Zoom, Ink, and Black Label

[Vakanai]

So far I've read 3 Black Label books - the first issues of Superman Year One (meh), Harleen (great), and Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity (intriguing premise, but first issue is kinda plot-light). Of those, for me so far Harleen has been the real breakout. Just one issue in but very memorable with some great scenes. Going to continue with it and give Criminal Sanity another issue or two to wow me.

I know people are kind of burned out on Harley in the main continuity, and I also have no interest in her taking over the Birds of Prey (which also is apparently going to be a Black Label by the way), but there's definitely some good Harley stuff worth checking out I think. Definitely would recommend reading Harleen at least right now.


On the kids line stuff, Superman Smashes the Klan just dropped. Haven't read it yet myself, but the reviews are good and I'm definitely going to be ordering that off Amazon soon. Looks like the kind of Superman story I'll love, and what I've seen of the art looks nice too.

Anyone else read any of this?

[Vakanai]

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/11...-goldie-vance/

So Lois is getting a YA book, and I say yay!

[Jackybones]

What’s next for the Black Label deluxe HC releases?

[Gaastra]

As reported in the forbes thread only two dc books even made the top 15 best selling graphic novels last month (now only one) and they were watchmen (a rare time a show helped sell trades!) and dc inks raven! That's right. Raven out sold all superman, batman and wonder woman trades!

Other then those two the only other hero books are my hero academia! The rest are all young reader books like guts which crushed all the hero comics!

So looks like dc has one hit from ink. Raven. Not sure how the rest are doing.

Never read any of these ink books. Are they any good? Our library just got a bunch of them. Think my niece will like them? (maybe help get her into dc)

[skyvolt2000]

As reported in the forbes thread only two dc books even made the top 15 best selling graphic novels last month (now only one) and they were watchmen (a rare time a show helped sell trades!) and dc inks raven! That's right. Raven out sold all superman, batman and wonder woman trades!

Other then those two the only other hero books are my hero academia! The rest are all young reader books like guts which crushed all the hero comics!

So looks like dc has one hit from ink. Raven. Not sure how the rest are doing.

Never read any of these ink books. Are they any good? Our library just got a bunch of them. Think my niece will like them? (maybe help get her into dc)

Raven was a top seller on Amazon the day it came out under teens and young adult books. The only other DC books that were there (especially before X-Men thanks to Dark Phoenix) was Green Lantern from 2006 & Shazam from 2010.

I have that book and still reading it. I think she would like and if it's at the library-check it out for her. Can't hurt.

[WebLurker]

Raven was a top seller on Amazon the day it came out under teens and young adult books. The only other DC books that were there (especially before X-Men thanks to Dark Phoenix) was Green Lantern from 2006 & Shazam from 2010.

I have that book and still reading it. I think she would like and if it's at the library-check it out for her. Can't hurt.

Yeah, that was a pretty good one. Kinda disappointed that we're getting more origin stories for the other Teen Titans for a team-up graphic novel instead of a sequel to the Raven one.

[kjn]

Never read any of these ink books. Are they any good? Our library just got a bunch of them. Think my niece will like them? (maybe help get her into dc)

How old is she?

Under the Moon (Catwoman) is excellent but very heavy in some of its themes (it deals with violence within the family and homelessness). Raven is what I term a fantasy of friendship, and a good one. Mera Tidebreaker is a romance with the protagonists on opposite sides of a war, and is also good. I haven't read the Breaking Glass (Harley) but it was well-received.

I wouldn't hesitate to give any of them to my 13-year-old daughter to read, if she was interested.

[Gaastra]

She is about to head to middle school.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Right now I'm reading the Question and Hellblazer but im not sure the latter should be there.

I rather he be with the other Sandman universe titles. But that could be me splitting hairs at this point.

[kjn]

She is about to head to middle school.

Tells me absolutely nothing (every single school system uses different terminology).

Another option is is Ignite, the Black Canary GN from Zoom. It's a little less advanced narratively than the ones in the Ink line, but a good read.

[kjn]

Via Bleeding Cool, some word from DiDio on the reception and plans for Ink and Zoom.

I’m happy to say that we’re very comfortable with what we’ve seen from the young [reader] line. We had two breakout hits: Diana, Princess of the Amazons and Teen Titans: Raven performed very strongly for us. The good part about [ Raven] is there are two more volumes. We are making one slight tweak to our delivery of this material. We’ve been putting out three a month, we’ll probably bring that number down by the middle of the year to two a month. I think we need a little more breathing space, more time to promote and market these books properly.

[Frontier]

Well, quality over quantity, as they say .

[kjn]

Thing is, I'm not sure about the reasoning given.

From a marketing perspective, three titles published per month should be a drop in the ocean for a publisher like DC. I mean, a boutique publisher like Baen Books publishes six books per month.

I'm sure DiDio believes what he says. But I think it's post-facto justification. The least charitable part of me thinks it's rather that some of the old guard at DC are worried about the growth of a piece of DC with a different creative and market focus that they can't manage themselves, and they want to constrain how much it can grow.

[Frontier]

Thing is, I'm not sure about the reasoning given.

From a marketing perspective, three titles published per month should be a drop in the ocean for a publisher like DC. I mean, a boutique publisher like Baen Books publishes six books per month.

I'm sure DiDio believes what he says. But I think it's post-facto justification. The least charitable part of me thinks it's rather that some of the old guard at DC are worried about the growth of a piece of DC with a different creative and market focus that they can't manage themselves, and they want to constrain how much it can grow.

But Baen Book also doesn't publish an entire line of comics with multiple imprints, so I don't think it's a far comparison.

I don't think the old guard is all that concerned or worried about the Zoom and Ink books.

[iron chimp]

But Baen Book also doesn't publish an entire line of comics with multiple imprints, so I don't think it's a far comparison.

I don't think the old guard is all that concerned or worried about the Zoom and Ink books.

The shadowy forces of "the man"... deliberately sabotaging the fortunes of a multimedia conglomerate. Damn you to hell whitey.