Bye Bye to Wildstorm and Zuda Comics

Wildstorm and Zuda, two imprints of DC Comics, are closing down. My thougths? Damn DC, your organization is wack.

How long ago was it that you killed Minx? An interesting imprint to be aimed at teenage girls. I understand you didn't get the results you wanted but maybe if you had a little patience. I mean, most girl readers of manga and novel prefer long form stories and you were not presenting that. You also had a limited number of females actually WRITE stories too. One reason shojo manga sales so well is that its written by women for girls. Not that men can't write for women but I think a few extra female writers, or even artists, could have helped. Plus premiering a few ongoing graphic novel series'. Oh, of course, if the actual distributor got the books shelved in Young Adults, maybe that would have helped too.

Than there was CMX manga. First off, you don't launch with an edited version of a cult hit. Manga fans don't want censorship in their books, especially when they could read it free online. A lot of your books were very minor compared to the big licenses over at Viz, Tokyopop and others. Hell, some were not even available on scanalation sites. So of course you should have licensed less books and set the standard lower. you didn't have a Fruits Basket or Naruto in your pocket. Whats really sad is there were people following titles that will now probably never finish. Actually, scratch that. Whats really sad is a lot of manga fans didn't know DC comics put out manga.

Now to Zuda and the 'Storm. Zuda? I saw that coming. I don't know if you just going to be absorbed into DC or what by DC doing web comics? Please... DC is working hard to make reading their books on computer of devices like iPhones as hard as possible. DC is dragging their feet with the future of the industry.

Now Wildstorms kind of sad deal. It has history. Originally one of the studios that made up Image comics and represented artistic freedom. Of course most the comics during the early Image period showcased bad writing but its the symbolism that matters. DC buys the company for the artists(who have mostly left), the colorists(who prove computers make everything easier) and Jim Lee of course(whose now co-president/publisher/whatever). They also wanted to work with Alan Moore again(who they pissed off again and hates DC with more bile than anyone can hate anything).

Wildstorm of course is the home of the Authority. Which I never read, and neither did DC when they bought the company. They especially hated the second run by Wanted/Kick Ass co-creator Mark Millar who now works mostly for Marvel. (Not that this bothers me because how many comics with "practical" superheroes doing "realistic" things and excessive violence does one man need to put put? Though Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men were good.) I wonder what this means for Wildstorm superheroes like WildCATS or Gen 13. oh, wait... Dc officially made them part of their multiverse. Ha! Now they'll be like every other DC franchise. Part of a company who could care less about them.

So, how long until they pull the plug on Vertigo? It would seem unlikely but at this point I wouldn't be surprised.