Outpouring Comics is getting out of the publishing business (well for third-party books).

We at Super Hero Speak recently learned that Outpouring has decided to stop publishing all third-party titles they are working with and concentrate solely on their self-produced core books. The creator owned works affected include Inheritance (James Schumacher and James Burton), Mac and Trouble (Rusty Gilligan), Psychosis (David Coates), Freedom Fighter (Michael Heitkemper and Aj Fulcher) and Orlando’s Visage Studio Anthology (John Orlando) to name a few.

We reached out to Outpouring Comics for an official statement on the situation and this is what Jon Miller, CEO had to say:

“We are getting back to our passion and why we got into publishing comics, our own creations. We wish all of our former creators well in their future endeavors.”

Unfortunately this is an occurrence that happens all too often with smaller publishers in the industry. These moves are usually financially motivated, but in talking with Outpouring, I do not feel that is the case this time around; rather more a case of creative burn out from the Outpouring team, having to concentrate too much of the business of publishing third-party books rather than on creating their own titles.

Some of these creators, who are friends of the show, have reached out to us to comment on the situation. Here are what some of them had to say.

Rusty Gilligan had this to say:

“I’m very disappointed in their decision, and it has caused a bit of harm with my publications and the stars that I brought in with their books. Rather than yell and scream, cry ‘unprofessionalism’, and flame someone – I’ll just take the high road in saying that [I feel] it was a poor decision and it should’ve been handled better – but as always, I wish ‘some people’ at Outpouring well and hope that they mature past this in the future.”

James Schumacher III, writer and creator of Inheritance:

“I’m a firm believer that innovation is the distinguishing factor between failure and success. This belief has guided my work around the world and is what drives the continued success of Inheritance.  We’ve watched as Inheritance has sold out comic con after comic con, breaking records for sales and steadily building a fanbase daily. Today Outpouring Comics CEO, Jon Miller notified myself and every other comic creator that these values of innovation and success no longer have a home at Outpouring Comics.  I wish the other creators who are adversely affected by what is obviously an emotional response from a company that wanted to be the ones people admire, the absolute best in their comic series and to urge them to take this poor decision by a failing company in stride.

“To the fans of Inheritance, to the people that have helped make Inheritance what it is, thank you for your continued support; this will not stop Inheritance. This marks the end of the beginning. Much love and respect.”

James Burton, the artist behind Inheritance had this to say:

“I wrote my contract with them so we could exit anytime we felt appropriate, Jon [Miller] did the same. It was a mutual condition of it. Driven by myself and Schumacher.

“Over the last few months etc., Sam and Jon have begun to understand more about where they want to go with their goals and decided to align the company in that manner. Meaning focus on the properties they want to develop in house. They are following what they truly and honestly want to do.

“While I get a more graceful handling could have been done on how to exit with us, I look at it as that they are doing what they are passionate about and as a result while it’s going to set everybody back a bit, in the long run it’s what’s best for everyone. I know some of the creators feel betrayed etc., but I am not one of them. I knew putting an easy exit into the contract was a double edged sword, and I am okay with it.

“I actually wish them the best of luck, and success.”

Needless to say this comes as shock and surprise to all of the creators involved. Remember that this is a creative industry filled with creative people. Creative people tend to keep their emotions near the surface. What we did gather is that all the creators felt blindsided by this move and were not offered a transition period before their content was dropped. The creators were simply contacted, informed their contracts were ended and their content was removed from the Outpouring website.

So as you can see, this isn’t the most ideal situation, but most of these creators have solid books and were working with other distributors or self-publishing beforehand. So we feel they should be able to bounce back from this. We at Super Hero Speak wish all parties involved the best of luck on their future creative exploits.