Heavy Metal Issue #1 Fulfilment Update
9 months ago
– Tue, Jun 17, 2025 at 12:15:28 AM
Hi Everyone,
A quick update on Issue #1 fulfilment. We have shipped out all but a small number of the more complex orders from the main campaign, these will all be finalised this week.
The only other remaining orders are as follows;
People who changed their address mid campaign were pushed back by our warehouse's sorting system so those will begin shipping out now that the main campaign fulfilment is coming to a close.
There are still 440 people who have not locked in their address by completing the survey and are not responding to repeated requests to do so. Many of these are likely to be people who signed into Kickstarter with Apple ID's. These ID's do not forward any KS emails to you so we are having trouble reaching you. You will have to message us through the Kickstarter system so we can update your email address manually or you can log into Backerkit and update your address yourself.
The Metal variants are shipping separately and will be fully delivered over the next two weeks.
The resin statues are rolling off the production line and being sent as they are produced. Here are some pics.
Virtually all of the smaller orders (those with less than 10 items) should now have been fulfilled. If you are still waiting and have not received tracking it may be worth getting in touch so we can manually look into the order for you.
The final orders shipping out will be those that missed the Kickstarter campaign but ordered late through Backerkit.
Thank you all for your patience, it has been a huge effort by our warehouse staff to get to this point.
If you haven't yet please join the Angry Mob group on circle. Over 5700 of you have jumped in and the group is a lot of fun. The free issue #2 exclusive Angry Mob variant is being arranged in there at the moment.
Heavy Metal Issue #1 Update
10 months ago
– Fri, May 30, 2025 at 06:51:50 PM
Hi All, apologies I have not posted in here in the last few days, it has been extremely hectic pulling all of this together. This is something I posted in the Mob group yesterday and wanted to get it to you all. If you have not already you should check out the Mob on Circle, it is a really great group of people with lots happening inside. We are deciding on your free issue #2 cover so it would be good to get everyone's thoughts and suggestions before we get pencils to paper on it.
This update is not an attempt to remove any blame or anger but is just being transparent with you all about the fulfilment process for issue #1.
A little bit of history about this. In the campaign we listed the delivery for the mags as Q2 with a start date for shipping in April. When we created the campaign it was our intention that all orders would be out before stores got their books. There were two lots of store orders, Diamond orders and LUNA orders. Diamond, the smaller group of the two as far as orders go, had a ship window of the 7th-12th May. LUNA a week later. Those dates were locked in many months prior, we couldn’t change those. We had actually anticipated there would be around 2000 orders for the Kickstarter campaign and our plan was to have those fulfilled before the 7th if possible. Fortunately (?) there turned out to be 11,000 orders which is great but obviously threw a spanner in the works. In addition there were some print delays out of our control and one of the two companies we paid to undertake the fulfilment sacked 70% of their staff two days into our job and informed us they do not have the ability to pay for postage while restructuring. We had to scramble and fix this by reshipping items, hiring additional fulfilment staff etc (and several other problems that inevitably tend to arise during these things). We also decided to put extra time and money into the packing process to try and avoid as much damage to books in transit as possible. That decision, across 11,000 orders extended the timeline we initially anticipated. It takes about 10 minutes per order to generate labels, sort items (44,000 different items were sold in the campaign), wrap and pack and then process for shipment. Some orders have more than 20 books and tees, pins etc and take much longer. Across 11,000 orders that is a total time of over 1830 hours, which is 229 working days. We are not a huge business, nor is our wonderful warehouse partner now handling it all. With 8 full time packers on this that is a 28 working days job, resulting in about 400 orders a day getting out on average.
We are currently 22 working days in since shipping started (on schedule) and we are focused on this and incredibly stressed about making it happen as quickly as possible for everyone. It was always going to be impossible to get everyone their orders on the same day, unfortunately when there are 11,000 orders some people get their books first.
We had been given a schedule that indicated 95% of orders would be out the door by Monday next week. That is looking closer to 85% right now. There are still a few thousand orders to go and we are trying to get extra staff in the warehouse to move through these final orders as quickly as possible.
It was not our intention to supply stores first but it impacted you all and we are doing our best to make this up to everyone long term, hence the Mob.
The overwhelming majority of people have been amazing and understand that getting orders out does take time so thank you to those of you supporting us during this process. Issue #1 has given dozens of artists and writers work and it has employed a group of people dedicated to this brand. You have all helped make this happen and will ensure the long term existence of Heavy Metal as a place for great artists and creators to tell their stories.
Unfortunately I have also had messages from people calling me and the team scam artists because they haven't received their order when others have, Ive had personal threats and abuse, I’ve refunded money and tried to go out of my way to make things right for people who felt deeply affected by books being on comic shelves before they got theirs. We are a small team, doing everything we can to rebuild a brand we love. We are not making any decisions to take from any of you and we are packing and shipping as fast as we can.
I hope that once everyone has their items you join us in a community that is quickly becoming fun and rewarding (The Mob). For those of you who feel that receiving your items 4 weeks after we start shipping is too much to ever trust us again I apologise and wish you well. Your items will be with all of you very soon.
Marshall & the Heavy Metal Team
Specific Item Updates
Softcovers have been shipping out since day one
Tees, pins and other rewards have been shipping out for weeks
Hardcovers have recently started shipping
Metal Covers have just started to ship, we are still waiting on second batch of these from the printer. As per the last update we hope these will be completely fulfilled by the middle of June.
The paintable sculpts have been a challenging production process that has seen us going through several production options. We have settled on a great US company that produces really high quality results (albeit at a cost higher than we sold them for!). Those have recently gotten underway and will be shipping soon separately to your other orders.
Angry Mob Update
10 months ago
– Tue, May 27, 2025 at 11:30:21 PM
Hey legends,
You raised your voices, kicked down the gates, and brought Heavy Metal back from the brink. Now it’s time to take the next step - together.
We’re launching Angry Mob HQ on Circle, our new digital community built just for you, our Issue #1 backers. This is your backstage pass to the chaos: sneak peeks, insider updates, live chats, Mob bonuses and giveaways and the chance to help us shape what comes next for Heavy Metal.
Your personal invite to join Circle is on its way.
We are sending invites out in batches so check your inbox (and spam folder, just in case) over the next few days.
From the get go you will be able to post and vote on logo options, read a digital version of Issue #1, read some other rare Heavy Metal digital content, vote on polls, throw your hat in the ring for a really cool giveaway, help decide on the membership items and more.
This Mob isn’t just a name, it’s our long term commitment to you. So jump on board, say hi, meet some great people from this community and get involved.
It is also worth mentioning that magazine subscriptions are being offered to Angry Mob members on Thursday with the $20.00 discount promised.
Stay loud,
The Heavy Metal Team
Heavy Metal & Angry Mob Update
10 months ago
– Thu, May 22, 2025 at 07:48:54 PM
Hi All,
Wanted to give you a comprehensive update on all things Issue #1, the Angry Mob, Digital Rewards and more.
We have now sent out more than half of the orders and we are still on track to have at least 95% of orders out the door before the end of next week. The remaining 5% will be some of the METAL EDITION covers (although some are now shipping earlier than was mentioned in the last update) and the sculpts (they are on there way too but will go beyond this month to completely fulfil).
Hardcovers are shipping, international orders are shipping, back issues, pins and tees etc are shipping. Over 6000 of you have already received tracking. We have 2000 more orders packed that will be shipped first thing after the long weekend with the remainder being packed and sent next week.
We did say we would start shipping before the end of April and we are sorry that it has now taken 22 days to get half of the orders out. We have been making sure the mags are packed securely so they arrive in as good a condition to you all as possible. If anyone has any issues when their orders arrive please reach out to us through the direct message system on Kickstarter so we can look after you.
Digital Rewards are also going out in batches, the next two are the digital collections one and two containing past issues. Later next week the History of Heavy Metal Art Book PDF will also be sent out.
Issue #1 has been getting really good reviews and we are excited to hear everyone's thoughts on it once we get you into the Angry Mob space. An email about that will be coming to you after the long weekend. Apologies, we did want that to be ready this week, just a few more tweaks needed. We have logo options ready to present from some of our artists and we are looking forward to seeing your own submissions. Inside the Angry Mob room you will be able to vote on logos and other things, including merch ideas, the challenge coins, plus some other exclusives and gifts we have been brewing up for you all. We also have an artist lined up for the exclusive Angry Mob issue #2 cover but want your feedback on what you would like to see for that artwork. We assume you want to see something like all the Heavy Metal staff being flogged mercilessly by a scantily clad warrior woman (or is that just me?).
BLACK METAL EDITION Giveaways
The 20 Heavy Metal BLACK METAL EDITION giveaways (the rarest mags Heavy Metal has ever produced) will be sent separately to random backers of the campaign. We will send pics out when these ship and provide updates in the Angry Mob room.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions are being released next week with Angry Mob members (all of you) being offered the discounted rates as promised. As mentioned in the last update past subscribers who still have missing issues owed by the previous company will be given free subscriptions to make up for it.
Issue #2 Teasers
Here's a couple of cool teaser images from issue 2...
Check out this mind bending work from the incredible Wayshack!
John Stanisci's brilliant work in progress on Gladiatrix part 2.
A little tease of a very cool new story by Rodrigo Lucio (story) and Adrian Castilla (art)
Patrick Reilly gets in deep with us on this amazing piece.
Duke Mighten's Harry Canyon tale takes it up a notch...
Tehani Farr's Webstore Exclusive
Tehani's stunning Taarna variant is selling fast with only a few hundred left of this limited edition cover. This was originally offered as a pre-order and is now shipping out next week.
Thats All For Now...
For those of you still angry and raging at us, we get it. All we ask is you accept our apology, have a little understanding that shipping this many orders out properly takes time, and give us the opportunity to make it up to you through the Angry Mob...because we will.
We can't thank all of you enough for helping bring Heavy Metal back. We've learned a lot through this campaign thanks to your feedback and we assure you the next one will be smoother and less rage inducing for some of you :)
The Heavy Metal Team, now forever slaves to the Mob.
Heavy Metal Issue #1 Update
10 months ago
– Thu, May 15, 2025 at 09:15:24 PM
Hi Everyone,
This is just a quick update to let you know orders have been shipping out every day. We are on track to have 95% of orders out within the next 12 days. For those of you who ordered the METAL variants they will be shipping separately and slightly later but we will be getting any other items that you ordered out to you within this next 12 day window.
Once again, we are really sorry that some comic stores got the magazine before you all did. It's a long story as to how and why that happened but the important thing for us now is to make it up to you long term, which we plan on doing. The actual fulfilment of this campaign isn't going badly. We said we would begin shipping by the end of April and we will have virtually all 11,000+ orders out before the end of May. We appreciate your patience and understanding that this is a big task, especially given we are focusing on making sure these items are shipped securely so they arrive in the best possible condition.
We have a circle platform ready for the Angry Mob to join and will be sending out emails to jump into that next week. We will be working on the logo and merch, plus the exclusive Issue 2 cover with you there and also have some special announcements only for Angry Mob members.
If you have any questions please reach out to us, we are trying to address all individual messages through Kickstarter each day.
Thank you,
The Heavy Metal Team
