Who would have ever thought Fangoria would become a horror story of their own? A very interesting press release hit our inbox this morning that further exploits the hard times Fangoria has fallen on. If the rapid rising of the magazine's cover price isn't any indication of major problems, maybe the fact that Fangoria TV shut down and the fact that Fuse turned down a chance to do the Chainsaw Awards again this year is enough proof? Walking further onto thin ice, it was announced today - in a quite angry release - that Fangoria Comics is also no more. Who's to blame? I see a lot of pointing fingers, read on and see them too. We wish the best for all the writers and artists and hope your efforts get treated well else ware.
FANGORIA COMICS SHUTS DOWN,
CREATORS AND STAFF ANNOUNCE
RELOCATION OF PROJECTS
September 28, 2007
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."
Fangoria has been shit for years. The cover price sucks. The content in the magazines don't even warrant half the cover price. Rue Morgue is better. Bye Fangoria....it's been a long time coming. FINISH THEM!
i think it has alot less to do with their content and alot more to do with the fact that the internet is killing magazines and physical print in general. they need to catch up with everyone else and start doing exclusive online only.
well, i for one still enjoy reading magazines. yeah, the cover price can be rough, but it's horror, so i let it slide. i do think Rue Morgue is better. but i still get fangoria each month. maybe i am a sap.
The truth of the matter is that it has a lot to do with Scott Licina going out of control with the promotion and hype about many things. He said that they got Vampirella from Harris Comics until Newsarama interviewed Harris Comics months later to dispel the lie. Instead of apologizing and admitting that he was wrong, Scott gave the excuse that he was operating on some info that was available to him at the time. Any competent Editor In Chief would contact the other company to see if the info was valid before making any rash actions of broadcasting stuff that isn't true. When it came to the books, he mentioned that there would be no variants until I found a Black and White one of Bump #1 at Big Planet Comics and bought it at cover price along with looking at eBay auctions where the seller specified that they were selling the variants. The next one was on the Fangoria Comics chat where Mark Kidwell mentioned that they had printed 15,000 copies to indicate that they were meeting the order from retailers as Scott has posted. When the actual orders from comic book retailers for the month of June came out with the real number of orders, it was revealed that Bump #1 was #228 with close to 4,000 copies ordered which meant that the extra 11,000 were sent to to other outlets and not comic shops. When it came to the numbers for the following month, the second issue dropped to #290 with half of the books ordered while the month after that showed that they weren't in the Top 300. To be really honest, I actually read all of the books in the store and I found them to be the same stuff that I had seen from other movies and books for me to avoid purchasing them just like some other cutomers that read them themselves. The real funny thing about Scott claiming that Fangoria did not promote and advertise them was false since their magazine, website, and their satellite radio show were giving them a lot of promotion and notice. Everything that comes from Fangoria Entertainment has been nothing but a lot of self promotion that turns most people off from wanting to spend their hard earned cash.
yeah i thought his comments about the lack of promotion odd, they were advertised in Fango quite a bit, plus they had lots of coverage in Previews, where the first issues were listed as "Spotlight" titles if memory serves.
I think Fangoria is still a very good magazine, it is the cover price that is the problem. Once I could justify buying an issue just for one good article of interest, but now with the price the way it is there needs to be a hell of a lot more articles I really want to read for me to buy it (which there often isn't). I buy the UK magazine Darkside more often now as even if there isn't much of initial interest, at such a reasonable price it is a great buy.
I dont care what anyone says, I love Fangoria
magazine. I have been buying it since the first issue back in '79 and I hope it goes on strong for years to come. Personaally, I likr it betteer than Rue Morgue.
the price of everything is rising, who cares about the price. fangoria has been around for so damn long and is probrobly one of the best horror magazines today.. i hope they can pull through the hard time.
the price of everything is rising, who cares about the price. fangoria has been around for so damn long and is probrobly one of the best horror magazines today.. i hope they can pull through the hard time.
You are absolutely correct JGrayland. Lack of advertising was not the cause of why those books were hardly ordered by the retailers and not being moved from the racks and shelves at stores. After reading them myself, I would not want to waste $3.99 on stuff that does not interest me and has a lot of Fangoria Entertainment self promotion on there that should have reduced the price to $2.00 to $2.99.
Even though the cover price is ridiculous, I'll will be continuing to renew my Fangoria subscription.
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