Comments on: Remaining Boom! Pixar, Muppet Titles Cancelled

By: Snarked #0 » Comics Worth Reading

Snarked #0 » Comics Worth Reading — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:26:13 +0000

[...] Boom! lost the Muppet comic license, I was disappointed, since Roger Langridge’s Muppet comics were the best licensed comic work [...]

By: Has Boom! Lost Another Disney License? » Comics Worth Reading

Has Boom! Lost Another Disney License? » Comics Worth Reading — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 12:35:40 +0000

[...] Disney has its own comic publisher, it’s not surprising that the licenses are continuing to come back in house, following the Pixar and Muppet comics. And it’s also not surprising that a big corporation [...]

By: Marvel Announces Second Magazine to Reprint Boom! Muppet Comics » Comics Worth Reading

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:01:25 +0000

[...] in the steps of the Disney*Pixar Presents Cars magazine, which is planned to reprint the comics previously published by Boom!, Marvel has announced a Muppet magazine that takes the same [...]

By: Boom! Kids Now Kaboom, Publishing Peanuts Graphic Novel » Comics Worth Reading

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 01:54:49 +0000

[...] rumors began spreading about the future of the Boom! Kids line, the publisher reminded us that they were working on relaunching that imprint. At the end of [...]

By: Marvel to Publish Pixar Comic Magazine » Comics Worth Reading

Marvel to Publish Pixar Comic Magazine » Comics Worth Reading — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:21:23 +0000

[...] that explains why Boom! had to cancel all their Pixar comics. Marvel and Disney just announced a co-publication to be called Disney*Pixar Presents. This monthly [...]

By: Paul Nolan

Paul Nolan — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 04:45:18 +0000

@Eric

1/ Boom! have a far better newsstand distribution than Marvel currently have.

2/ Marvel can’t even make their own all ages book last. (Look at Thor the Mighty Avenger) They would be absolutely useless with the Disney Kids Licences.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 02:28:02 +0000

Marvel is very good in the direct market, yes, but their bookstore marketing is horrible, and other companies do much better with collections in that market and related (such as schools and libraries).

If Disney moved its licenses to Marvel, I would bet they’d have all-new creative teams.

By: Eric

Eric — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 22:48:59 +0000

I don’t see how that could be true, Marvel OWNS the comics market. Besides, having a lot of books at the bookstore means nothing if you can’t afford to let people know they exist. Incredibles was a GREAT book, and I don’t remember Boom doing a thing to get the word out beyond their initial launch. I’m so pissed off that they canceled it where they did, with the villains triumphant and the Incredibles disgraced. The new stuff they’ve been putting out is terrible…Rescue Rangers is a mess, and I think my initial nostalgia for Darkwing clouded my enthusiasm, as the latest issues have been so convoluted. (Although the art on both is fantastic.) If they are doing a Duck Tales book, I’m sure it’ll be pretty but they’ll screw it up by having the same guy write it.

I look forward to Disney moving these books to Marvel. I just hope they keep the same artists.

By: Jim Perreault

Jim Perreault — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 12:45:47 +0000

On the other hand, Boom had way more books at the local book store than Marvel had.

By: Gabriel

Gabriel — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 01:55:37 +0000

I have a friend who works for Boom (I think I’ll avoid saying who) and he said that Boom could no longer afford that license when it came up for renewal; the company is basically hand to mouth each month and have habitually paid their writers and artists late for almost a year now.

They’re focusing hard on the main Disney characters because that’s all they have left. Darkwing Duck was apparently such a huge, unexpected success that they’re doing mostly Disney Afternoon stuff to capitalize, which is why they’re releasing a new original Ducktales book this summer.

I think it’s pretty obvious that Disney probably feels they can make more doing the books themselves anyway; they do own the largest comic company now, and could definitely reach a wider audience than a small company like Boom.

By: Jim

Jim — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 01:41:25 +0000

Boom Kids 2.0 just seems to be them moving away from the Italian material no one liked, and doing the classics reprints that fans wanted in the first place. It also seems to involve making all of the comics a dollar more than they were previously.

The only announcements they seem to be making involve the standards characters, which is probably a separate license from Muppets or Pixar. Disney knows how to divide up their properties for maximum cash flow. The Muppets and Pixar were the first licenses they announced, so they were likely to be the first ones they had, and the first to expire.

How much longer do they have the standards license? Does anyone know? Through 2011, maybe?

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:44:33 +0000

I greatly enjoyed the regular Muppet Show comic, but I didn’t read the spinoffs, because I wasn’t interested in the plots and they had different creative teams. Roger Langridge is the reason the comics were so good.

By: Parker

Parker — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:21:28 +0000

The Snow White Muppet comic was the end for me. The art, as usual, was crap, but worse, the “writer” destroyed Miss Piggy. I’m glad the comic is cancelled.

By: Paul Nolan

Paul Nolan — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 17:33:05 +0000

as it stands, Boom! have not released that much information regarding their Boom Kids 2.0 announcement.

there is bound to be something up their sleeve.

By: Nat Gertler

Nat Gertler — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:42:22 +0000

And let’s remember that Cars also has a new movie coming up, so it would not surprise if any remaining Cars material came out then.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:24:09 +0000

Thank you very much for reminding us of that. I’m very hopeful we see those comics, because I’m sure they’ll be wonderful. Relaunching around the time of the movie, which is now scheduled around Thanksgiving, makes a lot of sense.

By: Roger Langridge

Roger Langridge — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:41:10 +0000

Just to throw what little light I can on this, I would like to point out that Boom! have been paying me for Muppets material I’ve drawn that has not yet been published, which I don’t imagine they’d do if they had no intention of releasing it. My understanding is that they were holding it back for a release that would tie in with the movie.

By: Comics A.M. | Borders to close Tenn. center, Muppets/Pixar titles canceled | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:54:45 +0000

[...] Publishing | The remaining licensed Muppets and Pixar titles from BOOM! Studios have been canceled by Previews. In response to inquiries, the publisher pointed to the teaser for “BOOM! Kids 2.o,” the relaunch of its kids imprint announced in September. Rumors that BOOM! had lost the Muppets/Pixar licenses began swirling in late November, following Roger Langridge’s announcement that he would no longer be drawing The Muppet Show. The publisher’s relaunched kids line will include such Disney licenses as Darkwing Duck, and reprints of Mickey Mouse, Uncle Scrooge and Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. [Comics Worth Reading] [...]

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 13:15:14 +0000

Thanks very much for that history lesson. I’m not sure what’s going on — I’d just like to see more of the original material, which was good to excellent. If costs don’t work out, that’s a shame. The thought occurred to me that Disney is working on a Muppet relaunch of sorts, with the new movie and all — maybe they wanted to avoid sharing focus? Or plan to tie more products into that later?

By: Torsten Adair

Torsten Adair — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:53:39 +0000

Interesting. Pixar and Muppets are original material, not reprints from other Disney licensees. I am not privy to Boom’s contracts, although Disney comics generally do not pay royalties after the first version has been published. (Which is why Don Rosa published his stories first in Denmark, where the circulation is the greatest.)

Does Boom! pay royalties when Disney comics are collected? Perhaps OGNs are one way to get around this, as GNs remain in print longer. The DM numbers are never that big… but one has to also consider newsstand sales (which Boom has been aggressive in pursuing) as well as subscriptions.

Or maybe it was costing Boom too much to produce the original material. (Other licensees generally do not pay fees when reprinting material published elsewhere.)

Disney Digicomics has a site in the UK and Italy, and is slowly rolling out comics apps in the U.S., mostly via the Apple itunes store. (There’s the Epic Mickey app available for iphone and ipad. There’s also the Disney Digicomics app found in iTunes under:
App Store > Books > Disney )

Disney, not BOOM, retains the digital comics rights for the U.S. Most of what is offered on Digicomics is from Disney’s Italian studios, and that output is what appears in most of the “classic” Disney titles from Boom, such as Double Duck, Ultraheroes, and Wizards of Mickey.

Disney did try publishing comics in the 1990s. Marvel distributed Gladstone comics to the newsstands when Gladstone reclaimed the license from Disney. I suspect Disney will analyze how Marvel promoted/produced the Tron and Sands of Persia comics before deciding to add a Disney imprint to Marvel.

Also, given the current downward trend in DM comics sales, Disney will probably be happy to run their digital comics division, and allow Boom to continue selling the GNs (and comics) just like other book licensees, such as Random House and Fantagraphics.

While the Fantagraphics reprints of Carl Barks gained much press, few noticed that Boom is publishing a Rosa collection, Duck anthologies, and a WDC&S archive.

http://blog.boom-studios.net/2010/12/classics-are-back-at-boom-with-disney-collections/#more-7488

That doesn’t seem to me like they’ve lost the license. It seems more like they’ve retrenched on original material, which costs more to produce.