DRIFTER: Omnia – the Complete Series

Penultimate update, rounding the bend on the end of fulfillment.
8 days ago – Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 02:59:55 PM

Hello folks-

We're about halfway through the fulfillment process and this'll be our last note until we're officially done. (Some of you like pretty frequent updates, a lot more do not, so from this point we're going to shift to our email: help @ hellodeathray.com) We answer very quickly, so much so that you'll probably be worried about how our lives are going otherwise.

Where we're at today is the majority of the US Forma (The middle hardcover) orders will be picked up tomorrow, from that we'll move on to Lux (the top tier hardcover) and the custom orders. At our current speed we'll probably be done with the majority of orders within the next 2 weeks. 

EUROPEAN BACKERS: If you haven't filled out your survey, you should do it now because once our fulfillment ends, our discount shipping ends. We are not warehousing the books in Germany after next week, so any order not fulfilled by then will have to pay full US shipping, about double the price. 

If anyone anywhere reading this has not received a survey, please respond to this message and we'll make sure to send you your link so you can finalize before we close our fulfillment stations in Germany and NYC. 

These books really are beautiful and we've been so grateful to hear your responses. Thanks again for being our personal heroes. Especially you. 

Team Deathray

ADDENDUM: WE HAVE NOT SHIPPED LUX OR FORMA YET
21 days ago – Wed, Feb 04, 2026 at 06:58:04 PM

We're getting a lot of responses from folks who may have misread our previous email, so just to clarify here: there are 3 editions of Drifter. Omnia, Forma, and Lux. We're shipping each out in order. We have completed all USA shipping for the first one only (OMNIA). We move onto the 2nd edtion (Forma) tomorrow. 

If you haven't gotten your tracking number it's likely because you ordered a different book. THAT SAID: if you ordered Omnia (the paperback), and no add-ons, in the US, and haven't gotten a tracking number, please email us at help AT hellodeathray.com and we'll get one out to you. 

Thank you!

ALL USA ORDERS ARE OUT (OMNIA SOFTCOVER ONLY)
21 days ago – Wed, Feb 04, 2026 at 03:15:51 PM

If you ordered a solo copy of the OMNIA softcover and you live in the US, your orders are cleared (I think there are 2 extras that came in after and we'll send those tomorrow,but close enough), ditto the Omnia TPB+ The Roman Stars orders and some bits and bobs of other stuff. Tomorrow we clear out the Canadiomnias and start getting the Forma out on the road.

EDITED TO ADD: THIS IS ONLY FOR THE OMNIA EDITION. IF YOU ORDERED FORMA OR LUX YOUR BOOK HAS NOT GONE OUT YET. 

Some of you noticed you got tracking numbers that hadn't moved, that was an issue with the weather and the local post office which hopefully has been resolved. In any case they came today and took everything we had, old and new. (It may take them a minute to scan it all, but they have it in hand)

If you ordered a solo Forma and have anything you need to change in your pledge, now is the time!

EUROPEANS: your books should also (I think?) start going out this week. The fulfillment house has everything they need as far as I know. Fingers crossed.

Here's the before and after of the pickup (there were even more books behind me)

WE HAVE ACHIEVED GERMAN LIFTOFF
26 days ago – Fri, Jan 30, 2026 at 01:27:50 PM

Why do we feel like we've tricked the devil and survived? It certainly feels like we fought him for 30-40 rounds to get to this post. 

The most important point, that many of you've been waiting for: The European book shipment has been miraculously saved from the Sarlaac pit of German customs and we just got word that it's headed from Hamburg to the Fulfillment house in Bremen. I don't have firm dates on when that means the books will be processed and shipped out to individual backers, but we're getting all the books set up in their system today to expedite it as well as possible on our end. More on that as we know it, and hopefully we'll be able to add tracking numbers to the backerkit system when those start moving. 

ADDITIONALLY: given the almost comical minefield we had to travle to get here, our costs are way up and while your shipping costs will not be affected, I've added some additional stock to the Backerkit store, signed editions of the Complete BLACK CLOUD series and VS, my 2 most recent Image Comics works, in case anyone wants to add them to their box.  

These books will add no additional shipping to any package in the US or Canada (we can't do this with the EU orders, because it would delay everything, and because the cost here would be prohibitive.)

FINALLY: On Monday we'll officially close ALL North American surveys, which we haven't done up til now only out of an abundance of caution in going through each shipment before it leaves. We'll close out the EU next week too, but are prioritizing the shipments coming out of the NY office, since those shipments are already active. 

If your package hasn't shipped, but your survey is closed and you want to reopen it to add anything, drop us a line at HELP at hellodeathray.com

Have a great weekend, every single one of you. 

-i.

Team Deathray. 

Fulfillment update
about 1 month ago – Fri, Jan 23, 2026 at 03:06:20 PM

As mentioned we've already started shipping, we're only doing the US so far, then adding Canada, etc. The majority of our orders are in the US, and this allows us to clear the most space and keep our eyes on the specific part of protocol we're working on, Omnia, then Forma, etc. So while a lot of shipments are going out, they're going out in a specific order, so if you haven't gotten your tracking number (many of you have) it just means we're not there yet. A lot of you have received your books. Also, we've started adding surprises to boxes at random, because who doesn't want a box that's cooler than expected? Every single box gets extra swag, but some are in for a special surprise. 

If, for example, you are superstar writer/artist Phil Hester, we probably wrote hearts all over your package, and hung your picture in our high school locker. 

If you have filled out your survey, which most of you have, and have not yet had it closed or been billed for shipping, don't worry. Because we're the worriers in this relationship, so we're closing each of your surveys manually, one by one, to make sure we don't make any mistakes. This is partially out of efficiency, and partially because we're a teeny company that can't afford to do massive replacements. To date on all our campaigns I think we've had to replace 2 books total. We're pretty proud of that, because it lets us keep moving and get more books out, and when we're done it lets us focus on making new ones. So: if you open your survey and you see your credit card and address are in there, it means you've already filled out your survey, and there's nothing else you need to do. Except wear the hell out of that shirt. Have you been working out?

THE EUROPEAN FULFILLMENT PREDICAMENT:

The unfortunately reality is that the Germans customs situation has been a real nightmare, most of all because time spent navigating German bureaucracy is time that could be spent shipping more books. I will be honest that there's a real chance that we could lose the European shipment, which would cost us quite a bit of money (thousands of dollars) both in stock and in shipping costs. We were pretty sure that was where we stood yesterday, but now a possibility of a solution arose today, and we're going to investigate it and lock down our course of action next week one way or the other. I want to make it very clear that none of you will lose your books, or any money.  While this is a significant amount of stock, especially with 2 limited edition hardcovers, we have more than enough books in NY to cover everyone's orders and ship from here. The only reason we shipped these books to Germany was to save you, the backers, the extreme cost of shipping a giant heavy book from the US to you. So we don't take it lightly to lose this stock and the related costs, and this is obviously a frustrating result for everyone, especially if you understood how much time we invested in setting this up and in trying to save the shipment over the last couple weeks. We're still trying, but if we don't succeed, the loss is ours, and we will ship your books NO MATTER WHAT.

We want to keep making these books for you. We're a tiny shop and we are by no means built for this kind of loss. But none of this is worth it if at the end you don't get to hold these books you made possible. 

To add some possible cheer, I'm adding a picture I found looking for 2016 photos like everyone on the internet. I am pretty awful at keeping my history organized, but luckily one of the few I found was of AKIRA's Katsuhiro Otomo, the king of all comics kings, reading a copy of Drifter almost exactly 10 years ago today in France. (And then a followup where he's smiling and not furious about it)

And just so you know we're working for you in this arctic NYC winter, here's the mountain of books we sent out yesterday in Brooklyn. 

We hope you dig them, because we raised them and fed them and it wasn't easy to send them out to the world. 

Have a great weekend,

-i.