FANGORIA COMICS SHUTS DOWN, PROJECTS, STAFF RELOCATE - NEWSARAMA

I always hate to see this kind of thing, even if I wasn’t a fan of the company..

FANGORIA COMICS SHUTS DOWN, PROJECTS, STAFF RELOCATE - NEWSARAMA

FANGORIA COMICS SHUTS DOWN, PROJECTS, STAFF RELOCATE

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Press Release

Scott Licina, newly former executive editor of Fangoria
Comics, was informed on August 22nd of the August 17th closing of the
comics line at Fangoria Entertainment by parent company Creative Group.
He, the staff and the creators would like to thank their readers and
are excited to announce that creator-owned projects like BUMP, BENEATH
THE VALLEY OF THE RAGE and SHIFTER will continue, with details coming
soon.

Regarding the closing, Licina noted, “To be honest, we’ve anticipated
this possibility for quite some time, long before we finally launched
on June 13, 2007 after almost a year of delays on Creative Group’s
part; that was after we announced the line in July of 2006 at the San
Diego Comic-Con International. 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.”

Robert Kurtzman, legendary special effects artist, director and
co-creator of BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE RAGE had this comment: “The
worst part of it from my perspective is that the RAGE mini-series
wasn’t allowed to finish, even with only one issue left to print, and
that the issue (#4) was already completed and sitting there ready to go
to the printer to fulfill orders that were already placed. Simply
unbelievable. But I’m happy to announce we will be getting the fourth
issue out to fulfill demand and make sure our readers have the chance
to get the complete series.”

Mark Kidwell, creator of BUMP, added, “It’s a shame really, that things
were handled the way they were on the Fangoria Entertainment corporate
level. All of the staff and creators at Fangoria Comics are amazing and
there were (and are) some incredible stories being produced. Most of
these will still be published, albeit by a different and more focused
company with an eye toward the same long-term goals.”

Film producer Patrick Durham and film star Michael Madsen, co-creators
of SHIFTER, made this statement: “This comes as little surprise, after
we’ve seen what Scott has had to go through to get these great comics
out and to let people know about them. The SHIFTER comic and crew are
looking forward to the positive move we’re making, and can’t wait to
start on the new endeavor. After all, it’s the same production house,
where the comics are always on time and always look fantastic. We know
that the extremely high quality demands we have for SHIFTER will be
exceeded by Scott and the team as always, so naturally we’re thrilled
to be apart of this new, exciting leap forward. Comics to film, we’ve
got some exciting announcements ahead for SHIFTER!”

Licina closed with this remark- “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.”

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