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Orphaned Series: Difference between revisions
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* The English translation of the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' manga ended on ''Kingdom Hearts II Vol. 2'' after TokyoPop decided to discontinue the series due to financial problems.
** Good that there are [[Scanlation|fans who translate were TokyoPop won't, right?]]
* ''[[Gun Blaze West]]'' only got up to its third volume when it was cancelled due to a combination of low readership and [[Nobuhiro Watsuki]] feeling he couldn't go any further with it. The series ends before the heroes even reach the fabled destination.
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*** Well, thanks a lot, [http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2010/08/25/my-cage-to-come-to-end-on-october-31/ now you jinxed it].
* [[Alan Moore]]'s miniseries ''Big Numbers'' stopped after two issues. This was particularly frustrating due to the more literary, kitchen-sink-drama nature of the series, the audience didn't learn what direction the series was going in, how the groups of unrelated characters were going to interact, or what all the untranslated dialogue in some Indian language was about.
** The main reason why ''Big Numbers'' was canceled was that illustrator Bill Sienkiewicz left the series and he was replaced by a nineteen-year-old assistant of his named Al Columbia. Al Columbia had to replicate the gritty, photo realistic technique Sienkiewicz utilized for illustrating the previous ''Big Numbers'' issues, and he had to do so by specified deadlines. Al Columbia cracked under the pressure of such a herculean task and as a result, he not only left his ''Big Numbers'' work unfinished, but he destroyed much of his work, including two unpublished issues. Al Columbia, despite having a cult following generated by grotesque works such as ''The Biologic Show'', remains somewhat a pariah in the comic industry.
** Moore never finished ''[[Supreme]]'' or ''[[Nineteen Sixty Three]]'' for various reasons that aren't really his fault, either.
* In the early '00s there was a quirky British comic titled ''Bazooka Jules'', by [http://steve-huge.deviantart.com/ Neil Googe], about a 16-year-old schoolgirl named Julie Glocke who gets mixed up in a plot involving aliens and super-science and gains the ability to turn into a [[Gag Boobs|ridiculously well-endowed]] [[Action Girl]] who can spontaneously pull [[BFG|gigantic pieces of armament]] out of thin air (that is to say, she has "big guns" of both kinds. *groan*). It was criticized for the underage [[Fan Service]], but fans and critics enjoyed the humor and Googe's expressive art style. Anyway, around issue #3 (it was planned to run for six), Googe took seriously ill and someone broke into the publisher's building, stealing the material for the planned future issues, which were never recovered. Googe got better and planned a relaunch of the series with artist LeShawn Thomas, but before it got off the ground they hit some copyright issues, Thomas left to do animation work on ''[[The Boondocks]]'', and Googe himself eventually signed an exclusive deal with [[DC Comics]], where he now works on their ''Wildstorm'' imprint. Neil Googe has retained Julie as a sort of signature character, but as a comic, ''Bazooka Jules'' seems to be as dead as it gets at this point.
* Classic fantasy comic ''[[Wormy]]'' (sort of [[Dungeons and Dragons]] [[X Meets Y|meets]] Pogo) stopped in mid-arc when David A. Trampier dropped off the face of the earth. {{spoiler|[[He's Just Hiding|He became a taxi driver]]}}
* ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' comic series ended abruptly (right before a big fight with the bad guys) when author Ben Edlund decided to spend time working on the cartoon. He never made it back, and given the current success of ''[[Supernatural]]'', it's unlikely he'll be making it back anytime soon.
** And especially given that the series has been relaunched under writer Benito Cereno.
* [[Warren Ellis]] has had a habitual problem with this for various reasons ranging from personal issues, delays due to artists, and the simply unexplained. Examples include:
** ''[[Fell]]''
** ''Desolation Jones''
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* [[Archie Comics]] once made a comic based on ''[[NiGHTS Into Dreams]]'' and had made the initial three issue mini-series into a ongoing series in the same vein that the ''Knuckles The Echidna'' ongoing spun out of its second mini-series. However, after its second three issues, they put the series on indefinite hiatus and classified issues 4-6 as a second mini-series.
* When [[Seven Seas Entertainment]] was first starting out and before they began to publish licensed manga, they released several original titles in the manga style. Having vastly misread the market for such titles (as well as the rapid decline of the publishing market since the company's founding), several of these series were cancelled due to low sales, while some others were stopped short due to other issues. Seven Seas has since largely switched to either one-volume releases (with sequels as sales demand), printed versions of original web series that have a high enough readership (such as ''[[Aoi House]]''), or licensed series. Some of the casualties:
** Seven Seas debuted with four OEL series, ''[[Amazing Agent Luna]]'', ''No Man's Land'', ''[[Last Hope]]'', and ''Blade for Barter''. ''Blade for Barter'' was cancelled after a single volume (with the conclusion to the cliffhanger [[The Resolution Will Not Be Televised|published online]] to make it up to people who actually bought the first volume). ''Last Hope'' ran for two volumes with a third teased but then hit a wall when a contractual dispute arose between the publisher and the author that eventually led to the series being cancelled due to market concerns. ''No Man's Land'' was originally heavily publicized and also had a flash series started, but both the books and flash series were scrapped originally due to the artist and author having too many other commitments, and have been essentially cancelled due the company's concerns over the declining publishing market.
** ''The Outcast'' sold well and the publisher intended to continue with it, but the author abruptly left it midway through the second volume for other commitments.
** Both ''Unearthly'' and ''Captain Nemo'' never moved past their first volumes due to the author, who also runs the company, being forced to stop writing in order to run the company instead.
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* The ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' Azulaang fic "Lanterns" has also gone over two and a half years without an update.
* [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1095253/1/The_New_Students The New Students]. An incredibly good crossover between [[Yu-Gi-Oh!]] and [[Harry Potter]]. No, really.
* [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4417156/1/Fatal_Error Fatal Error] definitely qualifies for this. It hasn't been updated for more than one year. However, it could be a non-lethal case of [[Author Existence Failure]], since one of the coauthors hasn't written or updated.
* ''[[Final Fighting Fantasy]]'', in [[Left Hanging|the most frustrating way]]. It's been 4 years since the last installment came out, and the prognosis for the final installment doesn't look good.
* ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6367096/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Breeding_Darkness Harry Potter and the Breeding Darkness]'' might have run solely on [[Plot Bunny]] fuel, but it is very well-written, possibly even [[So Cool Its Awesome|brilliant]] (although as always, [[Your Mileage May Vary]]). Unfortunately, the fic seems to have been discontinued due to lack of interest and time to continue writing for it, and has now been put it up for adoption.
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* ''[[Firefly]]'' was a dead-then-resurrected-then-dead series which wasn't able to put out a full season before its final-and-actual cancellation. Some semblance of closure was attempted with the movie ''[[Serenity]]''. {{spoiler|According to [[Joss Whedon]] on the DVD extras, one of the characters was [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|glibly killed]], to focus the audience on the seriousness of the final scenes.}}
** ''Serenity'' was in fact made because Joss had become convinced that the show could not be revived. Instead, it was intended to finish the story of River and the Academy. Main characters only died because Joss was sure the series would not be renewed.
* ''[[Chappelle's Show]]'' when Dave couldn't handle the fame and pressure after the success of the first two seasons. He literally walked out on the production of the third even when Comedy Central offered a bigger paycheck.
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* Will we ever hear of ''[[Battletoads]]'' again?
* ''[[Anachronox]]'' ended on a cliffhanger. The game was a critical hit with a cult following, but didn't sell too well. Then there's the fact that that [[Author Existence Failure|the development team was fired the day before the game was released.]] So no sequel for you.
* ''[[No One Lives Forever]]'' was abandoned by Monolith in favor of ''[[F.E.A.R.]]'' and ''[[Condemned]]''.
** ''Contract J.A.C.K.'' probably [[Franchise Killer|killed the franchise anyways]].
* The four-part ''[[Swordquest]]'' series from Atari was cut short with the release of ''Waterworld'', the third game in the series, thanks to [[The Great Video Game Crash of 1983]].
* [[Freedom Force]] is a pair of light-hearted yet brilliant superhero pastiches that blended pastiche with actual overarching plots and solid gameplay. Unfortunately, they didn't sell that well so development on the third entry died. Since then the studio has become so focused on (and rich by) making the Bioshock series that the cliffhanger ending of the second game will likely never be cleared up.
* The [[Croc]] series ended after two normal games and two mobile games, due to Argonaut software folding. The mobile games have long been unavailable for download, so the only games most people will play are Croc 1 and 2. A 3rd game in the series was announced but never released. The games were serious contenders to [[Crash Bandicoot]] and [[Spyro the Dragon]] at the time, and could have gone on to better things.
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* Sony left ''[[Syphon Filter]]: Logan's Shadow'' hanging on a [[Cliff Hanger]], then abandoned the franchise.
* ''[[Blinx the Time Sweeper|Blinx]]'', due to the dissolution of Artoon.
* The ''[[Space Quest]]'' series, after ending with a teaser for Space Quest 7, has been abandoned as Sierra, like [[Lucas Arts]], has moved away from adventure games. Some fan made sequels do exist, but nothing official is ever likely to appear.
* ''Dark Cloud''
* The ''[[Oddworld]]'' "quintology." It was planned to be at least 10 games. To very few people's surprise, this turned out to be not an easy task. So far, there have been 4. Every year or so there's been news about the company making a new game (At least 3 different sequel ideas have been completely scrapped,) or making sequels in the form of films, but nothing ever comes of it. It seems like they may have finally given up on completing the series. They're working on remakes of their old games instead.
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== Web Original ==
* The first incarnation and reboot [[Darwin's Soldiers]] on Furtopia were never finished and will probably remain that way.
* In general, this is very common fate for online roleplays.
* Similar to the web comics examples, this is an incredibly common result for blogs. Due to lack of time or interest in maintaining regular blog posts, the internet is littered with thousands upon thousands of blogs that are orphaned permanently. Bloggers also often bring their blog [[Back From the Dead]] after long periods of orphandom, but frequently this results only in "I've been meaning to get back to this..." and "I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long..." posts showing up at increasing intervals.
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* [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony's]] [[Let's Play]] of ''Deadly Premonition'' is looking like it won't ever be continued (at least not any time soon), having only Part 1 up on the site. This doesn't stop fans on the forums starting a new thread every few weeks or so asking when he's going to finish it...
* [[Atlas of Medieval America]] was a very intriguing concept that never got more than a couple months of updates. [[Alternate History]] buffs have tried to carry on.
* ''[[Super Mario Bros Z]]'' due to how time consuming it took to the animate the fights. What was meant to be a twenty six episodes ended at eight after the creator called it quits.
* The [[SCP Foundation]] story "[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/metafiction Metafiction]" (one of the most popular tales on the site) ends with ''to be continued'' on a very interesting cliffhanger. The discussion page is filled with requests, pleads and threats to the author to just finish the damn thing already.
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