Monday, December 23, 2013

Happy Holidays from Archive Editions

We're down to shipping out the final hundred or so orders. Apologies to those who have not received their books in time for Christmas— Santa's elves had to get back to the North Pole. But we'll continue prepping the remaining orders and will resume shipping after Christmas week. (That will also allow the volume of mail in the U.S. Postal system to lighten up a bit.)

Keep in mind that anyone in the Los Angeles area is more than welcome to arrange to stop by and pick up their book. Just e-mail me at:
—and we'll work out the details.

In the meantime, if you are in the L.A. area be sure to stop by Creature Features in Burbank to view Mike Hill's extraordinary life-size tribute sculpture of Ray Harryhausen. You'll also enjoy browsing Creature Features' amazing selection of collectibles, magazines, soundtrack CDs, model kits, and much more, from stop motion to Universal classics to sci-fi TV and much more. 





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Monday, November 25, 2013

Shipping "Majicks" Vol. 1 continues...

Sorry for the lack of updates this month-- we’ve just been trying to keep busy with shipping customer orders.

In order to be as fair to everyone as much as possible, we have been working our way through the shipments in the order that purchases came in from the time pre-orders commenced in August, 2012. We're doing the best we can to take care of everyone's order as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Since these are high-quality books, we're also taking time to pack the shipments with bubble-wrap, etc., to ensure that everyone's copy arrives undamaged. Even with that we manage to get quite a few orders out the door every day.

Several people have written to ask if their books have shipped yet. When the postage and mailing labels are printed out, my online postage system automatically generates a shipping confirmation e-mail (which includes a tracking number). I send the confirmation e-mail the same day the shipment goes out. So the simple answer to that question is: if you haven’t received the shipping confirmation e-mail, then your order hasn’t shipped yet.

You’re still welcome to inquire-- I realize that e-mails and servers are not 100% reliable. But in general, the shipping confirmation e-mail will tell you if your book has shipped.


Local Pickup Option

In a few cases I realized that some people writing in were in the local Los Angeles area. I followed up and we made arrangements for a local pickup rather than waiting for the book to go through the mails. So if anyone reading this lives in the greater Los Angeles area and would like to pick up, just drop me a line by clicking here:  Local Pickup Inquiry  (be sure to add a Subject Line like "Local pickup?" -- blank Subject Lines often cause emails to get thrown into the Junk Mail folder and I might miss it). For your reference, I am located in the Los Feliz district near Griffith Park. Stopping by any time, including weekends and reasonable evening hours, would be fine.

Thanks to everyone for your patience and support. We’re getting’ there…!


Above: A partial daily shipment. Usually about
4-5 stacks like this go out every day (or every other day).




Sunday, November 3, 2013

Majicks Vol. 1 - Now Shipping!


Sorry for the delay in updating things— we've been busy!

We have finally started shipping Ray Harryhausen - Master of the Majicks Vol. 1. Transport from the warehouse of 2-1/2 tons of books (1,000 books at 5 pounds each = 5,000 pounds, or 2-1/2 tons) was quite a task. We now have a large room full of books (see pictures, below), gradually reducing down as packing and shipping continues (hooray!). This is without doubt the most glamorous aspect of book publishing…!

Orders are being sent out in the order they were received, which we feel is fair to all. Every effort is being made to expedite all of the orders, and we appreciate everyone’s continued support and patience.

A shipping confirmation e-mail will be sent to each customer as orders go out, whether by Media Mail or Priority Mail, and each shipping confirmation e-mail will include a tracking number.

Hang in there— your book is (or soon will be) on its way!











Sunday, October 20, 2013

"Majicks" Vol. 1 Update / The Alien Factor screening

The shipment of Ray Harryhausen - Master of the Majicks Vol. 1 has arrived and is clearing Customs. I should be able to pick up the shipment this coming Tuesday or Wednesday. Given the need to truck the shipment to my offices and unload, I should be able to start shipping customer orders by Thursday or Friday. All preparations have been made on my end to start that process.

Everyone should keep in mind that I will be sending out a shipping confirmation e-mail (with tracking number) as each order goes out, so you will know that your order is on its way.

In the meantime, tomorrow night (Monday, October 21) I will be attending a midnight screening of The Alien Factor (1977) at The Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax in Hollywood. This was the first feature film I worked on— I designed and created the opening main title sequence and animated the stop motion "Leemoid" creature at the end. All pretty crude in retrospect, but "ya gotta start somewhere." I'll bring along what's left of the Leemoid model for a little show-and-tell before the screening.

Here's the link to "The United States of Horror" series going on at The Silent Movie Theater, which includes the listing for The Alien Factor:


If anyone reading this attends the screening, be sure to come up and say Hello!



Wednesday, October 16, 2013

"Majicks" Vol. 1 Has Arrived

The shipment of Ray Harryhausen - Master of the Majicks Vol. 1 has arrived at the port of Los Angeles. The shipment is going through Customs and will then be trucked to a nearby warehouse. I will then pick up the shipment and bring all the books to my offices to commence shipping. Barring any unforeseen delays, I expect orders to start going out to customers by the middle of next week.

In the meantime, our workspace is being organized and packing and mailing supplies (boxes, bubble wrap, mailing labels, etc.) are being assembled so that we'll be set and ready to go straight away.

Thanks to everyone for your continued patience. We're almost there...!


Tuesday, October 8, 2013




Diana Harryhausen passed away on Sunday, October 6. 

We extend our condolences to Ray and Diana's daughter, Vanessa.


Top: Ray and Diana at a preview screening of Jason and the Argonauts
at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood in 1963.

Bottom: Ray and Diana celebrate Ray's 90th birthday
in England in June, 2010.




Sunday, October 6, 2013

"Majicks" Vol. 1 - Final week of transport

Ray Harryhausen - Master of the Majicks Vol. 1 should complete its journey from the factory to the Port of Los Angeles by the end of this coming week. At that point, the shipment will have to clear Customs (which can take 3-10 days, depending on volume of shipments at the port), and then trucked up to my warehouse for shipping to customers.

In the meantime, I'm preparing everything for the packing and shipping of customer orders— boxes, bubble wrap, address labels, etc.— as well as arranging the workspace. Everything should be ready to go.

I'll be attending Son of Monsterpalooza this coming Saturday at the Marriott Burbank Hotel and Convention Center (near the Burbank airport). Hope to see some of you there!




Friday, October 4, 2013

E-mail problem fixed

Just a quick note to followup my previous post to say that Earthlink's web hosting servers are all back online and e-mail to Archive Editions and everything else is working fine.

If anyone tried to contact me and had their e-mail bounce back, please give it another try.

The shipment of books continues on its journey, and all's well.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Majicks on schedule / e-mail outage

My website is hosted on Earthlink, and since late Monday night Earthlink has been experiencing an outage connected to their web-hosting servers. Hopefully, this will be corrected soon. In the meantime, I am unable to send or receive e-mail using any of the "@archive-editions.com" addresses. If you have sent an e-mail, don't worry— I'll get it eventually and will respond as soon as I can.

In the meantime, I can report that transport of Majicks Vol. 1 is proceeding as planned. No specific developments, but making forward progress.

I'll update this blog next Sunday morning with the latest developments.

Thanks,

Ernest Farino
Archive Editions



Sunday, September 22, 2013

"Majicks" Vol. 1 - On Its Way

Not too much to report this week in terms of specific developments, other than to say that the inventory of books is aboard ship and underway from the factory in China to the Port of Los Angeles.

Hopefully the ship won't have to tangle with a giant octopus...!

Ray Harryhausen - Master of the Majicks Vol. 1 includes a chapter on those George Pal Puppetoons® that Ray worked on. Coincidentally, a Blu-ray release of a restored edition of The Puppetoon® Movie is scheduled for late October. This edition will include several more Puppetoons® than the original release back in 1987, and this edition is limited to a pressing of 3,000 copies. We're not connected to this project, but since this film is of interest to stop motion fans, I thought I'd include here a convenient link for placing a pre-order at Blu-ray.com: The Puppetoon Movie Blu-Ray





Sunday, September 15, 2013

Majicks Vol. 1 Packed Up and On Its Way!

Ray Harryahusen - Master of the Majicks Vol. 1 has started its journey from the factory in China to the Port of Los Angeles. Estimated time of arrival is the first week in October. At that point, the shipment will go through Customs (3 days to a week, depending on volume of imports at that time), transport to a holding warehouse, and finally be trucked to my offices for packing and shipping customer orders.

We're gettin' there!

Below are two photos of the shipment at the warehouse in preparation for loading onto the ship. Shown are two of three pallets of boxes. There are 8 books to a box for a total of 1,000 copies.

Reminder-- We're now down to about 10 copies left of the print run, so there's still just a little time left for that last-minute order.



--------------------------

All for now,
Ernest Farino

If you have questions, please





Be sure to check back to this Blog every Sunday for the latest updates.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

It's Done! Ray Harryhausen "Majicks" is finished printing!


Production Update:

I have received the first advance copy of the final book; i.e., not a proof, but the first actualfinished book "hot off the presses." I'm pleased to say that everything is fine-- no printing errors or problems, and it looks pretty darn good.

Scroll down for some snapshots of the finished book.

You can also go to our website for a trailer, slide show, and gallery of layouts.
Click here:

The complete inventory of 1,000 copies has now been boxed and crated at the factory in China and this coming week will be loaded into a container and placed aboard ship. It will take a couple of weeks to make that journey to the Port of Los Angeles, and then go through Customs (which, based on past experience, can take from 3 days to 10 days, depending on the volume of imports at the port at any given time). Inland trucking to my warehouse is next, and finally packing and shipping individual customer copies. If all goes well, your order should be in the mail to you in the first week of October.

I will post regular updates every Sunday morning on this blog, rather than continue to send out e-mail Newsletters. So be sure to bookmark that page for easy access every Sunday.

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Last Call!

To everyone who has ordered Volume 1 already-- Thank You!
Your orders are locked in and safe and sound.

However, we now have fewer than 30 copies left of our Limited Edition print run.
So if you (or anyone you know) hasn't ordered yet, Order Now!

Click the green button to order:
MajciksPreOrderButton
Orders can be made using any major credit card, or PayPal. Please be assured that
our website and shopping cart are both completely secure with 128-bit SSL encryption.
Payment details come directly to me only and are not stored online in the interests of security. 

You can also download and print out an order form from our Ordering
page if you prefer placing an order by mail using check or money order.

New Feature:
If paying by PayPal, you can select PayPal's "Bill Me Later"
feature, which allows you to pay for your purchase of $99+
over a period of 6 months.

BillMeLaterLogo  
More information is available on
our website and ordering page.

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Bookstores & Dealers
Can also order from our website at
Vol. 1 Wholesale Orders 


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Don't miss out -- Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 of Majicks are sold out and command
prices ranging from $350.00 to $750.00 a copy and up on eBay and Amazon.
The limited edition 
of Volume 1 will very likely become a collector's item, too.
 ----------------- 


Thanks again for everyone's support, enthusiastic feedback, and continued patience.
-------Ernest Farino, Publisher  

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Here are a few snapshots of the actual advance copy of the finished book:

















Monday, July 1, 2013

"Majicks" Vol. 1 July Update:


Production Update: The high-resolution full color proofs for Ray Harryhausen - Master of the Majicks Vol. 1 have been received, including a "dummy" copy of the hardcover book and dust jacket. Everything looks great! Having worked on this book for so long, one tends to get "jaded" looking at the layouts over and over, but I must say that I became excited all over again at seeing these color proof pages. Everything is coming together quite nicely.

Having said that, I found just a handful of errors in the text, so I corrected those and output 5 replacement pages. (It seems that no matter how much all of us proofread and check and double-check, these little "gremlins" still pop up here and there.)

In any case, we're getting there! Thanks to everyone for your patience. The book will be coming your way soon.

Scroll down to review some snapshots of just a few of the color proofs.


We're getting very close now to being Sold Out of our projected print run. So if you or anyone you know hasn't ordered yet, don't wait too much longer. Click the green button above to go directly to our secure order page and secure shopping cart.

Thanks again,
Ernest Farino
Archive Editions














Friday, May 31, 2013

Majicks Vol. 1 - "Blue line" Proofs received and approved!

The "blue line" proofs for Ray Harryhausen - Master of the Majicks Vol. 1 have been received and approved. These are intermediate proofs, essentially color photocopies of the pages which are used to confirm and lock down page numbering, placement, etc. This was done because of the last minute additions and rearrangement of the final pages of the book which I made in order to include a tribute to Ray on the occasion of his passing. There were some other page numbering corrections elsewhere and, all things considered, it was decided to do this intermediate step before going any further.

I found no problems in this set of proofs, so onward to the next step!

Here's a snapshot of the "blue line" proofs (click image for enlarged viewing):


As seen here, the proofs are in sections known as "signatures" which replicates how the final book will be printed and assembled. Not included yet is the hardcover and dust jacket.

The next step, now underway, is the creation of the "digital proofs" -- these are actually printed on the paper stock to be used in the book itself and represent a high-quality version of the final book. This set of proofs is used to approve and lock in color (photos and graphics), black-and-white (grayscale) images, text color, etc. Supplied along with the set of digital proofs will be a "dummy" copy-- the hardcover itself with gold-stamped title on cover and spine with blank paper bound inside. This will provide a sample of the physical book to check dimensions, binding, etc. Also coming with these elements will be a full color proof of the wrap-around dust jacket.

Everything is moving along nicely, and, while we don't yet have a specific shipping date just yet, we're on track to ship in early-mid July. There are some variables in there, especially regarding transport, import & customs clearance, etc., and as soon as we have a reliable calendar, I'll let everyone know.

If you haven't ordered yet, there's still time, although we're starting to approach the sell-out point of our print run. You can use our 128-bit encrypted secure order form at Archive Editions. On the order page you'll also find a link to download an order form if you prefer to use check or money order.



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