Speakeasy Comics Shuts Down

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on March 7, 2006 Sign up now!

by Heidi MacDonald, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 3/7/2006

Back in January, PWCW took a look at comics startups in 2005 and the difficulties they had in a tough marketplace. As of last week, the number was reduced by one, as Speakeasy Comics announced it was shutting down.

The word came in the form of phone calls from founder Adam Fortier to individual creators and a news release from Vito DelSante, who had functioned as as unpaid PR person for a time. The release read, in part, "Speakeasy Comics has shut its doors and will not be publishing comics for, at the very least, the rest of the year. Most, if not all, creators have been contacted and informed. If I'm not mistaken, all books scheduled to ship in March will ship. April and May books are up in the air, while June books are cancelled."

The announcement ended months of speculation over whether their financing deal with Ardustry Entertainment would be enough to keep Speakeasy afloat after its comics periodical sales proved disappointing. Several licensing deals were in the works, including a book written by actress Rosario Dawson (which has since moved to Image). A deal to create comics based on several HBO properties—including The Sopranos and Deadwood—was also in the works, as well as a rumored publishing deal with HarperCollins and pacts with video-game companies UbiSoft and Warhammer. However, none of it arrived in time.

Marshall Dillon, Speakeasy's former managing editor, confirmed that the cash flow to keep things running just never appeared. "Without the proper cash flow, all the hard work and brilliant plans implode before given the opportunity to succeed or fail. It's a common problem in small businesses, especially those run by creative people, rather than business people. More to the point, when Ardustry bought Speakeasy, we were all under the assumption that the money would come in quickly and cover all the outstanding expenditures, as well as fund the expansion plans. For whatever reason, things didn't work out as well as expected."

The immediate question for many is the fate of a number of series, both work-for-hire and creator owned, that Speakeasy was home to.

For instance, DelSante and The Quitter's Dean Haspiel created a six-part feature called Fallout, which was a work-for-hire project that appeared as a backup in Beowulf. The first chapter has just been printed, and two more have been completed. Haspiel told PWCW that he has no beef against Fortier and has been paid on time for all his work thus far. DelSante is currently trying to negotiate to get the rights back as payment for his unpaid PR work for Speakeasy, which is complicated because a contract was never signed. DelSante says the situation is up in the air, but "Dean and I really would like to see the whole thing out there and complete.... We're both really proud of the work we've done. Since Adam has gone on record and said that he has no intentions of publishing again, I could only hope that Dean and I get to publish the rest of it."

DelSante also wrote a creator-owned book that was slated to come out from Speakeasy, The Mercury Chronicles. Although left without a publisher, he's hoping that situation will change soon. "Since The Mercury Chronicles is co-owned by [artist] Mike Lilly and myself, we can pretty much shop it around to anyone," says DelSante, who says he's been doing just that.

Joshua Hale Fialkov's critically acclaimed Elk's Run was another book left in the lurch by the Speakeasy implosion. Fialkov had self-published the book for years, but took it to Speakeasy hoping for greater marketing clout; this never really panned out, but he remains upbeat about prospects. "We're actually going to be fine. We have a lot of interest from a few publishers, and realistically, Speakeasy's announcement let people know that the book was available." Fialkov says he's received more than 300 e-mails from readers concerned about the book's survival. "That really warmed my heart and gave me hope for the industry."

More problematic is the situation of Andrew Foley, whose graphic novel Parting Ways with art by Scott Mooney and Nick Craine came out last year. Although a creator-owned property, the book comes under the Speakeasy deal that requires creators to pay for any shortfall between production costs and orders from comics shops. Over on the Engine, a forum for creators run by writer Warren Ellis, Foley fretted that he might owe Speakeasy as much as $3,000.

Reached by PWCW, Foley said that he was unsure of exactly how he would get all the physical rights to Parting Ways back. He would either have to purchase the full inventory of remaining books or make up the productions costs, which would be about $3,000. But he also stressed that he had never had a problem while Speakeasy was publishing.

"Adam took a fairly long view in terms of making money on trade paperbacks, and even floppy creators, the ones I've talked to, anyway, weren't expected to turn a profit immediately," says Foley. "One of the misperceptions of the Speakeasy deal was that creators whose books didn't make money on initial orders were expected to pay the shortfall for the 'Speakeasy fee' immediately. In practice, creators who took the company's suggestions in terms of print runs and other business matters weren't expected to pay anything—until they elected to take their books elsewhere. I believe the idea was that, if the floppies never made money, that was okay, because the trade collections would exist as perennial sellers and eventually make up any losses. Unfortunately, few if any serially released stories ever had enough pages completed to fill a trade."

According to Foley, no creators have yet been approached to pay back Speakeasy, and as of this writing, the entire situation remains up in the air.

What is clear is that once again, the viability of launching a new company to publish comics periodicals has been called into question. Fortier was one of the most respected consultants in comics and had a solid business background and unparalleled contacts, and he still failed. Is it really possible to be successful at this?

DelSante thinks the answer is no. "Even though Adam had really good ideas, the practice of those ideas was flawed. The Ardustry [involvement] was necessary. It would have done wonders for the company, in terms of debt and keeping the company afloat until he was able to move forward with his plans. I think Boom! Studios [has a good business plan] but I think that's because Ross Richie [director of Boom! Studios] went after guys he knew could sell a book—not unknown properties with unknown talent." DelSante noted, "It can be said that anyone who gets into publishing gets into it because they love comics and want to 'do it right.' There are very few that can do it right. It's not worth trying to go against monoliths like DC or Marvel."

Fialkov feels that the Speakeasy model may not even be as efficient as the self-publishing model, which at least creates a strong impression on comics retailers. "I think that through the identity that [Speakeasy] built for themselves, retailers could never catch on. As a self-publisher, your brand is you. [As a self-publisher] you know that when you say, 'This goes to reviewer X,' it's been sent. You know that when you release something for print, it's released for print. You know that when you have a print cost, or purchase order, or media relationship, that it's real, legit and going to be 'as advertised.' When you get a middle man who's not sufficiently invested financially, that doesn't happen."

Dillon, who maintains a professional relationship as managing editor at Boom! and the studios Udon and Ice Kunion believes there is still room for a small company when goals and publishing niche are well defined. "There are success stories. Devil's Due is still going strong—stronger now that they've started to carve a niche in the book store market with their D&D titles. But besides DDP, Archaia Studios Press (Atresia; Mouse Guard; Robotica; Sands) has been at it for a number of years, and that company started as one guy writing and painting his books on an erratic schedule. Udon and Boom! are also doing fairly well, and to their credit, Alias is still around, even thought it's been a rocky road for them. So, I think it is possible, but it requires an extreme level of frugality and a lot of well-thought risk taking. Basically, every day is a gamble, and every day above water is a good day. At the end of the day, you can't believe in any promises, and you can never believe your own hype."

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