UPDATED: George RR Martin - Done With Dabel Brothers?

At his blog, author George RR Martin has announced that Michael Kaluta has removed himself from the A Song of Ice and Fire 2010 calendar, and that he is seeking a termination of the contract between himself and the Dabel Brothers.

Martin wrote:

I regret to announce that Michael Kaluta will not be illustrating the 2010 Ice & Fire calendar for DB Productions. I've seen some of the work Mike had done on the calendar to date, and it was gorgeous... but he's pulled out, and his reasons for doing so are good and sufficient. I am in complete support of his decision to wash his hands of this, and regret all the problems that his involvement in this project has caused him.

I have reached the end of my patience as well. I have instructed my agent to ask the Dabel Brothers for an immediate termination of our contract.

Unless another publisher suddenly hoves into sight, the problem-plagued 2009 Ice & Fire calendar may be the only one there ever is.

As evidenced by a thread on their own messagboards, the publisher has been having difficulty fulfilling orders for the 2009 A Song of Ice and Fire calendars.

UPDATE 4:38pm: 

Les Dabel sent Newsarama the following statement:

This is one of those projects that unfortunately not a lot went right on. Or everything that could go wrong, did.

I could go on and on explaining what happened, but the bottom line is that the 2009 Calendar was late because the art didn't come in on time. Then we had all kinds of shipping issues in fulfilling the calendar orders...some was our fault, some was not.

As for the 2010 Calendar, GRRM wanted Kaluta on it, and things did not work out with Kaluta unfortunately.

We will continue to have a relationship with Mr. Martin and focus on comic book projects.

Again, our apologies to all the grief that this calendar has caused...was certainly never our intention and we'll work to fill all remaining orders as soon as possible.

Les Dabel