DC Implosion II: DC Comics in 2020 and Beyond

Oy, that Urasawa piece is overlong, overwrought and a pretty terrible reading t'boot

The fumetti would have been great if they were funny or representative of any greater push to bring weird and playful material back to the magazine. As it was they just made her look disconnected from the aims of the publication and its other contributors.

Kinda delighted to hear that Fiore has an old-man message baord to hang out on!

Yeah, there's never been the institutional will or funding to have a coherent online strategy - dates and times have disappeared off the comments on the current (a decade or so?) version, and Tucker is aggressive about not wanting to repair them. Even when people try and point out it damages the historical record, makes it impossible to track conversations in eg. the long thread where Dave Sim makes Kim pitch him on the reprint rights for Cerebus. Still, that's a step up from the days when they had to periodically delete every single post on the message board bcz they had such a small hosting plan that it took up room needed to add new books to the shop.

Didn't know these guys started up their podcast again.
https://www.factualopinion.com/the_factual_opinion/graphic_novel/
McCulloch is my favorite guy who isn't Gary Groth.

lol at the DC comics thread turning into a Comics Journal thread

Robert, yeah, both that and Travis Bickle On The Riviera are weekly now, presumably due to lockdown

Interesting that there's been a bunch of reports on Geoff Johns as an abusive boss - well, Ray Fisher's and Abhay's anyway. I wonder if they've been timed to drop now for a specific reason.

In other news, who would've seen it coming that a comics dude with a penchant for writing about limb disfigurement and for remaking every IP in DC Comics history in his own image (even Alan Moore's!) could've been an abusive, narcissistic person to work for

An engaging essay from the proprietors of an Edmonton comic shop about how DC's withdrawing from Diamond has been a stressful net positive for them: https://www.comicsbeat.com/the-coronavirus-journal-dc-comics-distribution-change-aftermath/

As it stands, every single graphic novel product I can get through other vendors comes into the store faster that Diamond can turn around, in better condition, and at a better price point.

I can only conclude that his was a small store on a lower discount tier or this is a Canadian issue. (This is the case with a ton of people's attitudes - the retail side of the comic industry is about a half dozen different kinds of specialty retail. Some shops survive entirely on back issues, some are in college/artsy areas and can basically be curated book stores catering to a GN crowd, some are 50/50 comics/games)(currently I'm at 33% games/single issue comics/GNs and I don't do back issues as they're usually done).

Penguin Random House offers free shipping for a $150 minimum order but their discount is 7% lower than my Diamond tier was or my DC initial order tier is (I can't restock GNs from my comic distributor, one of the A+ things about this new arrangement) - shipping does not make up that 7% difference. Their ordering system is also hot fuckin' garbage, from week to week it hasn't worked on one browser or another because of back end issues with security certificates or something. One week I had to find an old version of Internet Explorer to install on an old laptop to place my order.)

Hachette (Marvel, etc.) is even worse - 16% lower until one threshold then 6%.

I find his argument regarding Diamond's shutdown a bit squirrelly - retailers were begging for publishers and Diamond to stop shipping, because they weren't open. Books that you can't sell but have to pay for - I don't think that math works very well. (If you could even get them - my drop point was closed for a month.)

Yeah, "for them" is key there, and the amount of changes they had to do to get to being happier now is significant.

Already having in-city delivery set up was a fascinating wrinkle.

Very strange article to read. Probably the only one I've read praising DC for their actions. I mean, it's clear they're pushing to get DC to have their own Canadian distributor, and stop shipping issues from Canada to the US back to Canada, quite openly.

As milo just quoted, and as someone who has struggled to reliably order GNs from my locals, this rung with me:

As it stands, every single graphic novel product I can get through other vendors comes into the store faster that Diamond can turn around, in better condition, and at a better price point. This was even the case pre-COVID. They became, through their own complacency, the worst place to order graphic novels from, and they are in no condition to make that pivot today.

Penguin does have a quick turnaround - order on Wed/Thu, arrive on Tues most of the time. They're the least painful part of the DC debacle in many ways.

Diamond always had that option with direct shipping but most shops didn't want to pay the cost (because it could eat up margin) - otherwise you were looking at a roughly two week turnaround if you timed your order right. (Diamond has now gone to all restocks (such as special orders, etc.) being direct shipped.) It got real real bad after reopening but their main restock shipping warehouse in Mississippi was apparently a COVID nightmare in terms of finding people to work. For the last couple of weeks, Wed. restocks have arrived by the following Tues/Wed for us.

I made my peace with the time frame years ago - for gotta have it situations, it's impossible to compete with Amazon Prime so you're basically just banking on the kind-heartedness of customers and trying to keep as much important stuff in stock as you can at all time.

Caught up on Strange Adventures, the maxi-series by Tom King. Very intriguing so far. The artwork and storytelling is really excellent, visually - Gerads on the present mystery, Shaner on the likely-false past legends of Strange, it's all superbly drawn and colored. I always like to see the underused modern incarnation of Mr. Terrific.

We're five of 12 issues in, so there's every chance this could turn into another Heroes in Crisis, but I'm crossing my fingers this is more of an Omega Men. Main problem so far is that it seems far too obvious who the killer in #1 is, though we're not much closer to discovering what exactly the main character did on Rann that was horrific (or not horrific, but covered up anyway). Praying there's less political speechifying in later issues.

Here's some predictions: Clearly the wife is the murderer, right? Unless they're leading with it so obviously it's gotta be something else?
Strange himself seems genuinely innocent, but as this series is about THE HORRORS OF WAR I'm guessing he did it and was mindwiped or something. Maybe willingly. Hopefully it wasn't straight-up genocide as seems to be implied under the overarching white colonialism theme, but nobody really cares about this character, so maybe they'd let King do it?
Another theory: there's gonna be some weird shit like his daughter IS actually his wife in the present through horrific super-science shenanigans or something and she's masterminding this whole cover-up. All this talk about Rann being hyper-advanced beyond Earth tech, which seems unclear in the flashbacks, is bound to be leading to some plot point. Hope it's something truly bonkers.
If he just ended up sacrificing his daughter "for the greater good" I'm gonna be super disappointed.

I guess I'll see in 7 months...

Those have very pretty covers.

My son said today that in the 10 years approaching DC's 100th anniversary, its heroes should gradually start retiring, one by one -- leaving only one left at the anniversary, at which point they stop publishing altogether. I asked who should that be, Superman? He said no, Batman -- "an old and wrinkly Batman. And then he just says goodbye, and disappears."

He then said that after a 20 year break, DC should start publishing again -- with the former sidekicks of the heroes taking on the main heroes' identities. Little does he know that he's not gonna win any originality awards with these ideas...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/BatmanYear100.jpg

One new distributor down

DC adding $125/week order minimums, too, while cancelling ongoing TPB collected series and slashing their ongoing titles again. (And apparently skipping ongoings altogther in the first two months of the new policies?) (!!?)

What I heard (and believe) is that Midtown pulled out but DC asked to delay and make it look like their decision. Midtown was losing money on distribution and they were in dire straits earlier this year overall when NYC was shut down.

The order minimum will catch a few shops doing new comics as a sideline to other things (which is bad) but mostly I think that's aimed at and will catch individuals pretending to be shops (which is good).

What individuals are pretending to be shops?

I see them in collectors groups every so often - get a DBA, buy for yourself and a couple of buddies. Or just buy when they want to speculate on a variant or something. Diamond has new account rules about brick and mortar premises to avoid the bedroom buyers' clubs but it's hard to enforce.

The reason I think it's aimed at them is that, seeing how they pack, Lunar has to put in almost as much labor on our $1200-2000/week order as on someone ordering 15 comics, which completely wipes out what little margin there is in distributing. I imagine DC wanted to sweeten the pot just to make sure both distributors didn't bail.

Ah, gotcha. Didn't know that racket existed

It's pretty silly, the minimum discount is only 40% these days. You can get 30% ordering from Midtown or DCBS without having to do extra taxes for your sole proprietorship. I think people are hyped to think they're getting one over by doing it.

Javins appointed EIC, in a startling win for competence.

Some polite shade in this long, excellent Stuart Immonen interview at TCJ, re leaving a long-term gig writing & drawing Superman:

If there was opposition from higher up at DC, I never knew about it, but maybe it just stopped at the editor. I think there was a fair amount of latitude as long as sales didn't nose dive, and being a cartoonist himself, Joey Cavalieri in particular had an appetite for a broad range of comic-making approaches. When Eddie Berganza succeeded him, and brought in Joe Kelly and Jeph Loeb and so on, I felt like my time on the Superman titles was drawing to a close.

Javins does seem like a savvy appointment, but she's inherited such a mess of a comics company I'm not sure any one person could turn it around.

I'm not entirely convinced that the intention is to turn it around. They just need someone to competently drive it fully off the cliff.

ha

Laid off more people 14 hours after announcing Javins.

Incredible that a conglomerate with $100bn in debt is going to retire it by replacing an $80k per year marketing guy with a $40k per year marketing guy.

Fired basically the entire direct sales department; looking all the more likely that they stop periodical publishing altogether in the new year. They could hire 875 $80,000 marketing guys for the cost of one Justice League Snyder Cut, though.

With their current creators, I can't think of a single DC title I would miss if it disappeared

Fraction's Jimmy Olsen should've got more attention though

So good! Just got released in trade, too

They've recently cancelled the few titles I was still buying (except for GM's GL, which I guess he just quit writing). I've still been getting like the series of '80s Batman collections they've been putting out the last few years but it sounds like those could be on the scrapheap soon, as well. DC has been increasingly aggressive about their disdain for my money over the past decade.

The combination of making their terms much worse for creators, at the same time as encouraging and protecting serial sexual assaulters, made it even easier to not pay attention to their deteriorated output over the past decade.

It's not just the entire retail infrastructure of an American-originated medium that's been imperiled by AT&T restructures, in the face of HBO Max's weak launch, as of yesterday though: the Friends reunion special has been rescheduled for a second time to March 2021. Maybe comic shops will still exist by then too.

Jog on Johns:
http://www.tcj.com/momentism-revisited-three-jokers/

Hibbs estimating the implosion:

I can’t see any path that doesn’t cripple DC with these changes to distribution and staffing for the DM – sales are absolutely off on the “bread and butter” of DC’s line in a way that is largely disguised by “Joker War”, “Death Metal” and “Three Jokers” all hitting at the exact same time – and I am 100% certain that these hits were substantially smaller hits than they could have been had DC not tried to force retailers to buy from their largest competitors. But those hits were long-gestating, and are unlikely to be repeated into 2021 based upon what we know of DC’s plans. The first launch of ’21, “Future State”, appears from the outside to be pure commercial death, and DC seems to be suggesting that they’re consciously moving away from continuity this year – the thing that’s actually the “secret sauce” that keeps their production ticking along.

Much like Heroes World and Marvel in 1995, it’s nearly impossible to see how this plan could tick along for more than two years or so, and the hollowing out of staff and services at DC would seem to me to guarantee that DC will be nothing but weaker at the end of this inning. My firmest expectation is that DC will no longer personally be selling comics by January of 2022, and instead will move to licensing them out to another publisher.

https://www.comicsbeat.com/tilting-at-windmills-282-the-end-days-of-dc-comics/

seems right

increasingly, my guess is that AT&T sells the entire IP to Disney for more than 10% of a trillion dollars and Marvel rebrands the DC universe as a line, which merges the big two into one and saves the superhero comic pamphlet industry for about three more years while the DC vs Marvel movies get made

When will the "Marvel vs. DC" movie happen

They've been announcing creative teams for the series debuting in March
https://www.polygon.com/comics/2020/12/6/22150302/batman-detective-comics-dc-mariko-tamaki

I liked the concept of Future State but as usual hate how it was split up in a billion series

The Future of DC Films: Two Batman Stories, Six Movies Per Year Split Between Theaters and HBO Max

To make all the story lines work, DC Films will introduce movie audiences to a comics concept known as the multiverse: parallel worlds where different versions of the same character exist simultaneously. Coming up, for instance, Warner Bros. will have two different film sagas involving Batman — played by two different actors — running at the same time.

So on the one hand this is finally an implicit admission that they have no idea how to build an MCU-style universe. But on the other hand...four theatrically-released DC movies every year. So ahead and strap on those wings again, there, Icarus! Should be fine!

Serious question: is the TV division considered a success? I mean, even Gotham somehow made it to 100 episodes.

I guess so? It comprises something like 80% of the CW's schedule at this point.

Talk about burying the lead!

“‘The Flash,’ a film set for release in theaters in 2022, will link the two universes and feature two Batmans, with Mr. Affleck returning as one and Michael Keaton returning as the other. Mr. Keaton played Batman in 1989 and 1992.”

The Flash film has been in development since 2004, at one point was meant to launch the DC movie universe by spinning off of George Miller's Justice League, and was re-announced in 2014 for a 2018 release. Since then, they've signed and parted with Lord & Miller (as writers, the pair declining to direct), Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter author Seth Grahame-Smith (as writer/director), Dope writer/director Rick Famiyuwa (as director and maybe not writer?), King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword co-writer Joby Harold as writer, pursued Zemeckis, Raimi, Marc Webb and Matthew Vaughan as directors before asking Lord & Miller again, signed The Incredible Burt Wonderstone writers Daley & Goldstein as directors, then 18 months later signed It Part Two director Andres Muschetti to direct, and Bumblebee writer Christina Hodson to write.

Keaton was announced as returning in June, Affleck in August.

Absolutely can't see any impediments to them speeding up their pipeline enough to get six features produced each year.

lol

Here's the NYT interview piece:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/27/business/media/dc-superheroes-movies.html
this sounds like a straight-up trainwreck.

Huh, is one of the Robins finally running around basically as Batman?

anybody read Absolute Martian Manhunter?

The Al Ewing one? Yeah - it's interesting and on a par with some of the mystical stuff he was doing in Venom & Immortal Hulk

It seems to be working out pretty well for them. I've barely touched any of the Absolute titles, partly because, according to book store people any time I ask, they keep flying off the shelves. Same with the compact editions of various DC "classics".

I will say, Dan Watters' Dark Patterns has got to be my favourite Batman series in a long time. Enough with the city-wide threats and endless sidekicks, thanks very much

Yeah, it does feel like DC has succeeded in turning things around, they've got very good hype these days. Reminds me of Marvel in the early 10's.

I'm caught up on some of the Absolute titles now, and really loving it. I was a bit iffy on Scott Snyder's earlier Batman work - he's far too fond of endangered city plots and played a big role in the awful serial killer modern Joker - but Absolute Batman is a lot of fun. This is the first time in years where I'm eagerly anticipating the next issue. I'm not sure Bruce being working class is really having much impact on the narrative, but I love the idea of some of his rogues being his lifelong friends. I'm curious to see where all that goes.

I have catching up to do with WW, but that's amazing too. Absolute Superman seems a little underrated though - some amazing art in the latest issues

Don't miss Absolute Martian Manhunter, amazing art.

pre-2020 but I decided to read Kingdom Come for some reason. I found the experience physically painful.

Haha yeah it sucks.