Jan 17
Don’t Let SWORD Get The Axe
Posted on Sunday, January 17, 2010 by Al in Uncategorized
Rich Johnston is reporting at Bleeding Cool that SWORD, by Kieron Gillen and Steven Sanders, is to be cancelled as of issue 5. This is, not to put too fine a point on it, a state of affairs that would be unfortunate in the extreme if it came to pass.
So! What are people going to do about it? Well, you could do a lot worse than go here – there are materials there that can be printed off and used to show Marvel your appreciation for one of their sharpest and most interesting books, should you be so inclined. If you’re buying it, keep buying it, and tell your comics-reading friends. Email Marvel too – it might accomplish something, it might not, but it can’t hurt either way. SWORD’s a great book, and it would be a shame to lose it.
#5’s the new cut-off point, huh? (Doctor Brother Voodoo is also dead@5)
I picked it up. I hate the art, the characters don’t do much for me. I mean it’s nice to see Lockheed but enduring Gyrich isn’t worth it.
Seems strange to cancel a book getting good reviews before it even goes to a trade. I never buy single issues anymore and as far as I know that’s a much more common practice than ever before.
Presumably Marvel know by now how well low-selling ongoings DO in trade.
If, by some miracle, it does exceptionally well as a TPB, they can easily do a v2. With better art.
I don’t usually do this but I’ll buy the trade even after having bought the single issues. Gillen has been doing some great work for Marvel to where I’ll buy stuff with his name as the only consideration.
And it does seem #5-6 is the cut off now instead of 9 or 12 (and if you have that quick of a cancel button, why not just do a mini first?)
“And it does seem #5-6 is the cut off now instead of 9 or 12 (and if you have that quick of a cancel button, why not just do a mini first?)”
I’ve been thinking this as well. I can’t blame them for trying but when you take the current marketplace and what Marvel needs a book to sell to keep it alive, it seems impossible for a comic like this to survive.
I’ve loved SWORD so far but so many fringe books that I love have been canceled in the last few years that I take what I can get at this point and basically view them as mini-series from the get go. Not much else I can do aside from buying the issues.
Of course, if all the fringe comics were minis they’d be $4 an issue and I’d be less likely to buy them anyway.
Gah, and I just had SWORD added to my pull list the day before yesterday. It took a little while to grow on me, but I really quite like it (and not just because it has Death’s Head in it).
I can see why the interior art would put people off though, and the $3.99 price tag on the first issue (why Marvel seem to think giving the first issue of a new series a HIGHER price is a good plan, I’ve no idea. Do they not see all those adverts for part-work magazines where the first issue is practically free and then the price gets jacked up with #2?)
Hey, other than a wonky-looking Beast, the art is great. It’s got a Seth Fisher/Frank Quitely vibe going on.
Martin…
You just know if Marvel tried that, it would be with a $3 issue one and $4 thereafter, rather than $1 then $3.
Marvel is supposed to be ‘IP’ property. In order to create new concepts they need to give them a chance. Second and third tier titles are being crushed because retailers have to make choices so far in advance because of line-wide events and crossovers. Retailers are cutting orders on comics like S.W.O.R.D. in order to bulk up on Siege and Deadpool comics. Serializing S.W.O.R.D. as a back-up strip first would have been a better move (Astonishing X-Men and Spider-Woman, hello).
*frowny face*
//\Oo/\\
This actually disgusts me to the core. What’s the point of making good stuff if in the end they only keep around the crossovers and Deadpools and Wolverines?
Not about SWORD, but on this note, I heard that they’re cancelling Hercules, now that it’s paired with an Agents of Atlas back up I’m geeking out every issue.
Why on earth is there more than one Deadpool book?
I was going to say “Can Brother Voodoo be far behind?”, because I apparently missed the news last month that it was already dead. Without any implications on the quality of the books intended, I can say I’m not surprised in the least.
WTF? I gave up the non-stop cross-over madness that Nova/Guardians and Realm of/War of etc. were for the straight up space fun that is S.W.O.R.D. and now they are talking cancelling it? It was good and it was from Marvel and it didn’t involve Dark Reign or Norman O or cost 3.99 so of course it’s doomed! 🙁
Comic books come and go. This is one of them. Captain Britain and the MI13 was one of them. This is how things work.
Swearing to buy more copies or purchase the trade when you already own the singles isn’t going to do anyone any favors.
This doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.
I spoke to Kieron at the Phonogram pub night the day S.W.O.R.D. #1 came out, and he said he’d been writing assuming that it would only last 5 issues, and didn’t seem to have much hope it’d last longer. That said, he didn’t take my fiver bet it would last more than that…
Read the first issue, didn’t like it. The writing actually seemed a bit immature to me, like a high school student’s idea of what humor is (of course, I also feel the same way about J.M. DeMatteis’s comedic dialogue, so I realize my sense of humor differs greatly from that of most comic book fans). And the art is annoying, as well. So, yeah, I can’t say I’m broken up about this.
I’ve been enjoying SWORD, and I’ve been especially enjoying the art – it seems like everything that irritates people about it (the wacky-looking Beast, for instance) is everything I’ve liked the most here. It’s so rare to get really distinctive visuals in a mainstream superhero comic; I hope Steven Sanders ends up with another interesting project after this.