In news which will surprise very few, the Dabel Brothers' adaptations of NEW SPRING and THE EYE OF THE WORLD have apparently run into additional and new difficulties.

This will be familiar to veterans of the original NEW SPRING debacle, but the Dabels managed to successfully pin the blame for that mess on Red Eagle (who, in fairness, also seem to have totally mishandled that situation as well). With the publication of the EYE OF THE WORLD previews and the first issues, and the remounting of NEW SPRING bringing the series up to its penultimate issue, it appeared that these problems had been overcome. But no such luck. NEW SPRING #7 appeared behind schedule and both NEW SPRING #8 and EYE OF THE WORLD #2 simply failed to show up. Dabel Brothers' distributors, Diamond, cancelled the Dabels' entire line-up several months ago, including their much-advertised WARRIORS and WILD CARDS lines.

The last 16 months or so have also seen the infamous SONG OF ICE AND FIRE calendar debacle, a litany of jaw-dropping incompetence that has seen many people who ordered their 2009 calendar still not receiving them (in, erm, October 2009). As linked below, there is also evidence to suggest that the Dabels simply misled those complaining about problems, missent emails, 'stolen' mail packages and so on, and had a habit of simply vanishing for long periods rather than deal with the issues.

Some release schedules have suggested that the WHEEL OF TIME comics may appear in late November, but at this point I would suggest that the other one, if pulled, would have bells on it. JordanCon and DragonCon have severed their relationship with the Dabels, several of their previous authors they have been collaborating with have gone to other companies, several ex-employees are advising that no-one give the Dabels money for products they haven't physically received as of yet and the number of writers, artists and companies who have not been paid for services rendered to the company is reaching enormous heights.

For this reason, until such time as the Dabels turn their fortunes around and start delivering quality products in a sane timeframe, I heavily recommend that anyone who has given money to the Dabels for things they have not yet received (such as their EYE OF THE WORLD subscriptions) should seriously look at getting their money back, either via the company directly (which may not work given their extreme laxity in addressing these issues) or via credit card companies directly or PayPal.