An Announcement Concerning the Future of “UMBRAL”
Alas.
With great sadness, we must announce that UMBRAL is going on hiatus.
This isn’t a creative decision. We all love making UMBRAL, and we know there’s a small, loyal audience out there who love reading it. You’re our kind of people, and we love you all.
But the operative word there is “small”. UMBRAL no longer has enough monthly readers to continue — in fact, it hasn’t for some months, now. We persevered, hoping things might turn around, but they haven’t. (Before you ask about trade paperback sales; they’re respectable, but not enough to make up for the monthly shortfall.)
Some critics have suggested UMBRAL would have sold better if Rascal was a boy, or even a sexy adult woman, instead of a young girl. I sincerely believe that’s not true, but even if it is, I speak for the whole team when I say: fuck that noise. We won’t play that game.
So. Hiatus? Yes, truly. If there’s a way we can somehow return to continue Rascal’s story, we promise that we will. There’s so much you still haven’t seen! Her second encounter with Black Rojyr, on the high Azqari Sea; how she discovered the lost capital of Xulinor, and the secrets she found buried within; the Mistwalker’s long path to freedom and reconciliation; the tragedy of Dalone’s true history, and what really happened at Culin’s Calamity; and more, and more, and more.
For now, those stories must remain untold.
For now, we say au revoir (never goodbye) to Rascal and Dalone, Shayim and Munty, the Oculus, the Mistwalker, and of course, the bastard Umbral themselves.
For now, we retreat into the shadows.
— Antony, Chris, Jordan, Thomas
April 2015