Layoffs at DC?

[Konja7]

You cannot publish whatever you like in a supermarket. This is the whole reason for a direct market in the first place - because the spinner rack is censored by 'concerned parents'. You can do whatever you like in the direct market - you cannot when work is exposed to general populus.

Doom patrol only exists today because of grant morrisons run. No.one cares about pollock arcudi byrne or giffen. Its that run or that franchise was dead. But his run had a mature banner on the front - you cannot have mature comics in a supermarket.

A huge chunk of DCs biggest selling and/or most critucally acclaimed comics over last 40 years have been branded mature. Those cannot be sold in a supermarket

Well, there has been strong topic in the current OGN from DC Ink.

Also, I think something similar to Black Label could return. So, its pretty likely there will still be matute stories.

[K. Jones]

There's a lot of contract deals with writers and artists but many of the non-House guys are obviously freelancers. I mean they might get exclusivity deals with times and dates on them, but I don't know that a huge corporate lay-off comes with severance or any kind of radical fundamental shift. You uphold your contract, pay it out, hopefully get to finish the work, but this year in particular, hoo boy, hard to say they'll be able to make it work for everybody.

But in-house, house artists, the funner, stronger editorial voices, so on, so forth ... even the marketing crew who do their best to raise the profile, I feel pretty bad for.

Comics are a radical medium that will never die. But decompressed expensive monthly comics that often have lackluster return-on-investment for readers, and have to pay creatives actual living wages to do the work on a deadline, that aren't even carried at your local corner store on a spinning rack that kids can get hooked on? Yeah ... how they can run without a skeleton crew is beyond me. I feel like their margins frankly can't be "that good". Like, I understand razor-thin margins, so anything that's not "one bad week spells doom for my restaurant, can we do this with half the labor?" sounds like heaven to me these days.

So I definitely understand the business end of it. Still there's a lot of stuff that sounds relatively terrifying as a consumer here, from a "uh, what the heck are they doing and when and how does this shake out and how does it affect books I like?" point of view, and as an artist and writer who would like other artists and writers with steady gigs in fields they love who lucked out not to get screwed by corporate reshuffles or planetary pandemics.

[Hypo]

Busiek with some perspective.

[vasir12]

Busiek with some perspective.

This is a good thread. This is WB reacting to a terrible year. This streamlining will, in theory, give better control on how to move forward.

[Holt]

Great thread.

[Ascended]

This is a good thread. This is WB reacting to a terrible year. This streamlining will, in theory, give better control on how to move forward.

Are there really a bunch of people blaming the comics for this? I've seen a post or two here along those lines, but....I mean come on, this is *obviously* about the pandemic and crippling loss of revenue 2020 has thrown at all of us, and not about a twenty page funny book not appealing to someone.

*Most* people know that, right?

[DragonsChi]

The indie crowd that has emerged in the last couple of years was very much right about a lot of this stuff. Strong Businesses have thrived and even prevailed during this crisis and the weak ones are currently going out of business or restructuring. This is very much on them.

DC comics is going to shrink considerably and Marvel will follow soon after. I really hope these companies are smart enough to continue to weed out all of the toxic individuals who turned the comic industry into what it is today.

[Jadeb]

Are there really a bunch of people blaming the comics for this? I've seen a post or two here along those lines, but....I mean come on, this is *obviously* about the pandemic and crippling loss of revenue 2020 has thrown at all of us, and not about a twenty page funny book not appealing to someone.

*Most* people know that, right?

Yeah, I think so. I'm impressed they made it sound as strategic as they did. It's cost-cutting at its core.

[Holt]

Are there really a bunch of people blaming the comics for this? I've seen a post or two here along those lines, but....I mean come on, this is *obviously* about the pandemic and crippling loss of revenue 2020 has thrown at all of us, and not about a twenty page funny book not appealing to someone.

*Most* people know that, right?

A whole bunch of responses were scrubbed because the usual suspects were doing precisely that.

[Username taken]

Are there really a bunch of people blaming the comics for this? I've seen a post or two here along those lines, but....I mean come on, this is *obviously* about the pandemic and crippling loss of revenue 2020 has thrown at all of us, and not about a twenty page funny book not appealing to someone.

*Most* people know that, right?

This basically.

Its a reaction to downturn in the economy and we're going to see a lot of this in the entertainment sector.

[Username taken]

A whole bunch of responses were scrubbed because the usual suspects were doing precisely that.

Its the usual suspects as you rightly pointed out.

The guys saying this don't deserve to be listened to and frankly I don't feel they need a platform here or anyone else for that matter. Besides the obvious bigotry, I dont really care for the opinion of 40+ year old man babies that haven't even read comics in years and are jealous of others success.

[Lee Stone]

Its the usual suspects as you rightly pointed out.

The guys saying this don't deserve to be listened to and frankly I don't feel they need a platform here or anyone else for that matter. Besides the obvious bigotry, I dont really care for the opinion of 40+ year old man babies that haven't even read comics in years and are jealous of others success.

Glad you have nothing against us 40+ year old man babies that have read comics and don't care about others success.
Well, unless it's edgy grimdark stuff success. Then I just kinda get depressed.

[scary harpy]

This is a good thread. This is WB reacting to a terrible year. This streamlining will, in theory, give better control on how to move forward.

Are there really a bunch of people blaming the comics for this? I've seen a post or two here along those lines, but....I mean come on, this is *obviously* about the pandemic and crippling loss of revenue 2020 has thrown at all of us, and not about a twenty page funny book not appealing to someone.

*Most* people know that, right?

I think most know this.

I also think we know the following characters are safe: Bruce Wayne, Richard Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Diana - princess of the Amazons and etcetera.

I think most of us are worried that this streamlining of business will streamline some of our favorite characters into comic book limbo...or maybe worse.

[vasir12]

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/dc-c...ses-to-follow/

Looks like we'll get official word soon

[Username taken]

Glad you have nothing against us 40+ year old man babies that have read comics and don't care about others success.
Well, unless it's edgy grimdark stuff success. Then I just kinda get depressed.

You actually read comics. Lots of these "guys" haven't picked up comics in years and don't know their Al Ewings from Eve Ewings.

Funny thing is some of these 40+ year old jokers actually want comics to go to back to the "extremmmmmmmmeee!!!!" era of comics.

Yeah...that joyless, soulless era of comics.