Best and Worst of 2005 #5: Witchblade Recovers While Dreamwave Dies

Witchblade 80
Originally uploaded by Heidi Meeley.

It is already Wednesday, and that means it is time for more of the best and worst of the past year.

BEST #5: Ron Marz gets Witchblade back on track.
As someone who has followed Witchblade from the beginning, the comic book has been a nightmare to follow. Every time there was a creative team switch, continuity was forgotten for the new writer's vision. There were times that I would be so mad after reading an issue that I would vow never again. This time I meant it.

Then Ron Marz came on board and actually read the series before he took over. Since issue #80, Marz has taken great steps to correct continuity gaffes and has brought the book back to a place it makes sense. I never thought I would see it, but Witchblade is making sense again, and there are cool things coming up in the comic's future.

Many kudos to Marz for realizing that what the fans were craving was a sense of order amongst the chaos that is Witchblade. Since editorial couldn't keep things intact, I give Marz props for bringing things together.

WORST: Dreamwave Productions Tanks
The amount of mismanagement at Dreamwaves staggers. Not content to just lose a bit of money, Dreamwaves went into serious debt. Rumors floated like mad until a press release from the studio came out. A portion of the original letter from Pat Lee read like this:

"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 sad part of this is that a company who gets the Transformers licensing has such an opportunity, and to see it blamed on market shrinkage blows my mind. After the demise of Dreamwave early this year, it will be interesting to see if IDW does the job.