Welcome to the MedLibrary.org Wikipedia Supplement on Ongoing series -- Please Click to Return to Front Page

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (January 2007)

This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007)

Ongoing series, sometimes shortened as the noun ongoing, is a term referring to a comic book series that is intended to continue indefinitely.^{citation needed} It is used in contrast to limited series (a series intended to end after a certain number of issues), a one shot (a comic book which isn't a part of an ongoing series), a graphic novel, or a trade paperback. However, a series of graphic novels may be considered ongoing as well.

The term may informally refer to a finite series if the number of issues is predetermined, but more than would easily be considered a "maxiseries" (a subset of "limited series").^{citation needed}

An ongoing series is traditionally published on a fixed schedule, typically monthly. However, many factors can cause an issue to be published late. In the past, the schedule was often maintained with the use of fill-in issues (usually by a different creative team, sometimes hurting quality), but increasingly the practice has been to simply delay publication.

When an ongoing series ceases to be published because the story has ended, it may be called "finished." If it ceases to be published because of low sales, editorial decisions, publisher bankruptcy, or other reasons, it is "cancelled." (An ending might be written for the last issues of a cancelled series, or the series may simply disappear without warning and never return). If an ongoing series changes titles, or its numbering starts again from #1, or both, it is "relaunched."^{citation needed}

If a series ceases to be published, but may be published again, it is called "on hiatus." Many series are placed "on hiatus" but do not return even after several years, and so are considered cancelled.^{citation needed}

For series that are creator owned, the copyright holder has the option of approaching other publishers to see if they would be open to resuming the title under their imprint. For instance, Usagi Yojimbo has had four consecutive publishers.

Examples

Examples of ongoing series

• Four Color (also cancelled)
• Action Comics
• Detective Comics
• Batman

Examples of finite series

• Y: The Last Man
• 52
• Cerebus the Aardvark (also finished)

Examples of finished series

• The Sandman
• Preacher

Examples of cancelled series

• Slingers
• Justice League International

Examples of relaunched series

• Superman (At least one relaunch in 1987)
• The Amazing Spider-Man (Relaunched in 1999 and re-numbered to original numbering beginning with 59(500))
• Fantastic Four (relaunched in 1996 and again in 1997)
• Avengers (relaunched in 1996, 1997, and again in 2004 as New Avengers)
• Fallen Angel (cancelled by DC Comics, subsequently relaunched by IDW Publishing)

Examples of series "on hiatus"

• Battle Chasers^{citation needed}

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 2 September 2008, at 17:44.

Wikipedia Authorship and Review

Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.

Wikipedia Usage Guidelines

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Ongoing series".

The URL for this specific entry is:

• http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Ongoing_series

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.