Per Newsarama, Alias and DB Pro have parted ways. Alias says that they have “officially released DB Pro from its publishing contracts… after a series of late and failed deliveries, and an expression by Dabel Brothers that they would like to return to their roots as an independent publisher.” All DB Pro project orders through Alias will be cancelled, including XIII #6, the XIII trade paperback, Imperial Dragons, The Burning Man, and a Seventh Shrine trade paperback.

While using words like “non-delivery” a lot, Alias (in the person of Executive Director Mike S. Miller) wishes them the best. DB Pro’s Les Dabel, in response, brought up Alias deciding to censor XIII (a European title translated into American), which he believes hurt sales; Alias soliciting books before they knew they’d be ready in order to have a splashier launch; Alias soliciting titles without contracts or agreements; and Alias stealing files via FTP. That last one is pretty weird. DB Pro is claiming that Alias took files to create and run ads in Previews without their knowledge in order to pressure DB Pro into publishing those books through Alias. If true, that defines “desperation”. Dabel continues

To put things in perspective, when I had Imperial Dragons solicited through Devil’s Due prior to Alias, it would have sold about 4x times more copies at regular price. But through Alias, it sold far less, and for far less. Alias has also decided to raise their cover price to $3.50 and cutting their page per book down to only 24. This is something I am totally against and will not allow any of my books to be part of because it lowers the quality of the experience while increasing the price. Alias is a sinking ship, and it’s sad that they need to resort to these ridiculous tactics to try to strongarm their partners into staying with them.

The Newsarama article has more information on the history of Dabel Brothers (DB Pro) books, publishing with Image and Devil’s Due before moving to Alias this year, as well as their upcoming release plans as they move to self-publishing.