The long delays in the appearances of Cinebook the 9th Art titles is worrying. I've been asked before why I waited one or even three months to review a book from them. I never wait that long. As I pointed out with Blake & Mortimer vol. 25, it has a release date of December, 2018 but I only got a copy yesterday.
I have mentioned these delays before and they have nothing to do with me. Blake & Mortimer vol. 24 I reviewed the day after I got it in March, 2017. So it is a very long delay and when I read the latest I had to shrug because I felt a bit lost with the story.
I like to point out the history of comics that are greatly delayed to publishers. Back in the 1980s DC Comics Camelot 3000, a 12 issue series drawn by Brian Bolland that took from December 1982 to April 1985 to complete by which time comic shops had stopped ordering it or were left with a lot of back issues because comic buyers just gave up somewhere over the three years (my set was stolen).
Love & Rockets returned but was to be published yearly...it died a death because shop owners couldn't be bothered ordering copies for the rare quality customer who wanted a copy and one issue a year most people forgot about it.
I could go on. The problem is that when Cinebook started out it was different in that it was talking to customers and answering questions -that seems a thing of the past. And we find ourselves in the position of hearing rumour after rumour about Cinebook and Brexit and other things and the owners say nothing but the delays we are seeing feed the rumour mill.
The only person(s) who can issue a definitive explanation and scotch all the rumours are the owners. Olivier Cadic is busy with his political career but I have tried before to contact him but unlike in the past no responses.
If these are just delays due to printer problems, contractural problems then all Cinebook has to do is tell everyone. Silence -as we have seen over and over again in recent years- can lead to a bad situation for businesses.
So, Cinebook, please explain so that the rumours can be squashed.
Ah, now, come on, Terry. Be fair. I know, last year we had delays in sending you (and others) books, which you received late. And that Blake & Mortimer was way late printing - we never hid the fact to anyone who asked. But we seem to have sorted our problems these days and you're getting your review copies on time, it seems. And none of our titles since have been delayed by more than the very occasional couple of days. (don't forget that we publish late in the month - so a publishing date in December means around the 23, 24th at best).
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, there's the delay between two titles of the same series, but that's a different matter altogether, that is part editorial decision, part imposed on us by French publishing rhythms - we can't translate a Blake & Mortimer until it's finished writing, after all! :)
As for Brexit, well ... *sigh* The minute we know what we'll do ... Sorry, let me rephrase that: the minute ANYONE knows what is going to happen exactly, we'll be able to make an informed decision about our future.
Which, by the way, does not include the option "fold and pack it all up for good". We're here to stay!
So, I'm not sure what rumours you keep hearing, but you can lay them to rest. Bar the occasional hiccup, for which we ARE very sorry, we're very much working hard as ever, and that's not about to change anytime soon.
Jerome Saincantin
Hi Jerome. I'm always fair! :-) When I've asked about delayed books I've been told Cinebook is waiting themselves so I never take it personally :-) My problem with reviewing is trying to remember what happened before -with Blake and Mortimer I could not find the previous volume or remember what had happened and when I realised the delay I realised why. I now have my 8ft of shelf space with all the Cinebook titles in proper order so easy to check "What happened before!" the problem is that a lot of people on the internet make claims and I am quite sure they have NEVER contacted Cinebook. "Delays are down to Cinebook preparing a post Brexit strategy it seems" and "Cinebook as a French company is re-assessing its post Brexit situation". Now I have stated over and over again that Cinebook is a BRITISH company and at the moment it seems that many people in the UK are going mentally ape-shit over Brexit and how we'll deal with the Mad Max situation the UK will be in. I tell people that Brexit will not affect Cinebook but who listens. Boris Johnson's "sponge cake that the French can't get enough of will save us post Brexit" does not seem to exist. Not sure if the French realise we have them hooked on a cream sponge cake they'll need to pay us huge amounts for after Brexit (seriously, the French need OUR cakes???). Our plan for Brexit is quite simple -why can't you people understand? Our Plan A is the same as Plan B but with an extra comma added. Plan C is the same as Plan B with an additional full stop. Plan D is different in that the colour tone of the paper is off white. Plan E is Plan A but with an additional blank page for notes at the rear. Plane F has an additional staple. G Plan make sofas and chairs and we hope that will cause enough confusion to break the EU. Plan H is the one that the DUP agreed on but on re-reading it take issue with the corrections made to make it acceptable to the DUP. Plan I is where we all stand on the Dover cliffs and scream at Europe "WHY did you make us vote Brexit!" ("I" in this case stands for insanity and we are hoping that the EU will look on us as having mental health issues so maybe they shouldn't take Brexit, article 50 or all that stuff seriously and tear up the documents and we can all not talk about it any more. You know that saying "in the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king"? Forget it. With the UK it is the person who got out of the straight jacket who took charge. Basically, we are up to our chins in horrible brown stuff that may sink us. I have a head ache. :-/
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, I share your headache ... though your explanation of Brexit plans is clearer than most I've read/heard in UK news!
ReplyDelete"I tell people that Brexit will not affect Cinebook but who listens. "
Well ... that's not entirely true, now. I mean, yes, we're a British company - based in the UK, operated from the UK, all that. But we're also very European in the sense that I'm based in France, our titles are Franco-Belgian, the printer is Spanish ... If we suddenly have to slap tariffs on everything, it's going to be a right mess.
For example, on the day Brexit was announced, the Pound tanked. I'm paid in pounds, though I live in France. And in one day I lost about 13% of my buying power ... and it's kept getting worse since! And now that I think about it, I don't even know whether I'm going to have to add some sort of duty to my invoices, since I'll be billing a company outside of the EU ...
Urk.
As an aside, and specifically about Blake and Mortimer: since the new creative teams are taking turns publishing titles, that they often choose different time periods, and then don't always keep going chronologically, it's not just a question of remembering the previous book - but sometimes one three or four titles ago! For example, 25 (which takes place in 1949) is a direct continuation not of 24 (1958 - and the publication order was the same in French, so it's not us muddying the waters!), but of 15-17 (The Swordfish trilogy - the very first adventure Jacobs drew). 22-23 were Jacob's last titles and took place in the 60s, whereas 21 was first published in French before our 24, yet takes place BEFORE the Swordfish cycle ...
All this to say if you get lost in the storyline, that's not particularly surprising!! I often have to do a bit of re-reading before translating a new one. I should really draw up a detailed timeline ...
Explains a lot and ye, I understand that tariffs etc. are going to be a pain in the ass. I am not a US citizen but as my Print on Demand is based in the US, for any US order the POD and printer take their cut and then the US Tax people hit me hard. If it comes to people in Italy or France or Germany buying my books after the UK cuts its own throat, I have no idea where I stand as the POD has printers in France and other locations that deal with those orders so do I then start getting hit with tax from various EU countries? And May's announcement today puts us right back in it.
ReplyDeleteAs for Blake and Mortimer that explains a great deal as I had wondered.
Can't we all just pretend Brexit never happened? :-/