Fangoria’s Comic Book Imprint Rises from the Dead
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.
I always want more stuff on the shelves, so I welcome their return, but I hope they can get past the horrible PR of the past: fighting over the ownership of Vampirella, the sudden closing of the company, and the unmentioned-in-this-article warehouse fire that destroyed most of the Fangoria-affiliated back stock. I trust Troy and his co-workers to try to put out quality product, but they have a steep hill to climb.
Hey Alan,I appreciate the positive parts of your comments. :DYeah, it's been crazy at times, but the great thing about our guys is that we have always stuck together. I'd like to address a couple of points quickly:1) On Vampirella: Quick version here. Someone in the Fango structure was negotiating for the character, and we were told the deal was done when it wasn't. Scott was onstage at a Fango con, and someone literally said to him, "Hey, don't forget that we got Vampirella!", so it was announced. Reminder: Never announce anything anyone tells you onstage, except, perhaps, "Fire!" and "Don't take the brown acid." At any rate, that whole thing was quickly resolved. Scott and Bon (at Harris) were cool, and it was all good. More was made of that situation by a couple of bloggers than it was, honestly.2) The Shutdown was linked to company-wide problems. As you may know, Fangoria Entertainment entered bankruptcy. The new owner, Tom DeFeo of The Brooklyn Company, was actually the man who got Scott to launch the comics in the first place. As soon as the company was his, he called. Fangoria Graphix is an important piece to him, or else we wouldn't be doing this.3) Let me invoke the tagline of "The Killer" for this one: One wrong move by a forklift, one severed main, ten thousand burning issues of Fangoria publications. Yeah, that was a true disaster. But we actually have a plan to deal with that, too.As Bob pointed out in his article, the books that did come out received good notices, and we sold well in chain bookstores. We're optimistic about all of our new projects, and we only ask that you give 'em a look. And I will note that after the migration, the brand-new version of Fangoria.com is now up. Enjoy. And thanks for the coverage!
pelsed comunicated wiht junit avlez from a frees ubscriptions of fangorias magazined at 1800-827-1000 thasnk you