The ending of Minx is, of course, sad, and it should be sad to all of us, not just those involved in producing and publishing the books. A lot of people were very negative of the imprint from the start, for all kind of reasons, but I would hope that all of us (meaning industry professionals and readers alike) would have been happy to see Minx live up to its potential, to capture a new audience and bring more people in. The fact it didn’t, that it couldn’t, is bad news for everyone and a reason to mourn the loss.
Editor Shelly Bond called me up yesterday and told me the bad news. I wasn’t part of Minx from day one, but I know how important this was to her, going back a lot of years. She is a fantastic editor, a great supporter and champion, and one of the most sincere and genuine people I have met in my career. Because of her not only does THE NEW YORK FOUR exist, but there will be a second volume in the series. Not sure when, or under what imprint, but we’re working on it. I have no doubt that she went out of her way to make sure that happened for me and my collaborator Ryan Kelly.
I fear clicking around on the web to read the news and reactions to this. No doubt there will be plenty of armchair quarterbacking, people not only crying that they knew it was coming, or they predicted it, or that it’s some kind of triumph of their way of thinking over Shelly and DC’s… but also comments suggesting what Minx could have done differently in order to make it. Like they alone had the magic solution, the secret formula. I think I can say with utter certainty that anything that the collective “we” could think up, it occurred to DC first. They tried all they could, and it didn’t work. Again, this is bad for all of us. But they tried, we all tried. Minx represents not only a financial risk undertaken by DC, but the hard work and ideas and hopes of a lot of writers and artists and editors and people supporting us.
Today is Shelly Bond’s birthday, by the way.
bri
Tags: Brian Wood, Minx, ryan kelly, Shelly Bond, the new york four
Holy sh*t. I must be behind; I had no idea this was happening. That is so sad. I was so psyched about this line that I spent more time time shilling Minx previews at my first MoCCA than I did shilling CAIRO.
Nobody really wants ‘different’. They say they do, but really they want more of the same. What chance do new readers (especially young girls) have in such a hermetic environment?
“so shines a good deed, in a weary world”…willy wonka (after willie shakespeare)
That’s about 100 times sadder than the news I needed to hear today. I haven’t had a chance to read The New York Four yet, but I loved Re-Gifters, and gave it to my friend’s little sister. The next week, she loaned me Clubbing.
It’s a very sad news to see that an attempt to reach new audience doesn’t work out.
I feel sorry for all the people who were involved in this.
This fucking sucks, even though I wasn’t by any means the target audience… I really loved these books.
I just finally read The New York Four last night and loved it. Does that mean there will never be a sequel?
@Dan
Yeah there will be. Not just under the Minx imprint sadly.
Very sad this, I read all of them apart from one of the newer ones (I forget what it’s called), and with the exception of Clubbing, which didn’t quite work for me, enjoyed them all. Speaking as a retailer, they never seemed quite to hit their target market, and sadly it would appear thet their target audience meant that a lot of indie people who would’ve enjoyed them never gave them a chance.
I particularly feel for Ross Campbell, who seems to have real trouble kepping his books in print (Wet Moon aside). I guess DC are unlikely to reprint most of these once stocks run out.
Brian,
Everybody knows that the Minx line was cancelled because the books were too small and used photos for their covers. I hate photos! What were they thinking! And they also used the color orange, and it’s statistically proven that teenagers never buy a book with the color orange on the cover.
Oh , and DC sucks because they don’t have free candy bars and magic dispense from their comic books. They just lost me as customer for life.
….
But seriously, today is “everyone’s-an-expert-on-Minx-day”. So it’s just a very bad day everyone.