People who pre-ordered from Amazon the “Hulk: Visionaries” collection by myself and Dale Keown are asking me why they’re being informed that their order was cancelled.
The answer is simple: The book was cancelled. And it wasn’t just cancelled in June. It was cancelled back in January. It never existed.
Apparently, back in January Marvel decided to scale back on projected trade projects, and the “Hulk: Visionaries” collection was one of the ones that was dumped. I’m not entirely sure why mine was so honored, nor am I certain which other ones were scuttled. Bottom line, though, is that solicits are done for the paperback market six months in advance, so even while orders were being taken, the book was already off the table. I’ve no idea when it will be rescheduled. If I had to guess, I’d say “never,” but that’s just me.
PAD
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*sigh* I guess this means the reprint TPB of Spidey: Death of Jean DeWolff got canned as well. Amazon is now listing the date for it as June *1902.*
Corey
Hey PAD,
Too bad I was looking forward to it.
BTW any idea why the BIG But I Digress icons are all over the website?
Hey JAG,
The BID icons are repostings of the column from its beginning. Click on the [Read On..] link at the lower left of the icon to read the particular column.
I also just read on Rich Johnston’s Lying in the Gutters rumor column that the Essential Tomb of Dracula tpb was cancelled, too. Shame, as I’m a young guy and was greatly looking forward to finally having a way to read those cool, “old” comics full of Gene Colan art. Guess I’ll have to settle for my copy of Essential Howard the Duck.
Ah, the Wrath of Gem-Úš.
That is a shame. Oh well, I still have all of the original issues to read.
On another note, I hear that you are moderating a panel at the San Diego Con for/about Todd McFarlane.
How did that come about? Sounds like perfect fodder for a BID column…
Actually, the lack of trades in recent solicits has been alarming, especially given that after the Tomb of Dracula Essential(which may or may not still be a go), there aren’t any more Essentials listed in the near future. I was hoping they’d at least finish the Lee/Kirby run on FF and maybe the Uncanny X-Men issues up until they started doing reprints and maybe some more from the 70s, Captain Marvel or Deadly Hands of Kung Fu.
Oh well. It’s not like we can really expect to get a lot for a little when it comes to comics.
Matt
Didn’t the Blade II tpb have a collection of ToD issues?
Actually, the Essential line had some really bad lateness issues at the start of this year, which is presumably why we’ve seen little of it since. They apparently sell really well (Essential Ant-Man was one of the biggest sellers for the entire year behind it) and there’s three more solicited for November. Admittedly they’re all new printings (though I’m not too sure about the Essential Daredevil one), but it’s been said about the Marvel Masterworks that Marvel is asked by retailers to bring the early ones back into print before making new ones, and I guess the same applies to this. Hopefully they’ll eventually get round to making some new Essentials, I love the line as well. Here’s hoping that the new printing of Uncanny X-Men volume one is heralding a second one…
Maybe Jemas and Quesada thought that their poor dumb readers couldn’t handle being confronted with a differrent version of the Hulk than the one they are reading in the monthly comic right now. I mean they were so afraid that we couldn’t handle the concept of a series set a few years in the past that they cancelled John Byrne’s X-Men the Hidden Years even though it had good sales. Using the same reasoning, shouldn’t they cancel all trade paperbacks of reprinted material since it is all set “in the past”? I mean, God forbid someone who sees the movie should pick up a book with a story that fleshes out the character of Bruce Banner with great action and art but which doesn’t too closely resemble the TV show or the standard “Hulk Smash” version.
All sarcasm aside though, it might be a good idea for Marvel to run out and buy back any available of the back issues and trade paperbacks involving the Spider-Man clone storyline. That stuff could pose a threat to the franchise if it fell into the wrong hands. We must protect the mainstream non-comics audience from themselves for our own good.
Bummer, I was looking forward to this. I also wish that there was a “Best of Pantheon stories” TPB.
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