I know I rant about lateness a lot, but it's a good thing to rant about. See, there was this news article I read that got me mad - but it's so unrelated to comics that no one will care. So instead I'm taking my anger over to lateness.
As always, we received our weekly emails from DC and Marvel. Here are some of the books that are later than late. Let me reiterate that comics are supposed to be periodicals - meaning they come out at regularly scheduled intervals. NOT pamphlets that come out periodically - meaning whenever the heck they get around to it.
Here are just some of DC's big offenders:
RUSH CITY #5 coming 2/21/07 - originally scheduled for 11/29/06
SUPERMAN #659 coming 2/21/07- originally scheduled for 12/13/06
WONDER WOMAN #4 coming 2/28/07 originally scheduled for 12/27/06 (after it was resolicited once)
ACTION COMICS #846 coming 2/21/07-oritinally scheduled for 12/13/06
THE AUTHORITY #2 (WILDSTORM) coming 3/7/07 -originally scheduled for 12/20/06
ALL STAR SUPERMAN #7 coming 3/14/07 -originally scheduled for 12/20/06
ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER #5 coming 4/4/07 -originally scheduled for 11/29/06 (and I think it was also resolicited at least once)
SUPERMAN/BATMAN #33 coming 4/4/07-originally scheduled for 1/24/07
ASTRO CITY: THE DARK AGE BOOK 2 #3 (WILDSTORM) coming 4/11/07 -originally scheduled for 12/27/06
Marvel comics had 23 books on their list this week - these are just the comics that they decided they had to push back this week! They don't get quite as detailed as DC - maybe they're too ashamed to show actual original release dates. But, I can tell by the product code what month they should have come out. I could get out all of the old previews and look them up, but that's a lot of work.
MOON KNIGHT #8 CW scheduled to arrive 02/28/07-should have arrived sometime in December
FANTASTIC FOUR #543 CW scheduled to arrive 02/28/07-should have arrived sometime in November
JOHN ROMITA JR 30TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL scheduled to arrive 02/28/07-should have arrived sometime in December - wonder when the anniversary is exactly.
ONSLAUGHT REBORN #3 (OF 5) scheduled to arrive 03/07/07-should have arrived sometime in January
POWERS #24 scheduled to arrive 03/28/07-should have arrived sometime in January
ULTIMATES 2 #13 scheduled to arrive 04/11/07-should have arrived sometime in December. this whole series has been a joke in terms of deadlines. Don't even get me started on it.
POWERS #25 scheduled to arrive 04/25/07-should have arrived sometime in February
Keep in mind that these arrival dates could still be pushed back even further. These publishers and everyone responsible for creating these comics should be ashamed. Are they? I doubt it.
4 comments:
Brian Hitch said back in december that he was done "Ultimates." Why would it still be pushed back so far?
Darn good question, Scott. In fact, Craig said the same thing when I told him the new release date. Maybe Marvel's editors made changes. Maybe it wasn't done after all. All I know is this is the new release date.
The only real motivation comics companies have for making sure their comics are actually periodicals are either to make money from them (so they can pay their talent, make more comics, and make a profit), or to keep their properties in the public eye.
I suspect DC and Marvel make most of their money by licensing their characters, so their monetary motive is not very strong. (This is a big change from yesteryear, of course.) So they're only motivated to keep their main properties in the public eye. That's not a big issue with Superman and Batman. And for minor properties which don't have a lot of movie-making potential, there's still not a lot of motive.
For other companies and for creator-owned properties this is somewhat different. But in the case of, for instance, Powers, I suspect Bendis is making plenty of money from his other projects.
So who really gets hurt by late comics? Not the companies. Not yet, anyway.
Just the little guys like me, Michael.
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