James Robinson tweets the truly depressing news that The Shade may end before its time, if sales on the mini don’t improve:
If sales don’t improve it may be cancelled before the 12 issues are done.
Truly depressing, of course, for two reasons:
- It means that DC is joining Marvel in the “finishing mini-series before their limited run is done” school of thought (Mind you, DC have a history of this; The Great Ten and, years ago, Slash Maraud were canceled early).
- The Shade is a great book with a fantastic art line-up. Future issues are slated to have work by Jill Thompson, Darwyn Cooke, Javier Pulido and Frazer Irving, and when you factor in current artist Cully Hamner, that’s pretty much an unbeatable line-up of talent right there.
DC told CBR that there were no plans to pull the series earlier, but it’d be nice to see numbers rise on this series to ensure that doesn’t come up as a hypothetical again anytime soon.
November 29th, 2011 at 10:32 am
It would be a real shame not to be able to see this series through to the end. Unfortunately, Diamond isn’t helping it any. I thoroughly enjoyed the first issue, went to my LCS (Star Clipper Comics in St. Louis, MO. What a great bunch of people they are!) for the second issue only to find that the shipment had been shorted and they don’t know when or if they can get replacement copies. As a result, I’ll be waiting for the trade so I can read the story as a whole without missing issues.
This is a common problem with Diamond. The same thing happened with the most recent issue of RACHEL RISING and has happened with other comics, as well on an increasingly regular basis over the last couple of years. With the industry as a whole struggling, it amazes me that the publishers put up with this level of damaging incompetence in their distributor.
November 29th, 2011 at 10:48 am
That seriously sucks. It is the best comic out there now, a throwback to when Robinson was king of the hill at DC and comics could be adult without being R-rated.
But DC has not really given this much support. It’s not getting the promotion of the New 52 books, and seems very much an orphan. Or rather, the last child of the old DCU. I have to say, the timing on this release could have been better, since this is very much not meant for new readers. Might have been smarter to hold off till the new books were established better and then done a better job making it accessible to the hordes who never read Starman.
Of course, everyone should read Starman. But as awesome as that was, it was also not for newbies. Its strength and its weakness was how connected it was to 60 years of DC history.
November 29th, 2011 at 11:04 am
I picked up the first issue of this, as I was a huge fan of Starman back in the day and the Shade was my favorite of that series’s huge cast of characters. It’s been some time since I read Starman, but was Shade always this overwritten? The first issue of the new limited series just came across as really florid and self-conscious. Maybe it didn’t grate as much because he was a supporting character back in the day, but I found this one a little irritating. I’d totally planned on checking out the trade when it wraps up, and I wish Robinson the best with the series, but issue #1 didn’t really do it for me.
November 29th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Robinson issuing this after years of scripts that didn’t give anyone any reason for confidence he could recapture the Starman magic doesn’t help either. He’s damaged his name with awful, unreadable dreck, so he shouldn’t be surprised he’s lost a lot of readers.
Blaming Diamond is dumb. If the book was selling they’d pay more attention but when no one cares, why should they?
November 29th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Slash Maraud wasn’t ended early. It was Sonic Disruptors…which led to the best gag in 52.
SW
November 30th, 2011 at 6:37 am
Surprising. I would have expected this to be the kind of comic that would sell awesome as a trade, recuperating costs on the singles.
November 30th, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Robinson shouldn’t be surprised that his sales are low, given that he’s put out years of not-great stories. I understand that editorial may have been partially at fault, but he could’ve stepped away entirely, like Mark Waid did when editorial fucked with his Cap run.