Timing of IDW's new 'Godzilla' comic poses a problem

This was an article from a few months back when the IDW "Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters" first began, and how the timing of the publications eerily postmarked the tragic Japan Earthquake.

What makes the issue so eerie was that with this recent Japan Earthquake, suddenly seeing Godzilla do what he normally does, i.e. trash and destroy Japan, took on a whole new meaning.

For those not in the know, there's nothing that IDW could have done (short of canceling the series) due to the lengthy production process involved within comics.

According to the article IDW first gained rights from Toho to publish the series back in 2010.

During the next few months Eric Powell was hired as writer, Phil Hester began drawing each panel, and the first issue was completed shortly thereafter.

On February 15th the book finally went to press, which was still a few weeks before the Earthquake even happened, so at no point could IDW have changed courses.

But such is life. No sooner did the Earthquake happen then readers were seeing Godzilla destroy Japan once again, which made everyone wonder why IDW was doing this.

Now IDW could have opted to have retailers return the issue...or cancel it outright.

(The article highlights past examples where certain comic book events eerily coincided with other major tragedies, and how those publishers acted upon this).

But according to IDW CEO Ted Adams the timing was too late, and these things had to go out.

He also hinted that changing anything from what Godzilla normally does would not have worked too.

Personally I never felt that IDW was ever in the wrong, or was trying to profit from anything related to the earthquake.

This was just an issue of simple and unfortunate timing; nothing more nothing less.

To IDW's credit they did decide to create a charity special
geared towards relief efforts in Japan (which IDW had no obligation to do at all but they did so anyways) so there's definitely something there.

In any case here's the original article for further reference:

Signonsandiego.com: Timing of IDW's new 'Godzilla' comic poses a problem