Speakeasy Survivors

I wanted to give some props to Helios co-creator Mike Penny for this:

Will Carper, at 5:23 yesterday, posted in the Death Of Speakeasy thread at MillarWorld to say, "Damn. I want to know the fate of Helios. NOW."

Mike Penny, at 9:08 yesterday, posted this response:

Will,
Helios: "In With the New" # 3 will be in April PREVIEWS to ship in June under DAKUWAKA Productions. It will feature a double-sized issue for $ 4.95 & feature a cover by "Witchblade's" Mike Choi.

Here's the issue summary:

The king is dead. Long live the king.

Things only get worse when the team is informed of Jack's death. Ashley, Kyle and Jason are shattered, while the newcomers move to take advantage of their grief. Meanwhile, Strickland and General Harlowe continue to maneuver Neo Force toward their ultimate goals and a new and powerful threat enters the arena.
But are things truly as they seem?

Check out the newly updated DAKUWAKA web site at:
www.dakuwaka.com

Thanks to all our fans for their support through this period.
Mike Penny President / Dakuwaka
Co-creator/ Editor HELIOS

Now that's the way to get on the fucking ball in the wake of your publisher folding. Less than four hours and you have a new publisher to announce and a pitch for the next issue? Good one.

*****

I also think that what The Hunger writer Jose Torres is up to sounds pretty damn cool. According to this press release (again, way to get on the ball in terms of addressing your audience, gents!),

In July, Markosia will be adding The Hunger to their line-up by way of a 200 page, eight-issue spanning Trade Paperback containing the entire first story arc [which I'll definitely be buying -ed]. The first thing I said when they mentioned this to me was, "But what about the people who've been faithfully buying the book from the get-go?"

--whereupon he offers to personally reimburse the price of the trade to anyone who has purchased the first five issues and gets the trade as well.

Now that's how you take care of your people. I've been meaning to start reading The Hunger for a while now, and this will be where I start.

*****

Also, in the Engine thread Warren Ellis started to roll call the Speakeasy creators, Elk's Run writer Josh Fialkov is the first one to speak up, with a no-nonsense account letting readers know the straight scoop:

Elk's Run is just about finished (7 out of 8 complete, only 4 released) and we're currently shopping for a new publisher. We've had some very interesting offers, and it's just weighing our options.

More to come.

Check the links in the signature for constant blog updates etc. etc.

Thanks for all the love and support and well wishes everyone (I think every single one of our remarkably few but loyal readers e-mailed me to scream NOOOOOO!)

You will see this book. On this I swear.

I had the pleasure of meeting Josh at the Isotope's Eric Powell party a few weeks back, and his dedication to his work - tempered by a realistic, honest awareness of the huge challenges our indie comics soldiers face every goddamn day - really impressed me. Expect the massive Elk's Run love to keep a'coming here at Quality Control, for as long as Josh & Co. keep fighting the good fight.

*****

(This column started as a bit of finger-wagging at the Speakeasy guys, until I realized that (1) nobody wants to hear that from my stupid ass, (2) Hibbs will, I suspect, have something much smarter to say about it than I would, and (3) you know, these guys were trying something different and new, and maybe they got carried away a bit, but they still deserve some credit for experimenting - when you gamble on something new, you don't always win. Thanks for putting out some good books, guys, and I hope we see you down the road a piece.)