Image Comics poll week 4 - Dante's tying up some Loose Ends

[Dorktron]

Bit of a combination of things I think? Image has steadily been releasing fewer comics for a while now. As an example, they had 48 comics out in November 2016. That's 7 down from the month before (October 2016 had 55 comics, September had 52 so the drop is lesser if compared with that). The same could be said year-over-year; November 2015 they released 62 titles (so down by 14).

Whether that's a good or bad thing I find hard to say, I definitely recall several people complaining about delays here last year. Not sure if there's less delays now, but I guess there's fewer titles that CAN suffer delays haha. Maybe the growth is less explosive now, but I wouldn't say there's been a dramatic drop-off in quality.

As for the perception regarding activity on this board; since the new CBR website now has dedicated comment sections under every article, rather than here in the forums, there's generally fewer new topics appearing. These poll threads however usually average something between 10-25 votes and a page or two of comments, depending on how packed the week is.

Yeah, last year, it seemed like just about every poll had 20-30 votes with 7+ books getting at least a vote. Anyways, thanks for the replies. I'd like to see a more active community, but it is what it is.

[keeen]

First up there's Loose Ends, the new mini-series by Jason Latour (of Southern Bastards) and Chris Brunner & Rico Renzi (I think they do Spider-Gwen at Marvel). This one's being described as "a gritty, slow-cooked, Southern crime romance that follows a winding trail down Tobacco Road, through the war-torn streets of Baghdad, and into the bright lights and bloody gutters of South Florida" and there's no way I can top that description. Looks promising!

I swear I bought this series on comixology like two years ago...(checks) yup, published in 2011 by "12 Gauge," a company I've never otherwise heard of.

Is it unusual for a series to be republished like this, as if it was new, or am I missing something?

Edit: I know I'm weeks late to this thread, btw, it's just a question that's been sitting with me since I saw this being solicited.

[TotalSnorefest]

I swear I bought this series on comixology like two years ago...(checks) yup, published in 2011 by "12 Gauge," a company I've never otherwise heard of.

Is it unusual for a series to be republished like this, as if it was new, or am I missing something?

Edit: I know I'm weeks late to this thread, btw, it's just a question that's been sitting with me since I saw this being solicited.

Huh yeah you're totally right, apparantly they'd been working on it since 2007!
Found the following in an interview:

Newsarama: Image has this being called a "series premiere," so is it a continuation of the older series from 12 Gauge or something completely new in this world?

Latour: Luckily, I think it all still reads pretty fresh. I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s pretty prescient in places. It’s like a brand new comic. So we felt like it was best to present it that way. We’re reprinting the existing material - which is three of the four issues, along with that long missing last chapter. Re-packaging it all in beautiful new covers.
It’s a bit like when a musician puts out the stuff they had in the vault. Re-issuing the work they were making when they still had the dream of getting there. But for whatever reason there was simply no means to deliver it to that audience when it was made. And now, thankfully, there is.

Honestly it's not remotely the first time Image has reprinted something; it's probably fairly easy in fact when the creators own all of the rights. Some Vertigo series migrated over for example (like Stray Toasters, which I think was under another imprint before Vertigo...?). However, usually those get explicitly billed as "resurrecting [fan-favourite series X], this is the long-awaited continuation/reprint of then-up-and-coming creator Y..." - like Sun Bakery will be soon. Presumably done to make something sound more appealing; I think the assumption is that an audience will be more likely to try something out if it has some sort of pre-established clout.

Could be wrong of course but yeah it does seem unusual to not mention it. Billing it as a "series premiere" does seem kinda strange in retrospect? Though as the linked article above proves, it's not like they were actively hiding its origins, but for whatever reason it was just omitted from the marketing.
I've read that at Image the creators get to write their own solicits (evidenced by the hilarious ones for Sex Criminals and the AWFULLY uninformative blurb Island Magazine has every month), so maybe Latour felt those "back to tie up some Loose Ends"-taglines would distract from just having the synopsis in the solicit? Just speculating here obviously!

[keeen]

Thanks for finding that interview. To be honest, I didn't even remember that the story was left unfinished...the art (and coloring in particular) grabbed me, but the story didn't so much. I'll probably give it a re-read in time to get the final chapter, though.

[TotalSnorefest]

Thanks for finding that interview. To be honest, I didn't even remember that the story was left unfinished...the art (and coloring in particular) grabbed me, but the story didn't so much. I'll probably give it a re-read in time to get the final chapter, though.

Yeah I tried issue 1 of this based on the art as well, not even realising it was a re-release. Same as you though, the story wasn't really my cup of tea so I'm not planning to continue with it. But the colouring is super vibrant yeah, probably the best aspect about it imo.