Monday, April 18, 2005

Gambit #9 reviews, and a sad announcement about its fate

Well, I've told a few people already, and some others have figured it out since there is no Gambit #13 solicitations in the current batch of solicits, so I should probably break the news here. Gambit #12 will be the last issue of the series. It's been a fun run, and when I took it, I was only "guaranteed" six issues, so I've got absolutely no reason to complain. The creative team was great to work with, in particularly the editorial staff, and X-editor Mike Marts is threatening to give me more work, so it looks like a happy ending for your humble narrator. The sales simply were not there, and if you follow the month-to-month tracking of sales on Pulse, Gambit's cancellation should come as no surprise. That being said, the last three issues are written, and I'm hoping those of you who support the book don't disappear in droves. Next issue, with Gambit breaking into the X-Mansion to steal his sex tape before Rogue finds it, is, I think, my favorite issue so far. And if you have been supporting the book, you have my thanks.

It's not all bad news though. Oni has recently approved an OGN of mine. I'll have more news on that soon.




Anyway, here's what various internet reviewers had to say about Gambit #9. Positive reviews, in general, as usual. And oddly enough, my favorite scene turned out to be the one everybody else seemed to like. Usually it does not work that way.


So... over at X-fan W. Molstad said that Gambit, the book, is "as as clever and ecletic as the title character himself."

Laymamerican Idol hopeful Hannibal Tuba says over at UGO that #9 is "A really good issue that makes Brother Voodoo look good, which is no mean feat."

Paul O-Brien at the X-Axis says it's " a nice little superhero story.  It's about as good as you could realistically expect from a Gambit story about zombies."

And good ol' Andrea Speed at Comixtreme gives the book a "very good" and says "This series, so far, seems to harken back to earlier times, when comics were mainly concerned with being fun. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that." She also said the end of the issue reminded her of a Simpsons episode.

D'oh!!

CORRECTION: It's actually Hannibal TABU, not Tuba. Double D'oh!!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hannibal says: "Who the hell are you calling a Tuba?"

Super Edco said...

But what's up with the solicit for X-men 173? Angry Rougue vs Gambit... does the story have any connection? Could it be that Layman's issues of Gambit have rippled into the "real" x-men books?

Super Edco said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Hello. Followed a link here from a Newsarama story about Gambit's cancellation. Wanted to let you know that, as someone who's never particularly cared about the character Gambit, I never would have checked out the series if I hadn't heard about the Brother Voodoo team-up, which sounded fun. And it was. I really enjoyed the last 2 issues, and will continue to read the series (at least for the sex tape issue). So, my condolences on the cancellation of the book, and I hope you're on another one soon. There aren't enough well-written, humorous superhero comics being published these days, with grim and gritty being the flavor of the month (year? last 2 years?)again. On that note, you could make your blog more useful (in a self-promotional sense) if you had a list of your past, present, and future projects on the front page, or in your bio, or somewhere that fans could find it. (Just a thought).

Anonymous said...

Hey there,

My name is TCJohnson, and I am another reviewer over at comixtreme. And I have been agreeing with Andrea from the start.

I have never liked the Gambit character...for most of the reasons Brother Voodoo mentioned. He was just a bit too flash and arrogant for my tastes.

I, however, loved your series! It was pure simple fun! It was mind candy, but it was good, fun mind candy! I loved it!!!

I just wanted to say I am really disappointed it is cancelled!

Anonymous said...

Sad news. I think this is by far the best of the current crop of solo X-books -- surprisingly uncluttered and newbie-friendly, not bogged down with all the crap that people usually criticise the X-Men for.

The first couple of issues didn't really grab me, but by the end of the first arc I was impressed. Gambit's my favourite X-Man so I was really happy to see him in his own book again. I'm sorry the sales weren't there.

But surely it can't have sold much worse than Rogue and Nightcrawler? Or Cable/Deadpool? That's a niche market if ever there was one! I guess maybe they've all been cancelled and I haven't heard yet. :)

Anyway, thanks to the team for a great run.

Dan said...

Man, I was incredibly bummed to hear this. I noticed right away that Gambit was missing from the July previews, and started getting nervous...

John, I thought you handled the character incredibly well, and it was a great fun read. I apprecaited you trying to take some of the "X" out of Remy's life, and was very much looking forward to seeing Brother Voodoo as his shrink - they could've been the new Doc Samson/Bruce Banner! You even had a Wolverine Guest Shot that didn't seem overly gratuitous! Sadly, it just seems that Remy truly has as many haters as he does fans (the Newsarama boards, for one place...ouch!)

Thank you for giving me some great stories on my favorite character, and here's hoping maybe you'll be back to write him at some point on one of the team books!

Anonymous said...

Mr Layman, I really enjoyed your Gambit book. I came here from X-Fan's site. You did the best job of any writer on a Gambit book.

A note on the quote though: W. Molstad's review says that the title was "eclectic as the title character." Just thought I'd let you know about the misspelling.

I'm reading MIlligan's X-Men too and he seems to have taken your Gambit more than the Nicieza or Claremont Gambit, both of which are annoyingly like some sleazy soap opera character without your humor and personality. Thanx! - John

Anonymous said...

I know I've already told you this, but I wanted to post here anyway. I am going to miss this book. You make Gambit fun! You brought him back to where he should have always been. And I hope Milligan takes your view of the character. I'm hoping that maybe down the road, Marvel will have do another series for the character. He'll always need a writer who gets him. *hats off to you*

Neko

Anonymous said...

I know I've already told you this, but I wanted to post here anyway. I am going to miss this book. You make Gambit fun! You brought him back to where he should have always been. And I hope Milligan takes your view of the character. I'm hoping that maybe down the road, Marvel will have do another series for the character. He'll always need a writer who gets him. *hats off to you*

Neko

Cold_Ethyl said...

I went into the store yesterday to pick up Gambit #9 and it wasnt not in it's usual place on the rack. It was instead replaced by one of Marvels "new" books. So tell me how can people buy what they can't see? There is no actual comic store anywear near me so I have to rely on book stores, but they only have a limited amount of room for comics. Also Marvel putting everything into TPB has fully backfired upon this series. No one wants to buy single issues anymore.

This was a good book and you should be proud of it. I have been a fan of Gambit for over 10 years and do like what you did with him.

Guess I am down to only buying X-Men from now on. That I don't even know if I want to keep buying anymore. Guess they lost out on my money every month.