The Curious Case of the Archie Graphic Novel and Reprint Delays and other GN Hyjinks (Sonic/Mega Man GN and Reprint Release Guide inside)

[Ryannumber1gamer]

3 minutes ago, Caligruma said:

Not sure if anyone else saw this, but Archie's putting the monthly Megaman comic on hiatus, if not outright cancelling.  I saw issue #55 in Barnes and Noble today, and I read in through and saw the announcement at the end.  Issue #55 was basically a homage of splash pages to the MM games they did not get to cover.  And they were just getting to Mega Man 4 and Skull Man!

Don't know what this is going to mean for the Mega Man GNs, but something is definitely coming apart in Archie...

Yeah, we have a thread for Archie Mega Man in the Chit-Chat sub-forum.

[Spin Attaxx]

49 minutes ago, Caligruma said:

Not sure if anyone else saw this, but Archie's putting the monthly Megaman comic on hiatus, if not outright cancelling.  I saw issue #55 in Barnes and Noble today, and I read in through and saw the announcement at the end.  Issue #55 was basically a homage of splash pages to the MM games they did not get to cover.  And they were just getting to Mega Man 4 and Skull Man!

Don't know what this is going to mean for the Mega Man GNs, but something is definitely coming apart in Archie...

You're late to the party by like four months :U

But yeah, I've not got high hopes for the series' future. At best, we'll get it back and continue on with 4 onwards, at worst it's either outright cancelled or rebooted into something else (possibly to match the new cartoon), which in the end is the same thing as far as the story's concerned.

[Big Panda]

About the Worlds Collide book, does anybody actually have the physical book? Or even seen it?

Forbidden Planet didn't have it when I went in, and eBay shows no solid evidence of anyone else having it.

[Your Vest Friend]

Nope. Like I said, FP were expecting it on Thursday, but it wasn't amongst the lot they received that day. They assumed it must have been delayed.

[Big Panda]

And with that, I caved and brought the digital one.

 

Few things to note concerning the prologues and epilogues:

 

The epilogues only go as far as the third page on each issue (telling you to continue in their respective graphic novel titles at the end).

 

The prologues consist of the second ten pages of Mega Man #23, exactly as it was presented in the FCBD prequel issue. The Sonic one, on the other hand, did something a bit different: first we get the final two pages of SU#50, and then...

 

http://sta.sh/2191bgmdb69f?edit=1

 

[Your Vest Friend]

That's...odd. I know Sonic Universe #50 does have some prelude type stuff, but the prologue was #247, and the very last page on that was free of Archie characters, if they're absolutely avoiding reprinting any material from other writers (the page before that had Sonic did have them, and the page directly before featured Tails Doll with the questionable look).

I can only concluded that this was done to bring the collection in line as a telling of the new continuity's version of events. But if it was the last two pages, wouldn't Mecha Sally have been there? That would that work?

[Big Panda]

19 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

I can only concluded that this was done to bring the collection in line as a telling of the new continuity's version of events. But if it was the last two pages, wouldn't Mecha Sally have been there? That would that work?

Not really, since part 1 still showed the original Eggman/Wily meeting where Eggman is on the Death Egg.

[Your Vest Friend]

Oh, okay.

So I guess they were literally just avoiding reprinting pages from #247? That doesn't really bode well if that's the case. :/

[Big Panda]

Possibly. Or, ya know, they simply lacked the space.

[Your Vest Friend]

6 minutes ago, TheFatPanda said:

Possibly. Or, ya know, they simply lacked the space.

When they could have just subbed in the last page of #247 instead of that photoshoppy one?

[Big Panda]

Maybe they felt everything else on the page would look weird out of context. The reader would be coming in right as Silver is knocking out Mecha Sally.

...eh, I dunno.

[Big Panda]

Apologies for the double post but a new developement: it seems Amazon have performed a massive de-cluttering of their listings.

A bunch of upcoming graphic novel volumes have been removed, and we've now been left with the following (in order):

-Sonic Comics Spectacular

-Mega Man Ultimate Edition 1

-The Art of Sonic the Hedgehog Comics

-Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 3

-Sonic Boom Volume 1

-Worlds Unite Volume 1

-Sonic Archives 25

-Sonic Universe Volume 9 (now set for release in August)

-Mega Man Volume 9 (now set for August)

...but don't panic! To me, this looks like Amazon are just trying to keep things more organised, starting by removing the further-ahead volumes which will obviously not have a new set release date for quite a while anyway.

I dunno about you guys, but this is actually making me confident that things may finally be getting back on track.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

38 minutes ago, TheFatPanda said:

Apologies for the double post but a new developement: it seems Amazon have performed a massive de-cluttering of their listings.

A bunch of upcoming graphic novel volumes have been removed, and we've now been left with the following (in order):

-Sonic Comics Spectacular

-Mega Man Ultimate Edition 1

-The Art of Sonic the Hedgehog Comics

-Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 3

-Sonic Boom Volume 1

-Worlds Unite Volume 1

-Sonic Archives 25

-Sonic Universe Volume 9 (now set for release in August)

-Mega Man Volume 9 (now set for August)

...but don't panic! To me, this looks like Amazon are just trying to keep things more organised, starting by removing the further-ahead volumes which will obviously not have a new set release date for quite a while anyway.

I dunno about you guys, but this is actually making me confident that things may finally be getting back on track.

Hopefully. Still concerned that MM and SU are both still 6 months away, considering that means we will have been a full year waiting for them to release. I will update Sonic/MM Worlds Collide Complete Epic's date once I know for sure it's got a physical release.

[Big Panda]

Here are the reprinted stories in Super Digest #15:

-"Sticks and Stones" from Sonic Boom #4 (NOT split in half this time)

-"Silver Age Part 1"

-"Spark of Life Part 3"

-"Cold Hearted" and "Back in Business" from #276

-"Babylon Rising Part 1" (OMFG A PRE-REBOOT STORY)

[Gabz Girl]

So, why the hell are all these delays happening? Don't tell me it's something to do with rights or whatever. >_>

[Your Vest Friend]

Babylon Rising? Isn't that the SU GN due out next? Maybe that's why it's there.

[Big Panda]

It is, but its not mentioned or anything.

[Big Panda]

VEDJ-F, you managed to get the hard copy of Worlds Collide? At Forbidden Planet? 'Cos mine didn't have it :/

[Ryannumber1gamer]

If Worlds Collide's Ultimate Edition is confirmed to have been physically released, I'll update the section on the list.

Official release date was 6th January wasn't it? 

[pocket]

On 1/13/2016 at 6:14 AM, Gabz Girl said:

So, why the hell are all these delays happening? Don't tell me it's something to do with rights or whatever. >_>

We only have theories, Archie hasn't said a word about it, and no matter how you ask about it, they'll completely and totally ignore any questions about unreleased graphic novels. I've tried for months to get an answer from them, even before I knew about the Delays. I really don't get how it's acceptable to have such poor communication with the fans about such an ongoing problem. They don't even tell anybody about them, we have to find out through Amazon listings.

[Your Vest Friend]

15 hours ago, TheFatPanda said:

VEDJ-F, you managed to get the hard copy of Worlds Collide? At Forbidden Planet? 'Cos mine didn't have it :/

Yep. It was the variant instead of regular cover oddly enough, but it was there and I got it.

Although this was on January 13th, not 6th. 

[Zaysho]

On 1/13/2016 at 9:14 AM, Gabz Girl said:

So, why the hell are all these delays happening? Don't tell me it's something to do with rights or whatever. >_>

The most common guess seems to be Archie's money troubles as a direct fallout of their Kickstarter fiasco. It explains the cutbacks in certain imprints, notably the Action line, with Sonic Boom's cancellation and Mega Man's hiatus (their Horror line was probably hit, but given how infrequently Afterlife with Archie and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina come out, I'm not even sure that was affected to begin with). Granted, Archie has been slow with trade releases before (with Sonic especially), but now it's more noticeable because of things getting delayed much further than usual or certain books just dropping/being replaced with something else altogether.

Far as I know, I don't think there are rights issues this time around, since Archie as a whole has kind of been like this for the last year or so.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Final cover and solict. Date's confirmed for 5th April.

Quote

MEGA MAN: MASTER EDITION VOL. 1 (TR)
Script: Ian Flynn
Art: Patrick Spaziante, Chad Thomas, Ben Bates, Rick Bryant, Gary Martin, John Workman, Matt Herms
Cover: Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante
Mega Man is the legendary Blue Bomber-the boy robot turned hero! One of video game’s first icons, he’s now one of comic books’ greatest heroes! It all began when the nefarious Dr. Wily stole Dr. Light’s eight Robot Masters and turned them against the world! Helper-bot Rock had himself turned into Mega Man—the super fighting robot-to save the day! Dr. Wily wouldn’t go down without a fight, though, and built eight combat-specific Robot Masters just to destroy Mega Man—from without or within! Now Mega Man must fight to save the world and himself! MEGA MAN: MASTER EDITION vol.1 collects the first three epic storylines, covering Mega Man #1-12.
978-1-62738-873-3
$24.99/$27.99 CAN
5-1/2 x 7-1/2″
TR
336 pp, Full Color
Direct Market On-Sale Date: 5/4

Read More: Archie Action Releases for April 2016 [Solicitations] | http://comicsalliance.com/archie-action-releases-for-april-2016-solicitations/?trackback=tsmclip

http://comicsalliance.com/archie-action-releases-for-april-2016-solicitations/

[PC the Hedgehog]

On 1/14/2016 at 2:20 PM, pocket said:

We only have theories, Archie hasn't said a word about it, and no matter how you ask about it, they'll completely and totally ignore any questions about unreleased graphic novels. I've tried for months to get an answer from them, even before I knew about the Delays. I really don't get how it's acceptable to have such poor communication with the fans about such an ongoing problem. They don't even tell anybody about them, we have to find out through Amazon listings.

Someone should ask them about it at a con. It's easy to ignore questions on the internet, but face-to-face you gotta say something.

[Your Vest Friend]

10 minutes ago, PC the Hedgehog said:

Someone should ask them about it at a con. It's easy to ignore questions on the internet, but face-to-face you gotta say something.

Or they could just say "No comment" or "We are not answering questions about trade releases at this time".