Sat Oct 11, 2008 — by Robert Greenberger

Fangoria's Comic Book Imprint Rises from the Dead

Previously Announced Titles Part of the Revival

Fangoria’s comic book line appears ready for resurrection.

The editors recently posted on their MySpace page:

“That’s right, kiddies. We’ve gotten the band back together! Troy Brownfield, Fangoria Graphix Associate Editor here. I don’t have to tell you all that’s it been a weird couple of years. But Executive Editor Scott Licina, Production Manager Jason Moser, Director of New Media Development James Zahn and I are thrilled to be back where it all started. Ever since Tom DeFeo and The Brooklyn Company took over, we’ve been talking about what new horrible things we could do to all you, er, do together. The logical first step was to put the work that we originally did under the Fango umbrella in its natural place: right here, right in front of you, our most loyal readers.

“SO . . . knowing that, what are you going to see? There will be Bump. There will be the complete Rage and the complete Strangeland: Seven Sins. And in multiple languages. But there will also be new and frightening things in the offing. Like the Death Walks the Streets series. Like Ellium. Like Doubloon. Like online and downloadable comics. Like novels. Like graphic novels. And more.”

At present, the magazine’s website is down for retooling so this is the sole source for information at present.
 

The line was first announced in the summer of 2006 as a spin-off from the magazine, which debuted in 1979. In January 2007, as people awaited the first issues, Linca announced the acquisition of Vampirella from Harris Comics, a claim the company denied in April and they have continued to publish the character. Their first titles, Bump and Beneath the Valley of The Rage finally arrived in June 2007.  The former was enthusiastically received and was quickly optioned for a feature film.

In August 2007, The Fourth Horseman and Dee Snyder’s Strangeland: Seven Sins arrived with Shifter and Recluse promised for the fall.  Instead, on September 28, Scott Linca issued a press release announcing the company had shut down operations a month earlier.  He blamed the failure of the line to catch on to a lack of publicity despite the parent magazine and glowing reviews across the web. “It became more and more apparent with the recent closings of several divisions and the lay-offs that accompanied them, other announced projects like Vampirella that failed to materialize and the fact that we received virtually no marketing or promotional support in any way, not even in the company's own Fangoria or Starlog magazines, that there may be trouble ahead. But I couldn’t have imagined, after already soliciting and selling subscriptions for titles that ran well into the beginning of 2008, that it would be only two months and four days after our first book hit the shelves that we would be closed down. And on top of it, we were informed about the closing via a three sentence e-mail, and invoices are still outstanding.

“The bottom line on Fangoria? This was fallout from major franchise-wide downsizing by Creative Group. The upside? The creators own their respective properties, series and books, and will be continuing and finishing material that’s already started. Everyone is looking at 2008 with a fresh perspective. And again, we thank the readers, retailers and distributors for all their support, and look forward to releasing more info soon.”

Most of the completed titles moved over to the Scream Factory for publication while Devil’s Due issued the BUMP Hack/Slash crossover as issues 12 and 13 of their Hack/Slash title.

At present, the issues can be read on line at Heavy Ink.

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