Steve Gerber is reporting on his blog that Hard Time, which he was co-writing with his Omega the Unknown collaborator Mary Skrenes, has been cancelled. The storyline will be brought to an end with issue 7 of Season 2.

Nuts! I liked that comic.

This is unfortunate but foreseen.

I loved the first season, but I'll admit I waited for the trade paperback.

So is that bad on my part...that I didn't buy this series on a consistent basis?

Didn't this actually start with a couple of other titles that also got cancelled? I think the only reason this one rose to my attention was that it was being written by Gerber.

One of only six comics that I buy each month as it comes out, I'll miss it.

mjb0123 : You're right it started around 18 months ago as one of 4 titles in DC's new Focus line imprint. Idea seemed to be to set some stories in a less cluttered comic universe, but produce less complex grim stuff than Vertigo. I tried Hard Times and Kinetic. Both were good and I bought every month. After about 6 months the Focus imprint folded, and three of the four titles disappeared. Hard Times survived, moved to standard DC line. (Must have been a close call whether to move it there or to Vertigo.)

It's sad for me, but as you guys say no big surprise. I actually respect DC for trying some interesting new comics. They do try interesting stuff from time to time like Fallen Angel, Chase, Vermillion, Chronos, Kinetic. In my view all at least good comics (Fallen Angel being my favourite in recent years. Hope the new IDW series is as good.) But the "mass" market doesn't seem to want new characters...far more important to change Spider-Man's costume.

Sorry guys, rant over..but I will miss Hard Times.

"DC Focus" seems to have been an attempt to find a superhero/non-superhero crossover readership. The stories featured superhuman powers without conventional superheroics. The line's failure to attract much of a readership may indicate that superhero lovers really want superheroes, while people who don't like superheroes really don't want super powers at all.

In which case, you've only seen the first half of Season One. The TPB is only the first six issues of that 12 issue run. So you've got a pack of issues plus all of Season Two to go!

Oh cool--so I get more there--didn't realize it lasted 12 issues.

I feel bad for this, I really do. I waited for the trade (or in the back of my head was waiting for the quarter bins for this entire line). I am the market it was striving to reach but I knew that this was its destiny. I feel I gave up on a line that I actually wanted to read.

I got burned before on stuff like this. Got burned on DC's Impact universe and I really loved The Comet. Got burned by New Universe. Got burned by DC's Richard Dragon. Start a new series and I got burned. Sometimes can't fit in a new title.

Do you think they could start a monthly TPB of new, full stories, sorta like a longer Marvel Comics Presents or Dark Horse Presents? Would Sin City have survived if released initially as a single comic?

The anthologies don't tend to fare well, and are expensive to produce (at least one anthology was reportedly killed because of the FedEx expenses involved in shipping all those stories in.)

Would Sin City have survived without launching in DHP? Most likely. Frank Miller was hardly an unknown at the time he was doing that material; people were already pretty fanatical about his work.

But while it is a disappointment when a series one likes gets cancelled, I reckon one isn't "burned" as long as one enjoyed the issues you got.

Right--I always hate myself for this--love of the comic issues you have, and all that such material. And I believe in that but for some reason...I don't know...I guess I am being kind of hypocritical here.

But did this series get unjustly done in? It lasted longer than the other new Focus imprint, didn't it? Actually got a "second season" playing into DVD talk. Can you truly make a good comic in 19 issues?

Maybe this says more for limited series instead. Lots of series are getting cut now with way less than 2 years' worth out there.

This is scary for new creators too. It's possible to have a great product and just not be able to get readers to pick it up.

Marketing plays into this stuff too. I wonder how you make people aware of something when they're inundated with advertisement everywhere they go. It used to be you could just do a wacky cover, or an alternate cover, etc. and people saw that as an incentive to try something. People hate that now. The question is, what do you replace it with? I try comics on a lark. Sometimes it's a creator, sometimes it's pretty art, or sometimes the story appeals to me. But I can't really pinpoint directly what it is that causes me to buy something new that I don't normally read. Hype sometimes. Like "Invincible". Or a creator who I love like Peter David. Heck, Bomb Queen made my list just because the creator was nice to me on a messageboard. It's just so random. I wonder if that kind of environment is what's killing all these comics.

On a sidenote-- I loved that "Impact" line. The Fly ROCKED. I picked up The Comet too.

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-Rob-
http://www.geekheadproductions.com