I've never held a grudge against Sebastien. I traded messages with him a few times, and he seemed like a nice guy. Probably still is just that: A nice guy.
It's not a lack of support on my part. I've supported him. I bought the four issues with variants, the terror dog variant cover, and “The Zeddemore Factor”. As soon as the hardcover became available to buy a year ago, I put my money down. If the series ever continued, I'd buy it. The story was good. I wanted more. In effect, he succeeded in what he meant to do: Create a product to high fan and professional reviews, and have the fans asking for more.
I doubt these delays are because Clavet's “being mean” or whatever. This situation doesn't benefit him. And if wanting this book after having paid for it pretty much exactly a year ago suddenly makes me “a shallow, uncaring individual” to people with “problems”, I guess that's part of my mindset as to why I helped a hurricane Katrina victim with a few start up items when she moved into our complex last month, and still help her out as I can. It's an unreasonable assessment of unhappy fan reactions. I've not become a “bad person” because I'd like to put my book on the bookshelf after a year.
I refuse to play the “what if something terrible's happened” factor as to why we're not hearing from Clavet. From the brief holiday update on the 88 site (the Santa hat on the logo, and subsequent removal after the holiday), the man is alive and well. Does he “owe” us anything? Again, having the book a lot of people paid for by now would be nice, or it's just common decency to post some sort of update on either his site or the boards. He doesn't have to respond to it. Post, and let the forum commentary swell unmonitored. He used to be public both in positive and negative criticism. He was fortunate to get such a cool license, the fans supported him by buying the product, and it's time to just give back to the fans again. I think a simple answer would at least calm down a topic that literally doesn't go anywhere and hasn't for months now.
I doubt the comic and the DVDs are the last thing we'll ever see. Kingpin, you've been such an optimist throughout all of your posts. Surely you cannot believe that this is suddenly “the end”. As long as there is a support for a product, people will find a way to revitalize it, even if it takes a while again. Star Wars has been around almost 30 years, and the late 80's/early ‘90’s had very little going for it in terms of product support. Star Trek for all its goods, bads, successes and faults, hits 40 soon. Pac-Man is 25. Super Mario Bros. is over 20, with Mario being around even longer. Other ‘80’s properties like Transformers and Masters of the Universe made a return, even though both of their comic series got cancelled (and I remain confident that we'll be hearing from those franchises again someday). And while the chances of Bill, Dan, Harold and Ernie picking up another proton pack for another outing is pretty unlikely at this point, all it takes is one fan with the resources to write a book, or program and publish a video game, or a toy company to produce an action figure.
Ghostbusters has been around over 20 years now, and people still love it. In this year, kids will see the movie for the first time in their lives, and another generation of fans will be born like we were. I think people are grateful that Sebastien provided us another cool product, but they just want to know whats going on.
As for myself….
I'm kind of over it. I'm not chomping at the bit, but I'd be glad to see the book in my mailbox sometime this year.
If they ever decide to continue the comics, whether it's 88MPH or someone else, I would support it.
But I think we're well overdue for a simple status update.