Dark Horse Cancels Star Wars: Legacy

 

Dark Horse has announced—via Facebook, of all things—that Star Wars: Legacy is coming to an end as of issue #50. In their announcement, they say they want to take a moment to explain why the book is being canceled, but in the end the explanation leaves me more confused than I was before they said anything, like some sort of mind trick or another.

 

Unlike other publishers, Dark Horse has never been one for prolonging a series simply to do so. Our comics come from a place of creativity and artistic expression, and this applies to all of our titles, whether creator owned or licensed property.

One of our promises to ourselves, our fans, and George Lucas himself was that we would treat our line of Star Wars books with the highest level of respect. We hope that you'll agree that we've achieved this goal, and trust you'll take our word when we say that we'll continue to strive for such high standards.

We are proud to say that the quality of Star Wars: Legacy has never dropped. John Ostrander and Jan Duursema have consistently created issue after issue of excellent art for nearly four years straight. Very few creators can claim such landmark success, and we hope John and Jan are as proud as we are of delivering such great material.

We have never felt that John and Jan's work dipped below the benchmark of fine sequential art. So, it was a hard, but ultimately necessary, decision to close this chapter of the Star Wars universe with issue #50.

 

So, they have high quality standards… but the creators always met those high standards and continue to meet them… but they don’t believe in keeping a book going when they’ve run out of things to say with it… but the stories are still as great as they were four years ago… so they have to cancel the book. See? All cleared up now?

I doubt anything shady or untoward is actually going on here; unfortunately, the announcement is just not especially clear. It could just be sales, I suppose; the book allegedly moves about 20,000 units a month according to people who track such things.

The “expanded universe” has never been my particular bag, but I know from the mail I get every time I say that that these books have a passionate and devoted following. Maybe those followers will get a cause of death after the funeral; in the meantime, dear padawans, I am sorry for your loss.
 

Comments

  1. Unfortunately, this was revealed very haphazardly in the latest solicitations. I love this series and am sad to see it go.

  2. Alright… I think I got this one:

    1st Paragraph: We don’t keep things around longer than they should (apparently they didn’t get the memo that Marvel and DC cancel books after at most a dozen issues if they don’t sell)

    2nd Paragraph: We think we did a pretty good job… right? Right? But seriously, as long as you buy them, we’ll put them out, so expect more soon.

    3rd Paragraph: John and Jan were running out of ideas… they were considering discussing the Legacy of Jar Jar Binks. For the safety of all involved, plus you the dear readers, we’ve cancelled the series.

    4th Paragraph: It’s not you, it’s us. Maybe we can still be friends?

    All kidding aside, I read a few issues of this and liked it, but my shop stopped selling it because (I think) I was the only one reading it. Kinda sad to see it go. 

  3. IT’S A TRAP!!

  4. I saw in the solicitation for #50 that it was ending, I assumed it was just coming to its natural conclusion.  I was reading this for a while and it was mostly good but around the 20’s I felt like it was dragging the plot out a bit so I dropped it.  Not every series needs to last forever and 50 issues seems like a perfectly respectable run to me.

  5. 20,000 books isn’t that bad is it?  Maybe they just think it should be doing better for a Star Wars book, or maybe Lucas’ company feels the same way.  It’s weird to see this one go as I assumed it would always be around.  I’m wondering if this is the sign of the end times…

  6. They cancelled the Knight of the Old Republic book at fifty too. I just thought that was the deal with Star Wars titles, they go for a couple years and reach a natural conclusion.

  7. I have enjoyed this series since issue #1.  It has been consistently solid.  While I’m sad to see it go, I also fully expect them to make use of some of these characters going forward.  I suggest that anyone who enjoyed the first Star Wars trilogy pick up the first trade or two.  Very little prior knowledge required.

    @Neb – 20,000 seems pretty reasonable for a Dark Horse book.  According to Mr. Wood’s article from last week (and I believe his numbers) the average for Dark Horse is only 14,000, so this book was well above their average.  This leads me to believe they are canceling it for other reasons.

  8. It…lost the will to live.

    Seriously, though, wasn’t Ostrander having some health issues? Maybe they just didn’t want to say that was the reason?

  9. I only had the first three trades and liked where it was going. Guess I can feel confident that it’s a finite series that it’s possible to own everything for. Silver lining found.

  10. I’d heard a rumor that they were canceling it just to relaunch the same characters/creative team in a new title, but that "announcement" certainly doesn’t make it seem like that’s the case. It’s too bad since this was the best SW series put out in recent years IMO. I can’t imagine they’re going to wrap it up in a satifying manner in 3 more issues either.

  11. I dropped this months ago.  The only Star Wars comic that I really like is Dark Times.  Unfortunately they have issues with getting out books.

  12. That is really confusing.

  13. I love this book and it was one of the first comics that got me into reading comics every week. So, for me it feels like I am losing a good friend. While I am deeply sad to see this comic go, I saw this coming because they did the same thing to The Knights of the Old Republic series. They want the series to end on a high note and not to drag it on for so long as it sales. I can understand why they did it "from a certain point of veiw", but I do think it should have gone on for a little longer. It is the only part of the Star Wars EU that is being writen in that time era. When KOTOR was canceled, there was still some books that are still coming out in the old republic era. I hope someone comes back to tell more stories in this timeline because I really do like reading a part of the EU where the future is not known in some way or other. 

  14. Ultimately, I just don’t think Dark Horse/Star Wars likes having the same comic run for more than 50 issues.  I was disappointed about KotOR but more is on the way by John Jackson Miller; I also assume some plans are in store for this era as well.

     That said, I never liked Legacy kind of did a happy dance when I heard about this awhile back.  This series, television show, and current book authors have left such a taint on Star Wars that I’m forced to call myself a former Star Wars enthusiast.  Nevertheless, I hope something grand is in the works and wish the best for all that’s in store next.  May the Force be with Star Wars…. 🙁

  15. Been picking this up religiously in trades and I’m really shocked to see this happening. It’s been one of the most consistently good SW titles in a long time. Here’s hoping they wrap it up well.

  16. I think it’s just a natural ending point. The central conflict of the book has been moving towards resolution for a while now and will probably be wrapped up by fifty. This series always seemed like a finite concept to me.

  17. Love the series, will be sad to see it go.

  18. 50 issues is a really respectable run. I don’t know why they gotta be all weird about it.

  19. Lol! It’s being cancelled on the same week I dropped it.

    It’s one of those series guaranteed to show up in a back issue bin for 50 cents, which is what I always do.