Comics you wish hadn't ended prematurely

[Ukiah]

And in general I mean something that had a story which was leading to an ending of some sort but... for whatever reason (cancellation, creator problems, company bankruptcy, etc) ended before it could be wrapped up.

I'll list some I sorely wish had gotten more time to produce an ending:
* The Negation War - I wasn't that much of a fan of many of the stories within the CrossGen universe but The Negation was superb, I loved the characters and the story (and having a normal human be a more effective leader of a bunch of supers was fantastic)... a great idea to have so many different stories merge into one all out war and then poof... the series is cut short

* Stormwatch Team Achilles (I know they got a bit of a quick reference some years later but... I still feel cheated). The character writing on this really drew me in, not to mention the idea of a bunch of regular humans dealing with an SPB world and mostly getting away with it on many levels with just exploiting simple weaknesses

* Pirates of Coney Island (I ran into the creator a couple years ago at MoCCANY and he mentioned he eventually wants to finish the final two issues but that was at least a couple years ago and the series hadn't had a new issues in at least another year on top of that). I loved the colorful art of this series and just as the story was getting interesting...

* Highway 13 (I don't think there were many issues left in this series and it ended on a cliffhanger ).

* PS238 (I really don't know what's going on with this series but there were storylines still left unfinished). The saddest thing is this is quite possibly my favorite comic series out of anything I own, I found myself loving it more and more with every issue and then supposedly the creator was going to just publish it online but from what I've seen leaves me thinking this series is done.

* Circles (supposedly it's an issue of the artist not having time... and supposedly this one will eventually wrap up). They had gotten a little past the halfway point on this series and certain major events were mapped out.

* Coyote River (apparently lack of time on the creator's part to bring this to an end).

* Thieves and Kings (I haven't read much of this series, partly because I don't like how it's unfinished - supposedly it had a set number of issues which were going to be published and only got halfway there).

[Soda]

- Negation War
- Stray Bullets
- Route 666
- Hellhole
- TMNT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Vol. 4)
- StormWatch: Team Achilles

Especially "Negation War" ist frustrating. You spend lots and lots of money on various brilliant comic books (especially "Negation") and then *poof* end of the line on a cliffhanger.
"Team Achilles" is also very frustrating since that's one of the best books DC ever published and I still miss all those characters (Jukko, Tefibi...). Damn shame.

[aaronmoish]

* All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes (2011) - a good case for NOT waiting for the trade, only 5 of 8 issues shipped before cancellation mid-story.
* Big Numbers (1990) - Alan Moore took the time to lay a lot of groundwork, but no payoff as Bill Sienkiewicz abandoned it after 2 issues.
* Daredevil: The Target (2003) - Only 1 issue of this 6-issue series was ever finished by Kevin Smith.
* Doktor Sleepless (2007) - one of the many titles that died unfinished when Warren Ellis' computer crashed.
* Dreadstar (1982) - ended on a cliffhanger with the promise to return, but when it did 3 years later, the story picked up decades later.
* Elementals (1989) - Bill Willingham left his creations in 1992, and the long-hyped Oblivion War sputtered to a non-ending when Comico collapsed. Willingham says that the former owner of Comico refuses to sell the rights back to him.
* Epic Illustrated (1980) - The Last Galactus Story ended mid-story when the magazine was cancelled, and has never been finished by John Byrne in any format.
* Hepcats (1989) - Martin Wagner couldn't afford to self publish anymore after 12 issues, so he reprinted those issues through Antarctic with new material claiming he would at least finish his "Snowblind" epic. He got as far as finishing the reprints, had a dispute with Antarctic, and left comics for 10 years. He started a Hepcats webcomic in 2008, promising to post a page a week, 8 pages per "issue". He made it 6 pages in before disappearing again.
* Liberty Meadows (1999) - where did it go, Cho?
* The Lost (1996) - Peter Pan & the Lost Boys as vampires and the debut work of Marc Andreyko. Solicited as a 4-issue series, only 2 issues shipped from Caliber. Chaos reprinted the first 2 a year later and released #3, but the final issue never appeared.
* Poison Elves (1995) - R.I.P., Drew Hayes.
* PunX (1995) - only 3 issues shipped before Acclaim cancelled it mid-story. Was it because of how much Keith Giffen was mocking Valiant in it?
* Spider-Man 2099 (1992) - Peter David left the title in protest of the editor being fired, leaving the last 2 issues to be poorly written by Ben Raab. AND the new editor changed dialogue in David's last issue to switch the identity of Goblin 2099 from who David intended.
* Squadron Supreme (2006) - J. Michael Straczynski ends #7 on a cliffhanger, then we don't see the characters again until Ultimate Power.
* WildCats (2006) - Only 1 issue of this "ongoing" series by Grant Morrison shipped, and no "Lost Year" like the Authority got.
* Youngblood (1998) - Only 2 issues from Alan Moore of the supposed ongoing.

[mikebo]

* Solo (2004) - The Mark Chiarello edited DC anthology. Many more issues were in the works when it was cancelled, and to the best of my knowledge, none of that work has ever appeared in print. I was looking forward to George Pratt's issue especially.

* The Shadow (1987) - Andrew Helfer & Kyle Baker's hilarious take on the pulp hero. Rumored to have been shut down by the license holder over issues with the content.

* Outlaw Nation (2000) - Jamie Delano & Goran Sudžuka's (and later Goran Parlov) epic had a slow, deliberate pacing (but not boring in the least, or padded for the trade) for its first 17 issues. A rushed finale was then crammed into the final two issues. Based upon the pacing of the rest of the series, those last two issues probably displayed at least a minimum of 24 issues' worth of plot-lines.

* Tarzan: The Rivers of Blood (1999) - Only half of Igor Kordey's 8 issue mini was published.

* Abadazad (2004) & (2006) - J. M. DeMatteis & Mike Ploog's fantasy series. Neither iteration survived for long.

* Starchild: Mythopolis II (2007) - James Owen's Starchild never seems to go away completely, but it's been five years since the last release.

* The Puma Blues (1986) - Stephen Murphy & Michael Zulli's series was near completion upon its cancellation.

* Xenozoic Tales (1987) - aka Mark Schultz's Cadillacs & Dinosaurs.

* Hero (2006) - Yoshitaka Amano's worked on the concept for many years, but only one volume was published.

Other assorted series I don't have anything else to say about really, just that I wish they could have gone on for a little while longer:
* Joshua Dysart's runs on Swamp Thing (2004) & Unknown Soldier (2008)
* Sandman Mystery Theatre (1993)
* Hawaiian Dick (2007)
* Human Target (2003)
* Leave It To Chance (1996)
* Miracleman (1985)
* Desolation Jones (2005)

[pnova]

Transformers Warwithin 3 - the last 3 issues can be bought in script form from Simon Furman - but would be nice to have seen the whole issue apart from the selection of pages shown online.
Transformer Armada Panini UK - cancelled without notice at #9 when #10-12 had been finished & ready to print & #9 had improved story after the editor of the series aimed it at younger age group.
Transformers Energon - again #31-35 can be found in script form on Simon Furmans blog.

[finbarrok]

Leave it to Chance (James Robinson and Paul Smith), A Distant Soil (Coleen Doran) and Thieves & Kings (Mark Oakley) Spring to mind. And seemingly everything that Paul Grist does (Kane, Jack Staff). All utterly fantastic series. I'll have to peruse my collevtion and I'm sure I'll discover plenty more.

[finbarrok]

Strangehaven by Gary Spencer Millidge and Stray Bullets by David Lapham have just occured. Both deeply lamented.

[Uthor]

The new Defenders series. The slow pacing in the first half makes it obvious that Fraction was expecting a longer run, but then the last two or three issues (especially the last one) rush to the ending trying to wrap up the story after the cancelation was announced.

[Ukiah]

Just recently remembered the old Wormy comic that appeared in Dragon Magazine. I had completely forgotten about how that had ended right in the middle of a storyline (I had started collecting that magazine long after that issue so it wasn't until I started looking into back-issues that I'd first heard about that comic). Really unfortunate, it was a fun series and I would have loved to see it finished... plus of course released as a collection :/

And of course with the lovely internets could read about how the creator Dave Trampier had just one day up and disappeared with no notice, people not knowing whether he was alive or dead for the next fourteen years when he suddenly appears for an unrelated note in a school newspaper article and picturing the guy as a taxi drive. Talk about a career change!

[OldeSonjaFan]

Two come to mind right now, both Red Sonja related. The first is 'A Death in Scarlet' put out by Crossplains Comics, which did not go past the first issue. A real shame as Roy Thomas did the writing, the art was good, and the story was interesting with a lot insight into the young Sonja and what shaped her. Have read in various places that issue 2 was almost ready to go, and Thomas had issue 3 scripted. The publisher folded, and that was the end. Would be nice if Dynamite contacted whoever they need to and get the story done and out there.

The other is the abrupt end of Brian Reed's story in Dynamite's 'Red Sonja' at issue 49. While it was unorthodox, it had a lot of potential, and an article by Reed at the beginning of the run said that a planned series of a couple of years or so was intended. But, DE stopped it for some reason, shifted abruptly to the inferior 'Queen Sonja', and when the main title resumed a while later the Sonja in it was an entirely different one (4 Sonjas and counting for DE).

[Uthor]

Loose Ends. Great graphic art style, interesting story, and 3 of the 4 planned issues have come up, leaving a noirish mystery story on a cliffhanger.

[mikebo]

I don't know if it's the reason for the missing 4th issue or not, but I understand the artist of this series is very slow.

Loose Ends. Great graphic art style, interesting story, and 3 of the 4 planned issues have come up, leaving a noirish mystery story on a cliffhanger.

[Uthor]

I tried doing some research on it over the weekend and it doesn't seem like he's really put out anything other than a couple of covers the last two years. The writer mentioned they are still working on it a year ago. I dunno.