The primary distributor for DC Comics in the US is Diamond and last week they announced that the next issue of DOOM PATROL (#11) will be reaching direct market stores on March 28th. Until recently, it had been moved back to the 14th and, considering that it had originally been solicited for November 22nd, the two more weeks didn't seem like that much more to wait. After all, the crossover that was intended to follow the story in #11 is set to end tomorrow with the arrival of "Milk Wars Part 5" in the DOOM PATROL/JLA SPECIAL. The intention for the story arc in DOOM PATROL #7-12 to be a springboard leading into "Milk Wars" is a boat that has already sailed. However, the two week delay did raise eyebrows for another reason. Issue #12 was still scheduled to arrive on March 21st, which didn't seem believable when #11 was due on the 14th.
At some time during the week since #11 was bumped (again), Diamond posted their March cancellations and DOOM PATROL #12 has been listed has being cancelled for the purposes of resolicitation. Since Diamond's new catalog arrives in stores tomorrow, it is possible that the new solicitation will be in it. Consider that the decision to start from scratch rather than move the date yet again might have been made after the last round of cancellations was posted a month ago but before the new catalog was prepared for printing. For the catalog to be physically shipped to stores that receive it, that would have to be shortly before #11's new date was announced last week, which explains why they didn't bother changing both their dates together; the internal ID# Diamond currently uses for that issue will likely be deleted eventually after the new solicitation arrives.
If you've been using the downtime between DP issues to catch up on past incarnations (and good luck with that, since so few of them are in trades), you might want to pass the time between #11 and #12 (which now looks like it's coming out in May or possibly June if it's not in the new catalog tomorrow) by picking up any of the other Young Animal titles tying into "Milk Wars": Cave Carson, Shade or Mother Panic each have two trades. The second of each have come out over the past month.
At some time during the week since #11 was bumped (again), Diamond posted their March cancellations and DOOM PATROL #12 has been listed has being cancelled for the purposes of resolicitation. Since Diamond's new catalog arrives in stores tomorrow, it is possible that the new solicitation will be in it. Consider that the decision to start from scratch rather than move the date yet again might have been made after the last round of cancellations was posted a month ago but before the new catalog was prepared for printing. For the catalog to be physically shipped to stores that receive it, that would have to be shortly before #11's new date was announced last week, which explains why they didn't bother changing both their dates together; the internal ID# Diamond currently uses for that issue will likely be deleted eventually after the new solicitation arrives.
If you've been using the downtime between DP issues to catch up on past incarnations (and good luck with that, since so few of them are in trades), you might want to pass the time between #11 and #12 (which now looks like it's coming out in May or possibly June if it's not in the new catalog tomorrow) by picking up any of the other Young Animal titles tying into "Milk Wars": Cave Carson, Shade or Mother Panic each have two trades. The second of each have come out over the past month.
Excellent points, PB!
ReplyDeleteThanks. Young Animal seems to be turning into a Stone Soup situation, with the real beneficial results being the presumed second string titles while the flagship title spends its second arc sliding into quarterly status.
Delete