Layoffs at DC?

[scary harpy]

Somebody a while back said that DC's sales numbers were almost down to pre-Crisis levels. That's not good. Unless there is some major COIE style reboot on the horizon, I don't see how they survive on their own.

I don't forsee an event like COIE. I can envision a Crisis of Infinite Forgetfulness.

What do I mean?

I can see Batman reduced to:

Alfred
Gordon
Batman -Bruce
Batgirl - Barbara
Robin - Damian
Batwoman (she has a show.)
Nightwing (cause it's Grayson.)
Red Hood (maybe)

What do we need Tim, Stephanie and Cassandra for?

I see the latter 3 disappearing into comic book limbo.

I see a lot of history disappearing into comic book limbo.

Killing Joke, Death in the Family and many other stories never being mentioned again. (They are not erased; they're just ignored...along with most history.)

The stories we will get: Batman & an ally versus the villain-of-the-issue/story arc.

Maybe I'm wrong. It's just a feeling.

[iron chimp]

" the licensing of titles with editors moving to brand managers/approval roles"

From the bleeding cool article - if thats true then theyve given up. Which publisher says ok someone else can publish our titles... im finding that very hard to believe. Not even in the dark days of late 70s did they surrender that badly.

Too many people with their hand on the tiller, too many corporate changes of direction, too many initiatives cancelled rapidly, too little creative freedom.

Im struggling to see why the editor of black.label needs to.leave - hes had a load of hits, some great looking books, and they've only just launched it.

[Konja7]

Actually, expanding the digital offerings and continued investment in the OGN's potentially opens up DC's lesser known characters more. We've seen characters like Raven (the go-to example) sell well in those formats, but Raven can't carry a direct market title to save her life.

Those other formats have different audiences who don't have the bias of the Wednesday Warrior; they don't care if Raven is a C-list character who only mattered for a few years back in the 80's, they know her from the cartoons and live action Titans show and aren't going to skip her book because they don't want a hole in their collected run of Batman.

Now, in the immediate future, yeah we might get almost nothing but the big name characters DC knows will sell well, but a Vibe OGN or digital title isn't nearly as big a risk as it would be as a floppy ongoing. Once the dust settles, we might see a massive surge in DC's lesser IP's.

Setting aside the horror of massive job loss and a murky restructuring and all the rest of the chaos, the basic business plan here, like greatmetropolitan says, isn't *necessarily* a bad thing. Bad for floppies, true, but not necessarily bad for everything else. Offerings might be on the lean side for a while (this *is* the result of economic insecurity after all), but these seem like the moves publishers need to make; the direct market is shrinking and a dead end. Publishers need to get a foothold in other markets while riding the floppy into the ground. It's a damn shame that it's taking a corporate collapse to make them take this seriously, but these basic changes? Publishers were going to have to do stuff like this eventually.

Furthermore, unlike direct market, sales of OGN are more likely to benefit from synchrony with a popular series or movie.

[The Darknight Detective]

The Snyder Cut has nothing to do with this. It has everything to do with AT&T making a major mistake with their shareholders(Who revolted) and we are all now feeling that effects of them trying to “correct” the ship and cut cost back.

Anyone blaming this on the Snyder Cut either doesn't know the full story or is just looking for another petty reason to bitch about it.

Yeah, this is about the AT&T merger and its aftermath. Anything else is just small potatoes in comparison.

[Anthony W]

Harras was also the guy in charge at Marvel when they went bankrupt in the 90s.

Marvel was already in dire straits financially when he was coming up there. Read the book called Comic Wars https://www.amazon.com/Comic-Wars-Ma.../dp/0785116060. Actually he was the guy that took over after Marvel went bankrupt, and was around during the Image exodus. He still managed to put out good comics on his watch. I would take him over Amanat and Cebulski.

[Agent Z]

Marvel was already in dire straits financially when he was coming up there. Read the book called Comic Wars https://www.amazon.com/Comic-Wars-Ma.../dp/0785116060. Actually he was the guy that took over after Marvel went bankrupt, and was around during the Image exodus. He still managed to put out good comics on his watch. I would take him over Amanat and Cebulski.

Harras has the editor-in-chief at DC for the past ten years. His recent track record doesn't suggest we'd get much quality out of him. Any talent he had at his job in the past is long gone now.

[vasir12]

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/dc-c...ditor-changes/

"The Creative Services group, of which Jonah Weiland was VP of, has been closed. They were the group behind DC Direct as well as supervising pitches, source books, internal style guides, character art approvals and logos, creating a uniform DC Comics look and style.

MAD Magazine has gone – the longstanding satirical comedy magazine that was bought by DC Comics will be closed at the publisher. It may be licensed out elsewhere, but as it stands, MAD is no more.

I am also told that all exclusive creator contracts, that cover the likes of Scott Snyder, Dan Abnett, Tom King and Brian Bendis, are being reviewed."

[superduperman]

Does this mean Bendis is gone?

[Ascended]

I mean it, you're one of the quality posters here.

Aw shucks. Feeling is mutual, I always enjoy your perspective.

I do hope that we will see a bit of a creative shift here. Nothing really drastic, but I think we might see a little greater spread in the creators who gets the "signature" titles and characters, and some more freedom for the creators, at least in the sense of less guidance from editors on what stories to write.

I think we will. I dunno how big a shift it'll be but I think we'll see something, for marketing fuel if nothing else.

But it's really incidental to this change, though I think the positioning of Michele Wells as one of the new leaders points to a more creator-driven DC.

I think you're right. Not only does Wells seem to know her stuff, but if DC's focus is going to be on OGN's and digital, well, there's a certain creative freedom to be found in floppies being ignored, and digital is going to require experimentation by necessity, and OGN's are often pushing into new territory.

Agreed. However, the YA line was willing to put Cass back in as Batgirl, and Babs as Oracle, and give big solo pushes to characters like Raven or Beast Boy. I believe that if this new DC gets a good pitch for a Green Arrow limited series or OGN, I see no reason for why they won't go for it, no matter if it fits their current universe or not.

That's what I'm saying. The secondary characters we're likely to lose in the direct market still have two other formats to appear in. I think we might end up with the direct market focused solely on the biggest names while digital and OGN's use a much wider roster.

Furthermore, unlike direct market, sales of OGN are more likely to benefit from synchrony with a popular series or movie.

Ah, true, excellent point!

[vasir12]

I guess it means his position is in question. The people that hired him into prominence pretty much all got canned already.

[Frontier]

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/dc-c...ditor-changes/

I find it concerning that they're cutting back on stuff that relies on a standard, ongoing, continuity and the actual writers of said continuity.

[Konja7]

I don't forsee an event like COIE. I can envision a Crisis of Infinite Forgetfulness.

What do I mean?

I can see Batman reduced to:

Alfred
Gordon
Batman -Bruce
Batgirl - Barbara
Robin - Damian
Batwoman (she has a show.)
Nightwing (cause it's Grayson.)
Red Hood (maybe)

What do we need Tim, Stephanie and Cassandra for?

I see the latter 3 disappearing into comic book limbo.

I see a lot of history disappearing into comic book limbo.

Killing Joke, Death in the Family and many other stories never being mentioned again. (They are not erased; they're just ignored...along with most history.)

The stories we wil get: Batman & an ally versus the villain-of-the-issue/story arc.

Maybe I'm wrong. It's just a feeling.

I can see this. Although I'm not so sure that Batwoman/Kate Kane is safe (even her TV series has a new Batwoman).

Cassandra could have stories in OGN (since she has a pretty unique background), but it will depende of reception.

Tim and Stephanie could be forgotten in monthly. I don't think OGN will have much interest on them either.

[Anthony W]

Five stages of Grief. DC Comics Edition!

Denial. "It's probably going to be some people who don't really have anything to do with comics that get laid off."

Anger. "You have got to be kidding me!"

Bargaining. "Maybe they can just save black label, it's doing great!"

Depression. "No more C list heroes. Just Batman..."

Acceptance. "I can see a lot of good things coming out of this."

[manwhohaseverything]

Does this mean Bendis is gone?

That depends on the review, the contract they have. If the company doesn't think a certain things aren't beneficial for them and if they can terminate the contract. They will. Another scenario is they trying to renegotiate things with bendis and things fall through.

[Frontier]

That depends on the review, the contract they have. If the company doesn't think a certain things aren't beneficial for them and if they can terminate the contract. They will. Another scenario is they trying to renegotiate things with bendis and things fall through.

Well, there's probably not much for Bendis to do if they're really scaling back on the mainline comics.