Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Dan McDaid, doom patrol, gerard way, nick derington, puffinbottoms

Dan McDaid to Save Delay-Plagued Doom Patrol, Will Draw Long-Awaited Final Issue

Very few people remember this, but way back in the day, in the year 2016, emo rocker Gerard Way and comic book artist Nick Derington published a Doom Patrol at DC Comics, the crown jewel of a 1990s Vertigo nostalgia-fueled publishing line curated by Way called Young Animal. Sadly, Way's curatorial skills were soon called into question as Doom Patrol was plagued by progressively worse delays as the series went on. Doom Patrol #11 was originally solicited for July of 2017, but wasn't actually released until April 2018. Now, more than six months after the release of Doom Patrol #11, the final issue in the book's run, Doom Patrol #12, is set to hit stores in October.

How did DC manage to unearth this ancient series and bring it back for one more issue? Does anyone even know where Gerard Way and Nick Derington are these days, or have they been lost to the winds of time? Actually, it will be artist Dan McDaid that draws the final issue, McDaid announced on Twitter.

According to Newsarama's Chris Arrant, McDaid, presumably working with a team of archaeologists, will draw the pages from layouts originally created by Derington, which have been miraculously preserved after all this time.

"The preservation of documents like comic book layouts was actually valued very highly in the society that existed in 2016," explained world-renowned Comic Book Historologist and real person, Professor Thaddeus T. Puffinbottoms. "Humans at that time would use services like Dropbox or Google Docs to save a digital copy of files, which was then available on something called 'The Cloud' for sharing and collaboration. No doubt, experts at DC were able to restore an archaic data access device from the era, such as an iPhone 6, and use it to extract the layouts."

"Undoubtedly, even more work would have been required to make the documents compatible with modern technology," Professor Puffinbottoms continued. "A lot has changed since then."

Of course, the challenge now will be in finding an audience for this relic from another era. For that, perhaps, DC could look to rival Marvel's attempts to produce new Miracleman comics, which finally saw progress at San Diego Comic-Con, though it's true that the delays since we last saw a new Miracleman issue feel slightly longer than those of Doom Patrol. Either way, most comic book fans appreciate a good blast from the past, so this long-lost Doom Patrol issue is sure to be the perfect treat this Halloween.

DOOM PATROL #12
Written by GERARD WAY
Art by NICK DERINGTON and DAN MCDAID
Cover by NICK DERINGTON
Variant cover by BEEPLE
Something normal is happening to the Doom Patrol. Which means not weird, since their own normal is very weird. There are mysterious forces at work, unseen hands rewriting history, and the change is so gradual, the team doesn't even necessarily see how much they are changing.
On sale OCTOBER 31 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • MATURE READERS

UPDATE: DC writer Steve Orlando cryptically questioned whether Doom Patrol #12 will be the final issue of the book

The issue was listed as the end of the story arc when originally solicited, back in the days of yore.

DOOM PATROL #12
(W) Gerard Way (A/CA) Nick Derington
Something normal is happening to the Doom Patrol. Which means not weird, since their own normal is very weird. There are mysterious forces at work, unseen hands rewriting history, and the change is so gradual, the team doesn't even necessarily see how much they are changing. The end of our second big DOOM PATROL arc leads into big things to come next month! In Shops: WHO KNOWS?
MATURE READERS
SRP: $3.99

Perhaps Orlando is referring to a legend which claims that Gerard Way promised more Doom Patrol in the future, but it's unknown whether that was a real or mythological quote from Way, since record-keeping techniques from the era were not 100% accurate. Then again, perhaps Orlando knows something we don't.

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