Dreamwave Productions was a Canadian art design studio and

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

publisher founded in 1996. Best known for its comic book adaptations of

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms ...

, the company shut down on January 4, 2005.

History

Brothers Pat Lee and Roger Lee founded Dreamwave Productions in Toronto, Canada in 1996 as an imprint under Image Comics, publishing their first mini-series ''Darkminds''. Pat maintained artistic control while Roger managed the business operations. Dreamwave split off from Image Comics in April 2002. Dreamwave acquired the license for the ''Transformers'' toyline from

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...

in December 2001. The first mini-series, written by Chris Sarracini & drawn by Pat Lee and based on the '' Transformers: Generation 1'' characters, was the top-selling book on the sales charts for its entire run. Various ''Transformers'' ongoing and limited series followed, covering various continuities within the ''Transformers'' franchise. Writers James McDonough and Adam Patyk left the company in November 2004 over pay disputes. On January 4, 2005, Dreamwave announced that they had gone out of business and closed down, citing "the shrinking comic book market combined with a weak U.S. dollar" as the reason for their closure. In late April 2005, freelancers who were still owed money by Dreamwave discovered they were also liable for debts incurred by Dreamwave. According to the terms of the contract the company had with

Federal Express FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

, the freelancers were left liable for the cost of shipping their unpublished, unpaid for work to Canada. Guido Guidi and Don Figueroa were two such freelancers affected. After the company's bankruptcy in January 2005, Dreamwave's assets were auctioned off on August 2, 2005 and purchased by Canadian

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

Christian Dery, who planned to relaunch its original properties. However, the new Dreamwave have not published nor announced the publishing of any titles since the 2005 announcement. IDW Publishing acquired the ''Transformers'' license in May 2005 and began publishing new ''Transformers'' comics in 2006.

List of Dreamwave comics

Original series

* ''Arkanium'' #1—5 (September 2002—March 2003) * ''Darkminds'' #1—4 * ''Echo'' * ''Fate of the Blade'' #1—5 (August 2002—February 2003) * ''Limbo City'' #1—2 (1990) * ''NecroWar'' #1—3 (July—September 2003) * ''Neon Cyber'' (set in the same world as ''Darkminds'') * ''Sandscape'' #1—4 (January—May 2003) * ''Shidima'' #1—7 (2001, set in the same world as ''Warlands'') * ''

Warlands ''Warlands'' is a fantasy comic book series from the now-defunct production house, Dreamwave Productions, created by Pat Lee. It consists of four main series and several side stories. Warlands series have been published by Image Comics and Dreamwav ...

'': ** '' Warlands: The Age of Ice'' #1/2 (December 2002) ** '' Warlands: Dark Tide Rising'' #1—6 (December 2002—May 2003)

Licensed series

* ''

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'' (

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Issues #184, #185, and #186) * ''

Duel Masters is a media franchise consisting of a manga, several anime series, a trading card game and several video games. The original manga, accompanied with his sequels, sold 4.5 million copies in Japan. Plot The story centers ar ...

'' #1—8 (November 2003—September 2004, cancelled after issue #8) * ''

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'' #1—3 (February—September 2004, bankrupt before final issue and TPB were released) * '' Killzone'' (bankrupt before issue #1) * '' Maximo'' #1 (January 2004, cancelled after issue #1) * '' Mega Man'' #1—4 (September—December 2003, cancelled after issue #4) * ''

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'' comic series; debuted in

* ''

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'' #1—7 (June—December 2003, canceled after issue #7) * ''

'': ** ''Transformers: Generation 1'' #1—6 (April—October 2002) ** ''Transformers: Armada/Energon'' #1—30 (July 2002—December 2004) ** ''Transformers: The War Within'' #1—6 (October 2002—March 2003) ** ''Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye'' #1—8 (April—November 2003) ** ''Transformers: Generation 1'' (Volume 2) #1—6 (April—September 2003) ** ''Transformers: War Within — The Dark Ages'' #1—6 (October 2003—April 2004) ** ''Transformers/G.I. Joe'' #1—6 (August 2003—March 2004) ** ''Transformers: Generation 1'' (Volume 3) #0—10 (December 2003—December 2004) ** ''Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye: Armada'' #1—3 (March—May 2004) ** ''Transformers Summer Special'' #1 (May 2004) ** ''Transformers: Micromasters'' #1—4 (June—October 2004) ** ''Transformers: War Within — The Age of Wrath'' #1—3 (September—December 2004) ** ''Transformers/G.I. Joe: Divided Front'' #1 (October 2004) * ''Xevoz''

References

Bibliography