely noticeable but my question is finally answered I guess. The Spiderman slip case looks great too, the whole presentation is excellent.

It's a shame about all the lying and communication misses, but the end result is very good quality and I'm happy with it. As I have said all along, I just wish the communication from FPG was of a higher standard as it appears the quality of their products is quite good.

[BobCollects]

I'm in limbo. My copy of the book was supposed to arrive yesterday. Tracking claims it has been delivered and also hasn't been delivered.

The tracking number FPG e-mailed me now has two results when I enter it at the FedEx website. The second result didn't exist on Sunday the last time I checked. I had the book shipped to my PO box, not my house, using the USPS street address so UPS and FedEx can deliver packages to the post office. I've never had issues with this.

According to the first tracking result, a package shipped from Pittsburgh was "Delivered" yesterday morning. It was not at the post office when I stopped in this morning.

According to the second tracking result, a package shipped from Nevada is "On The Way" to me this morning. But there's an additional stop after "Out for Delivery" that says the package is scheduled to be delivered to Pittsburgh by the end of today.

I'll check with the post office again tomorrow morning. But there seems to be a chance the package is going back to Pittsburgh. Or it may be at the post office and hasn't been processed yet. Or it is lost somewhere in the FedEx system.

The fun never ends with this book.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by BobCollects

I'm in limbo. My copy of the book was supposed to arrive yesterday. Tracking claims it has been delivered and also hasn't been delivered.

The tracking number FPG e-mailed me now has two results when I enter it at the FedEx website. The second result didn't exist on Sunday the last time I checked. I had the book shipped to my PO box, not my house, using the USPS street address so UPS and FedEx can deliver packages to the post office. I've never had issues with this.

According to the first tracking result, a package shipped from Pittsburgh was "Delivered" yesterday morning. It was not at the post office when I stopped in this morning.

According to the second tracking result, a package shipped from Nevada is "On The Way" to me this morning. But there's an additional stop after "Out for Delivery" that says the package is scheduled to be delivered to Pittsburgh by the end of today.

I'll check with the post office again tomorrow morning. But there seems to be a chance the package is going back to Pittsburgh. Or it may be at the post office and hasn't been processed yet. Or it is lost somewhere in the FedEx system.

The fun never ends with this book.

Geez it just keeps going.

I’m a little confused by the two tracking number thing. Also if something is showing ‘delivered’ to your PO, then what was delivered and why does your PO not have it. It seems pretty convoluted.

I know tracking says label created in Pittsburgh but none of these are shipped from there, they’re coming from a warehouse in Henderson NV (I think it says label created in Pittsburgh merely because thats where the company is based and probably buying postage from there).

If this were me id probably either go back into the post office and see if they have it (maybe they take time to process FedEx deliveries), showing them all the tracking details and see if they can figure it out…..or email FPG and explain the situation. Why are there two tracking numbers etc.

I was just thinking about the possibility of something going wrong in transit. I think in a 2nd tier pledge there is less to worry about since youd *think* a company would have some extra copies for just that scenario. But the OA tiers that have 1/1 slipcases- essentially irreplaceable, and what a mess that would be. Mine is actually still in transit and hopefully it's just taking awhile.

[Fenian95]

Mine is bouncing back and forth as well.

FedEx *really* doesn't like PO Boxes and I explicitly told those clowns at FPG to use USPS.

I thought they had accepted my address change but latest attempt says refused delivery.

Time to call them again sigh.

[fabiani12333]

Do you guys or gals think FPG will try to release another MM art book? Maybe 94 or 96?

I'm kind of curious about this. Now that MM is basically a discontinued product as a result of UD losing the license, would Marvel even license out the rights to FPG?

Would potential backers even want anything to do with another FPG project?

[BobCollects]

FPG shipped the metal cards via USPS so I assumed that's what they'd do again for the book. I haven't had any problems with UPS or FedEx shipping to my PO box so even if I had realized the book was shipping via FedEx, I wouldn't have thought to ask FPG to ship it USPS.

Something happened during the handover from FedEx to USPS. Maybe the package was scanned incorrectly. Maybe it was scanned correctly but stayed on the truck and got scanned again. I'll try to get out to my post office later this afternoon and find out what I can.

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

Do you guys or gals think FPG will try to release another MM art book? Maybe 94 or 96?

I'm kind of curious about this. Now that MM is basically a discontinued product as a result of UD losing the license, would Marvel even license out the rights to FPG?

Would potential backers even want anything to do with another FPG project?

It's hard to say. After everything that happened with this project, I wonder if FPG would think twice before committing to another Marvel Masterpieces book. Personally, I wouldn't support another book from FPG.

[finfangfan]

It might be harder to get the license now too now that Topps took Marvel license from UD? Maybe too hard to get all of the okays necessary to produce.

[jdandns]

'94 would make a great subject, plus there's still one Hildebrandt around to contribute to the project.
'96 was pretty well covered in the "Titans" book, but sure, I'd be in on both immediately.

[Fenian95]

It's different in Canada. FedEx will not deliver to PO Boxes here.

So I'm trying to convince FedEx it's my parcel and get FPG to reply in case they need to redirect it to my workplace.

Yikes it never ends.

[DynaEtch]

Im hoping both BobCollects and Fenian can get it straightened out with Fedex/PO, sounds ridiculous. Should have had some forewarning it was going FedEx since that does affect people with which address they list.

Maybe they didn’t ship USPS because the weight. I can’t even imagine how much it cost to ship a book this heavy across the country, much less international. Package is like 15 lbs. Possible Fedex had a cheaper arrangement for a business shipping in bulk. Just guessing here. The bronze cards were a much smaller and lighter package.

Originally Posted by jdandns

'94 would make a great subject, plus there's still one Hildebrandt around to contribute to the project.
'96 was pretty well covered in the "Titans" book, but sure, I'd be in on both immediately.

I would love a project for 96MM- more in depth than the Titans book which barely had any commentary and basically nothing on the subject of the set in terms of the cards and production. If Boris and Julie did any original art it would basically crash the hobby, with how crazy that would be.

There is a “Marvel Art of the Brothers Hildebrandt” book that exists that is mostly devoted all to 94MM and has each painting in it. It’s a cool resource…not tons of extra commentary about the set, but there is some.

Edit: there would be a lot of content for a book on like 1990 Marvel Universe or 1992 Marvel Universe (how Joe made the space background etc)- lots of info out there about those sets, and 90MU would be particularly interesting how a subsidiary of a tobacco company (Impel) got involved in Marvel cards and the creativity behind that set. How they made holograms, for one.

I personally would love one on 1993 Masterpieces. Or a “Dare to compare” book on 95MM (the 4 artists are around and have been involved in recent events looking back to the set).

I’m not sure if any of these multi artist sets fit FPG’s M.O. though- they seem to prefer art books centered around a single artist.

[BobCollects]

The mystery continues! The post office does not have the package.

It turns out I did not use the special USPS street address that allows FedEx to deliver to PO boxes. In my defense, I had no idea FPG was going to use FedEx, especially after the metal cards were sent USPS.

I just sent FPG an e-mail with the details. Hopefully they can figure out where the package is and how to get it to me.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by BobCollects

The mystery continues! The post office does not have the package.

It turns out I did not use the special USPS street address that allows FedEx to deliver to PO boxes. In my defense, I had no idea FPG was going to use FedEx, especially after the metal cards were sent USPS.

I just sent FPG an e-mail with the details. Hopefully they can figure out where the package is and how to get it to me.

Really hope they can figure it out. I still wonder exactly where the package is….has to be somewhere right? Return to sender with FedEx? Maybe FPG will know.

Also that’s a mistake on someone’s part if tracking says delivered when they never did deliver to the PO. Really shouldn’t be saying delivered.

[Fenian95]

Well after 45 minutes on the phone I am assured that it is now slated for delivery at a FedEx pickup point by my house.

We will see I guess.

Tracking did change from DELAY to HOLD REQUESTED so I'm hopeful.

Delay means undeliverable for FedEx.