DEATHLOK DETOUR CANCELLED FOR JANUARY - TO BE RESCHEDULED

[MattBrady]

Marvel has notified retailers that presently, Deathlok: Detour has been cancelled, and all orders for #1 and #2 (slated for a January release) have been cancelled. Marvel’s statement said that the series will be resolicited at a later date.

Miniseries artist, Darick Robertson declined to comment when contacted by Newsarama.

[Chris Hunter]

What the??!?!

[brazilgilliam]

Wow. Did they say why exactly they were going to cancel? Poor sales? Feud between Darick and Marvel? What? I love Robertson and I was even considering picking up the trade of this when it came out. That sucks more than Mega Maid in Spaceballs.

[J.D. Lombardi]

lol and we thought it was bad when Jemas was running things day-to-day...haha I think it'll put a small smile on his face, knowing that fans may finally realize he wasn't completly the villain that he was made to loook at Marvel.

I'm not a supporter of him, but he clearly has nothing to do with all these recent cancellings and creators leaving...and they are happening more frequently since he has left.

Can't say that I'm disappointed though. I like Darick's work but I think that Deathlock is one of the lamest characters ever.

[MMJ]

I was looking forward to this mini actually, purely for Darick's artwork, which looked quite stunning. Not impressed with the cancellation news.

[cyclopsfan]

I wasn't in for this one anyway. I dig Robertson's art, but the character is just too uninteresting in everything he has been in up until now for my tastes.

[J.C. Bakken]

I think read somewhere, some time that this mini wasn't running along as smoothly as it should, and that it might be a little late.

Looks like that was true then, late indeed.

But as always, to little information.

[Mr. Special ED]

Well considering that the series wasnt going to be a DeathLock retread, and seemed to have a fair amount of humor, I was all for it.

[Christian Otte]

Darick Robertson has an exclusive contract with Marvel, so I doubt he's the problem... we'll see.

[Rafael]

My god, we can use some good new from Marvel because ... this last month, we just received bad news

[Zeus]

Originally posted by brazilgilliam
I was even considering picking up the trade of this when it came out.

Maybe because too many people were waiting on the trade, and not enough intrest was shown for them to spend the money publishing it?

Its something i wont ever understand...if you dont support the monthly comic, who says it'll even be collected into a trade? Just boggles my mind.

[gOgIver]

Oh yeah, pin it on the new guy.

but you know, you may be right

[Zeus]

(tips hat)

Danke'.

And not to say i dont UNDERSTAND the basis behind the whole "dont have enough money to spend on month comics, so i buy trades" or "the pacing of the stories is too long, so i just wait to get them all collected". Ok, fine. But once again...if you dont support the monthly comic, then who says it'll ever reach a trade?

Everyone talks about Sentinel and Runaways...and now, dont get me wrong, i LOVE Runaways, and i buy it every month, because it IS that good...those books will be cancelled if the monthly sales dont go up...and thats something i'd hate to see.

[Michael C Lorah]

And not to say i dont UNDERSTAND the basis behind the whole "dont have enough money to spend on month comics, so i buy trades" or "the pacing of the stories is too long, so i just wait to get them all collected". Ok, fine. But once again...if you dont support the monthly comic, then who says it'll ever reach a trade?

Everyone talks about Sentinel and Runaways...and now, dont get me wrong, i LOVE Runaways, and i buy it every month, because it IS that good...those books will be cancelled if the monthly sales dont go up...and thats something i'd hate to see.

I actually just addressed this under Stuart's last A Thousand Flowers column.

To me, as a trade reader, it comes down to this- I don't have time or money to read every series I want to read anyway. The interesting ones that get collected will get my money.

Heck, I can't even afford to buy all the trades and OGNs I want, so life without monthlies isn't so hard, unless you really follow everything a certain creator does or everything a certain character appears in. I just read comics that catch my eye, so buying almost exclusively trades is perfectly reasonable for me.

It may not work for everybody, but, like I said, I can't afford or find time to read all the trades out there that interest me. ONI, Top Shelf, Vertigo, Dark Horse, Abstract, Image, Cartoon, Viz, AiT- these people are cranking out huge numbers of books, without even getting into the mainstream Marvel and DC stuff.
I can't afford to add any monthlies on top of this stuff.

I still wish pretty all titles well, even monthlies and stuff that has zero interest to me. Diversity of material and format is a good thing after all. I'm not one of those people who wants monthlies to go away. I just prefer trades.

[Damian]

originally posted by Zeus
Its something i wont ever understand...if you dont support the monthly comic, who says it'll even be collected into a trade? Just boggles my mind.

it's not that mind boggling that people don't bother with the monthly comics. i can think of a few reasons.

1) there's cost. it can be more expensive to collect a story issue by issue than to buy the trade, and not just in terms of money. even if the pamphlet cover prices equal the TPB , there's still the extra investment of time and effort that comes along with tracking down a full run of a series in issues.

2) that leads to a problem of motivation. if it's already a pain in the ass to keep up with the series you know you enjoy, why would you bother taking on the added hassle of trying out something you're not sure about?

**reason 3 has sold out. there will be no reprints of reason 3. you should've been here the instant this was posted on new message board post day. if you really want to read reason 3, it is available on e-bay, being sold in a set with reasons 1 and 2. the current bid is $45.**

4) even with Previews, reason 3 still holds water. and remember also the point i made in reason 3 also effects growing an audience for a title. trade paper backs and original graphic novels are just easier for the casual reader.

[Zeus]

Originally posted by Damian
it's not that mind boggling that people don't bother with the monthly comics. i can think of a few reasons.

1) there's cost. it can be more expensive to collect a story issue by issue than to buy the trade, and not just in terms of money. even if the pamphlet cover prices equal the TPB , there's still the extra investment of time and effort that comes along with tracking down a full run of a series in issues.

2) that leads to a problem of motivation. if it's already a pain in the ass to keep up with the series you know you enjoy, why would you bother taking on the added hassle of trying out something you're not sure about?

**reason 3 has sold out. there will be no reprints of reason 3. you should've been here the instant this was posted on new message board post day. if you really want to read reason 3, it is available on e-bay, being sold in a set with reasons 1 and 2. the current bid is $45.**

4) even with Previews, reason 3 still holds water. and remember also the point i made in reason 3 also effects growing an audience for a title. trade paper backs and original graphic novels are just easier for the casual reader.

Motivation...Effort...lord, whats wrong with the youth of America these days?

In seriousness, valid concerns, but then no one should ever bitch about a series being cancelled, or in this case, not starting period, if they dont support the monthly comic.

and the added hassle of trying a comic you've never heard of before? be serious, you pick it up, leaf through it, drop 3 bucks, and you're set. If you dont like it, you dont buy another one.

And before anyone starts bitching about not having money, let me say that i go to college full time, pay my car insurance and phone bill, not to mention all my food, yet only make about 120 bucks a week in a shitty part time job, and i can afford to drop 3 bucks, anyone can.

[grphxkindaguy]

Originally posted by Rafael
My god, we can use some good new from Marvel because ... this last month, we just received bad news

I concur, lately things in the comics world have been pretty bleak.

All the Crossgen restructuring, Jemas getting demoted, Starlin off of Thanos and now Deathlok not going forward.

STOP THE INSANITY!!!

[grphxkindaguy]

Originally posted by Zeus
And before anyone starts bitching about not having money, let me say that i go to college full time, pay my car insurance and phone bill, not to mention all my food, yet only make about 120 bucks a week in a shitty part time job, and i can afford to drop 3 bucks, anyone can.

I agree w/you 100%.

I guess people would just rather spend their money on something else.....

Why does everyone think that comics will magically stay dirt cheap in price ("like when we were kids"), when everything else in our lives has increased in price over time? When I tell people that comics on average these days are about $2.50, they act shocked, like someone is trying to pull something over on them.

If you don't want to pay that much for a comic book, don't. JUST DON'T BITCH ABOUT IT, no one has a gun to your head.

[J.D. Lombardi]

I seriously doubt that Darick is the reason for the cancellation too...he's had time off of Wolvie just to do this mini and never missed a Transmet issue either. He is cool on deadlines...

but something that struck me as a little odd is...I posted this mini newsbrief on Darick's site, in his Marvel U boards...and he deleted the entire thread. So, oddly enough, it seems as though he don't want his fans there to know.

[Cartoon Jay]

Originally posted by Damian
it's not that mind boggling that people don't bother with the monthly comics. i can think of a few reasons.

1) there's cost. it can be more expensive to collect a story issue by issue than to buy the trade, and not just in terms of money. even if the pamphlet cover prices equal the TPB , there's still the extra investment of time and effort that comes along with tracking down a full run of a series in issues.

2) that leads to a problem of motivation. if it's already a pain in the ass to keep up with the series you know you enjoy, why would you bother taking on the added hassle of trying out something you're not sure about?

**reason 3 has sold out. there will be no reprints of reason 3. you should've been here the instant this was posted on new message board post day. if you really want to read reason 3, it is available on e-bay, being sold in a set with reasons 1 and 2. the current bid is $45.**

4) even with Previews, reason 3 still holds water. and remember also the point i made in reason 3 also effects growing an audience for a title. trade paper backs and original graphic novels are just easier for the casual reader.

I gotta chime in on this (ongoing) debate. I agree with everything you say, Damian. I greatly prefer trades to monthlies, and I'm tired of people who share this view being condemned on message boards. If it's what we want, if it's how we want to read a story, why should we feel bad about not supporting a monthly book til it gets to trade?

Do away with monthlies! Wait til you have a top teir writer/artist team, let them take their time, and release it as a trade. It might even hit the bestsellers list like Endless Nights did.

I prefer trades because:

1) I want to read the story in one go. It's more enjoyable, and feels like a more complete experiance to me.

2) It's more cost effective. And bottom line, I'm concerned about my wallet and don't like wasting money. It's publishers milking the market for more money, like novels that go from Hard Cover to a $15 trade to an 8$ mass market, or endless DVD releases of the same movie with slightly different features.

I'd think publishing trades would be better for the creators too. A trade gets more exposure in the book market, stays on shelves longer, and has a higher price point. Creators collect their page rate, and if something does well it stays on the shelves for years potentaily earning more back end money for a longer period. Monthlies just go into a back issue bin and make nothing past their initial sale for anyone. Money might inspire, say, Jim Lee and Jeph Loeb to put out one nice sized story a year for a number of years. Imagine the creative teams we could keep together!

Anywho, that's my 2 cents.

PS Deathlock is an uninspired, unoriginal character. I would not have purchased the series, but I might have grabbed the trade if only to get a nice collection of art. Then, the writer has my attention and time to impress me.

That's why I buy so many Manga collections. For 9.95 i get 300 pages to see if I like it. Marvel gives me 22 pages for half the money. It's a bad deal.

[Cartoon Jay]

A few things to amend my last post;

A publisher canceling a monthly before it has a chance to go to trade is a bit like a movie studio not releasing a film because the trailer didn't do well. It's backwards thinking, imho. You judge the true value or merits of a movie or book after it ends, not in the first 5 minutes.

Plus, there's nothing like a big, fat american-style super hero comic. Don't get me wrong, I love my manga (and the Trigun manga that hit this month is a must-have) and my Tin Tin, but what I wouldn't give to have 300+ pages of Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez drawn Teen Titans hit once a year.

[Kerouac]

And not to say i dont UNDERSTAND the basis behind the whole "dont have enough money to spend on month comics, so i buy trades"

See, that's a reasoning I don't get. Buying Marvel's trades usually costs about the same price as buying the issues they collect. The only rationales I can buy into are a) coming into the series late and not wanting to catch up to the issues and b) storage reasons. But that's just me.

Matt

[Michael C Lorah]

See, that's a reasoning I don't get. Buying Marvel's trades usually costs about the same price as buying the issues they collect. The only rationales I can buy into are a) coming into the series late and not wanting to catch up to the issues and b) storage reasons. But that's just me.

Just speaking for myself, price is not a consideration. I buy trades because I prefer reading the story in total. It is a more satisfying experience for me.
That's it. No other reason.

I've even passed on on-the-fence titles after they got collected, for example Hush and Global Frequency, because I will have to buy two separate books to get the story.

I do buy multi-volume series on occasion, usually if the length is impossible to fit into one book - ex. Sandman or Usagi Yojimbo. But if it can fit into one book, why would you stretch it out?
Aside from being able to charge for it twice

[Michael C Lorah]

btw, here's hoping Deathlok still comes out, is good, and gets very successful trade paperback.

(is it me, or does every single cancellation thread - which this isn't even, as it's more of a postponement announcement - turn into the same debate lately?)

[Zeus]

I guess i still get excited when i go to my comic store for the new releases every Thursday morning, when my pull list is complete. And how i like the cliffhangers...having to wait till next month to find out. If its a comic that i havent read, i will pick up the trade, ie. the new Captain Marvel series, the first few issues of Alias, whatever, books i want to know more about, but i'll still pick up the monthlies...its fun to wait. Who dosent love a good cliffhanger?

People who wait for "complete stories" in trades, thats who!