So... ongoing?

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Sat May 13, 2006 6:55 pm

Are Infiltration/Escalation one ongoing series? And where does Stormbringer fit in? I keep hearing contradictory things. Please don't tell me it's going to be a million six-issues bits.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Sat May 13, 2006 7:29 pm

AFAICT, in response to "fan demand" the four-issue series Stormbringer has been brought forward from Autumn to June, being sold as issues 1-4, and Escalation will similarly be a 1-6 series which will be sold overlapping with the end of Stormbringer. All will be the same continuity and events in one will affect the other.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Sat May 13, 2006 8:24 pm

Would've preferred an Ongoing myself.

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Sat May 13, 2006 8:24 pm

What MV is trying to say is, yes. For the moment it would appear as it will all be minis upon minis.

Post by **Denyer** » Sat May 13, 2006 10:38 pm

Brought forward?

http://www.transfans.net/interviews_furman3.php

I think that's just spin.

"when we get to July and the summer G1 ‘event,’ look for page after page of the wham factor."

I doubt there was an additional event planned for this year.

Re: numbering...

http://forums.idwpublishing.com/cgi-bin ... =21;t=1157

It's still ongoing as far as anyone's aware -- i.e. nobody's come forward to contradict #7 continuing after the two month gap.

My personal feelings...

There's currently no way the subplots in #1-4 will be wrapped up by the end of #6 -- nor is there any reason they all should be in an ongoing -- so people picking up the first installment of Escalation and expecting a completely separate story wouldn't, I'd suggest, find this intuitive.

This isn't something I'd feel strongly enough about to widely canvas opinion... but I can't see any pros to restarting the numbering for a continuation of the story.

People got confused between the short Dreamwave volumes. Some particularly addled individuals (and spouses) got confused with the IDW covers -- the number was the main thing they had to go on. Breaking to a new volume means fewer stores will continue standing orders. Minis have high sales fall-off and encourage people to wait for trades which they then forget to order.

Dunno... anyone feel like painting some sheets and going for a march?

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Sat May 13, 2006 10:43 pm

Nah. It's all good. We're still having a fairly decent continous publication anyway.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Sun May 14, 2006 3:19 am

The votes in the IDW forum thread are overwhelmingly in favor of #7. I bothered to look.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Sun May 14, 2006 10:05 am

Denyer wrote:
http://forums.idwpublishing.com/cgi-bin ... =21;t=1157

Nice to see. Seems a trivial issue on the surface and yet...

I'm up for Stormbringer as issue 7 too. The old series popped around the galaxy but didn't start a mini-series each time! Even the main title ran in parelel with Headmasters and didn't have to take a break.

Post by **Best First** » Sun May 14, 2006 2:32 pm

i agree that storembringer should be 7 for the reasons given above.

a far better choice is continuous numberingand then just the story title and X of Y elsewhere on the cover IMO.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Sun May 14, 2006 4:00 pm

The ad in BW#4 is for Stormbringer #1. Escalation could still begin with #7 though.

Scraplet · Post by **Scraplet** » Sun May 14, 2006 9:58 pm

IDW are always saying that they want to bring in new fans.

I can't think of many thinks more likely to confuse potential new fans than a multitude of connected mini-series, running alongside unconnected mini-series, like Evolution.

KingMob · Post by **KingMob** » Mon May 15, 2006 8:43 am

New #1's are supposed to be more likely to attract new readers than #32 or #446, and #1 issues are more valuable to collectors. Double-whammy. Going to a new #1 does apparently sell more copies that whatever the next consecutive number would have been.

But yeah, the #1-itis theory took a battering in the last year or so with the waiting for the trade syndrome killing mini-series numbers, but I guess they figure TF collectors (we're largely a collector's market after all) are still open to it.
Agree, not certain there is a big bunch of new TF readers that this strategy in serial form will hook, it mainly seems there to gull serial collectors, although good word of mouth would benefit minis more than an ongoing.

But having a bunch of volume-ised digests does seem to bring in new readers from different areas of the market - at least for some brands - and it's useful to have a mini-series available to support the crossover reader from the digest side of things as well as to generate new digests.
Are IDW doing digest/manga sized reprints of the TF material? If they are, I'd expect minis to be the norm. Except for maybe Generations, if that even continues past the first Trade-filling mark.

However, they do apparently listen to the fans so I hope everyone voting gets what they want.
Personally I don't really mind.

Post by **Denyer** » Mon May 15, 2006 11:18 am

There are manga-style B&W volumes on the cards...

http://tfarchive.com/comics/idw/schedule.php (those bits from Amazon)

Retailers appear keen on clearly marked mini-series for titles they wouldn't normally stock... not sure how this would square with multiple covers, though. There needs to be something other than a subtitle to mark two #1s apart, IMO.