The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Some rather disappointing news appeared on a number of sites this morning, that DC Comics has pulled the plug on its Minx imprint. It seems rather surprising to me given that it wasn’t that long ago that DC was launching Minx in a blaze of publicity, so it doesn’t really feel to me like they have given it much of a run to establish itself. Which is disappointing in itself; I’d have hoped they would support it longer before making a decision like this. But its also disappointing because A) this was a range aimed to draw in younger, female readers, which outside of manga is a segment of the reading community a lot of comics simply don’t seem to appeal to, despite research usually showing teen girls read a lot more than teen boys so there is a potential audience there and B) because most of the Minx range so far has actually been very good and provided a level of writing and art (from creators like Mike Carey, Andi Watson, Brian Wood and more) which makes them interesting not only to that teen girl target audience but to others – our own Richard Bruton has praised a number of them in his regular Propaganda columns. And given this is exactly the sort of graphic novel range which I would think could be built up in mainstream bookstores as well as comics stores I find it even more surprising that it hasn’t been given longer to establish itself. I’d imagine DC must have some good reasons for this move as I would doubt its the sort of thing any large publisher does lightly because it will automatically generate discussion about where that publisher is going if it is trimming sections, but its still a shame Minx hasn’t been given longer.

(cover to one of the more recent Minx titles, Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly’s New York Four)

Plenty of sites are beginning to comment on this, but I think, as is often the case, Tom Spurgeon on Comics Reporter has some decent thoughts on this move and its likely implications: “So canceling Minx now not only ends what must have been a very decent gig for a lot of people, not only suspends what was one of the few corporate comics opportunities that didn’t involve drawing/writing superheroes at funerals or vampires turning on their own or whatever, and pulls the plug on what might have been some decent books as the line settled in, it also stands as a vote of no-confidence from one of comics’ biggest entities in doing comics their way for that market.”