Dreamwave Productions was a Canadian art design studio andcomic book publisher founded in 1996. Best known for its comic book adaptations ofTransformers, the company shut down on January 4, 2005.
BrothersPat Lee and Roger Lee founded Dreamwave Productions in Toronto, Canada in 1996 as an imprint underImage Comics,[citation needed] publishing their first mini-seriesDarkminds.[citation needed] Pat maintained artistic control while Roger managed the business operations.[citation needed] Dreamwave split off from Image Comics in April 2002.[1]
Dreamwave acquired the license for theTransformers toyline fromHasbro in December 2001.[citation needed]The first mini-series, written by Chris Sarracini & drawn by Pat Lee and based on theTransformers: Generation 1 characters, was the top-selling book on the sales charts for its entire run.[citation needed] VariousTransformers ongoing and limited series followed, covering various continuities within theTransformers franchise.[citation needed]
On January 4, 2005, Dreamwave announced that it had gone out of business and closed down, citing "the shrinking comic book market combined with a weak U.S. dollar" as the reason for their closure.[2]
According to the terms of the contract the company had withFederal Express, its freelancers were left liable for the cost of shipping their unpublished, unpaid for work to Canada. Guido Guidi and Don Figueroa were two such freelancers affected.[3]
After the company's bankruptcy in January 2005, Dreamwave's assets were auctioned off on August 2, 2005 and purchased by Canadianentrepreneur Christian Dery, who planned to relaunch its original properties.[4] However, the new Dreamwave have not published nor announced the publishing of any titles since the 2005 announcement.
IDW Publishing acquired theTransformers license in May 2005 and began publishing newTransformers comics in 2006.[5]
