New interview with Dan Didio and the state of the industry

[Robanker]

https://www.facebook.com/34748615237...5480013960371/

Some interesting points that will interest many from someone who has been working in the industry a long time, one of note was that printing on newsprint actually isn't going to reduce the cost much. He goes into the business aspect a lot (starting somewhere in the middle) and the tl;dr is that they have done a lot of research and found price point to actually not influence sales much. People are gonna buy what they want.

He talks about OGN vs monthlies. Interesting stuff. While I hated his creative direction for DC, I give Didio a lot of credit for trying new formats and trying hard to attract new readers and his love for the medium is definitely on display.

Curious what many of you think.

[Ascended]

Say what you will, he's such a likable bastard. I'd love to have a beer with him sometime.

[9th.]

The reactions to this are going to be good

[Vordan]

He’s not wrong about Rebirth being nostalgia bait, but when you bait people in with the promise that things will be similar to the status quo they like only to drop that midway and do a complete 180, of course people are going to be mad. Should’ve just gave Wally his wife and kids and let him sit on the sidelines until someone had a story for him.

And yes I agree with Didio that DC does need to do new things, but Didio is guilty of running in circles himself. Killing off Titans, telling events where “the villains win!” is the main premise, how many times have we seen this stories. Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, Forever Evil, Year of the Villain, they’ve all got the same basic plot of “the villains win and the heroes have to come back somehow”. Didio can see the problem but he wasn’t exactly fixing the problem.

I mean good God man, how many events with the goal of fixing continuity can we get before you realize something needs to change? Either embrace the insanity like Marvel and just ignore the contradictions or go back to the Carlin days when DC was utterly anal about continuity.

[mathew101281]

I like his comparison of the Japanese and European styles of publishing and how American comics are kind of in-between.

[MRP]

I think my favorite part was the anecdote he told about talking to Julie Schwartz and Schwartz telling him you have to take super-hero universes and give them an enema every ten years or so to wash away all the accumulated crap and give them a fresh start, which I find ironic and interesting-Schwartz did just that wit the dawn of the Silver Age, but many people/fans point to the creation of Earth- 2 under his watch as a rationale for trying to keep every little bit of story told with the characters "continuity" and never discarding anything.

But whether you like him or not, Didio had a lot of interesting insights that are food for thought even if you disagree with him on some of them.

-M

[Frontier]

He’s not wrong about Rebirth being nostalgia bait, but when you bait people in with the promise that things will be similar to the status quo they like only to drop that midway and do a complete 180, of course people are going to be mad. Should’ve just gave Wally his wife and kids and let him sit on the sidelines until someone had a story for him.

I still didn't mind .

[PennyDreadful]

He’s not wrong about Rebirth being nostalgia bait, but when you bait people in with the promise that things will be similar to the status quo they like only to drop that midway and do a complete 180, of course people are going to be mad. Should’ve just gave Wally his wife and kids and let him sit on the sidelines until someone had a story for him.

And yes I agree with Didio that DC does need to do new things, but Didio is guilty of running in circles himself. Killing off Titans, telling events where “the villains win!” is the main premise, how many times have we seen this stories. Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, Forever Evil, Year of the Villain, they’ve all got the same basic plot of “the villains win and the heroes have to come back somehow”. Didio can see the problem but he wasn’t exactly fixing the problem.

I mean good God man, how many events with the goal of fixing continuity can we get before you realize something needs to change? Either embrace the insanity like Marvel and just ignore the contradictions or go back to the Carlin days when DC was utterly anal about continuity.

DiDio was also the one who wanted to bring back "iconic" versions of heroes he read about as a kid. And he's talking about the company needing to try new things? Wow. Could the pot call the kettle any blacker?

[kjn]

DiDio was also the one who wanted to bring back "iconic" versions of heroes he read about as a kid. And he's talking about the company needing to try new things? Wow. Could the pot call the kettle any blacker?

What I believe is that DiDio's ideas on marketing and on narratives were near-constantly at odds with each other.

[sunofdarkchild]

I've felt that Didio is a good marketing guy but who was terrible on creative decisions and especially at writing. But with all the contradictory things that have been said over the years it's impossible to know what's true. Overall I think he did more harm than good to DC and its brand. I think consistent bad decisions and mistakes by DC editorial in the 2000s are what ultimately led to the decline in the quality of the writing and the rut that caused the 2011 reboot.

[SiegePerilous02]

DiDio was also the one who wanted to bring back "iconic" versions of heroes he read about as a kid. And he's talking about the company needing to try new things? Wow. Could the pot call the kettle any blacker?

What's weird is he'll say the iconic stuff, but then have the Teen Titans in the New 52 be the YJ kids in horrible Tron outfits and not the actual Teen Titans. Because they are not even close to the iconic lineup for that property.

Ditto Babs being back as Batgirl, but Dick wasn't Robin. Like be consistent with it at least.

[married guy]

Say what you will, he's such a likable bastard. I'd love to have a beer with him sometime.

This!
While I don't agree with a lot of his business decisions, he really does seem like a good bloke. Would definitely shout him a pint