Thoughts on Minx

So everyone has probably heard by now that Minx has been canceled.

To be honest, as a reader and as a retailer, this doesn't have much effect on me. Despite liking a lot of the talent on Minx, most of the books fell somewhat flat for me (then again, I'm a 37-year-old married guy, if the teen-girl-aimed Minx was fireworks for me, it would have been a bad sign for both me and the imprint). And despite having a big crowd of manga-buying girls and guys at my shop, the Minx books for the most part didn't sell at the store. We gave them a big push early on, thanks to the returnability, but after Plain Janes and Re-Gifters did pretty well, the others just kind of sank for us.

As a follower of the industry, though, it's definitely a sad thing. This was a positive attempt at outreach, and an imprint that earned a lot of blood, sweat and tears from a lot of folks I really respect in the industry. There is a small, selfish part of me that is glad to have talented editor Shelly Bond and any number of the cartoonists who were working on Minx projects working (hopefully) on projects at Vertigo that might be more aimed at me, but like I say, that's small and selfish. Would I rather have more Street Angel than more Plain Janes? Well, yes. Do I think it's in the best interest of Jim Rugg or the industry as a whole? No, probably not.

With any luck, a lot of what worked about Minx (the talent, the focus on a different audience) will be transitioned into work at Vertigo, and the spirit of the line will survive, even if the line itself doesn't.