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Dreamwave has sent out an official press release stating that they have ceased operations with one of the reasons being “the shrinking comic book market combined with a weak U.S. dollar and unsustainable monetary commitments has finally proven to be too financially taxing� but Pat Lee also assures us he will continue his dream by working with other studios with "new exciting projects". Tformers & Tfans wishes Pat Lee & the rest of his associates the best of luck in their new ventures. Read on to view the entire press release.
PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Toronto, Ontario – January 4, 2005 - Dreamwave Productions announced today that after eight years in the comics industry, four of which they were self-published, they will be ceasing operations.
Established in 1996 by brothers Pat and Roger Lee, Dreamwave infused a stagnant comic book market with art and design that effortlessly combined the then dominant “American� art style with the newly emerging Japanese “Manga� art style. Since then, the company had grown to become one of the comic book industry’s premiere publishers, producing a variety of original titles.
In 2002, Dreamwave firmly established itself in the comic industry as a force to be reckoned with when it launched an all-new Transformers comic’s line. The return of the 80’s icons shattered industry sales records, skyrocketing the book to the number one sales slot for an impressive six months. The Toronto-based company’s other successful licenses included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Duel Masters from Japan, as well as properties like Devil May Cry and Mega Man from video game giant Capcom Entertainment.
President of Dreamwave Productions, Pat Lee stated “there are a number of reasons for my decision to close Dreamwave�, citing that “the shrinking comic book market combined with a weak U.S. dollar and unsustainable monetary commitments has finally proven to be too financially taxing.�
As the only Canadian independent comics publisher, Dreamwave Productions has struggled in recent years to maintain its status within a relentlessly shrinking comic book market. Unfortunately, consistently diminishing sales totals over the last several years have taken their toll on the small publisher and made it impossible to continue.
The specific details for closure have not yet been released but Lee assures both fans and clients alike that “although this is the end of Dreamwave as a comics publisher, I will still be penciling a number of new exciting projects in conjunction with other studios in the upcoming years.�
- 30 -
PR & Marketing Department
Dreamwave Productions
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Re: Dreamwave Productions Announcement (Score: 1) by magnamozz69 on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 01:30:41 AM
Shrinking market..... more like Hasbro licensing over pricing!!!
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by Tranceformer on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 02:37:14 AM
Sorry it had to do this way. I won't miss them much, I stopped buying the comics ages ago.
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by paburrows on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 03:56:29 AM
I guess Im a bit slow, does that mean no more TF comics, or will Pat Lee be doing them through another company?
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by Bruticus_Maximus on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 04:09:34 AM
And I was really looking forward to the Beast Wars comic. :(
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by karyuudo on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 04:10:07 AM
Somebody please pick up the Transformers license along with the artists and writers from Dreamwave so we can finish these stories that they started.
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by Atreyu on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 04:10:34 AM
This is the darkest day for the transformers since the tv show was cancelled after rebirth #3. Dreamwave was even more important than Beast Wars for revitalising the mythos! They will be sorely missed, and I pray that the artist will get the opportunity to create transformers stories again.
Shrinking market whatever (Score: 1) by karyuudo on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 04:13:28 AM
>Unfortunately, consistently diminishing sales >totals over the last several years have taken >their toll on the small publisher and made it >impossible to continue.
That's crap... Japanese Manga is a huge market here and they can hardly keep enough of them on the shelves before they're being bought. Maybe Dreamwave needed to get their books into Chapters or Indigo?
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by shockblast on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 04:24:39 AM
How could they have failed?
Their comics were great! Any real Transformers fan bought them. I sure did. I own pretty much all of the comics and these are the best!
I hope someone else picks up the license and the artists so they can at least continue in the same fashion.
I want my G1! Energon is cool but no substitute for G1 or Beast Wars. That series would have rocked.
Beast Wars was always the best series because it was US made. I do not like Japanese influences because that means one thing: annoying kids.
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by Xeldan on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 05:15:27 AM
Beast Wars was not American made, it was Canadian made.
Close enough. :D
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by Terry(tetsushin_agito@hotmail.com) on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 05:24:42 AM
The reason why Dreamwave failed was because they drew crudely illustrated comics replete with bad pacing and layout, voluminous grammatical errors and that essentially ripped off other comics wholesale. Darkminds and Echo are two of the most unimaginative, plagiaristic pieces of trash I have ever read. The Tranformers comics were not much better: they brought nothing new to the table and rehashed old themes and plot lines with lackluster visual interpretation. This was all compounded by the fact that the creator of the company himself was immature and talentless.
*rolls eyes at the "Annoying Kids" manga statement*
1) I find it incredibly amusing that the people that generate this kind of sentiment write as if they are in grade school themselves...
and
2) Kids are a germain aspect of Japanese manga? Please. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in American comics comes even remotely close to the maturity level of the writing in monthly publications in Japan such as Superior Comics or Big Comics. Try reading Shomini or Sky High. Oh yeah, but those are 'boring' because they are not "X-treem" and "In your face".
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by Kickback on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 05:42:32 AM
“the shrinking comic book market combined with a weak U.S. dollar and unsustainable monetary commitments has finally proven to be too financially taxing.�
From that quote, we can suppose DreamEngine won't be doing comics. If they do, then that statement is nothing but a bold faced lie.
We will see what unfolds. Another sucker will pop-up to take the punch. They always do. :D
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by Metal_Former(metal@former.mf) on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 06:15:53 AM
Why is it that everything I like has to go down the toilet? Well, almost everything: we still have the TF toys. Though some of the latest releases do not fill my expectaions. But that's another issue.
Certainly my experience with DW is a rocky one. First I missed a truckload of comics thanks to the blockade or whatever is called that Hasbro imposed on the comic, which unable delivery to Puerto Rico. Now this. Words are not enough to express my grief. :(
I won't ask when the books will be available because that's doubful by now Instead I will say I HOPE the pending books are finished by somebody elase. I don't want Energon/Cybertron, G1 and (especially) WW to end the way Rotogin: Junkbotz ended.
Maybe they're not as innovative as many peple expected but I surelly enjoyed them the way they are. That's why this is so shocking to me.
On the brighter isde, the only good thing I may get out of this is more money to save to get a blasted new PC. :P Still, I regret the way that new PC has to be concieved.
R.I.P. Dreamwave. You gave my bitter Lasercore lots of happiness and amuzement. Hope you are reborn like the Phoenix.
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by openwound on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 10:33:52 AM
Whatever happens Hasbro will come up with a solution. They fixed OTFCC and will likely do the sam here. For example, find a replacement that actually HAS FUNDING to continue operations and not hype shit to death.
Broker a new deal with a proven survivor like Dark Horse Publishing. They also suffer from late issues sometimes. But knowing how to manage the situation and eventually get the delivering final product to the fans is what truly matters in this industry.
I hope the rumors of Pat Lee's brother getting the rights to Transformer properties prove untrue. Otherwise we can see some of the same shit, repeated yet again.
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by DVXPrime on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 10:40:31 AM
To the Lees...your fallout with Mrss. McDonough and Patyk notwithstanding, I am sure I am not alone when I say THANK YOU for three excellent years of bringing back the Transformers in comic form. Every cent I spent on your books was an investment I would make all over again. Yes, I know I made a somewhat mean comment about you yesterday, but I still hope someone...somewhere...someday picks up where you left off and hires you all on to finish the work that you started. To everyone at Dreamwave...Good luck and God Bless.
To Hasbro/Takara: Hopefully you are aware of this and are taking steps to put the ship right again, like what you are doing with the former OTFCC. The comics are a VERY important pillar to the survival of the toy line. Can TF (especially Galaxy Force/Cybertron) really survive and thrive w/o a good comic book? Do you want to take that route?
In general: My TF interest goes as far as the printed media and (maybe) the cartoons; if I had the $$$ and living space I would buy TF on a regular basis (less the repaints!STOP THE REPAINTS!NOW!!!). I have supported the line for all of twenty years and I've gotta say...this is truly a dark day. The hangover from the 20th anniversary celebration is here...Hasbro/Takara need to take a long, hard, honest look at how they've been doing business (toys/comics/TV) and do a major overhaul. Forgive the histrionics but there is too much crap in all three media for TRANSFORMERS to simply be buried under; a new direction is long overdue!!!
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by Kickback on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 10:07:49 AM
CBR Just Pointed this out:
"One quick note, Dreamwave's claim that they are the only Canadian indepdent comics publisher is incorrect. Indeed, a number of comics publishers call Canada home including Drawn & Quarterly, Udon and others."
Shows us there is More Hype Than Meets The Eye going down.
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by Blitzwing on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 12:22:43 PM
Unfortunate this happened, but probably not unforeseen. They did have their quirks with drawings and text. But they also flooded the market with WAY too many projects for the size of their company. Judging by what activity I see at my local comic book shop, the blurb about shrinking sales is a steaming plate of bull butter. I think Dreamwave got too ambitious and let their expenses spiral out of control.
I do hope that someone picks up where Dreamwave left off and at least finishes the books that were out. WW3 was getting interesting and I was so looking forward to the autobot babes... ahem, females getting in on the G1 forum. One can only hope, I suppose.
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by orionpacks on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 01:51:51 PM
My prediction...The property will be picked up by Devil's Due. They have a good relationship with Hasbro, and have been pretty successful since ther split from image. If they pick up the license Hopefully James Mcdonogh and Adam Patyk will return to the title.
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by DeadEnd_is_NOT_Sunstreake on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 02:02:06 PM
YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!
WOOOO HOOOOO !!!
ABOUT TIME !!!
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by DeadEnd_is_NOT_Sunstreake on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 02:02:33 PM
YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!
WOOOO HOOOOO !!!
ABOUT TIME !!!
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by Metal_Former(metal@former.mf) on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 02:05:19 PM
"Blitzwing: But they also flooded the market with WAY too many projects for the size of their company. "
I agree with you on that. I don't know how big or complex the industry is, or the power DW had, but certainly the production of TF books was quite exagerated, as much as I like to have that many books produced. Maybe if they concentrated on one or two productions at a time, this would not has happened. But I am no expert nor know what exactly happened behind-the-scenes,so I an be wrong.
Like other posters has expressed on thos thread, I am confident Hasbro will take the necesary steps to secure a continuation (preferibely), or perhaps a new continuity. I know this will be shcking but seeing how copyrights work, I would not be surprised if the new book starts its own continuity.
Just hoping to see the remaining books released, like the G1 MTMTE and Armada TPBs, to catch up with what I missed.
Re: Dreamwave Productions Ceases Operation (Score: 1) by Shockfleet on Tuesday, January 04, 2005 @ 05:10:52 PM
I stopped reading the DW TF comics. It is not a dark for me.
Re: Dreamwave BURNS IN HELL and ASKED FOR IT! (Score: 1) by BOSSC351 on Thursday, January 06, 2005 @ 05:39:11 PM
"the shrinking comic book market combined with a weak U.S. dollar and unsustainable monetary commitments has finally proven to be too financially taxing�
My a$$! More like the over inflated price of your comic books, shitty distribution methods, and crappy book keeping.
Go figure, I told you people THIS EXACT THING was going to happen over two years ago. You fools! Who wants to drive all over the country looking for a dealer that handles your comics? Not me, and from the looks of it neither does anyone else!
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Dreamwave has sent out an official press release stating that they have ceased operations with one of the reasons being “the shrinking comic book market combined with a weak U.S. dollar and unsustainable monetary commitments has finally proven to be too financially taxing� but Pat Lee also assures us he will continue his dream by working with other studios with "new exciting projects". Tformers & Tfans wishes Pat Lee & the rest of his associates the best of luck in their new ventures. Read on to view the entire press release.
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