The first six issues of The Boys were published by Wildstorm, starting in 2006. On January 24, 2007, the series was abruptly canceled with issue 6. Ennis later explained that this was because DC Comics (of whom Wildstorm was an imprint before it was disbanded) were uneasy with the anti-superhero tone of the work.[4] The planned collection of said issues was also canceled. Robertson said that "DC is being good about reverting our rights so we can find a new publisher and we're in the process of doing that now".[5] Ennis then released a statement some other publishers had expressed interest, and that issue 7 and a trade of the first six issues would be available. While Darick Robertson is on exclusive contract to DC, he has been given special dispensation to continue working on The Boys.[6] In February 2007 the series was picked up by Dynamite Entertainment[7] and it resumed in May. A collected edition of the first six issues was also published by Dynamite, with a foreword by Simon Pegg.