X-Men: Misfits Cut Short
We are disappointed to confirm the reports that Del Rey Manga cancelled X-Men: Misfits volume 2. We just got word of this a few days ago, so we are still processing the news ourselves. We’d like to apologize to the book’s many fans, who were waiting eagerly for book 2 to drop. Even though sales for Book 1 were high (several weeks on the NYT Graphic Books Bestseller List) we were told they were not high enough to justify the expenses (specifically, the cost of licensing Marvel characters).
The saddest part for us is that the story was written as a 2-parter and we set a lot of things up to be played out or resolved in Book 2. We'd have done things VERY differently if we knew there was a chance of this happening. Less foreshadowing and more payoff! We certainly wouldn’t have waited until Book 2 to include Lockheed, that’s for sure!
And, because it was work for hire, and the characters are all licensed, there's no way the rest of the story will ever see the light of day. There is nothing we can do about it. We did the work and we got paid (for both books). Del Rey had to make cuts; we fell under the knife. End of story.
We have nothing but gratitude for everyone at Del Rey Manga (especially our editor, Tricia Pasternak) and Marvel Comics, all of whom showed us tremendous amounts of support and enthusiasm every step of the way. It was a dream gig, getting to work on an X-Men book and being encouraged to have fun, and do whatever silly things we could think of (including trying to make a good book!).
We’d also like to thank Anzu, who was half-way through penciling Book 2. She really got what we were going for and was always able to take it to the next level. Anzu was a fantastic partner on this wild ride and we hope that we get to collaborate again someday. And with any luck, she will at least be able to show off some of her character designs for the new additions to the cast in volume 2.
And of course, a final word of thanks to all the people who have vocally supported X-Men: Misfits. We knew there would be a lot of skepticism about the project from the beginning, so hearing from so many people who “got it” really made us happy. The cancellation is still sinking in and we certainly appreciate the people who have already shared their feelings with us. That’s publishing, though. Series are NOT sure things. The best way to support a series you love is to buy the books, and spread the word. In the meantime, we imagine we’ll continue to get tons of Google Alerts, letting us know about all the torrents and rapidshare files of X-Men: Misfits there are out there…
-dave and raina
[Dave's rough sketch of Jubilee to help inspire Anzu]