Spinner Memorial Part 7: "¿Gracias, Por Nada?"

A funny thing happened after the previous post, one month ago. That same week, the release date of DOOM PATROL #11 had been moved from April 4th to 11th, as noted in the post. The following week, when all the new scheduling adjustments were announced, I was told that its date had been moved from April 18th to 25th-- without having been moved from the 11th to the 18th. The rest of the month has been been far more straightforward:

• April 4th-- SHADE THE CHANGING WOMAN #2 ships (it was delayed two weeks in my market, I'm guessing due to distributor error)
• April 11th-- ETERNITY GIRL #2 ships
• April 18th-- CAVE CARSON HAS AN INTERSTELLAR EYE #2 ships
• April 25th-- MOTHER PANIC: GOTHAM A.D. #2 ships
• April 25th-- the trade paperback collecting BUG, THE ADVENTURES OF FORAGER ships
• April 25th-- DOOM PATROL #11 ships
• The cancellation listings for May announces that the second trade of Young Animal DOOM PATROL issues ("NADA") has been cancelled for purposes of resolicitation. This is not so shocking, since it was originally meant to include issues #7-12 until the conclusion to the story was rewritten into #11. However, neither issue #12 or "NADA" are in the current catalog for comics shipping in July and trades expected for August (mostly).

Bear in mind that Free Comic Book Day is the first Saturday in May. Check now to see if your preferred retail location is planning any sales tied to it and make your want lists ahead of time. Good luck.

The Dorothy Spinner Memorial Monthly Freakout Part 6

It was almost two years ago when the rumors of a new Doom Patrol series were confirmed, with the first new issue arriving in direct comic stores on September 14th, 2016, the first release of a whole new imprint that would be gradually built into a playground for provocative creators to make the most of peripheral DCU characters. Over the next fifteen months (from October 2016 to December 2017), Young Animal released twelve issues apiece of three new titles: CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE, SHADE THE CHANGING GIRL and MOTHER PANIC, four trades to compile the first six issues apiece of DP and those other three titles, plus the six-issue mini-series BUG: THE ADVENTURES OF FORAGER and an expanded 'director's cut' of the first Doom Patrol issue. However, they only managed to produce eight more issues of their flagship title, despite it having a head start. The three other core titles maintained monthly schedules and BUG only skipped two months, but after its third issue DOOM PATROL became approximately bi-monthly.

Since New Year's Day this year, we've seen DOOM PATROL #10 on January 24th, then a "Milk Wars" crossover special on each of the five weeks after that. During that time the second trades for each of the other three core titles were released. In the last post I noted that in addition to DP #11 being rescheduled a few more times, #12 had been officially cancelled in order to resolicit it. I also speculated that the new solicitation might be imminent since all of the pending irregularities to Young Animal's roster (the BUG mini, the trades and the crossover specials) had already shipped and only the returning monthlies and a single new mini lie ahead. I was wrong about that; neither the DC solicitations following that post nor this week's offer a new date for DP #12. But there has been news since then.

• The release of DOOM PATROL #11 was changed from March 28 to April 4
• The release of the second DP trade, "NADA", was changed from May 9 to May 23
• SHADE THE CHANGING WOMAN #1 was released on March 7
• It was officially confirmed that DP #11 was the conclusion of the "NADA" storyline, not #12, which I'm guessing most readers had already assumed
• ETERNITY GIRL #1 was released on March 14
• CAVE CARSON HAS AN INTERSTELLAR EYE #1 was released on March 21
• The release of the second DP trade, "NADA", was changed from May 23 to May 30
• The release of DOOM PATROL #11 was changed from April 4 to April 11
• MOTHER PANIC: GOTHAM A.D. #1 was released on March 28
• The first full color paperback collecting Silver Age Doom Patrol stories was solicited for a July release. These stories were previously in color in pricey hardcovers and in black and white in budget paperbacks. I'll post about the specific configuration tomorrow.

This means that, in addition to the next three issues apiece of the Young Animal titles that began this month, the only other items now pending are:

• April 11- DOOM PATROL #11
• April 25- the BUG: THE ADVENTURES OF FORAGER trade paperback
• May 30- the DOOM PATROL VOL.2 "NADA" trade paperback
• July 25- the DOOM PATROL THE SILVER AGE VOL.1 trade paperback

There might be a DP#12 in July as well, but only if it's offered in next month's batch of solicitations. Cross your fingers.

Update Lowdown 20180227

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.

Update Lowdown 20180117

The crossover special event for Young Animal and the DCU is still due to go forward next month and the trade paperback collecting them has shown up on Amazon for pre-orders anticipating a June release. Pencil that date in reeeally lightly, however, because the DOOM PATROL issues completing the second arc (and taking place before the crossover) have started drifting again. All reports are that issue #10 will ship next week (Jan. 24th) as I've mentioned previously, but #11 has been moved from February (alongside the crossover) to March 14th, a week before the most recent date for #12. That strongly implies that #12 will eventually be pushed back as well and the subsequent trade to collect the second arc will be shipping very close to the "Milk War" crossover trade. None of that will matter a year later for people picking up the trades, but comic book stores near college campuses (as in, every major city in the U.S.) are going to be mighty steamed if the target audience for a pile of new trades goes home for the summer (or graduates) the week before it arrives.

History Is An Angel Being Blown Backwards Into The Future

(...with apologies to Laurie Anderson.)

There were two pieces of good news today. On the Diamond Comics Distributors website, the New Arrivals for November 22nd, 2017 included DOOM PATROL #9 and there were no Doom Patrol issues noted in the Shipping Updates. The other piece of good news is that the Young Animal/Justice League crossover annuals were included in the February 2018 solicitations. You can get the details where I got them, from the excellent My Greatest Adventure 80 blog .

In the previous post I was concerned that the current arc of DOOM PATROL wouldn't end in time for the crossover, which had earlier been announced to run in January and contain events that would introduce new conditions for both the Young Animal titles and mainstream DCU. As things stood, the last issue (#12) would be released in the middle of the crossover, raising the possibility that the crossover would reveal spoilers on the main series. I say "stood" because, having waited since April for the first three issues of the arc, I was skeptical about getting the last three issues in the remaining three months. So, ignoring their absence on the Shipping Updates, I checked their individual pages. Every item confirmed to ship has one, with the cover art (if available), capsule description, rudimentary credits and a few other specs, including the slated arrival date. Well, they all had new dates.

• #10 is now expected to ship on January 24th
• #11 is now expected to ship on February 21st
• #12 is now expected to ship on March 21st

For the record, the last issue of BUG! is still due next month.

Silver Threads Among The Gold

Casual readers could be forgiven for assuming that the current DOOM PATROL series written by Gerard Way had been cancelled. It hasn't, just to be clear on that. There are four solicited issues which have been delayed several times. Since the first story arc ended in issue #6 (in direct market locations Apr. 26th earlier this year), the trade collecting it appeared May 31st, and the next two issues followed on Jul. 26th (#7) and Sep. 6th (#8). Those two issues were in the shadow of an announcement from the San Diego Comic-Con on July 21st that once the second arcs of the various Young Animal titles end, there would be a mini event in which each of the four core titles would release an annual in January 2018, forming a four part crossover that would establish that the characters under the Young Animal imprint will interact with mainstream DC heroes. DOOM PATROL's Annual would have the Justice League co-star, for instance. This would be the opposite of the policy for characters removed from the DCU to form Vertigo, 25 years earlier. Needless to say, they're not going to make the Silver Anniversary of the Vertigo launch, which will be the first week of January.

The last issue of SHADE THE CHANGING GIRL (#12) arrived with DOOM PATROL #8 and the last issue of CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE (#12) followed two weeks later along with the most recent issue of the mini-series BUG! THE ADVENTURES OF FORAGER (#4) on Sep. 20th. Next came the final two issues of MOTHER PANIC on Sep. 27th (#11) and Oct. 25th (#12). Aside from the two remaining issues of BUG! and four of DOOM PATROL, there have been no other comics solicited under the imprint. Trades collecting those books that have been published, yes, but no new comics. Diamond Comics Distributors has announced all of the January titles and not only do the annuals not get a mention, but the JLA titles each ship twice for that month. That means that whatever the ramifications of combining the imprints were intended to be, the larger DCU isn't waiting around to see what they were.

The larger, unintended problem is that we not only have three other creative teams standing around, resentfully tapping their feet waiting for who knows how long to continue on to their third arcs, but when those issues of BUG! and DP do come out, they will be the only ones on the racks under that imprint. The whole point of having an imprint is that readers who enjoyed one title are implicitly referred to the other titles. It's a short-hand way of communicating the feel and outlook of a narrative style and other subtle and nuanced kinds of information that are difficult to convey in a blurb. This worked beautifully for Vertigo, mostly because the line was created with six existing titles that had each been published for 30+ issues and had cultivated reputations that distinguished them from most other DCU titles, but also because they added one or two titles (including ongoing, minis and one-shots) every month for a year. Facing a market that is smaller generally, Young Animal chose, wisely I think, to start with a sharper focus. It became feasible for more people to follow the entire imprint every month than it had been for Vertigo. But you don't get cross-recommendations from other titles if you've put the other titles on hiatus.

Ultimately, five years from now when these stories are only available as trades or downloads, it may seem like a moot point when the individual issues did or didn't ship. My point is, by the time the current DP arc ends and proceeds to the annual crossover, the three other titles could have completed a third arc apiece. If the point of the crossover is to bring these other titles into your own title's continuity, then these delays mean that there were three trades that could have been part of your continuity but now do not exist. More importantly, there could have been eighteen individual comics out there, any one of which could have led readers to the others and/or DP. It would have meant quadrupling the imprint's share of rack space for a six-month period. As a fan, I'm just jonesing for my DOOM PATROL. But in cold, hard business terms, it means that in comics specialty stores, which are usually small, operator owned businesses that rent their retail space and get their comics on a direct market basis (meaning unsold copies aren't returnable for credit), provide you with a little sliver of their rack/wall/floor space for each of your publications. They pay for both the space and the comic occupying it. The cover of the comic serves as an advertisement for itself, of course, but the more comics that appear under the same logo and the stronger their sense of collective identity, the more so that the cover serves as an ad for other publications under that imprint/logo. It means the retailer is not only advertising the rest of the line beyond that comic, but doing it every minute of every day they're open and paying you (at least in part) to do it. And every title on the rack at the same time doesn't just increase the visibility geometrically, but exponentially. Consequently, when you reduce the number of titles the effect diminishes logarithmically.

Anyway, the new dates for DOOM PATROL were announced this week:

• DOOMPATROL #9, originally solicited for June 28 then cancelled and resolicited for September 27, should now be arriving on November 22.
• BUG! #5, originally solicited for September 13 then cancelled and resolicited for November 8, should now be arriving November 15.
• BUG! #6, originally solicited for October 11 then cancelled and resolicited for December 13, has not yet been rescheduled further.
• DOOM PATROL #10, originally solicited for October 25, should now be arriving on December 20.
• DOOM PATROL #11, originally solicited for November 22, should now be arriving on January 17.
• DOOM PATROL #12, originally solicited for December 27, should now be arriving on February 24.

And let's not forget that while the first week of January is the Silver Anniversary of the Vertigo launch, the end of next summer is the Golden Anniversary of the death of the original Doom Patrol. Let's hope there's something out there by which to commemorate that.

News on new series delays (and a sad note)

Earlier this week Diamond Comics Distributors announced on their website, yet again, that the forthcoming solicited issues of the current DOOM PATROL series have been delayed slightly further.

• Issue #9 (originally solicited for June 28th, cancelled and resolicited for September 27th) has now been rescheduled for November 8th. Of this year, for the record.
• Issue #10 (originally solicited for October 25th) has now been rescheduled for November 29th.
• Issue #11 (originally solicited for November 22nd) has now been rescheduled for December 20th.
• Issue #12 has recently been solicited for December 27th, but obviously that will probably be addressed next week if it hasn't been already.

Before that announcement, though, was another news item that only had a tangential relationship to DOOM PATROL. On Wednesday 27th, 2017, an actress named Anne Jeffreys passed away. American audiences today might know her best, if at all, for the 20 years she spent on the soap opera "General Hospital" and its spin-off, "Port Charles". Hard core comics fans might remember her as Tess Trueheart in the first two post-WWII "Dick Tracy" feature films (which replaced the pre-war "Dick Tracy" serials). But during the 1950's she played Marion Kerby opposite her real life husband Robert Sterling playing Marion's husband George Kerby on the television series "Topper". 

The original novel "Topper" was written by Thorne Smith and published in 1926. It was followed by a sequel in 1932 ("Topper Takes A Trip"). After Smith's death in 1934, the books were adapted into feature films in 1937 and 1938 respectively. A third movie, "Topper Returns" (1941), introduced a new ghost to bedevil Topper, and a radio series followed in 1945. The TV series returned to the original concept of George and Marion and lasted two seasons (which, back then, translated to 78 episodes, or about three or three and a half seasons on broadcast network television today).

It would be a heck of a coincidence if the George and Marion of the Topper franchise weren't the inspiration for the Bandage People George and Marion who lived in a house full of SRS (Sexually Remaindered Spirits) in the Rachel Pollack run of the DOOM PATROL from 1993-1994. Although their origin would eventually reveal that they weren't technically ghosts themselves, they were after all frequently teasing the bodiless head of The Chief-- a literal 'topper'-- who moved into their house.

It's also worth mentioning that right before publishing the second "Topper" book, Thorne Smith released "Turnabout" (1931), a book in which an ancient Egyptian god causes a bickering modern American couple to switch bodies and live as each other's genders. Given that gender identity and fluidity were recurrent themes during her tenure on the book, it's reasonable to expect that she was aware of popular earlier novels such as "Turnabout" and Virginia Woolf's "Orlando" long before she began writing comics.

David Bowie told us it would take five years

Today's the day.

A brand new Doom Patrol series begins.

You have been warned.

...and while you're reading...