It's over folks....., err well let's hope not.

comicsyte95 · Post by **comicsyte95** » Sat May 07, 2011 11:56 am

This is really disappointing news the run was starting to show potential,the gold key run was all the new comics i was buying.I guess im back to only buying back issues.

iggy101us · Post by **iggy101us** » Sat May 07, 2011 11:58 am

FLORK!

iggy101us · Post by **iggy101us** » Sat May 07, 2011 12:07 pm

From bleedingcool quoting JayJay: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/05/07/ ... cancelled/

For the last year, Dark Horse has been publishing titles originally published by Gold Key and owned by Classic Media, Magnus, Robot Fighter, Turok, Son Of Stone, Doctor Solar, Man Of The Atom and continuity algned titles such as Mighty Samson and Doctor Spekto. And they has the man who relaunched these comics in the nineties to much success with Valiant, Jim Shooter, to write them. And used Free Comic Book Day last year to launch the titles.

However, there had been delays on the books and a number of people had noticed that the comics seemed to have disappeared from the Dark Horse website, solicitations for future issues not present. Only Magnus and Mighty Samson are listen for the end of the month after that, nothing. And the August solicitations only has Doctor Solar listed – and absebt from the Dark Horse website, along with June and July solicited titles.

In this context, Janet Jackson (not the singer) creative collaborator and partner of Jim Shooter for decades, posted;

"Unfortunately, Dark Horse has cancelled the books. They are doing a few more, I think to finish out enough issue to do trade PB, but because of the high price of the license from Classic Media, dropping sales figures as well as increasing interference from Classic Media into the content of the comics, Dark Horse decided to drop the books. They still like Jim and want to work with him on some things. He’s still very disappointed. But Classic Media is asking too much for too little and they’ve caused problems as well.

I’m so sorry to have to tell you. Or to even have to say it. It’s very disappointing. I was really loving the stories."

Word from Dark Horse however is that there were no problems with Classic Media. I feel a “he said, she said” back-and-forth on the way…

iggy101us · Post by **iggy101us** » Sat May 07, 2011 12:15 pm

comicsyte95 wrote:This is really disappointing news the run was starting to show potential,the gold key run was all the new comics i was buying.I guess im back to only buying back issues.

The DK books was the main reason I started an online subscription. Without the DK books, I don't think there's a need for that anymore.

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Sat May 07, 2011 12:18 pm

comicsyte95 wrote:This is really disappointing news the run was starting to show potential,the gold key run was all the new comics i was buying.I guess im back to only buying back issues.

Same here.

iggy101us · Post by **iggy101us** » Sat May 07, 2011 12:33 pm

Dark Horse is going to claim Classic Media charged too much for licensing. CM is going to say that the fee is reasonable if DH sold more books. DH is going to say that need to pay more for artists/creators and marketing, money that they don't have due to high licensing fees . . .

I guess no more Gold Key archives either then. I really like those.

xodacia81 · Post by **xodacia81** » Sat May 07, 2011 12:38 pm

slym2none wrote:
BruceReville wrote:
Unblessed wrote:Bruce, reading your bold posts makes me think someone is talking while on the can and passing a rather large one as they are talking, again, on the can.

Y'all are welcome for the mental image.

You don't know how close to the truth you are.
Hey, Heath has a 'crappy' copy of Rai #0 he can send you that you can read on the sh!tter. It's already familiar with that setting.

-slym

Ahh, another board legend. Shall we tell Bruce about the tape, the book and the curly hair?

Brother J · Post by **Brother J** » Sat May 07, 2011 1:40 pm

was seriously thinking about buying Dr. Solar #5 and #6 today at the LCS, glad I saved the money.

400yrs · Post by **400yrs** » Sat May 07, 2011 1:57 pm

iggy101us wrote:Dark Horse is going to claim Classic Media charged too much for licensing. CM is going to say that the fee is reasonable if DH sold more books. DH is going to say that need to pay more for artists/creators and marketing, money that they don't have due to high licensing fees . . . .

Yep. Bottom line is that these books never gave themselves a chance because of the delays. It sounds like that's on both Jim and Dark Horse.

superggraphics · Post by **superggraphics** » Sat May 07, 2011 2:17 pm

I supported the line from the beginning and will do so till the end. The haters and naysayers (you know who you are) are probably very smug and happy with themselves as all haters and naysayers are when proven correct. Congratulations.

George E Warner
superggraphics

Earl · Post by **Earl** » Sat May 07, 2011 2:26 pm

What a shame.

400yrs · Post by **400yrs** » Sat May 07, 2011 4:07 pm

superggraphics wrote:I supported the line from the beginning and will do so till the end. The haters and naysayers (you know who you are) are probably very smug and happy with themselves as all haters and naysayers are when proven correct. Congratulations.

George E Warner
superggraphics

I gave the line a shot, but they blew it on me with the delays and I'm sure others feel the same way.

Those of us who commented on the probable demise of the line are simply more observant and realistic. I'm not happy about it because I know there are people out there who still really want the books and I hate it when a book I like is cancelled (see PROOF and Cowboy Ninja Viking. However, that's the nature of the beast in today's comic market. There's very little room for error. Delays on a non big 2 book are pretty much doom.

Cyberstrike · Post by **Cyberstrike** » Sat May 07, 2011 4:26 pm

superggraphics wrote:I supported the line from the beginning and will do so till the end. The haters and naysayers (you know who you are) are probably very smug and happy with themselves as all haters and naysayers are when proven correct. Congratulations.

George E Warner
superggraphics

I'm not happy about it. I can't say that I'm surprised though.

Triumphant Serial Number · Sat May 07, 2011 4:27 pm

sad day, I'm deeply disappointed.

Unfortunately as I understand things Classic Media also own/control the Defiant and Broadway characters, so it's not like Shooter can just go and get those.

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Sat May 07, 2011 4:52 pm

iggy101us wrote:Dark Horse is going to claim Classic Media charged too much for licensing. CM is going to say that the fee is reasonable if DH sold more books. DH is going to say that need to pay more for artists/creators and marketing, money that they don't have due to high licensing fees . . .

DH should have taken the price of licensing into consideration before they agreed to the terms. Again it just sounds very amateurish to use that as an excuse later. As low as the print numbers were from the very beginning, they could not have possibly thought this was going to be a money making juggernaut. A shame they've bungled everything and bailed so quickly.

iggy101us · Post by **iggy101us** » Sat May 07, 2011 4:58 pm

Daniel Jackson wrote:
iggy101us wrote:Dark Horse is going to claim Classic Media charged too much for licensing. CM is going to say that the fee is reasonable if DH sold more books. DH is going to say that need to pay more for artists/creators and marketing, money that they don't have due to high licensing fees . . .
DH should have taken the price of licensing into consideration before they agreed to the terms. Again it just sounds very amateurish to use that as an excuse later. As low as the print numbers were from the very beginning, they could not have possibly thought this was going to be a money making juggernaut. A shame they've bungled everything and bailed so quickly.

I agree that they bailed way too quickly. The stories and art are getting better and readers are starting to see how things are coming together. If the licensing fees are too high, DH and CM could have renegotiated the fees after seeing the print run dropping off.

comicsyte95 · Post by **comicsyte95** » Sat May 07, 2011 5:02 pm

iggy101us wrote:
Daniel Jackson wrote:
iggy101us wrote:Dark Horse is going to claim Classic Media charged too much for licensing. CM is going to say that the fee is reasonable if DH sold more books. DH is going to say that need to pay more for artists/creators and marketing, money that they don't have due to high licensing fees . . .
DH should have taken the price of licensing into consideration before they agreed to the terms. Again it just sounds very amateurish to use that as an excuse later. As low as the print numbers were from the very beginning, they could not have possibly thought this was going to be a money making juggernaut. A shame they've bungled everything and bailed so quickly.
I agree that they bailed way too quickly. The stories and art are getting better and readers are starting to see how things are coming together. If the licensing fees are too high, DH and CM could have renegotiated the fees after seeing the print run dropping off.

Good point.

Cyberstrike · Post by **Cyberstrike** » Sat May 07, 2011 5:34 pm

There is also point of Classic Media creatively interfering with the books.

ian_house · Post by **ian_house** » Sat May 07, 2011 6:10 pm

Its a shame but unsurprising. They were selling such low numbers and the the delays killed them. I was really enjoying Magnus.

Draco · Post by **Draco** » Sat May 07, 2011 6:58 pm

ian_house wrote:Its a shame but unsurprising. They were selling such low numbers and the the delays killed them. I was really enjoying Magnus.

I just read Turok # 1 and loved it.

dave · Post by **dave** » Sat May 07, 2011 7:05 pm

This is terrible news. I believe that the books could have really done something with the positive word of mouth that was beginning to surround these books.

Laying it on Jim seems like the easy way out, just because other universes he's been associated with have failed. Apparently it took an artist four months to finish one of the books. No one has been waiting on his scripts.

Since they are releasing a tpb for Solar, and that seems to be where the money is these days, why not wait till after the sales returns on that one come in before announcing this?

The amount classic media was charging didn't suddenly change, what was Dark Horse expecting?

I'm angry.

The idea that this is good because VEI can have their chance now is laughable.

Knightt · Post by **Knightt** » Sat May 07, 2011 7:36 pm

Wow, I am taking this news hard today. It was just two days ago that I read Doctor Solar #6 and thought to myself, 'this title is really starting ti hit it's stride'. The origin story in the middle of the book was fleshing out (no pun intended due to what is happening to Phil in the story) the Phil/Gail relationship pretty well and also had very nice art. The new 'bad guy' in the main storyline was really turning out evil and seemed to be enjoying the incredible amount of pain while in the blackhole event and dammit it was really starting to come together for me.

I REALLY tried to stay positive through all of this and still like all the books in my own niche fashion but today I scratched off all of the titles from my pull list at my LCS even though I have an online subscription as well... Bummed me out to do that and even with everything 25% off in the store, I didn't buy anything else except my additional copies of Doctor Solar and Turok.

I just didn't have the heart to look around.

I would like to thank Cyberstrike for not trying to rub my face in all this...

This really stinks. I especially feel for JC Vaughn, he told me this was like a 'dream gig' for him and his positive energy was ALWAYS so strong.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Sat May 07, 2011 8:32 pm

I really wish they could have given the line another year at least. Things were just getting really good.

Maybe they can pursue some old Hanna-Barbera licenses and do continuity aligned books with Thundarr The Barbarian, Johnny Quest, and The Herculoids.

Triumphant Serial Number · Sat May 07, 2011 10:47 pm

I'm guessing the Classic Media dollar requirements were a much bigger factor than what DH is telling the media.

If the problem was Jim Shooter, they would just fire him and get one of the other hundred writers they've used to get the books out.

Unblessed · Post by **Unblessed** » Sat May 07, 2011 11:48 pm

Triumphant Serial Number wrote:I'm guessing the Classic Media dollar requirements were a much bigger factor than what DH is telling the media.

If the problem was Jim Shooter, they would just fire him and get one of the other hundred writers they've used to get the books out.

In the end, we all know whos fault this was. No need to say anything.