A message from Allegory (publisher of Speed Racer: Circle of Vengeance)
Dear Speed Fans,
As you have now heard, Allegory has been forced to stop production on it’s Speed Racer series and all our accompanying products.
We would like to share all the details of what has transpired as we truly appreciate the way you have supported us - from the launch of our first preview book in July of 2011 all the way until today.
Last July we were contacted by a lawyer representing Tatsunoko Productions, the Japanese company that owns the rights to Speed Racer. We were told that their US licensee, Speed Racer Enterprises (SRE) had been stripped of the rights to Speed Racer a month before we signed our contract with them. We were also informed that not only had we been misled by SRE management, but many other licensees were in the same boat as us.
Fast forward to today. We have tried to contact Speed Racer Enterprises over and over again, using every communication method possible to try to better understand what happened, get their side of the story and perhaps get some, if not all of the money, we paid them, back. Sadly, we have heard nothing. What compounds this sadness is that we considered those who managed SRE friends and never thought they would deliberately mislead us. Lesson learned, I guess.
Since July, we have attempted to work directly with Tatsunoko. Much like us, Tatsunoko is trying to determine what SRE did, with whom and for how much. Our attempts to reacquire the license has now entered month four and we simply can’t wait any longer. New issues are sitting idle, business relationships are being damaged and fans have become increasingly more confused and turned off. This is not how we run our business, its not how we treat partners and its certainly not how we treat our fans. So, with that, we need to cut ties completely with Speed Racer and focus our efforts on our other titles.
I want to conclude by saying thank you. Thank you for reading our books. Thank you for coming to our booth at Comic Con and telling us how much you liked our books. Thank you for all the words of encouragement and advice you provided over the last two and a half years. All of us at Allegory appreciate it.
I’ve truly enjoyed being apart of this iconic brand. Speed Racer was my favorite show when I was a kid and though our time was short, we all feel very lucky to have contributed to the Speed Racer legacy.
I hope to see you at next year's Comic Con in San Diego
Sincerely,
Chad Smith
CEO
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Never insult seven people when you're only packing a six-shooter.