Just give me my damn book!

OK... I've ordered the first year collection book from my favorite web comic artist. He has contracted Starline Multimedia to handle orders, and they in turn have Vault Distribution send the book out. I ordered the book on Nov 18th, it was processed on Nov 21st. After around 3 weeks of anxiously anticipating getting my book in the mail I went to their website to see what the hold up was. It turns out that they had just put a new news article on their site stating that Vault distribution has breached their contract and has been unable to supply books for the last 2-3 months. They go on to say that I should email them at their two email addresses to determine if my order was lost and then I should email the artist himself to get my book because he has a stockpile of books he can send out. So I emailed Starline to see if it was lost or not. I get the message that their inbox is full but the server will keep trying. 3 days later the server gives up. On the 2nd of December I email them again, it goes through. No response. On the 12th of December I email both addresses again. No response. On the 28th I email both addresses again and also I email the artist himself. No response. It also turns out the artist is on vacation. That's understandable, he can do that. But I demand some recognition from Starline. So I phone the creditcard, they say that they can't cancel the order, it's too late. They can however, do a legal dispute to get my money back.... My $30. Doesn't seem that worth it does it? But I want my money or my book. Should I continue with the pestering emails in a vain hope that something will happen or should I continue the legal dispute for my piddly amount of cash? Keep in mind that I don't want anything negative towards the artist, just Vault for not getting me my book and Starline for not freeking responding to any damned email I sent. I'm gonna send another one I think, threatening the legal dispute. Maybe they'll pay attention to strong arm tactics. Seems like that's the only thing any body listens to any more. You try to be nice by not ripping em a new ahole the first time you try to establish a solution. Maybe I should next time. Just get right into it. But then I wouldn't have the self satisfaction of being such a nice fucking guy. :P