200701242043Newsarama reports THE BOYS has been cancelled:

Newsarama has learned that Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s Wildstorm series, The Boys has been cancelled by DC, effective with issue #6 of the series, which is currently on shelves. Issues #7-#10, as well as the trade collection – all of which have been solicited – will not ship.

DC declined to comment on the series or even confirm that the series has indeed, been canceled.


As the story pointed out, THE BOYS’ sales had been strong, one of the better performing recent Wildstorm launches. However, content issues were the problem, according to insiders close to the situation—the book that promised to “out-Preacher Preacher” indeed included plenty of extreme violence and potty humor.

Asked for comment, writer Garth Ennis provided the following statement:

It’s become obvious to all concerned that The Boys should never have been published at DC, and to their credit they’re working hard to release the rights so that Darick and I can find the book a new home. We’re already looking at offers from a number of publishers, and plan to return with #7 and the first trade collection in a matter of a few months.

Thank you to everyone who’s bought and supported The Boys to date. I’ve gotten a real kick out of the response we’ve gotten over the first six issues, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the next fifty-four. Believe me, what we’ve got coming up will make #1-6 look like a quiet evening on Sesame Street.

One other thing: I want to say thank you to Ben Abernathy, Scott Dunbier and Jim Lee for all their help and support. Good guys, pleasant to deal with, never anything less than gentlemen. I’m going to miss doing the book with them.


That seems to cover it all. Robertson confirms that he has plenty of work lined up at DC, where he is exclusive, but will be given dispensation to work on THE BOYS wherever it lands.

1 COMMENT

  1. I’m EXTREMELY disappointed to hear this. THE BOYS was my favorite book at WildStorm, but at least it appears as though I’ll have the chance to give that $2.99 (plus tax) to another company fairly soon.

  2. Hm? Okay, while I can understand pulling the plug on a book that makes editorial uncomfortable due to its content, I must wonder about the hypocrisy of this particular move.

    So it is objectionable to have something that is nasty (and it is nasty) towards male superheroes and somewhat gay done to a male superhero (please replace the hamster with a gerbil and you are three quarters there).

    I mean, that is almost as bad as taking the Lord’s name in vain on broadcast TV, right?

    But hey…

    Raping a woman? That’s great! That’s entertainment! That’s a plot point! Heck, that is THE major plot point in Identity Crisis (and if anybody is going to tell me that that was “tastefully done”, then my head will explode).

    Where is Matt Albie when you need him?

  3. At one of the comic cons this past summer, I got a THE BOYS promotional poster at the DC booth. On the poster is a blurb about how this book will out “Preacher” the Preacher. Guess what? It did.

    This sucks. I did my part. I bought every issue and enjoyed the hell out of it. DC then turns around and cancels it because it turned out to actually be what it was hyped to be. That’s just wrong.

    Maybe Wildstorm needs to think about changing it’s name. Perhaps Tamestorm or Publishers-Without-a-Spine-Storm. Something like that.

  4. To Thomas –
    Have you read this book? There’s a world of differnece between the context and concept of this book and what happened in Identity Crisis. I wish people would stop comparing the two because they are clearly not even in the same league.

    And not for nothing, but no one portrayed the rape in Identity Crisis as “all right”. I was a horrible despicable act performed by a deranged villian. Now you can argue whether the story has merits due to content, but no one in the story for a second ever portrayed the rape as an “okay” event.

  5. Hey Erik –

    Yes, I have read the book, actually I have read BOTH series, I find both of them equally DISGUSTING. And if you don’t see the hypocrisy here (which is not only good for comic book companies, but good for the entire country, it appears), then hey, I invite you to watch THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED, where e.g female rape is ALWAYS a glorious plot point, but anything that is directed against men, esp. in a sexual way?

    How awful! How disgusting! Let’s not show it to an audience!

  6. I also bought and thoroughly enjoyed every single issue of The Boys. It was disgusting! It was vile and it was great entertainment as well as a critique of male dominated super hero comics. I will miss it! I really wanted to see what Hughie was going to end up doing.

  7. “Raping a woman? That’s great! That’s entertainment! That’s a plot point! Heck, that is THE major plot point in Identity Crisis”

    Maybe the issue is that in The Boys it’s being played for comedy.

    Just maybe…

    I love it when people don’t bother with looking at context.

  8. Hey Thomas-

    You tell me you read “Identitiy Crisis” and THE plotpoint of that Story was the raping of a woman?
    This was the only thing that stuck with you after reading that story? After you condensed it down, the whole story was about raping a woman?

    I think MY head is about to explode.

  9. Certainly, if Ennis and Robertson are quick about it, this could be the best promotion for the title since the ‘out-preacher preacher’ statement Ennis made.

    I can see it now as a blurb for the back of the tpb “So awesome it got kicked out of DC”.

  10. Just a question (and I’m not a D.C. fan really, with a few exceptions, so I could be wrong) but wasn’t there a Catwoman comic where some woman had to eat her husband, or watch while he ate parts of himself, or something involving canibalism?

    I’m just saying…if that kind of thing can be done in a serious manner, what the hell is wrong with any of the stuff The Boys has done in a humourous manner?

    The Boys was one of the best comics out in the last year. It was just cool. Just the thing to sit down and read once you’d read all the usual superhero comics.

    I’m sure they will find another publisher, but until then I’m going to be in a perminent bad mood.

  11. Any word yet on the new home for The Boys? I may rip on the series at times, but I’m still interested to see where it goes, and I love the art. (Does Hughie get the girl or what?) If nothing else, they should have a place where you can at least order them online, since they were already made, right? Or, do the printed issues belong to DC still? Not sure how that works.

    Tyler0153: Now you’ve got me wanting to open up my two boxes of Catwoman to check. I vaguely remember something where a wife had to watch her husband get tortured or some such…but not sure on the cannibalism part.

    And just in case anyone noticed…I realized my mistake after posting. Yes, it’s a hamster, not a gerbil. But pretty perma keeps the first title you post under, so it appears as gerbil in the above link to my blog that someone was so very nice to add here. (Thank you!)

  12. Gerhardt, to automatically assume that the hamster bit or the homosexuality was what got the book shit-canned is ignorant and typical of conspiracy-minded progressive McCarthyists, looking for intolerance anywhere they can find it. I can almost guarantee you that what got his book canned WAS the rape of that young female superhero who had to fellate the Superman analog to get onto the JLA analog superteam. The “glorious plot point” you think you see.

  13. That wasn’t rape. Nobody held her, or forced her, or even really coerced her with anything particularly compelling. There was nothing stopping her from going back to her old team and telling the Seven to go screw themselves, except for her own arrogance.

  14. Does nobody think it might have had more to do with the fact that DC is superhero heaven and Ennis got the urge to kill a bunch?

    I think you’re all over intellectualising just a tad on the rape score. This isn’t the first instance of male rape in comics – The Authority, anyone? The only time Ennis has ever come over all touchy feely with sex (in general) was in Preacher. And that’s just because Jesse was all pussy whipped and in love (and fair play to him too).

    I’m glad to hear The Boys has found a new home and look forward to picking up issue 7 soon.

  15. MOST OF YOU ARE INSANE IN THE WORST WAY POSSIBLE!

    TO HELL WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!!

    GARTH ENNIS IS A DEMON, AND SOME OF YOU EVEN PRAISE THE SHIT HE LAYS ON YOUR BRAINS!!!

  16. YOUR UNDETERRED FASCINATION WITH PURE, ABSOLUTE EVIL WILL BE THE END OF YOU – AND THEN YOU WILL KNOW THE TRUE MEANING OF “DAMNATION” AND “HELL” – ALL TOO LATE.