You're the New DC EIC

[Hush Little Batman]

You've just landed the DC EIC job and are in charge of the entire comics line-up.

Which titles do you keep?
Which titles do you cancel?
What writers/artists do you hire and which title do you put them on?
In regarding to your franchise lines - Superman, Batman, Vertigo, Wildstorm, JLA - what do you do to improve them? Would you add more titles, cut back or leave them as is?
How would you help a book that's a critical favorite, but is generating low sales?
Which creative team gets the boot off a title?
Which characters get their own series? Is it a mini or ongoing?
You can put any writer/artist "dream team" on any one title - who do you get and what series are they on?
Would you change how issues are collected into trades and if so, how?
What would your overall publishing philosophy be?

[Ontir]

You've just landed the DC EIC job and are in charge of the entire comics line-up.

Which titles do you keep?
Which titles do you cancel?
What writers/artists do you hire and which title do you put them on?
In regarding to your franchise lines - Superman, Batman, Vertigo, Wildstorm, JLA - what do you do to improve them? Would you add more titles, cut back or leave them as is?
How would you help a book that's a critical favorite, but is generating low sales?
Which creative team gets the boot off a title?
Which characters get their own series? Is it a mini or ongoing?
You can put any writer/artist "dream team" on any one title - who do you get and what series are they on?
Would you change how issues are collected into trades and if so, how?
What would your overall publishing philosophy be?

For the first two questions, I'd do something a bit different, which would re-focus many existing titles. For the most part, the eponymous titles, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc., would become "All-Ages" titles, with no over-riding continuity, beyond the requirements of their stories. They would be "old-school" books, aimed squarely at kids and in digest formats, similar to the ever-expanding Manga market. Titles such as Action, Detective, Sensation (revived), JLA, JSA, etc., would be aimed at a college level reader, with fairly tight continuity.

I'd also use the opportunity of "IC," which like "Crisis" before it, is being squandered, to re-think, re-focus, and open the line up for (hopefully) the next 50 years. Superman, via Krypton, would be at the center of everything. I would make Action exactly what the title suggests. This is the book where Superman deals with the worst the universe has to offer. All-action, all the time! Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen would return to their own books, which they would narrate. In both cases, we would see Superman, and super-heroes from the perspective of normal people, with unusual access. In both cases, we'd get to see more of who Clark Kent is, as seen through the eyes of the love of his life, and his best friend (?).

Critical success/low sales = stunt casting. It works, so if a book was good; but on the bubble, I'd cross the characters over as soon as possible to get people interested.

TPBs would be a big focus. Arcs would be collected, as well as special compilations like DC Gold and DC Silver, which would re-present classic stories and characters in their own continuities.

Talent wouldn't be booked in terms of "you're on the book until further notice;" but rather an artists, writer, or both pitch a story to an editor, and if OK'd they do that arc. It has a beginning, middle, and end. If it takes 4 issues, or if it takes 62, it gets to be told in the issues it requires. In the case of Superman, an arc may work better in "Jimmy Olsen," than in "Action," or it might be something that should be in a TPB or OGN. Whatever it takes to get the right story told properly. In general, there would be less monthlies of a single character, unless a perspective can be found which makes it something other than the 3rd of 4th Bat book/month. I'd do more mini-series and OGN/TPBs to fulfill demand.

Dream Teams? Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely launching the Post-IC Legion! Adam Hughes on Wonder Woman, Donner, Singer, Busiek & Johns working with Yu, Kubert, and Chaykin on the Superman books, Claremont and Charest on Supergirl, Walt Simonson on JLA, and Denny O'neill overseeing the Bat-books, those are a few good starts.

I would also take the recently announced DVD direct plans, and re-focus them in a new media, on-line approach, planning for the future of comics.

[Hush Little Batman]

Good stuff, Ontir!


For the first two questions, I'd do something a bit different, which would re-focus many existing titles. For the most part, the eponymous titles, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc., would become "All-Ages" titles, with no over-riding continuity, beyond the requirements of their stories. They would be "old-school" books, aimed squarely at kids and in digest formats, similar to the ever-expanding Manga market. Titles such as Action, Detective, Sensation (revived), JLA, JSA, etc., would be aimed at a college level reader, with fairly tight continuity.

Wonderful! DC needs a non-continuity line and one for all-ages. I think one of the problems nowadays is that comic companies make stories for people who have a 50+ year knowledge of comic history. They need to do more to pull in new readers.


I'd also use the opportunity of "IC," which like "Crisis" before it, is being squandered, to re-think, re-focus, and open the line up for (hopefully) the next 50 years. Superman, via Krypton, would be at the center of everything. I would make Action exactly what the title suggests. This is the book where Superman deals with the worst the universe has to offer. All-action, all the time! Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen would return to their own books, which they would narrate. In both cases, we would see Superman, and super-heroes from the perspective of normal people, with unusual access. In both cases, we'd get to see more of who Clark Kent is, as seen through the eyes of the love of his life, and his best friend (?).

Interesting. I never thought about returning to the, "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen" or "Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane" type book, but it could work (not with those titles though :p). I'd probably combine them into one book and also show more regular people in the DCU than just Lois and Jimmy.


Critical success/low sales = stunt casting. It works, so if a book was good; but on the bubble, I'd cross the characters over as soon as possible to get people interested.

TPBs would be a big focus. Arcs would be collected, as well as special compilations like DC Gold and DC Silver, which would re-present classic stories and characters in their own continuities.

Talent wouldn't be booked in terms of "you're on the book until further notice;" but rather an artists, writer, or both pitch a story to an editor, and if OK'd they do that arc. It has a beginning, middle, and end. If it takes 4 issues, or if it takes 62, it gets to be told in the issues it requires. In the case of Superman, an arc may work better in "Jimmy Olsen," than in "Action," or it might be something that should be in a TPB or OGN. Whatever it takes to get the right story told properly. In general, there would be less monthlies of a single character, unless a perspective can be found which makes it something other than the 3rd of 4th Bat book/month. I'd do more mini-series and OGN/TPBs to fulfill demand.

My reply to this can be found in my answers in the next post.

[Hush Little Batman]

Some good ideas, Ontir. Now to answer my own questions:

Which titles do you cancel?

I'd cancel all books that meet two criteria: 1) It doesn’t sell well. 2) It's not a critical success. I would also put a stop to all the unnecessary spin-off titles that threatened to overexpose characters.

What writers/artists do you hire and which title do you put them on?

My first priority would be to get Nightwing on track. Dick Grayson is such an important part of DC history because, when written correctly, he's one of the few sidekicks who truly grew up and emerged as his own person (along with Wally West) and yet, he's gotten screwed over by his creative team more than anyone else in recent memory.

I'd hire Alan Burnett or Paul Dini as writer and get, if he's still interested in doing comics, Brett Booth on art for, at least, a 12 issue run (though 25+ would be my preference).

An example of Booth's art:
http://img124.imagevenue.com/loc460/th_95658_BS1_04_05_122_460lo.jpg (http://img124.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=95658_BS1_04_05_122_460lo.jpg)

The next thing I’d do is establish a company wide policy of having a regular creative team on a book for at least twelve issues. Some of the best comic series or arcs were the ones with a consistent creative force guiding it (Ennis and Dillon on Preacher/Punisher; Busiek and Anderson on Astro City; Bendis and Bagley on USM; Millar and Hitch on Ultimates). As a fan, I know there's nothing I hate more than collecting a new series only to have the creative team leave after a few issues with their story either unfinished or left for the new team to resolve. IMO, that's a disservice to loyal customers who deserve better. I'd mandate that any story that team starts, they finish (unless they come to me and say they want to deliberately leave something for the next team to play with). They wouldn’t have to tell a twelve-part story; it could be made up of two 3-parters and a 6-parter or a 9 and 3-parter or any other combo, but in the end, it has to be add up to twelve, at least.

The other thing I’d do is a bit more controversial. I would cancel all book numbers and go to a system very much like the Ultimates have – every twelve issues would be considered a “new season” so to speak. And since twelve issues amount to a year, we’d go to a new numbering system, ex: Action Comics: 2006: #1-12. So instead of stories going from issues #590-604, they’d be easier to find like, Superman: 2006: #1-12. In combination with the “twelve issue policy”, it would make tracking down all the issues of someone's run easier for the consumer as they wouldn’t have to figure out who wrote what out of 600+ issues, just find out the year. Incidently, this would also make collecting runs for trades more efficient.

In regarding to your franchise lines - Superman, Batman, Vertigo, Wildstorm, JLA - what do you do to improve them? Would you add more titles, cut back or leave them as is?

I'd definitely cut back on all the excessive use of Superman and Batman. Really, I love them to death but they don't need to appear in five to seven titles a month. I would streamline their lines down to essentials.

For this exercise I’ll use my favorite character – Batman – so you can see that I’m objective in my reasoning. On a regular shipping month (i.e. no lateness), he, or a variation of him, can be found in the following titles:

BATMAN
DETECTIVE COMICS
BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT
ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER
THE BATMAN STRIKES!
SUPERMAN/BATMAN ANNUAL
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED
JLA

And on any given month, he could guest star in the title of one of his supporting cast:

ROBIN
NIGHTWING
BIRDS OF PREY
CATWOMAN
BATWOMAN

Now assuming I haven’t overlooked a title (and I probably have), that’s eight books a month Bats is making appearances in and six on a regular basis (JLA and JLU are team-based books, not Bat-books). From the six, I'd only keep the following:

Batman
Detective Comics
Superman/Batman (Isn’t this one of DC’s best sellers? Of course it stays)
The Batman Strikes (Based on the animated series. Unfortunately, I’d have to keep it around)

Going by the list above, when Batman's been used everywhere it means he's made 12 appearances in a span of 4 weeks and that's not even counting limited series, one-shots or any other kind of special. I love Batman to death, but that's too much exposure. You never want your fans to tire of him so instead, I'd limit his appearances (along with Superman) to his own title and the only time he's allowed to visit others, is either to help with sales or if it really makes sense story-wise. Other than that, the only way a fan can see canon Batman, is to read one of his two titles (Detective Comics and Batman), which makes those comics all the more special. Hopefully it would drive up sales, because if Batman can be found in any DC book, what reason do fans have to buy his solo title?

How would you help a book that's a critical favorite, but is generating low sales?

Marketing. I'd promote the hell out of the title until every fan knew of its existence. I also agree with Ontir in that I’d use stunt-casting, but hopefully only where it’s logical. If it’s not, well then to be honest, sometimes you have to break your own rules to help increase sales. :p

Which creative team gets the boot off a title?

This is easy for me. The very first thing I'd do is replace both Allan Heinberg and Terry Dodson on Wonder Woman. With all due respect to Lois, Kara, Selina, Sue, MJ and everyone else, there is no more important female in all of comicdom than Diana, Princess of Themyscira. I don't mean in terms of sales or abilities; I'm talking iconic pop-culture status here. Earlier this year DC wrapped up their biggest crossover in years and Diana played, arguably, the pivotal role leading up to it and now the company is blowing one of the best chances they’ve had in recent times to build her a new fanbase. Sure you can say that WW hasn’t been a top seller in decades, but she won’t get there again with a consistently late title that has, pathetically, gone bi-monthly. It’s hard to get fans to believe WW is one of your three most important characters when you can’t even publish her regularly. When DC shows they care about WW, so will the fans. OYL Batman was given super-scribe Grant Morrison. Superman received fan favorite Kurt Busiek. What did WW get? A TV writer who’s known for writing Party of Five (crap), Sex and the City (crap), Gilmore Girls (crap), The O.C. (crap), and currently Grey's Anatomy (I’ve never seen it). Good god, was this the best DC could do?

So my first order of business would be to find a group of writers who can do WW justice. I feel the JL cartoon nailed her characterization as good as I've ever seen so I'd approach some of those guys like, Dwayne McDuffie, Joseph Kuhr and Bruce Timm and see who'd be interested in continuing to chronicle her adventures as part of a writing team. Yes, you read that right, I’d hire a team of writers to work together similar to how a TV show is done. Then I'd find an artist who can make readers go “Wow!” Someone whose pencils can do for WW what McFarlane did for Spider-Man and Lee did for Batman. For this task, I’d tap Carlos Pacheco or Claudio Castellini - whichever can get it done monthly.

Moving on, I'd boot Frank Miller and Jim Lee off of ASBAR and cancel the title.

'The Flash' team goes bye-bye as well. Bart is inherently boring and he needs someone to make him interesting and for that, I'd turn to Brian K. Vaughan or Bart’s creator, Mark Waid and on art, I’d go with Claudio Castellini.

Which characters get their own series? Is it a mini or ongoing?

Taking into account the success of JLU, Superboy Prime’s retcon punches and the “new slate” that IC affords me, I would’ve retconned out the history of all the Hawkwomen and created a new one – Shayera Hol (JLU version) and make her the current Hawkgirl. Then, again using IC, I would’ve “de-aged” John Stewart and paired him with Shayera together in a new ‘Green Lantern & Hawkgirl’ team-up series. If the name would’ve clashed with the Hal Jordan GL book, then I would bring back the ‘Brave and the Bold’ moniker or create a new one and in small print: Starring John Stewart and Shayera Hol.

You can put any writer/artist "dream team" on any one title - who do you get and what series are they on?

I’d put the team of Paul Dini, Alan Bennett, Bruce Timm and Dwayne McDuffie to write JLA and get Jim Lee on art (I’d give Lee an eight month head-start).

Would you change how issues are collected into trades and if so, how?

Yes. I would make trades more like DVDs in that I’d release the HC (special edition) and SC (regular edition) at the exact same time. No more of this “wait six months to a year for the SC” nonsense. For the hardcore fan who desires extras like sketches, commentary and interviews, the HC would fill all their needs. The casual reader who wants none of that would be able to buy the SC minus all the extras. There’d also be only be a $5-10 difference in pricing between the two editions. You can’t have the SC be $19.99 and the HC be $34.99 or worse. You want to make money, but you don’t want to bleed your fans dry or else they’ll have nothing left to spend next week when your new comics are released. ;)

What would your overall publishing philosophy be?

Definitely quality over quantity. It’s better to limit a character to one title and tell a fantastic story over 60 issues than to give ‘em three separate books and run out of ideas at issue #20.

On a related note, Dini, Burnett, Timm and more spent about 12 years building up an entire DCAU and because of that, non-comic readers were exposed to DC characters. No way I’d let that die off.

[Eliseu Gouveia]

I´d start by banning mysoginy from the books.and bringing the superheroines into the limelight.

Women represent 61% of mankind and yet less than 10% of the capes are female. There´s something very wrong with those figures.


Starting with a MONTHLY Wonder Woman, followed by a Powergirl mini (written by a strong creative team who likes working on the character, not someone drawing on auto-pilot until "something better comes along") to see if she can hoild an ongoing title.
Launch a Zatanna mini on the same frame and either revamp or get rid/replace Superbritney.
Bring back Cassandra Cain and clean her up from the filth they shoved her in in that dreadful Robin arc.
Treat charactes more respectfully, starting by bringing back Steph. Shove her in the BoP or a Justice League Junior. or a Young Heroes in love, doesn´t matter, that´s no way to treat a character.

Enough with the rapes, the people sliced to bits and shoved in fridges, leave that stuff for Vertigo titles.

Make more kiddy-friendly tiotles, catering to male 30+ readers is a dead-end.

Invest in good creative teams on both sides of the spectrum, I´m tired of potentially interesting books with sucky art and vice-versa.

Get the books back in the stands, if a comic is not visible, then it has no audience.

Cheaper books. Why first-grade paper when Kids will read manga stories printed in crappy low quality paper if the story is good?

More bang for the buck: invest in almanac formats. Instead of a book with one title, why not a book with 3 titles?
Buy cheap compilations like "Action DC" or " DC Adventures" and get three stories instead of one, like Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Zatanna or Outsiders, Powergirl and Robin.

Etc, etc.

[Ontir]

I think the digests as DC published in the 80's (Archie still does), or the paperbacks like the increasingly popular Manga books are an absolute. I don't want to see them B&W - they should be in colour; but there's no reason not to do these.

In terms of my "Superman Family" suggestions, the books in question would simply by Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. I think it might also be interesting, if Superboy (Superman as a teen) were brought back into continuity, and re-connected to the Legion, to have a Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes, a Legion of Super-Heroes, Supergirl * the Legion of Super-Heroes, and perhaps even a Superman & the Legion of Super-Heroes. The first being the original continuity, the second being a modern Legion which would cross over into the "Supergirl/man &" books. With time-travel, there are many possibilities, and all would help to solidify the Legion's place in the DCU!

[Eliseu Gouveia]

I think the digests as DC published in the 80's (Archie still does), or the paperbacks like the increasingly popular Manga books are an absolute. I don't want to see them B&W - they should be in colour; but there's no reason not to do these.

That´s my opinion too.
The infamous Ted Kord 100-page issue where he gets a bullet to the head was sold at a couple cents. It didn´t have quality paper but cheap paper instead and everyone still bought it.

That´s the way to go.

A compilation of 3-4 stories with several characters and you have a winner.
Back in the day I used to read these books where they had (for instances) an IronMan story, a Silver Surfer Story and a Micronauts story.

That way even if I happen not to like one of the charactes (never liked Micronauts), there´s always something in there for everyone.

[Hush Little Batman]

The other thing I’d do is a bit more controversial. I would cancel all book numbers and go to a system very much like the Ultimates have – every twelve issues would be considered a “new season” so to speak. And since twelve issues amount to a year, we’d go to a new numbering system, ex: Action Comics: 2006: #1-12. So instead of stories going from issues #590-604, they’d be easier to find like, Superman: 2006: #1-12. In combination with the “twelve issue policy”, it would make tracking down all the issues of someone's run easier for the consumer as they wouldn’t have to figure out who wrote what out of 600+ issues, just find out the year. Incidently, this would also make collecting runs for trades more efficient.

I have to elaborate on that idea in this follow-up because my prior post was too long.

I think going to a yearly numbering system would make tracking down single issues or creator runs easier because a person wouldn’t have to find a specific number out of hundreds of comics. With, possibly, a new creative team every year, tracking down a Kurt Busiek run would be as simple as finding "Superman: 2006" and then only checking twelve issues within that year as opposed to how it is now (Superman: # ???). If a team were to have a two or three year run, then it's still easier to check within a twenty-four or thirty-six issue radius than trying to figure out what issue numbers they wrote. I'd also have the DC.com ite list all the teams on a book and make print-outs available in comic shops for readers.

As for the "twelve issue rule", it would actually be split between twelve and thirteen for the first third of every hundred. Meaning that in order to prevent the milestone issues (25, 50, 75) from getting lost in later trade collections, every team signed to do the backend of a quarter (13-24, 38-49 and 51-74) are also signed to do a thirteenth issue - with the exception being the hundredth issues (100, 200, etc.) which would be company wide celebrations (also collected later as part of the 88-100 run).

That's why I would restart every series with a new #1 (a restart in numbering ; not a reboot in continuity).

[drwho]

These are the titles I would have

Superman- reg continuity
Superman:Man of Steel- different stories thoughout the years
Batman-reg continuity
Batman- Legends of the Dark Knight-different years format
Flash-revamped wally comes back
Wonder Woman- Diana is WW
Green Lantern Corps- Would do away with ion book and green lantern book-stars kyle an guy most
The Adventures of Green Arrow and Green LAntern-stars Hal and Ollie. Do away with Green Arrow book
Birds of Prey-would get revamped and no longer be feminine based.-stars Oracle, Batwoman, Night NewWing, Robin, Huntress, hawkman
Jla-Batman, Flash, Superman, AquaMan, Wonder Woman, Hawk Girl, Green Arrow, Green Lantern
Outsiders -gets revamped stars- Katana, Question, Lesbian Cop, Huntress, Arsenal, Ragman, Creeper
Teen Titans- Robin, Ravager, Wonder Girl, Kid Devil, Raven, Beast Boy, Steels niece, Mia
JSA- Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, Power Girl, Hourman, Wild Cat, Atom,Black Canary
Mystery in space would remain ongoing cosmic anthology
Lobo would get a new series
Fire Storm would get cancelled
Manhunter would continue
Tale of Unexpected would remain-horror anthology
Aquaman book would be cancelled
Would have one Legion book in present continuity
Check Mate would still be going
New Atom-would be replaced with old one
Metal MEn series- starring Steel, MEtal Men, Guy from Doom Patrol and Cyborg,
Resurrction MAn- bring this series back
CatWoman- Catwoman would take over the role again

[Hush Little Batman]

I think the digests as DC published in the 80's (Archie still does), or the paperbacks like the increasingly popular Manga books are an absolute. I don't want to see them B&W - they should be in colour; but there's no reason not to do these.


A compilation of 3-4 stories with several characters and you have a winner.
Back in the day I used to read these books where they had (for instances) an IronMan story, a Silver Surfer Story and a Micronauts story.

That way even if I happen not to like one of the charactes (never liked Micronauts), there´s always something in there for everyone.

Agreed. I'd also thow in some villains. No sense in letting the heroes have all the spotlight. ;) Imagine a schedule that goes something like:

January: Superman, Flash, Martian Manhunter and Question.
February: Batman, Wonder Woman, Black Canary and Zatanna.
March: Green Lantern (Hal or John), Aquaman, The Atom and Hawkgirl
April: Supergirl, Green Arrow, Red Tornado and Steel
May: Nightwing, Lois Lane, Vixen, Joker
June: Robin, Hawkman, Captain Marvel, Harley Quinn
July: Batgirl, Elongated Man, Vigilante and Green Lantern (whomever wasn’t used before)

Yeah, I'd buy something like that.


In terms of my "Superman Family" suggestions, the books in question would simply by Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. I think it might also be interesting, if Superboy (Superman as a teen) were brought back into continuity, and re-connected to the Legion, to have a Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes, a Legion of Super-Heroes, Supergirl * the Legion of Super-Heroes, and perhaps even a Superman & the Legion of Super-Heroes. The first being the original continuity, the second being a modern Legion which would cross over into the "Supergirl/man &" books. With time-travel, there are many possibilities, and all would help to solidify the Legion's place in the DCU!

You’d have FOUR LOSH titles!? :eek:

Heh, I disagree, but that's just my philosophy. Certainly I'd have a LOSH title, but there'd be just one and no doubt I'd have occasional guest star, but I'd try and have them stand on their own without a regular Superboy, Superman or Supergirl in it hogging up the spotlight. When people think LOSH, I wouldn't want them thinking "Superman" first.

[Ontir]

I've actually been an advocate of 3 Legion titles for a long time: the Legion proper, the Legion Espionage Squad, and a proactive group, lead by Dreamer. The membership would be divided amongst the groups; but there would be rotation of characters, depending on story needs, and occasionally, all 3 books would intersect.

I'd love to see a Joker's Greatest Hits (and Misses) on-going Manga-style, full-colour digest!

With Wonder Woman, I'd go back to basics with her, and re-connect her to Marston's sexual/societal ideas. They might not be workable in the world; but they're damned interesting, and give her a completely different perspective to any other character, woman or man!

[Autonomy]

one thing and one thing only

get some more bi-weekly titles. I hate waiting each month for one issue.

[Hush Little Batman]

I've actually been an advocate of 3 Legion titles for a long time: the Legion proper, the Legion Espionage Squad, and a proactive group, lead by Dreamer. The membership would be divided amongst the groups; but there would be rotation of characters, depending on story needs, and occasionally, all 3 books would intersect.

Would you have a Legion comic based on the new cartoon? That would make five LOSH titles. :p


I'd love to see a Joker's Greatest Hits (and Misses) on-going Manga-style, full-colour digest!

Don't you think that'd overexpose the character?


With Wonder Woman, I'd go back to basics with her, and re-connect her to Marston's sexual/societal ideas. They might not be workable in the world; but they're damned interesting, and give her a completely different perspective to any other character, woman or man!

You mean go back to the bondage stuff? LOL! Now that, I would definitely not do.

[Ontir]

Yes, I'd have an all-ages Legion book based upon the cartoon. The other titles are possibilities; but if any property can handle multiple titles, it's the bloody Legion!

No, I don't think it would over-expose the Joker, because this would be a re-print book, exploring the nearly 70 year history of the character.

Bring back the bondage and the ideas of submission and obedience. The Amazons have no real focus or perspective. Return their very unique culture, as depicted by Marston, to them!

[Lorendiac]

What would your overall publishing philosophy be?

Over two years ago, in response to a similar thread on another forum, asking what we would do if we could reshape the DCU by rebooting it in any way we saw fit, etc., I said the following about what I would do if I were a bigwig who could call the shots at DC. This has only slightly been edited now.

****

I'd find the person in charge of deciding what magazines will be stocked on the "newsstand" shelves at Wal-Mart, and I'd say, "Excuse me, ma'am, but what criteria would you have for deciding whether or not superhero comics were family-friendly enough to be placed on the lower levels of your lovely magazine displays?"

If she said, "We don't want parents screaming about extramarital or premarital sex in the stuff we sell their kids," then I'd make sure our rebooted versions didn't have any of that. If she said, "We don't want so-called 'heroes' having illegitimate children," I'd erase the illegitimate kids of Plastic Man, Aquaman, etc. If she said, "Three bucks for a 32-page comic that's only got about 22 pages of story is too silly for us to bother carrying," I'd start bundling what used to be four or five monthly books together into one fat trade paperback anthology title each month. (The Superman omnibus, the Batman omnibus, etc.) If she said something else entirely, I would promise to fix it.

****

That was what I said in summer of 2004. I still think it has some merit. If DC can actually put its titles in places where typical American kids are spending a lot of time, with their allowance money burning a hole in their pocket, then DC might actually be able to expand its fanbase quite a bit into the rising generation.

[PretenderNX01]

I guess I'll start by putting in some ideas:

If DC wants more minority superheores, well there's a whole universe full of them called Milestone and I'd take the recent Crisis as an oportunity to fold it into the DCU as was done with Charlton, Fawcett and other series during the original Crisis. I know the purpose of Milestone was to focus on minority owned titles but that focus turned into seperate and unequal and the whole imprint failed.

I'd give static his own title, first I'd launch a nini retelling his origin in cuurent continuity. I'd use the animated series as the basis, the "big bang" Alva Industries and all in Dakota (poorer comunity in an unspecified state). Then maybe do a guest of Static in Teen Titans then launch his own series aimed at teenagers.

Static is a great character, he's a young urban black male who fights as a superhero and who isn't jsut a derivative of a white character. He isn't the "black Static" who took over after the "white Static" was killed. He isn't realted to any other characters- no one's cousin, no one's legacy, he's unique. Plus there aren't any other electrically based superheores like him in DCU so he doesn't dupliacte anyone's powers.

He's got a good suporting cast with his friend Richy (I wouldn't turn him into Gear though), his Dad works at a community center trying to inspire the neighborhood kids.

I think hiring Dwayne McDuffie would be perfect since he wrote the character orignally and worked on the TV series as well as the Justice League TV series.

[Ontir]

I like the idea of blending Milestone in; but I think they were creator owned, so that might not be so easily done.

While I like the idea of getting comics on the racks of Walmart, enough bowing and scraping is done to that company on a daily basis. There's no reason that the content of comics needs to be altered to suit their whims, too! Maybe going after Target, K-Mart, Khols first would be a wise idea!

[Eliseu Gouveia]

A very good call, Milestone is a gold mine just waiting to be tapped.

I am somewhat pissed about the minority thing, TPTB claim they want more diversity and first order of business, they vilify and cancel one of the very few asian/female characters they have (and the only one with her own book!)?

[Lorendiac]

Static is a great character, he's a young urban black male who fights as a superhero and who isn't jsut a derivative of a white character. He isn't the "black Static" who took over after the "white Static" was killed. He isn't realted to any other characters- no one's cousin, no one's legacy, he's unique. Plus there aren't any other electrically based superheores like him in DCU so he doesn't dupliacte anyone's powers.

I'm afraid I've only read one or two issues of Static, but I definitely agree with your general point about him. A long time ago I pointed out to someone, in an argument about well-established characters (often white) being killed off or otherwise removed to make room for younger, sometimes minority, "successors," that Storm of the X-Men is an example of Marvel doing it right when it's time to introduce an interesting "minority" character.

She wasn't just trying to steal (or "inherit") the legacy of a previous Storm. Nobody had to get killed in order to "make room for her," the way it would have happened if she had been "the new and improved Polaris, replacing Lorna Dane!" That meant she didn't start out by attracting the hatred of diehard fans of a previous character of the same name. Since there had never before been a "Storm" in the Marvel Universe, fans could look at her with an open mind and judge on her own merits, instead of constantly comparing her to one previous character in every possible way.

Likewise, a few years later when Marv Wolfman and George Perez created Victor Stone, Cyborg, for the New Teen Titans, they didn't have to give some other character the boot in order to "make room" for Cyborg to "take his slot" in the roster.

Those examples are in sharp contrast to how fans have reacted to the fates of the previous Firestorm and the previous Blue Beetle, and their minority replacements, in more recent years. (And before that, to the way Hal Jordan was treated in order to "make room" for Kyle Rayner, although Kyle was not known to have Hispanic blood on his daddy's side at the time. Heck, he didn't even know it himself!)

[PretenderNX01]

I like the idea of blending Milestone in; but I think they were creator owned, so that might not be so easily done.

Yeah, I figured they'd probably have to license them but if they did it one at a time and reestablished them in the new universe it could work. I'd first just try Static since he had the TV series he's had more recent exposure. If it worked, maybe spinoff another character.

But obviusly since DC is still battling over rights for Superboy, it would be a delicate procesess. ;) But I think they should at least go after static as a property. I was always suprised his cartoon never got a comic and toys.

On the subject of markets: If a retailer objeted to content, I'd push the DC Animated titles. Those are kid friendly.

Borders/Walden Books carry comics (I know cause thats where I buy them) but not Barnes and Noble. They have a huge magazine section with everything from kids to Adult ones but not a comics section. I'd start marketing them there. Marvel does some "double issue flip things" that I see there. Maybe DC could start putting out little 3 issue collected digests at the regular stores.

I'd also put out some collected versions of the DC animated ones in the form of children's paperbacks. Not in the regular trade sections of the book stores.

[TROUBLEZ]

You've just landed the DC EIC job and are in charge of the entire comics line-up.

Which titles do you keep?
I would keep for sure the main titles like Flash, Superman, Batman, Action, Detective, JLA, JSA, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Hawkman, ...
Which titles do you cancel?
Nightwing, Ion, Blue Beetle, 52, The Atom...
What writers/artists do you hire and which title do you put them on?
In regarding to your franchise lines - Superman, Batman, Vertigo, Wildstorm, JLA - what do you do to improve them? Would you add more titles, cut back or leave them as is?I would let Wildstorm do what they wanna do, Vertigo seems fine I guess, but I would limit Superman and Batman to two titles each with the exception of keeping Superman/Batman
How would you help a book that's a critical favorite, but is generating low sales?If it's a critical favorite like the comic book equivalent of the early Seinfeld than I would try to maybe hire Alex Ross to do some covers to grab the attention of Ross fans and hard core comic collectors, or maybe some other fan favorite like AH!, Dave Stevens, etc. I'm not a fan of Wizard but those previews always seem to intrigue me the few times I actually buy wizard
Which creative team gets the boot off a title?damn, tuff cuz I dont buy too much DC
Which characters get their own series? Is it a mini or ongoing?
You can put any writer/artist "dream team" on any one title - who do you get and what series are they on?Ethan Van Scriver and Geoff Johns back on GL, Dave Stevens and Kurt Busiek on JSA,
Would you change how issues are collected into trades and if so, how?Well if the current way is good, that is, every single story arc of every title gets collected and sold and Borders, than hey stick with it, but personally I would put out only the critiically acclaimed and popular story arcs into trades, for example HUSH, because Jim Lee doing Batman is reason enough for a trade, but FOR TOMORROW, no since all the back issues are in the bin for a buck. Basically the old school approach where stories that have become classics or are regarded as imporatant would be collected
What would your overall publishing philosophy be?Focus on quality selling the product and not big names and gimmicks.

[TROUBLEZ]

Good stuff, Ontir!



Wonderful! DC needs a non-continuity line and one for all-ages. I think one of the problems nowadays is that comic companies make stories for people who have a 50+ year knowledge of comic history. They need to do more to pull in new readers.


.

I agree that writers are now writing specifically for fanboys, who remember that blonde guy with the red suit who was buying a soda in World's Finest #4 becoming one of Batman's deadliest foes today. But continuity is important for stories. It's not off putting for younger readers, because hey, we were all younger readers before and it didn't bother us. One of the many problems comics dont appeal to younger readers is because comics are produced in a way that only aims to those who are already fans. Kids like seeing bright covers of superheroes doing amazing stuff, and instead they have Detective Comics covers in dreary black and white, Daredevil comics that have guys in an office talking the whole time and the last page shows dd in action.

[TROUBLEZ]

An example of Booth's art:
http://img124.imagevenue.com/loc460/th_95658_BS1_04_05_122_460lo.jpg (http://img124.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=95658_BS1_04_05_122_460lo.jpg)

.

Damn, Booth is a bad ass. Why didn't he ever do a monthly Spiderman run? Sorry for being off topic.

[PretenderNX01]

I agree that writers are now writing specifically for fanboys, who remember that blonde guy with the red suit who was buying a soda in World's Finest #4 becoming one of Batman's deadliest foes today. But continuity is important for stories. It's not off putting for younger readers, because hey, we were all younger readers before and it didn't bother us. One of the many problems comics dont appeal to younger readers is because comics are produced in a way that only aims to those who are already fans. Kids like seeing bright covers of superheroes doing amazing stuff, and instead they have Detective Comics covers in dreary black and white, Daredevil comics that have guys in an office talking the whole time and the last page shows dd in action.

Thats what I like about Heinburg's Young Avengers. I've never picked up an Avengers book before reading it and it didn't matter. Anything I needed to know from continuity was told to me in the story. Not with little bubbles "see #00" just "yeah like when so and so did this".

I dont care what issues it was in, just what happened. Although incase fanboys did, he included a biliography in the back during the skrull stories.

[Jeff Brady]

I would hire Gene Ha to ink an Adam Hughes drawing, just for the pun of the signatures.

[Ontir]

You could bring Lenil Francis Yu back to DC, where for some reason he was always credited as Lenil F Yu. :p

The Booth sample (as far as I know, the only bit of his work I've ever seen) is good; but highly derivative of MacFarlane.
If the guy's develped his own style, that's great, and it would be cool to see how he's drawing now; but I'm not one for
"Send in the Clones!"

[Reptisaurus!]

Hire some people who know how to marked products to children.

Market comics to children.

Do my damndest to get people who write popular comics for grown-ups to do work for DC. Art Spiegelman and Allison Bechdel get whatever they want. I try my damndest to steal Jason, Dan Clowes, and Los Brothers Hernandez from Fanta.

I'd probably provide an outlet for people I really like, but who's stuff I don't think will sell to the general population.

Kim Deitch and Larry Marder get a free pass to do whatever they want.

For God's sake, reprint Jack Cole's Plastic Man and Raboy's Captain Marvl Junior in an afordable format.

Leave the superhero books alone. They seem to be selling pretty well. I'm not buying any of them at the moment, but people mostly seem to like 'em. Don't cancel any titles that are already selling in the hundreds of thousands.

Uncancel SOLO, cause it was by far my favorite DC book.

And, of course, a brand new All-Pirate-Comic imprint.

[Reptisaurus!]

More on marketing: You know who's learned how to move product effectively through the grass roots? Hip-hop.

STUDY how they do that. And create books to be marketed specifically to women, and specifically to minority audiences. Pretender's got a good idea with the Milestone characters.

Basically: There are people out there who know how to sell product to an audience of tens of millions. HIRE THEM!

One more point on the supehero books: They're split about evenly between episodic stories to give the hardcore continuity junkies their fix, and stand-alone one shots, ala Jonah Hex or Dini's Detective Comics. The Vertigo stuff will move towards Original Graphic Novels.

[Lorendiac]

I agree that writers are now writing specifically for fanboys, who remember that blonde guy with the red suit who was buying a soda in World's Finest #4 becoming one of Batman's deadliest foes today.

It wasn't soda! It was hot chocolate! :eek:

(Or am I getting a little bit carried away over a detail that doesn't really matter after so many years? :D)

More seriously, though, I don't get the same feeling that you do that writers are necessarily writing "for fanboys," by which you evidently mean diehard continuity buffs who know practically everything that's been done with their favorite hero by any writer who wrote his adventures at any time in the last three decades or so, and who expect to see it all "respected" to a considerable degree in the new stuff that comes out (unless the hero got totally Rebooted somewhere along the line).

These days I often get the feeling that writers don't really care about "respecting" what was previously done with established characters, including heroes, villains, and miscellaneous supporting cast members, not even as recently as within the last five years -- if it would inconvenience them in any noticeable way in terms of the "really kewl" story they want to tell right now. (The recent character assassination of Cassandra Cain strikes me as a prime example of one writer not caring what sort of personal history and established motivations she used to have before he came along.)

Sometimes, if Jeph Loeb writes a story that refers in passing to something that happened to Batman in a comic back in the 70s or 80s, I get the feeling that he expects to get full "credit" for acknowledging that single past story -- while at the same time he may be implicitly or explicitly contradicting things from six other stories! (But of course we aren't supposed to get upset over that part. We're just supposed to be full of gratitude that at least he respected a few little bits and pieces of Batman's old continuity somewhere along the line, when he happened to feel like it!)

[Ontir]

DC has a vast library, that people would be quite interested in, if published in an affordable manner, which brings us back to the DC Gold and DC Silver idea that I've previously mentioned. These would be the perfect anthology titles, in which to re-present great past work, not only of traditional DC Characters; but of the purchased properties like Blackhawk, Uncle Sam & Co., the Fawcett characters the Blue Beetle & other Charlton characters, and certainly Will Eisner's Spirit! If DC still has any claim to T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, this would be a great way to re-introduce them, as well.