Harbinger 23's damaged

Bone-A-Fach-ee · Post by **Bone-A-Fach-ee** » Wed May 28, 2014 2:04 pm

I went to my local LCS today. They had a signing with Kyle Higgins, so I went to meet him, get his scribble on a COWL #1, and believe it or not, a sketch!
Also, picked up Harby #23. I looked through the 6 copies the store had, and every single cover was damaged, bent, messed up in some way. I let the guy at the counter know, and he kinda just mumbled something about Diamond.

Just wanted to see if anyone else had similar problems?

kjjohanson · Post by **kjjohanson** » Wed May 28, 2014 2:09 pm

Bone-A-Fach-ee wrote:I went to my local LCS today. They had a signing with Kyle Higgins, so I went to meet him, get his scribble on a COWL #1, and believe it or not, a sketch!
Also, picked up Harby #23. I looked through the 6 copies the store had, and every single cover was damaged, bent, messed up in some way. I let the guy at the counter know, and he kinda just mumbled something about Diamond.

Just wanted to see if anyone else had similar problems?

I had to go through a bunch to find a copy that didn't have the wrinkles that you commonly see on VEI books.

mero19 · Post by **mero19** » Wed May 28, 2014 4:31 pm

All copies here were damaged too

betterthanezra · Post by **betterthanezra** » Wed May 28, 2014 5:37 pm

I also had a conversation about this today

-Brian

Bone-A-Fach-ee · Post by **Bone-A-Fach-ee** » Wed May 28, 2014 5:39 pm

Does Diamond just wipe their *SQUEE* with each individual issue and then shop them out? WTF

ilzuccone · Post by **ilzuccone** » Wed May 28, 2014 5:46 pm

meh i'm a fold it up and stick it in your back pocket kind of guy.

JonesyAZ · Post by **JonesyAZ** » Wed May 28, 2014 5:52 pm

Diamond won't change their tune as long as they're the main comics distribution company. Is there any voice for the fan to complain to diamond about a routine problem with a company's books?

ilzuccone · Post by **ilzuccone** » Wed May 28, 2014 7:17 pm

JonesyAZ wrote:Diamond won't change their tune as long as they're the main comics distribution company. Is there any voice for the fan to complain to diamond about a routine problem with a company's books?

I'm watching the sopranos right now. The only thing that comes to mind is intimidation.

KXXX · Post by **KXXX** » Wed May 28, 2014 7:34 pm

Start a company to compete? Same thing here, smashed books. My LCS guy thought it looked like a sword damaged them. I told him to lay off the paint.

ilzuccone · Post by **ilzuccone** » Wed May 28, 2014 7:53 pm

Sounds like valiant didn't pay their protection money

kjjohanson · Post by **kjjohanson** » Wed May 28, 2014 7:54 pm

Forbidden Planet in NYC didn't even get it in today.

The problem that I was seeing was more a production problem, I think, rather than mishandling.

mkb28 · Post by **mkb28** » Wed May 28, 2014 8:00 pm

I started buying the monthly issues again, so I am missing most of the May books. I stopped by an LCS and they had two copies of Harby 23 and both front covers looked like they went through a Ninja Blender!

Maybe I don't want to collect monthlies again.

Mkb28

jmatt · Post by **jmatt** » Wed May 28, 2014 9:36 pm

kjjohanson wrote:
Bone-A-Fach-ee wrote:I went to my local LCS today. They had a signing with Kyle Higgins, so I went to meet him, get his scribble on a COWL #1, and believe it or not, a sketch!
Also, picked up Harby #23. I looked through the 6 copies the store had, and every single cover was damaged, bent, messed up in some way. I let the guy at the counter know, and he kinda just mumbled something about Diamond.

Just wanted to see if anyone else had similar problems?
I had to go through a bunch to find a copy that didn't have the wrinkles that you commonly see on VEI books.

Some of ours had them, too. Lower center.

hawkeyeps · Post by **hawkeyeps** » Wed May 28, 2014 9:41 pm

Yep same thing here and that's not diamond damage it's a crappy print job/poor cover stock.

I've had the discussion many times and did see some improvement but this is something I hoped to never see again and what a shame that it's such a great book but no one will pick it up because it looks like garbage on shelf and costs $4. Every time this happens it's poison for VEI, these crappy issues sit on the shelf forever and the retailer resents it and cuts their order.

The big shop in town had 6 copies on the shelf and another I went to had one which is the norm for most shops. Now what we have is shelf full of stuff many months (even years) old and nothing from last 4 or 5 months because the one shelf copy is usually sold on release day but then it's gone making only a blip of an appearance.

When I look at the old VEI books clogging the shelf they are all poor copies and 80% of the defects are straight from the printer.

I think the poor production on some books has hurt Valiant's business and reputation more than any other thing, every time this happens it does damage and that's a lot of work to do to regain that lost trust. And all because of some crappy printing press that isn't properly maintained and inferior cover stock!

It's a disservice to the creators

kjjohanson · Post by **kjjohanson** » Wed May 28, 2014 9:47 pm

I wish they would move to the cover stock used to the Rai Pullbox Plus for everything. I didn't see any production issues on any of the copies I saw

grendeljd · Post by **grendeljd** » Wed May 28, 2014 9:54 pm

My copy had the uneven crease/wrinkle problem, it was about 2 inches long near the upper right side of the title trade dress area.

Just to add insult to injury, there were no shelf copies to thumb through in hopes of a less beat up one. And I'm not talking about a sellout situation here - there were no shelf copies ordered at all.

I'm gonna have to sick Atom! on them again, I think

(I met him last summer in Toronto at FanExpo & directed him to my LCS people at their booth).

hawkeyeps · Post by **hawkeyeps** » Wed May 28, 2014 10:07 pm

grendeljd wrote:My copy had the uneven crease/wrinkle problem, it was about 2 inches long near the upper right side of the title trade dress area.

Just to add insult to injury, there were no shelf copies to thumb through in hopes of a less beat up one. And I'm not talking about a sellout situation here - there were no shelf copies ordered at all.

I'm gonna have to sick Atom! on them again, I think (I met him last summer in Toronto at FanExpo & directed him to my LCS people at their booth).

It's the same here and what worries me is people will see that glut of old stuff and nothing on the new release shelf and get the impression it's a dead universe especially with all the "series ending/hiatus" talk.

jmatt · Post by **jmatt** » Wed May 28, 2014 10:27 pm

My shop has a bit on the shelf but more and more they seem to simply order enough Valiant for the pull boxes. I asked today if there was a variant for Harbinger and they said they didn't order enough, just 18 copies.

betterthanezra · Post by **betterthanezra** » Wed May 28, 2014 10:34 pm

I found only one copy worth buying and that's only because I really wanted to read it

-Brian

Bone-A-Fach-ee · Post by **Bone-A-Fach-ee** » Wed May 28, 2014 10:36 pm

The copy I bought is totally just a reader copy. I wonder if it makes any good condition book worth more?
like, if you actually find a 9.6, or 9.8 in this stack, is that a really rare, and therefore expensive book?

hawkeyeps · Post by **hawkeyeps** » Wed May 28, 2014 10:39 pm

The Molina covers weren't too bad, it seemed to be the Suayan regular cover that was really not good.

betterthanezra · Post by **betterthanezra** » Wed May 28, 2014 10:43 pm

hawkeyeps wrote:The Molina covers weren't too bad, it seemed to be the Suayan regular cover that was really not good.

+1 so far that's my experience on this

-Brian

nonplayer · Post by **nonplayer** » Wed May 28, 2014 11:13 pm

Mine was damaged to. But tuen I dropped it in the bag and board and damaged a corner a bit so what ever one out of all my comics not so bad I guess:-(

ilzuccone · Post by **ilzuccone** » Wed May 28, 2014 11:21 pm

yeah the coffin covers were all damaged at my LCS. The other covers were fine.

x-omatic · Post by **x-omatic** » Wed May 28, 2014 11:48 pm

Same problem for me. Same problem I see every week and it has to do with the cover stock and production. I constantly have my store return copies because of creased covers. Other books I buy from independent publishers don't seem to have this problem week after week. Why can't VALIANT address this issue? Where is the quality control?

It's very frustrating to buy a book new that looks like its been on the shelf for months.

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