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.