Death of an independent -- Fangoria Comics meets the grave
http://firefox.org/news/articles/714/1/Death-of-an-independent----Fangoria-Comics-meets-the-grave/Page1.html
Dan Rafter
Dan Rafter is a freelance writer and editor. He's also the author of GEARZ, a new comicbook mini-series to be published in early 2008 by BlueWater Comics.
By Dan Rafter
Published on 10/6/2007
Creative Group, the parent company of Fangoria Entertainment, has shut down its line of horror comics. At least it gave the line four whole months to find an audience.
Another independent bites the dust
More proof that surviving in the world of independent comics is tough: Fangoria Comics late last month closed its doors.
This might not seem odd. Independent comics companies shut down all the time. But this one is different for two reasons. First, Fangoria Comics had a successful entity backing it up. Fangoria Entertainment, publisher of Fangoria Magazine -- probably the best known publication covering the horror industry -- was funding the comics line. Secondly, and even odder, the comics line launched June 13 … of 2007. That’s right: Fangoria Comics started on June 13 of this year and then closed about four months later.
Four months? Talk about giving a comics line the chance to catch on with readers.
You can read the bad news here: www.fangoriacomics.com. Scott Licina, the executive editor of Fangoria Comics, didn’t sound surprised by the news. In the press release at the comics line's Web site, he stated that staffers at Fangoria Comics anticipated the death of their comics line long before they even launched the books in June.
I guess the news shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, really. Creative Group, the parent company of Fangoria Entertainment, announced the creation of the comics line in July of 2006 at the San Diego Comic-Con International. It then took nearly a year before the first comics finally came out. That’s not a good start. Also in the official press release, Licina said that Creative Group provided nearly no marketing or promotional support for the comics, not even in Fangoria Magazine. That's another bad, bad sign.
The good news is that several of the line’s creator-owned projects will continue with a different publisher. These include Bump, Beneath the Valley of the Rage and Shifter. Details were not released on when or by whom these titles would be published.
I understand that it’s difficult, financially, to commit to independent comics. There really isn’t a whole lot of money flying around this section of the industry. No one argues that. But can't readers expect a fairly well heeled publishing house to commit to a new comics division for at least five months? That can’t be that hard, can it?
This might not seem odd. Independent comics companies shut down all the time. But this one is different for two reasons. First, Fangoria Comics had a successful entity backing it up. Fangoria Entertainment, publisher of Fangoria Magazine -- probably the best known publication covering the horror industry -- was funding the comics line. Secondly, and even odder, the comics line launched June 13 … of 2007. That’s right: Fangoria Comics started on June 13 of this year and then closed about four months later.
Four months? Talk about giving a comics line the chance to catch on with readers.
You can read the bad news here: www.fangoriacomics.com. Scott Licina, the executive editor of Fangoria Comics, didn’t sound surprised by the news. In the press release at the comics line's Web site, he stated that staffers at Fangoria Comics anticipated the death of their comics line long before they even launched the books in June.
I guess the news shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, really. Creative Group, the parent company of Fangoria Entertainment, announced the creation of the comics line in July of 2006 at the San Diego Comic-Con International. It then took nearly a year before the first comics finally came out. That’s not a good start. Also in the official press release, Licina said that Creative Group provided nearly no marketing or promotional support for the comics, not even in Fangoria Magazine. That's another bad, bad sign.
The good news is that several of the line’s creator-owned projects will continue with a different publisher. These include Bump, Beneath the Valley of the Rage and Shifter. Details were not released on when or by whom these titles would be published.
I understand that it’s difficult, financially, to commit to independent comics. There really isn’t a whole lot of money flying around this section of the industry. No one argues that. But can't readers expect a fairly well heeled publishing house to commit to a new comics division for at least five months? That can’t be that hard, can it?