ALIAS SPLITS WITH DBPRO

[MattBrady]

Alias Comics, more often than not in the headlines for the wrong reasons, has released word that as a company, they have officially released DB Pro from its publishing contracts, “without contesting any of their delayed titles or the terms of their departure.”

DB Pro (Dabel Brothers’ Productions) was one of a handful of studios that saw their books published through Alias. Initially, the studio published its adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s The Hedge Knight through Image, moving the series to Devil’s Due for its completion, as well as launching Dragonlance: The Legend of Huma with Devil’s Due.

In 2005, the Dabel Brothers brought their properties to Alias, including Legacy, Imperial Dragons, XIII, Tad Williams’ The Burning Man, and The Burning Man/The Wood Boy trade, Robert Silverberg's: The Seventh Shrine trade, and Orson Scott Card's Wyrms.

According to a statement from Alias, they are releasing DBPro “after a series of late and failed deliveries, and an expression by Dabel Brothers that they would like to return to their roots as an independent publisher.”

From Alias: ““Alias is all about promoting and defending creator and studio rights,” said Alias Publisher, Brett Burner. “DB Pro has been afforded other publishing opportunities which they believe are in their best interests to follow, and we are not in the business of holding creators back from reaching their full potential.”

DBPro will take all their projects with them, and all Alias orders through Diamond for the projects will be cancelled. DBPro currently has a comic adaptation of Robert Jordan’s A New Spring slated to be published through Red Eagle Entertainment, LLC, with whom they have formed a production partnership. The series has seen delays, but is reportedly due to be back on schedule in early 2006.

“Dabel Brothers had a number of books that were behind schedule which we were waiting for them to complete. Unfortunately those books were never finished and delivered to us,” said Burner in the Alias statement. “We understand that [DB Pro Managing Editor] Les Dabel has been exploring independent publishing, so rather than causing undo friction between our companies, Alias has chosen to allow Dabel Brothers to pursue those options, and we wish DB Pro well in their chosen path.”

Books previously solicited through Alias that have now been cancelled by the publisher because of non-delivery include: XIII #6, the XIII trade paperback, Imperial Dragons #2 (and all subsequent issues), The Burning Man (all three issues), and a Seventh Shrine trade paperback.

“We wish them all the best, and hope that their new direction offers them what they could not find with Alias,” said Alias Executive Director Mike S. Miller in the statement.

Releasing DBPro is the latest in a series of moves by Alias that have been made as the company continues to attempt to position itself in the comics market. The publisher was hampered early on when many of its launch titles were delayed, and lateness continued to plague nearly every Alias title after it did get an issue on the shelves. In September, both Runemaster Studios and Monkey Pharmacy split with Alias, with news of the Runemaster split leading to a very contentious discussion thread here at Newsarama. Shortly after those departures, in November, Alias announced that it was reorganizing and updating its business plan “in reaction to the lateness and the continued mishandling of certain financial responsibilities.”

We contacted DBPro’s Les Dabel to learn more about the split from the DBPro side. According to Dabel, Alias was one of a group of publishers DBPro was using. “Unfortunately, Alias solicited our books earlier than we intended because they wanted to have a big launch in the summer,” Dabel told Newsarama. “The only two of these titles that were even close to being ready were Legacy (since it was a reprint) and XIII (since it was an English language adaptation of an existing title). Mike S. Miller of Alias made the questionable decision of censoring XIII and putting out a press release to say he was doing it. This decision was widely regarded as a bad move, but Mike refused to back down. We believe this greatly hurt sales of the first issue, which is ironic considering that the first issue had nothing in the way of questionable content and thus was fully uncensored.

“As for the other titles, Alias cancelled them for what they called ‘non-delivery,’ but we had warned Alias from day one that these projects were not close to completion. We also had no signed contract on file with Alias for these projects. We didn't even know that we were publishing through Alias until we received an email from Alias showing us ads they had taken out for us in Previews. It so happens that someone from Alias had access to our FTP and he took the files he needed without our knowing so. We did Alias a favor by allowing them to publish those books after what they did instead of suing them. We did the Christian thing and did not take any legal actions. Alias needed those projects badly for their big launch, though the way they bungled their first wave of books blew up in everyone's face and hurt sales for the following months.”

Dabel said that the chief problems between DBPro and Alias were due to the fact that both companies were looking in different directions, chasing different goals via different paths.

“DB Pro has been working for about four years now to gain traction in the industry. We are every bit the definition of “the little guy” – we started out as four brothers who just wanted to make comics and we’ve learned the hard way that succeeding in comics is about a lot more than just having a good product – it’s about the deals you make with your publisher and the amount of support you have from your fans and colleagues.

“We put out a quality book called The Hedge Knight in 2003, and it opened a lot of doors for us. The graphic novel is going into its third printing as we speak. We went on to put out Dragonlance: The Legend Of Huma, which was actually selling quite well prior to a problem outside the scope of this discussion that forced us to stop production. We continued on with Robert Jordan’s Wheel Of Time: New Spring, which has done quite well in the comic market, and we’re anticipating this week’s release of our Wood Boy / Burning Man graphic novel will make some waves during the fourth quarter. These are all big titles that are part of a big genre, and they’ve all experienced big interest and big sales.”

Although, to speak in Direct Market terms, “quite well” is always relative to the size of the company and other factors. A New Spring #3, which shipped in November, saw an estimated 4,000 copies ship to retailers – which is roughly the same number of copies sold by Alias’ top-selling titles.

“As for Alias,” Dabel continued, “They’ve been thinking big in a different direction, flooding the market with a wave of #1s and then following up with an odd assortment of everything they could find. Most of these titles were priced at 75 cents for the first issue, which ensured that Alias had to sell four times as many books to make the same amount of money they would have made on a #1 priced at the conventional $3 price point. To put things in perspective, when I had Imperial Dragons solicited through Devil's Due prior to Alias, it would have sold about 4x times more copies at regular price. But through Alias, it sold far less, and for far less.

“Alias has also decided to raise their cover price to $3.50 and cutting their page per book down to only 24. This is something I am totally against and will not allow any of my books to be part of because it lowers the quality of the experience while increasing the price.”

Echoing what many of Alias’ creators have said on message boards in light of studios leaving the publisher and Alias cutting books from its lineup, Dabel added: “Alias is a sinking ship, and it’s sad that they need to resort to these ridiculous tactics to try to strongarm their partners into staying with them. The accusations they have made about me, my brothers, and my staff over the last month have been incredible, and while they claim to support ‘creator’s rights,’ their actions have demonstrated that they’re just a bully and they’re only concerned with building themselves up by taking advantage of those who are just trying to get their books published. I would also note that several of Alias’s partners have brought lawsuits against them for this very reason.

“I’m appalled that they would issue a press release detailing a skewed version of our history and try to pass it off as something that makes them look good. Much of what they say is inaccurate. That is bad business, and it says a lot about how they truly feel about their partners. I can only assume they believe their readers are idiots who can’t read between the lines.

“I will never claim that we’ve done things perfectly at DB Pro or that we haven’t made mistakes – as I said before, we’re just a little guy trying to make our way into the industry. But unlike Alias, we’ve tried to do so with humility and a good nature, and even though we have had our differences with other publishers, we’re also well-respected by most of our colleagues for the work we’ve done.”

While similar in tone to other creators pubsilhing through Alias, Dabel’s comments do not speak for all, as the publisher has several titles that are – albeit slowly – making their way to release and normalizing their schedules.

As for DB Pro’s titles – those which are not lined up with other publishers will come out under the studio’s own label.

“Beginning with this week’s release of The Wood Boy / The Burning Man and going into 2006, Dabel Brothers Production will be self-publishing. Incidentally, Alias has begged us to give them the numbers for our Wood Boy / Burning Man trade paperback, which we have refused to do on the principle that they cancelled the title and we produced it entirely at our own expense.

“And before this raises any concerns for our readers and our fans, let me say that we have a stable source of funding behind our projects and we are ahead of schedule on our spring titles, which include Raymond E. Feist’s Magician Apprentice, Orson Scott Card’s Red Prophet, and our original title Marshal. We also have several other titles planned for release later in 2006, and we anticipate that they will do quite well in both the monthly comic book format and the trade paperback format, as our titles generally do.

“We’re also planning to put out the trade paperback for XIII #1-6 entirely uncensored, as well as to continue the story in XIII vol. 2 #1-6. We’ll issue a press release to that effect once we have some firm details.”

[passiveslacker]

DBPro sure seems to have trouble everywhere they go so I'm sure they are not totally innocent.

But I am glad that I will be able to pick up XIII uncensored.


HAHA FIRST POST!

[Dave_Garcia]

So I guess this means that Mike Miller won't be drawing New Spring any longer.

[Aaron]

I think what's most sad about Alias is their determination to bring dirty laundry into every one of their press releases. For goodness sake, just say you parted ways and leave it at that. There's no need for these constant backhanded compliments that litter their PR pieces. Dabel's right, it just makes them look like a bully, WHOEVER was really in the wrong. It's needless.

Still and all, I wish DB Pro good luck and will check out some of their new stuff as it comes out.

Aaron

[MicroZone]

Both companies seem to be having a lot of problems, but at least the response here from Alias was a lot more professional and classy than that of DBPro. They could have been a lot less snotty here.

[Aaron]

Originally posted by MicroZone
Both companies seem to be having a lot of problems, but at least the response here from Alias was a lot more professional and classy than that of DBPro. They could have been a lot less snotty here.

Wow, you think? I found Alias's press release to be pretty nasty, albeit couched in much softer verbiage. They basically called out DBPro for being lazy, irresponsible slackers and then "wished them well."

It's no wonder at all that DBPro felt it necessary to defend themselves so vociferously. Alias made it clear that this was nothing more than a parting shot and a warning to anyone else who might work with DB Pro as to what to expect... except it was apparently not all truth.

Which is exactly why this stuff should be left unsaid. If DBPro hooks up with another publishing company and they want a reference from Alias, they can call them. A press release isn't the place to trash someone, no matter how subtly (or not so much.) That's just tacky, but it's also par for the course for Alias' management.

Aaron

[ravendrake]

They're both having a lot of problems... the problem with Alias is that this is like an almost exact repeat of what happened earlier with other creators. Just as nasty too. Which leads me to believe that something is wrong with the company, regardless of who is wrong.

[Allen Jaco]

I'm surprised this partnership lasted as long as it did. Both companies seem to have had difficulties working with others throughout their respective histories.

But to be honest, I'm about 100 times more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to the Dabel guys than I am to Mike Miller.

[SeanJJordan]

I'm not speaking in any official capacity for DB Pro here, but I do think it's worth noting that between 2002-2004, Mike Miller was one of the chief decision-makers in DB Pro, and he was at least partially responsible for many of the problems the company had since he negotiated deals with their publishers. He moved on to Alias because DB Pro was broke and was very near closing its doors.

It is ironic, then, that Mr. Miller's company would act as if the Dabel Brothers have been solely responsible for all these problems in the past when he was directly involved.

What a shame that Alias felt it was necessary to air their dirty laundry here...

Incidentally, for a bit of perspective, here is the original press release from Alias, quoted for this story:

Alias Comics announced today that they have officially released creative studio DB Pro from its publishing contracts, without contesting any of their delayed titles or the terms of their departure.

Originally an independent publisher known best for their book 'Waterdogs', the Dabel Brothers then signed contracts with Image Comics to publish 'George R. R. Martin's: The Hedge Knight'. Leaving Image half way through the series, the Dabels joined with Devil’s Due Publishing who published the remainder of 'The Hedge Knight' as well as their unfinished 'Dragonlance: The Legend of Huma' series. The Dabel Brothers joined the launch of Alias Comics in early 2005 with planned titles such as LEGACY TPB, IMPERIAL DRAGONS, XIII, TAD WILLIAMS: THE BURNING MAN, the subsequent 'THE BURNING MAN/THE WOOD BOY TPB, ROBERT SILVERBERG'S: THE SEVENTH SHRINE TPB, ORSON SCOTT CARD'S: WYRMS and more. However, after a series of late and failed deliveries, and an expression by Dabel Brothers that they would like to return to their roots as an independent publisher, Alias has now decided to release the studio from any further publishing obligations.

“Alias is all about promoting and defending creator and studio rights,” said Alias Publisher, Brett Burner. “DB Pro has been afforded other publishing opportunities which they believe are in their best interests to follow, and we are not in the business of holding creators back from reaching their full potential.”

As part of their release, DB Pro will take with them all unfinished and future projects currently in production. All previous Alias orders for these as yet unpublished titles have been cancelled — all titles currently in print will remain available through Diamond.

“Dabel Brothers had a number of books that were behind schedule which we were waiting for them to complete. Unfortunately those books were never finished and delivered to us,” said Burner. “We understand that [DB Pro Managing Editor] Les Dabel has been exploring independent publishing, so rather than causing undo friction between our companies, Alias has chosen to allow Dabel Brothers to forsake their obligations and wish DB Pro well in pursuing their chosen path.”

Books previously solicited through Alias that have now been cancelled by the publisher because of non-delivery include: XIII #6, the XIII TPB, IMPERIAL DRAGONS #2 (and all subsequent issues), THE BURNING MAN (all three issues), and SEVENTH SHRINE TPB.

“We wish them the best, and hope that their new direction offers them what they could not find with Alias,” said Alias Executive Director Mike S. Miller.

[KryptonSite]

Hey this is good for DBPro, because I still refuse to buy anything Mike Miller publishes.

[Clint H]

Oh come on! Dirtly laundry is what Newsarama is all about. There's a link in the article to the past ones where all this stuff was stirred up before. This is good stuff. And what the people want to see! You know Aaron must've been going into withdrawl not being able to talk about Mike. Now he's got open court again. This is what small press is about. It's a risky venture anyone not going in with their eyes wide open is in for some fun surprises! At least Alias is keeping it fun and interesting. Just go ask Graffiksismik what they think about Speakeasy.

[rob liefeld]

It bums me out to read stuff like this.

Certainly both sides have their versions of the issue and I have no interest in taking sides. Just knowing how difficult it is to publish independently nowadays it does no one any favors when the public sniping reaches this level.

Retailers are always looking for THE reason NOT to order something new, and I can't blame them considering they've been burned by nearly every non-DC, Marvel, Dark Horse publisher, myself included. This just supplies them with another reason to stay away from indies.

rob

[Aaron]

Originally posted by Clint H
Oh come on! Dirtly laundry is what Newsarama is all about. There's a link in the article to the past ones where all this stuff was stirred up before. This is good stuff. And what the people want to see! You know Aaron must've been going into withdrawl not being able to talk about Mike. Now he's got open court again.

As flattered as I am, Mike, let's not make this about me.

[Clint H]

Thank God! Rob Liefeld the voice of reason.

[Clint H]

Sweet! Aaron thinks I'm Mike, god I love comics and newsrama. Everybody buy the HyperActives!!!! #0 has an awesome pin-up where I ape Rob! Check it out!! Fight!

[twoarmman]

Wow, you think? I found Alias's press release to be pretty nasty, albeit couched in much softer verbiage. They basically called out DBPro for being lazy, irresponsible slackers and then "wished them well."

Well you obviously bring a bit of baggage when looking at this…

I do hate that this type of thing is such a huge part of the entertainment industry.

[Aaron]

Originally posted by twoarmman
Well you obviously bring a bit of baggage when looking at this…

Yeah, it's just me that's interpreting it that way.

[MShivers]

Arrgh!

What does this mean for "The New Spring"? I ordered this (directly from Red Eagle) and just got Issues #1-4 in the mail yesterday. They are beautiful... no question.

I will be severely bummed if the series doesn't finish, and was really hoping that it did well enough to warrant additional adaptations of Jordan's Wheel of Time....

- m

[twoarmman]

Originally posted by Aaron
Yeah, it's just me that's interpreting it that way.

I'm just saying...

[Book of GOB]

Between Alias and Speakeasy's collective nosedives, this isn't the Year of the Independents, that's for sure.

[SeanJJordan]

Originally posted by MShivers
Arrgh!

What does this mean for "The New Spring"? I ordered this (directly from Red Eagle) and just got Issues #1-4 in the mail yesterday. They are beautiful... no question.

I will be severely bummed if the series doesn't finish, and was really hoping that it did well enough to warrant additional adaptations of Jordan's Wheel of Time....

- m

New Spring is being published through Red Eagle Entertainment, not Alias. It's still on track, and we're working on issue #6 as I post this.

[MShivers]

Originally posted by SeanJJordan
New Spring is being published through Red Eagle Entertainment, not Alias. It's still on track, and we're working on issue #6 as I post this.

Phew!

I mean, I knew that New Spring was Red Eagle and not Alias... but somebody's comment about Miller drawing the book had me concerned.

Will there be an artistic shift in subsequent issues...?

- m

[Rawle Austin]

Originally posted by rob liefeld
It bums me out to read stuff like this.

Certainly both sides have their versions of the issue and I have no interest in taking sides. Just knowing how difficult it is to publish independently nowadays it does no one any favors when the public sniping reaches this level.

Retailers are always looking for THE reason NOT to order something new, and I can't blame them considering they've been burned by nearly every non-DC, Marvel, Dark Horse publisher, myself included. This just supplies them with another reason to stay away from indies.

rob

Couldn't agree more. If the retailers don't order them then the battle's over right there. It's all down to having a sound business plan.

A plan that's verified by successful business people. Sure comics is a creative field first and foremost, but business acumen is essential for survival.

If sites like Newsarama and Pulse weren't around to market the smaller publishers then this superhero junkie would probably be Marvel/DC/Image exclusive.

I hope both parties learn from this and go on to grow successful businesses as that's what we need. A strong, thriving industry.

Just my two pence worth.


Growler

[Boyardee]

From the article: "“The only two of these titles that were even close to being ready were Legacy (since it was a reprint) and XIII (since it was an English language adaptation of an existing title). "

Then why was XIII constantly late? Is that Aliases fault?

Anda this: " To put things in perspective, when I had Imperial Dragons solicited through Devil's Due prior to Alias, it would have sold about 4x times more copies at regular price. But through Alias, it sold far less, and for far less."

Imperial Dragons was solicited back when you were with Devil's Due? Then shoudln't it have been done by the time you cancelled that and then solicited it with Alias?

I mean come on. If it's 'done enough' to solicit with DDP, why wasn't it 'done enough' to solicit with Alias? Alias needs to be better informed about what it's creators are done with. There are already too many late books in this industry.

And I don't remember, but did DDP ever solicit The Burning Man?

I don't know. Alias seems to have been taking it in the shorts a lot lately, but I don't see a lot of sense coming out of the Dables either.

I guess I'll wait and see. Time will tell if either of these companies survive the next year.

[Mike S Miller]

Originally posted by MShivers
Phew!

I mean, I knew that New Spring was Red Eagle and not Alias... but somebody's comment about Miller drawing the book had me concerned.

Will there be an artistic shift in subsequent issues...?

- m

I won't be drawing the series any longer. Sorry to say.

No idea who will be taking over, but the last work I did was the first half of issue 5.