In NYC...
THU, 4/8/04, 3:39 p.m.

I've been in NY for a bit and been away from the board between work and friends here.

I'm staying at my friend Vicky Cao's place with Andy Lee and Anh.
You may have seen some of my drawings of Vicky in Reflections #4.

Thanks for all the great posts. I'm going to try to respond to some of the recent posts when I get a chance soon.

We had a great time signing at the Big Apple Con last weekend and enjoyed meeting many of you there, (including Miss Fumiko, and many of the posters on the Bendis Board). Some of you mentioned that you saw me on the local NY morning news promoting the show. It was a lot of fun.

Oeming stopped by, and we met up with him and Ivan Brandon (from Image's NYC MECH), and Jim Lee, and a bunch of artists from Italy that I just met.

It was great to see so many of you there and so many new Kabuki readers.
I had a minute ot log on, and wanted to say hi and that I'll be back to answer questions and give you some updates as soon as I can.

Best,
David

My drawing of Dan playing... from one of my sketch binges!

Hi everyone, I'm posting this here with David's permission. He did the artwork on my new album, and here it is:
If anyone is interested in ordering, the information is on my website here -
http://www.thetrentaffair.com/demos.html - and secure online ordering is available.

Oh and The Mack (as I like to call him) contributed another piece of art to my site here -
http://www.thetrentaffair.com/whatis.html

Thanks a lot for checking this out.

I just recieved these new shirts! They look great. There is a new one with the cover art of the SKin Deep Trade as well.
DM

Thanks for your patience in this. I had to wait until the Marvel press release went out before I could talk about it. This should clarify everything. Also read Bendis' response to the below thread for his comments.

THE NEWS
Here is the news. And some clarifications. Kabuki and Powers are indeed going to begin publishing at Marvel. Our new Kabuki and Powers series will debut in July through the Marvel Previews catalogue.

Creator Owned:

Our books and all related rights remain completely ours. So Kabuki and Powers will continue with the exact same format that you are used to. No ads interupting the story, a hearty and personal letters collumn, the paperstock and production values of our choosing. There will be no change in content.

Our books are not part of the Marvel Universe, but will be published under a brand new Marvel imprint called ICON. This is Marvel's first ever step to a fully creator owned launch. Not partially owned situtations, but fully and completely creator owned. Bendis, Oeming and I have benifitted by the path that Marvel creators before us have made in the direction of creator rights, and we see this as one way to build upon that and create a new milestone in that direction.

This is a unique opportunity that offers Kabuki and Powers the best of both worlds. For the readers who have enjoyed our Marvel work, we believe that you will find that our creator owned books such as Kabuki and Powers are everything that you would hope they are. For the readers who have been with us for years, our books will continue in the content and format that you have loved and supported in the past. The only difference is that they may be easier to find now.

Image Comics:

Bendis, Oeming and I are making this move together as friends, as we have long made decisions together like this when we first moved to Image Comics which has been our creative home for almost eight years. This is no slight to Image Comics who continue to publish fully creator owned books. We love Image Comics and all three of us continue to be a big part of Image Comics. The entire Kabuki library of the six previous Kabuki collections in paperback and hardcover are still only available from Image comics. I will continue to keep them in stock, and you can re-order them any time. The same with the Powers library. In fact, I hope a lot of new Kabuki readers will pick up all six volumes of Kabuki and Powers to read what came before, in anticipation of the new series in July.

Though we had a great relationship with Jim Valentino, the former Publisher of Image, we have nothing but love for Erik Larson, the new publisher, and Eric Stephenson director of marketing. In fact it was Erik Larson that invited Kabuki to Image so many years ago. Erik and Eric have both been a huge help to us and very understanding of our current situation. We continue to be in business with Image with our library of collections and with new creator owned projects in the future.

The move to our new imprint at Marvel is not a competition with the service the Image offers to the creative community, but a unique opportunity that offers Powers and Kabuki the best of both worlds for the new launch of our books. Marvel saw that we were in a certain situation, and offered us this solution. It is an invite-only imprint that Marvel made for us as a reward for our level of work with them.

Readers and retailers

A major concern over this was the fact that we had to resolicit the Kabuki #1 and Powers #1. Bendis, Oeming and I have done creator owned books for over twelve years, and never once had to resolicit. We know that this rescheduling can be a hassle for retailers and readers. We had some things come up that did not go as planned, and this time we had to make a resolicitation. We want to apologize to our retailers and readers for the rescheduling and we will do everything we can to help.

Just to make sure you don't miss it...
From Bendis (copy and pasted):

Happy Passover, muther f*ckers!!

Sorry, I always wanted to start a post that way.

The rumors and press release are true. Powers and Kabuki are holding hands and jumping to a brave new publisher after many awesome years at image.

The good news is that nothing about the quality or content of the comics will change. This is FULLY creator owned publishing initiative just like image central is. We own every page, every staple. All content is ours.
Produced exactly like we have for many years at image. Same letter columns, same production people, same everything. No ads except for in house ads in the back.

Everything is the same except the company logo. Most people won’t even notice the change.

If you are already a readers of Powers, stay cool. Its all the same goodies.

If you have heard of Powers but haven’t read it, but you are a fan of my marvel work, particularly Daredevil and the Pulse, I truly think you will love Powers and now you have a perfect and totally easy way to get on board the first issue of the new series.

The reason for the move is not a slight against image on any level. Both David, Mike and I are still part of image. We will continue to produce our existing library through image, which thanks to your good word of mouth is a big part of our lives. That includes the first five Powers trades and all the Jinxworld titles (jinx, torso, goldfish, fire, and total sell out.)

We will still continue our foreign licencing through image and I will still have my wild and crazy message board at image as I have for many years.

And if you remember, I produced Fortune and Glory at Oni even though I was at image, why? Because Oni is good people and I wanted to do business with them. Still do. Wasn’t a slight against image then, and this is not either.

David, Mike and I have been at image for eight years (longer than rob and Jim put together btw,) and continue to support what has been built in image central with our presence. Though, yes Jim Valentino was my saviour over the years, both Eric Larsen and Stephenson have been nothing short of saintly in every single situation I have found them in.
What this is about is Marvel breaking historic ground for the company and our desire to support this with our life blood.

Creator ownership, real creator ownership, not that half assed stuff you hear about from other companies, is so important to all three of us. And when marvel offered to build this, we felt it was so important to be part of it.

We have always said that we have benefitted so much from the generations of comic creators before us, who worked so hard to pave the way for creator rights. We have had it so good and we are stunned that we get to help take it to the next level... Marvel’s first true creator owned imprint.

We do want to say to our readers and retailers that we are very, very sorry for the necessary resolicitation. We know paperwork is a pain in the ass, as is waiting for comics. We have never in all of our years ever had to resolicit. But, as you all know, in life sometimes things don’t time out the way you would hope for. The resolicit of our recent relaunches was the best scenario.

Sorry for surprising you guys with this announcement, business is a tricky bitch and we wanted to make sure everything was smooth sailing before we went blabbing. There’s enough of that on line.

Actually we were ready last Thursday, but we realized the date and figured no one would believe us.

More good news: though there will be a couple of months delay on the new Powers, July will see not one, but two brand new issues and a new trade. All this and I f*ck up the avengers the same month.

The new trades will match the image trades in design and paperstock so your shelf will look fab. I know this is a concern for some.

On a side note, Mike and I found some ways to improve the first issue and its definitely stronger because of the downtime.

I do promise that this is the last big announcement from me for a while, even I am sick of me, and I love me.

So, if you are a fan of Powers or Kabuki, really, other than the delay, this is all good news. A happy home for your favorite book is about all you could hope for.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support. As I have told you, you vote with your wallet. You tell the publishers what you want and they listen. You made this happen.
_________________
BENDIS!

So no reason to move to Marvel!

That Marvel is creating the same or similar conditions as Image has (had) is in and of itself no reason to change!

A "certain situation" is a bit vague to describe the reason for the move!

When things come up that are unexpected, somthing has been in the planning for a long time already!

My point is not so much that you do not really give any reason as to why the change to Marvel, that is after all your prerogative, but a long story can easily explain nothing as in tnis case, but does not alleviate the worries I have concerning "Big Business USA", and Marvel certainly is a part of that! They usually have only one goal, even if a CEO might want differently, in the end all that counts to them is profit.

Not to make my story too long, I do not mind not having a reason, I just hope that your, and Kabuki's future will not suffer, therefore: PLEASE READ ALL THE SMALL PRINT CAREFULLY!!!!

We had to do this when a situation forced us to leave Caliber Comics and go to Image years ago. It was a challenging situation for us then, and it is now as well. We were grateful that our readers continued to read our books no matter what company they were at.

But I'd like to think that none of this business stuff matters to our readers. What matters is that we do our books the way we need to, and that we are able to get them into the stores so the readers can find them, and enjoy our books. I'd like to think that what matters is if the readers continue to enjoy our stories and characters.

Congratulations on the move to Marvel

However, I do have some questions:
1. Will the incentive print for Kabuki: The Alchemy #1 and the Alex Maleev cover for #2 be available when the issues are published through Marvel?

2. Will Kabuki: The Alchemy still be released on a bi-monthly schedule?

Congratulations David!

While I hate to wait for the book, at least I got a sneek peek at the finished book in NYC!

I am very happy that the ads will only be in the back of the book. That was my only concern.

The rest is a lot of letters!
I'll post some of the names of the letter authors on this board in advance, so you can look forward to it.

A lot of people on this board are included in the letters in the first few issues.

Also, please don't feel the need to explain yourself. Whatever decisions you make are your business and nobody else's. We will follow Kabuki wherever it is published. I think the move to Marvel is a good one, mostly from an increased exposure standpoint.

Congratulations again! Make Mine Kabuki!

And thanks for song exerpt!