Today marks the ending to the digital release of the "Uninvited Guests" storyline in Arkham Unhinged. But it also marks *my* end to Arkham Unhinged.
My digital releases are wrapped. The print issues will continue to come out once a month (well into the middle of next year), with issue #15 being my last. "End Game" gets collected into its own print release shortly. And I assume that all the Arkham Unhinged stories will eventually get collected into hardcovers and trade paperbacks in the many months to come.
But Arkham Unhinged as an ongoing series has ended its run. *edit...It's ended my run. Apparently it's still continuing. I had heard they'd be going in a different direction. Didn't realize it would continue under the same name.
I have mixed feelings on it of course. Extremely grateful for the opportunity to play in the Arkham sandbox for a little over a year. Having spent the majority of my career on the art side of things, I was always looking forward to stretching my muscles more into the writing side. So when the opportunity fell into my lap to help script some stories with Dini, which led into writing Unhinged regularly, I could've never seen coming. Just the fan in me enjoyed seeing and playing the game before it came out, and working with the staff at DC and Rocksteady to help craft the stories. Getting to work with so many great artists to bring to life all sorts of my crazy story ideas. And hearing from the fans of the games and the comics, and their thoughts…good and bad…knowing that the hardcore fans were hungry for more stories in the Arkhamverse. A solid run of work I'm both happy and proud to have been asked to be a part of.
The other side of me sees the missed opportunities. While it was great to tell some backstories and side trips visiting characters during and before Arkham City…I was as anxious as the fans to see what happened after the end of the game. And literally with "End Game" I felt was just the tip of where things could continue.
What DC and Rocksteady plan to do next, we'll all just have to wait to see. But thanks for coming along on the ride and letting me know your thoughts. And continue to do so. I'll still be covering all the comic print releases of Arkham Unhinged to give some behind-the-scenes thoughts on each issue.
Until then, it's back to the future (or is that "Bat") as I resume writing more Justice League Beyond stories for Batman Beyond Unlimited. As well as another digital project coming out at the end of next month.
It's been fun!
My digital releases are wrapped. The print issues will continue to come out once a month (well into the middle of next year), with issue #15 being my last. "End Game" gets collected into its own print release shortly. And I assume that all the Arkham Unhinged stories will eventually get collected into hardcovers and trade paperbacks in the many months to come.
But Arkham Unhinged as an ongoing series has ended its run. *edit...It's ended my run. Apparently it's still continuing. I had heard they'd be going in a different direction. Didn't realize it would continue under the same name.
I have mixed feelings on it of course. Extremely grateful for the opportunity to play in the Arkham sandbox for a little over a year. Having spent the majority of my career on the art side of things, I was always looking forward to stretching my muscles more into the writing side. So when the opportunity fell into my lap to help script some stories with Dini, which led into writing Unhinged regularly, I could've never seen coming. Just the fan in me enjoyed seeing and playing the game before it came out, and working with the staff at DC and Rocksteady to help craft the stories. Getting to work with so many great artists to bring to life all sorts of my crazy story ideas. And hearing from the fans of the games and the comics, and their thoughts…good and bad…knowing that the hardcore fans were hungry for more stories in the Arkhamverse. A solid run of work I'm both happy and proud to have been asked to be a part of.
The other side of me sees the missed opportunities. While it was great to tell some backstories and side trips visiting characters during and before Arkham City…I was as anxious as the fans to see what happened after the end of the game. And literally with "End Game" I felt was just the tip of where things could continue.
What DC and Rocksteady plan to do next, we'll all just have to wait to see. But thanks for coming along on the ride and letting me know your thoughts. And continue to do so. I'll still be covering all the comic print releases of Arkham Unhinged to give some behind-the-scenes thoughts on each issue.
Until then, it's back to the future (or is that "Bat") as I resume writing more Justice League Beyond stories for Batman Beyond Unlimited. As well as another digital project coming out at the end of next month.
It's been fun!
Oh man, I had no idea this was coming! I literally just finished reading the latest chapter and found myself think, "Man, I can't wait for next week!" but now sadly there is no next week.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess it isn't totally over. After you suggested starting with issue 10 over at Comic Book Resources I just went right to the weekly releases(starting with #32) so I guess I still have at least 31 weeks of comics ahead of me if I keep to one issue a week. And there's still JL BEYOND TO GET MY FIX< SO I guess it's not too sad.
I imagine it must be nice to look at a full run at it's completion so kudos for you on that accomplishment. And on top of that I'm excited to hear about your forth coming work, is it Batman related, or something more creator owned?
Either way, keep up the great work!
Digitally there are #43 issues total (another six if you add in the "End Game" issues). But print wise, since each issue collects three digital issues/chapters, that will come to 15 print issues (excluding "End Game"). All these confusing numbers to keep track of, but hopefully that makes sense.
DeleteThanks for giving the title a shot.
And yep...the other digital work will be Batman related.
Awww...man! I love Arkham Unhinged! No way has it finished already! There's still so much more to do with this series. Well, there's certainly a Hush / Tommy Elliot story to do that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the new Batman project though. Maybe Arkham 3 related? Or are you on the list of Legends of the Dark Knight writers? Or maybe something completely new?
Looking forward to whatever it is
Yeah having the series end took me by surprise too. I had a lot more ideas mapped out I wanted to do and characters I wanted more time to flesh out, but that's how it goes.
DeleteAs far as the next project, all I'll say is it's not Arkham related.
Thanks for writing, Matthew!
I'm guessing you didn't know, but a new digital issue did come out today...writen by novelist Karen Traviss. I'm sad to hear you are no longer part of the project, and more so that it seems like sneakiness was involved...but I am glad that the universe is still being explored.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your future projects (And I hope you somehow manage to work Vige Sage The Question into Beyond)
Yeah I noticed it a little while ago. They had talked of wanting to go in a different direction, before Arkham City, and I just figured a relaunch was in order. Didn't know they'd actually just continue under the same name. But hey...more power to 'em. The fans get to see a new voice and whether or not the earlier timeline is to their liking.
DeleteWeird sort of the timing of it all, as you start to realize that things were quietly in motion before I got the axe. But it's just part of the job. I've got three projects I've been writing and a few others in development. So all is well.
No plans for the Question just yet. But you never know.
Count me in as one who was surprised to see issue #44, I guess that's part of the business though. I enjoyed your run on the book, and really admire the dedication you put into it and I hope the new stories that come out under the title hold up to the standard you set.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bill. Should be interesting to see how Unhinged continues. It appears they'll be covering a lot of the bureaucracy of the actual building of Arkham City, which is definitely a different avenue to go down (although some of that was already covered in Dini's mini-series). But I can't help but feel all this backtracking is just making time until they decide to go forward with the story. That's always the trap one falls into when making prequels of prequels of prequels, especially when the fans might be more concerned with new ground rather than keep digging into the past.
DeleteThe new writer has a solid resume of experience in the new direction for the title and should have a heckuva lot of fun playing in Gotham.
Yeah, it took me a few panels to figure out that the most recent story was a step backward in terms of the game's continuity which was a surprise given how far along your last story was in comparison to the game. I was definitely hoping for a post Arkham city story when I picked it up, but like you said the writer is pretty solid so I'll be sticking with it, at least in the short term.
ReplyDelete