Vito Delsante, who has been handling the public relations chores for Speakeasy Comics, confirmed widespread rumors about the fate of the company in an email message announcing: 'Speakeasy Comics has shut its doors...'   Delsante indicated that 'all books scheduled to ship in March will ship.  April and May books are up in the air, while June books are cancelled.'

If  and when the March books do ship, it will mean that Speakeasy Comics was able to publish for just one year.  Founded by Adam Fortier, who had previously worked with the ill-fated Dreamwave Productions, Speakeasy launched an ambitious slate of full color comic books into a very difficult marketplace with its first books shipping to retailers in March of 2005.   Speakeasy's list grew quickly -- the publisher had thirteen different titles in a wide range of non-superhero genres listed for April shipping in Diamond's February Previews, and was able to engage some top flight artistic talent including Yoshitaka Amano (Hero #1) and Tone Rodriguez (The U.T.F. #1).  But in spite of an exclusive deal with Diamond, which yielded seven pages (in April) of extra Previews coverage, and in spite of an agreement with Ardustry Industries to peddle its properties in Hollywood (see 'Speakeasy and Ardustry Join Forces'), sales of Speakeasy comics could not reach the critical mass necessary to sustain a line of color comics.

Some Speakeasy titles, such as the recently announced Occult Crimes Taskforce (see 'Speakeasy Announces Rosario Dawson Comic'), have already found homes with other publishers and some other Speakeasy series should also be able to catch on with other publishing houses.