Innovation's '91 DS Comic, Book 4, The Book That Never Was

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And here's the second page from MPI's 1994 Catalogue:

(Click here for a 1688X2192 version)

And if you're interested, here's the cover of MPI's 1994 catalogue. When it comes to the '91 Series, it merely features an inset of Cross' Barnabas, but the main photo of Vicki running away from Collinwood has always been one of my favorites.

And if you're interested, here's the back cover, which features the credits logo from the '91 Series.

[Uncle Roger]

I would take exception to the statement in the editorial that the DS comic had been selling well. Not that I ever saw any sales figures but the book was not selling anywhere near what X-Men, Batman or Justice League International were. I'm not sure that it was even Innovation's more popular titles. There was a lot of anticipation about the premiere of the comic but I think that Innovation's erratic publishing schedule and weird story content put off a lot of people. I was in my local comic book store every week back then. Otherwise I would have missed it.
Bill Mumy had written an excellent Lost in Space serial/continuation that was only half way through when the ax fell. He was unable to get back his completed scripts and the accompanying artwork. Years later, he did publish the entire story but it had to be done from scratch.
This wasn't the first time that comic book companies have solicited art from foreign sources. Sometimes the artists are willing to work for a fraction of their normal fee to break into the USA market. Sometimes it works. This was one of the cases were it didn't.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

We'll probably never know what the sales for Innovation's DS comic series were. Though given that SG #67 reported that other publishers had expressed interest in continuing it, it must have been profitable enough for them to express interest in taking it on. Chances are they wouldn't have been interested in a failing title. And while it's obvious at this point that nothing worked out in the end, future issues of SG will report on how the possibility played out...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

In case you thought I'd already shared all there was to share from MPI's 1994 Catalogue regarding the '91
Series, you would be wrong:

(Click here for a 1688X1110 version)

And like SG, it was smart of MPI not to put any release date for the DS Resurrected VHS. Though that won't always be the case because upcoming MPI catalouges definitely published false starts before the tape was actually released.

And regarding the shared photo, it's interesting that with both the original DS and the '91 Series, group photos of the cast smiling seem to be shared less frequently and are, therefore, rarer than serious photos. Who knows just why that is? But I suppose given the nature of the show, people seem to think seriousness lends itself better to the show than lightheartedness. And probably needless to say, that photo would not go on to be the cover of the VHS tape.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Before I post what I'm going to post in this reply, I have to say that when I was formatting other things from SG #67's first page, I didn't even notice this:

So much for the notion that they didn't share a release date for the DS Ressurected VHS tape. And, of course, SG was only sharing what they were told. And we know only too well how the person who tells them things regarding MPI is often way too overly optimistic when it comes to all things DS-related. But he was WAY OFF that time!! A 1994 release - oh, that's so funny!! 

But all that does leads up to what I was really coming to post, and that's a photo SG #67 shared from when Jim Fyfe was doing his interview for the tape:

And just like when I shared the photo of Joanna Going and Barbara Blackburn from SG #66 in the topic for Book 3 and how blurry it was because quite often photos from SG don't scan well so I shared screen captures from their segments on the tape, here's a cap of Jim Fyfe from his segment that was done at the same time that photo was taken -

- though unlike with Joanna and Barbara, a different segment on the tape shares part of an interview that was done on the set of the '91 Series while one of the 1790 eps were being done -

And one thing that I do find a bit odd is that apparently Juliana McCarthy also did her interview in the same location and possibly even at the same time that Jim Fyfe did his -

- but SG never shared a photo of her. And it's not like SG didn't share photos of her because I shared a photo that SG had shared of her from the '92 LA Fest - plus SG had also shared other photos of her, like when she'd appeared in a play in various locations in CA. But perhaps you know who simply hadn't provided SG with a photo of Juliana from when she'd done her interview.  Who knows?

(I honestly have no memory of when the Vampires & Ghosts VHS tape was actually released - but when I have time I'm curious enough to look up if it was also delayed...)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

(I honestly have no memory of when the Vampires & Ghosts VHS tape was actually released - but when I have time I'm curious enough to look up if it was also delayed...)

(I checked - it didn't come out in 1994. What a surprise, huh? NOT! And throughout '94 there continued to be reports in SG that it (as well as DS Resurrected) would come out in '94.  )

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And now here's what SG #68 from May 1994 had to say about Innovation (and note that, not that I'm sure anyone doubted the info patrickm shared from that guy who sold him the posters, but this SG report basically confirms all of it):

There were difficulties printing/shipping reliably on time? Gee, none of us would have guessed. 

And I'll be sharing the pencil sketches in another post...

[patrickm]

Looking back, ( can't believe it's been over 26 years since all this happened ... let alone nearly 28 years since our club got started eesh!) I wish I had probed more with the Dr. about what exactly went down. But didn't think it was my place to be that nosey. My impression was that he regretted investing in the first place and when he sold me the posters, he just wanted to be done with it and get them them out of his house where they were taking up space. Not looking to make Campiti a bad guy here, but there is no way he could have not known the situation. Perhaps he gave up the publisher title and day to day operations ( like writing checks ...lol), he was still involved with the company. He didn't file for bankruptcy which probably wouldn't have changed things but by bailing he definitely was looking to protect himself from liability judgements. We were all sorry that efforts to put out an independent comic ended up not working out. The overall quality of the comics was excellent ( certainly no Gold Keys here.)  My disappointment was from after such an outstanding beginning to a real letdown in storyline in book 2 and a BIG letdown in artwork in book 3. As much as I love DS, I just didn't care about the comics anymore. You certainly documented MB all the contradictions and inaccuracies of his press releases and comments to Marcy over time. Looking back, it looks like he had good intentions for DS, just that Innovation was underfunded from the get go and not able to deliver on everything. The posters really do look amazing.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

E. Silas Smith did the posters and his artwork was really excellent. Though I have to say I also liked Jose Pimentel's artwork and I was happy to learn that he was returning to do the interior art for Book 4. And considering that Book 3 hadn't even been completed, it's quite interesting that before Innovation folded Pimentel had already completed the first three pages of Book 4, Issue 1. I'm honestly surprised that none of it seems to have surfaced like Hector Gomez great cover art for that issue has. But perhaps that's because Gomez shared the cover art before Innovation folded, whereas Pimentel completed the first three pages right around the time it folded. Though considering David Campiti has the rights to the art and it wasn't part of Innovations assets, it's very likely that may not be the reason. I know I would love to see it, but alas...

As for Book 2, as I've said, in many ways I like it much more than Book 1. No Barrettstown helps A LOT! But in particular what Maggie Thompson did with Willie is brilliant, and I thought she wrote Barnabas and Julia's relationship very well.

[patrickm]

You're right ...I meant the Barrettstown story. I really zoned out on that.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here are the pensil sketches mentioned in reply #21:

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's what SG #68 had to say about DC's proposed movie based on the '91 DS Series:

Not exactly much progress...

[patrickm]

It's in development .... lol

[Uncle Roger]

I remember hearing through the grapevine (and it's been so long that I don't recall the exact source) that the DS 1990 project got derailed because DC couldn't understand that several cast members couldn't commit to it because they were committed to other projects and weren't going to break their contracts. Somewhere Nancy Hodiak was smiling.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

As promised in SG #67, here's the photo of the AKI models (and the report) from SG #68: