Opposite Forces - "volume 2" vs. "version 2"

Opposite Forces is a fun little series written and drawn by Tom Bancroft. So far there exists a 4-issue mini, self-published through Funny Pages Press (you can still find sample pages there). For an overview of characters and premise I refer the interested reader to one of the many available reviews on the net (e.g. the one at Still on the Shelf). I learned of the series sometime in 2003 when I found a lonely #1 somewhere at a convention. Since #3 was already out by that time, I never got my hands on #2 and #3 of the FPP edition (though I took some steps towards procuring some copies, recently).

A couple of months ago, Alias Comics made their debut as a comics publisher... with a bit of an involuntary delay (which has been discussed in far more depth and breadth by the comics scene than the actual problem merited, IMHO). Opposite Forces is one of the properties they snagged for their second wave of titles. Diamond Previews May 2005 featured a solicitation for "Opposite Forces, volume 2 #1" (with a $0.75 price point), slated for a mid-July release. I didn't look any closer and just preordered the book, since "volume 2" definitely suggested new material to me.

As it turns out, though, it's more like a "version 2". A company rep recently posted on the Alias boards that the new books will be inked and colored versions of the FPP issues (which were for the most part b&w or even just pencils) instead of new material. The positive in this is that we'll finally get to see a polished version of the original series, the negative is that the solicitation in Previews was, even in hindsight, kind of misleading as a product description.

Personally it doesn't worry me that much. I'll take a second, better version of Opposite Forces over most of the current mainstream books any time, especially since I'm still missing the middle part of that arc. Also Mr. Miller of Alias was very nice and prompt in answering my question about this, and pointed out that it probably was some misunderstanding between Alias and Diamond and would be looked into.

Still, it won't be common knowledge yet, and I don't know in what way (and how soon) they'll manage to correct this in future solicitations (and a similar problem with Pakkins Land as well, though there the true facts were at least mentioned in the solicitation text), so even with the publication of #1 still more than a month away: the more sources for this exist on the web, the better informed potential buyers will be.

On a related note: I'm really curious to see how Alias will fare with the $0.75 introductory price point for most of the #1's in their second wave of titles (and also some of the first). Especially in comparison to Kandora Publishing, who are using a stratagem of $3.50 price point, but with a slightly higher page count, for their books. Interestingly enough, some Kandora titles (e.g. Jade Fire) were as late as the first ones of Alias (if not more), without the company getting as much flak for this (if any) as Alias did.