Just read this at Warren Ellis' The Engine:

Subject: Claypool Comics' Crisis


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact David Seidman, Claypool Comics marketing director
davidseidman@earthlink.net / 310-652-4369


CLAYPOOL IN CRISIS
Independent Publisher Reaches Out to Readers and Retailers

Diamond Comics Distributors has told Claypool Comics of plans to cancel the Claypool titles DEADBEATS and SOULSEARCHERS AND COMPANY, starting with the issues shipping in April, unless Claypool can push their sales up. That move would wipe out much of Claypool’s line.

This news comes as Claypool is in the middle of a group of special issues. SOULSEARCHERS #76 and ELVIRA #153 (shipping in January) and DEADBEATS #76 (shipping in February) are “Jump In” issues written and drawn especially for new readers. Last year, when Claypool inaugurated the “Jump In” issues, they sold very well.

Claypool has asked retailers to order an extra copy of each “Jump In” issue. In addition, Claypool has asked readers to buy Claypool titles now and request that the retailers order the “Jump In” issues. The cover of SOULSEARCHERS’ “Jump In” issue is on the Web at http://www.claypoolcomics.com/uploads/ss76.gif , while http://www.claypoolcomics.com/uploads/db76.gif houses DEADBEATS’ cover.

Claypool is backing up its requests with point-of-sale cards that retailers can put on their counters or use as bag stuffers. The cards tell readers about the issues and include a spot to check off which issues they’d like to buy.

DEADBEATS, by Marvel veterans Richard Howell and Ricardo Villagran, is a punk vampire soap opera that should appeal to fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 30 Days of Night. SOULSEARCHERS, written and co-created by Peter David, is a super-hero satire featuring a group of supernatural investigators, featuring art by Joe Staton and covers by JSA Classified: Power Girl’s Amanda Conner.

Claypool editor Richard Howell says, “Claypool Comics has always had a dedicated base of fans, most of whom are literate and educated people whose needs aren’t always met by the current comics marketplace. A retailer who puts our comics on the shelves will most likely find that they continue to sell month after month. The consistency of our sales is undisputable, and we have every indication that if our books got more exposure, they’d sell strongly for many, many more retailers. Claypool Comics are and always have been a labor of love -- love of comics, that is. We’re committed to good comics, and that makes our readers committed to us. Any retailer who wants to profit from that dedication and goodwill is enthusiastically invited along for the ride.”

Claypool, which has published comics steadily since 1993, is known as “the publisher of hidden treasures” -- but it doesn’t WANT to hide them!

***

I've been a fan of Claypool's comics since they started. I did drift away, and now only buy Soulsearchers & Co, although with this news, I may start getting Elvira and Deadbeats again. Soulsearchers is a hilarious satire of the supernatural investigator genre (along with anything else that writer Peter David feels like lampooning that month), and while it's always had nice art, adding one of my favorite artists, Joe Staton, was just icing on the cake as far as I was concerned. Deadbeats is this weird vampire soap opera thing, almost like the original Dark Shadows TV series (writer/artist Richard Howell is a huge DS fan), and I always liked it, just not as much as Soulsearchers. And Elvira is just good fun. In these days of fans whining when Marvel or DC cancels some superhero book or another that's really just like every other superhero book only ever so slightly different, it'd be a shame if people weren't more up in arms over this than they get over, say, Spider-Girl or Runaways.