A few weeks ago, Archie Comics announced Dick Tracy, the famous newspaper detective, would head to Archie Comics for a new series. Looks like announcements were made a tad early, as Tribune Content Agency made a contractual mix-up.
It looks like TCA did not check all of its licensing deals before deals and announcements were made. While TCA did delete their original tweets outlining the problem, io9 did capture the tweet before it disappeared from the Internet forever.
Due to an unfortunate error on our part, Tribune is sad to announce that there will not be a DICK TRACY comic book series from Archie Comics. While we had high hopes for the book and Archie Comics negotiated the deal in good faith and is not at fault, we discovered a preexisting licensing deal that precludes us from continuing with this project. We apologize to Archie Comics, the very talented creators and their many fans.
Alex Segura, who was scheduled to write the series, expressed his thoughts on the now-canceled series.
So, this is not-great news. @MichaelMoreci @thomaspitilli and I were very much looking forward to creating this comic for you guys. But due to a mistake on the licensor’s part, we won’t be able to make that happen. To say we’re bummed is a huge, huge understatement. https://t.co/4l2M65IPmO
— Alex Segura (@alex_segura) January 16, 2018
I’m not going to say much else about this. Co-writing a DICK TRACY comic was a dream come true for me, and getting the chance to work with Michael, Tom and @ArchieComics was an amazing experience. Sometimes things just don’t line up. On to the next thing. Thanks, as always.
— Alex Segura (@alex_segura) January 16, 2018
Tribune Content Agency deals with a lot of properties, and with a long-running character like Dick Tracy, an occasional licensing error may occur. What really bites in this deal, is this is the second time TCA has made a licensing error with Dick Tracy. The last time involved a planned series by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Oeming, which was canceled after legal issues with actor Warren Beatty.
1 Comment
Shame they can’t get the legal stuff all sorted, I’ve been hoping for a Dick Tracy monthly title (and not just a well made original homage) for some time.