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View Full Version : DC/2000 AD - I'm really ticked off


Babytoxie
04-13-2005, 12:32 AM
Any fans of DC's 2000AD reprints? You'd better sit down. From Newsarama:

DC SHEDS 2000AD/REBELLION & HUMANOIDS

Their absence in the July solicitations was duly noted by the respective fans of the UK and France-based publishers, and DC late today issued an explanation for the missing 200AD/Rebellion and Humanoids solicitations: the publisher has ended its relationships with the European publishers, and will no longer publish their material in North America.

In a release, the publisher wrote: “DC Comics regrets to announce the discontinuation of its Humanoids and 2000 A.D. titles.

“The company’s respect for the Humanoids and 2000 A.D. stories, characters and talent, however, continues unabated, and we hope both lines are welcomed by a U.S. publisher better able to find deserving audiences for these titles.”

The alliances with the two publishers was seen as many as a bold move by DC, as well as one aimed at increasing their presence in bookstores, by looking to Europe, rather than exclusively to Asia for material to import. DC’s publication of Humanoids titles began in July 2004, while the publication of 2000AD titles began in September 2004.

Speaking to Newsarama last April about the lines, DC VP of Sales, Bob Wayne said: “It’s safe to say that DC continues to have a very wide definition of what’s a comic book, and what’s an entertaining way to tell comic book stories. And we’re willing to go all over the planet to bring those different visions, and that diversity to the comic book market, just to make things available to the readers that have been with us for a long time, and to show them that there are other flavors of comics, much in the same way that we have the DCU, with Vertigo, and Wildstorm.”

However, both the 2000AD and Humanoids lines - despite presenting some of the most acclaimed comics to come from Europe in the past two decades – failed to catch on both in the direct market, and more importantly, as Newsarama’s Brian Hibbs noted, in the bookstore market.

In looking at the 2004 Bookscan numbers, Hibbs pointed out that of DC’s three imprints (Humanoids, 2000AD and CMX), only one title cracked the Bookscan list of top selling graphic novels for 2004, CMX’s Land of the Blindfolded. Hibbs said: “CMX, 2000AD, and Humanoids are all putatively ‘book store imprints,’ yet of all of the 2004 releases, only one makes the chart – volume 1 of Land of the Blindfolded with a, frankly, pathetic 1270 copies sold. These non-existent showings for these imprints is nearly worse than embarrassing – it’s nearly criminal. One imagines this is one of the reasons new Senior Vice President Stephanie Fierman was just brought in. The Direct Market bought 2602 copies of Land of the Blindfolded v1 – more than twice as many, and that number reflects no reorders. Clearly, DC is doing poorly with new publishing initiatives in front of the customers these initiatives were aimed at, and that should be a very scary thing for them.”

June will see the final Humanoids/2000AD titles shipped by DC. While the publisher did not mention it, it is assumed that titles still listed on Amazon or other online bookseller sites as shipping after July 2005 are cancelled. According to the publisher, the final Humanoids titles to be published by DC Comics will be The Incal Vol. 2: The Epic Journey TP (APR050385) and Transgenesis 2025 Vol. 1: Ancestor Program TP (APR050387), scheduled to arrive in stores in June.

The final 2000 A.D. titles to be published by DC Comics will be The Ballad Of Halo Jones TP (APR050382), The Complete Indigo Prime TP (APR050383), and Rogue Trooper Vol. 2: Fort Neuro TP (APR050384), scheduled to arrive in stores in June.

Titles from both lines published by DC Comics prior to these dates will continue to be available as backlist items.

@#$*! They've barely even scratched the surface of this classic material, and now it's time to s#!tcan them??? Holy cow! :mad:

Croatoa
04-13-2005, 11:29 PM
There were supposed to be two more volumes of John Cassaday's I Am Legion.
I wonder if we'll ever get to see these

Babytoxie
04-14-2005, 08:26 AM
Now it appears that 2000 AD is going to make additional books available in the US. So that's good.

No word on Humanoids, though... that's bad.

Car50n
04-14-2005, 02:55 PM
quality stuff gets axed again. these guys blow.

Babytoxie
04-14-2005, 03:37 PM
quality stuff gets axed again. these guys blow.

:laugh:
Quite right, well said!