Layoffs at DC?

[Ascended]

Well yes if yr going to.pretend you dont even.publish it and pretend vertigo - whose logo is on it - is some 'other' company with nothing to do with dc.

Who the f publishes a critically acclaimed comic and 30 years later is too embarrassed to put their own name anywhere on it.

Thats how bad things are slipping away

Hey, you were talking about providing a differential between books so kids don't mistakenly get a mature title; leaving the logo off the cover is one way to accomplish it. Don't move the goal posts man.

[cranger]

There is no DC logo anywhere on new editions of preacher - not even the words DC on blurb on the back from new printings of trades im looking at online.

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca...books-byauthor

What are you looking at?

[iron chimp]

Hey, you were talking about providing a differential between books so kids don't mistakenly get a mature title; leaving the logo off the cover is one way to accomplish it. Don't move the goal posts man.

If you leave your logo off, you still need a publishing imprint to market the book under.

Its marketed under vertigo imprint.

The original issues were marketed under vertigo: dc comics and now dc have entirely removed their logo from it.

Im struggling to see what point your making to be honest.

[Holt]

I spoke with two sources with insight into the company’s plans who say WarnerMedia, the corporate umbrella inside AT&T that oversees Warner Bros. and DC, isn't planning to get rid of comics. Comics aren’t going anywhere. It’s more about the type of comic books we should expect to see and their placement in the new corporate hierarchy.

Again, DC Comics isn’t going away. That’s the good news. As for the bad news, let’s try to unpack what’s happened with a wide-view lens.

The first thing to understand is that this has apparently been in the works for months. The pandemic and the economic devastation it has caused globally, in particular to the movie business, comics, and theme parks, may have moved up the timetable, but these cuts were going to happen at some point. Together with the company’s emphasis on making HBO Max a focus, it was just a matter of time. Nearly everyone working at DC Universe also lost their jobs Monday, meaning DC’s streaming service along with its library of programming and comics is going away. Many assume DCU will be stripped for parts and be folded into HBO Max. (We've reached out to DC Comics for comment.)

Does this mean DC is going to focus more on digital comics? WarnerMedia’s new CEO Jason Kilar has made direct-to-consumer a priority. The ongoing struggles of comics’ direct market seem to play into a bigger digital strategy. But no matter what importance digital comics play in DC’s future, given the success of the company’s trade paperback program with bookstores, physical comics and trade collections aren’t going anywhere.

So why do this now, two weeks before the DC FanDome event? Short-term pain for long-term goals seems to be in play here. As mentioned earlier, COVID-19 has wrecked many corporate business plans. As one source explained to me, “If you’re running Warner Bros., why not write off all the expenses related to these job cuts and gutting DC Universe during this year of unprecedented challenges, and start fresh in 2021?”

Of course, it’s hard to see the apparent lack of concern for PR fallout from the layoffs right before a major fan event like FanDome as anything but a sign of the little regard Warner Bros. execs hold for the comics arm of their company.

Simply put, “WarnerMedia doesn’t want to be in the comics business. It wants to be in the character business,” another source with knowledge of Warner Bros. operations tells me. That same source contends that the company may have no longer wanted DC and its comics to be the driving force behind entities that are so important to WB franchising and licensing goals. Moving forward, both sources believe comics will be just a small part of the necessary intellectual property maintenance needed to keep corporate cash cows like Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman humming along.

Keep in mind, it wasn’t about whether DC was losing money. Even if it was, it was a small amount. The problem is that the potential profits in comics are negligible when one considers the average summer blockbuster has $200 million-plus budgets. Bluntly put: It's likely WarnerMedia doesn’t think the money to be made in comics is worth the effort.

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/dc-com...ayoffs-fallout

[iron chimp]

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca...books-byauthor

What are you looking at?

Im looking at this one

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Absolute-Pr...7283049&sr=8-3

The plot thickens... one labelled as vertigo no dc logo. One labelled as black label with a dc logo.

The mysterious world of marketing preacher

[scary harpy]

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/dc-com...ayoffs-fallout

This is pretty much the worst case scenario. Batman will be fine, he’s got plenty of outside media versions that portray him well. But if you’re a character who hasn’t had a good outside media adaption in a while, like Green Lantern for example, what happens to you? We complain about movie synergy but this seems poised to take it to a whole new level. Plus what happens when the adaptions fail like Zack Snyder’s DCEU movies did? If that stuff is supposed to be what drives the IP, what then? Given how utterly incompetent WB has been in handling Superman for example, I have zero faith in them “driving” the character over a comics guy like Grant Morrison.

Thanks for the link.

That was a good article. It put things into perspective.

I'm not worried about any major JLA member. I know Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman and Aquaman will be okay. Flash and Green Lantern will survive in one form or another.

But there are 1000 other characters that may disappear as if they never existed.

[Restingvoice]

When it comes to long-term fans vs new fans, when it comes to the floppies, catering to long-term fans is the better idea because you all are already used to DC's method

Every time new fans are brought to comics there are a few steps you have to teach them about the publication, how the story work, how the shared universe work, how continuity work... and there will always be someone who lost interest because it's too complicated, annoying and expensive.

So you end up with maybe a few people a year who comes here asking for guidance, a few on Tumblr or Twitter, and the rest decided to just watch Youtube videos summarizing the series or just read pirated stuff online.

That said, long-term fans are also getting older and dissatisfied. Some have left, only wanting to return if things gets better... for them.

So they need new money, but they just can't attract a lot of new people using the same method because of the complications above.

The digital series and OGNs are good ideas to attract new money, but there is also other money coming from outside the publication. The movies and games, and if they're getting more money from that than comics, why should they keep the effort of attracting new money through comics?

Going further, why even have a comics division if the money they got from movies, despite being considered a failure by fans, is far higher than the comics, where the hardcore fans who buy no matter what are dwindling because everything I said above?

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/dc-com...ayoffs-fallout

Oh, welp, there it is.

Back to hardcore fans problem... it's up to writers and worldbuilder to attract them back... because WB's not gonna care... but which hardcore fans should they be aiming? The 90s? 2000s? 80s? 70s? Which version of story? Which detail? Hardcore fans are detail-oriented so some group are bound to be disappointed.

[Samm]

People mad about JSA legacy characters are about 30 years too late.

In some cases, almost 40 years lol


And I’m sorry but Dr Fate isn’t Batman, Superman or a Wonder Woman. There exists more than one version through this history. You can’t just say it has to be Kent and that’s it. There’s plenty of others that have taken on the name, most recently Khalid Nassour, who seems to have somewhat caught on.

[skyvolt2000]

Well yes if yr going to.pretend you dont even.publish it and pretend vertigo - whose logo is on it - is some 'other' company with nothing to do with dc.

Who the f publishes a critically acclaimed comic and 30 years later is too embarrassed to put their own name anywhere on it.

Thats how bad things are slipping away

Sometimes there is a legit reason for that. I want to say it comes down to who prints it.
Some library editions and oversea editions are like that.
Some of the Marvel books (Rom, Star Wars) who get printed by Dark Horse and IDW won't show the logos. We all know those are Marvel runs but the symbol is not there.
Even the Preacher DVDS don't list DC or Vertigo.

The plot thickens... one labelled as vertigo no dc logo. One labelled as black label with a dc logo.
The mysterious world of marketing preacher

So the newer copies don't have it. Now that is a red flag. Black Label didn't do those books. So what are they trying to hide?

[cranger]

Im looking at this one

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Absolute-Pr...7283049&sr=8-3

The plot thickens... one labelled as vertigo no dc logo. One labelled as black label with a dc logo.

The mysterious world of marketing preacher

Seems to be a branding thing for the Absolute Collection for Vertigo. The same thing can be seen on Y: The Last Man absolutes that came out prior. And the Preacher softcovers that came out shortly before the Absolutes have the DC Vertigo hybrid logo.

It was probably more about feeling like the DC logo cheapened the Vertigo book, not that DC was ashamed to associate with them.

[iron chimp]

Sometimes there is a legit reason for that. I want to say it comes down to who prints it.

Some library editions and oversea editions are like that.

Some of the Marvel books (Rom, Star Wars) who get printed by Dark Horse and IDW won't show the logos. We all know those are Marvel runs but the symbol is not there.

Even the Preacher DVDS don't list DC or Vertigo.

Thats a good point. Googling i saw a panini edition. Never even knew they did it.

The one im looking at is the 2017 vertigo absolute no dc logo.

The next edition upcoming which cgranger has linked is the DC:Black label edition.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Just my opinion, but some of these writer's are too caught up in their own narrative. Heidi comes across as a skilled writer but I find the near paraphrasing of Bleeding Cool articles to be quite suspect, that is not a differing opinion in any way, which is not surprising because there really is not anything newsworthy or public about these people they are speculating about.

I don't know. Multiple comics journalists have apparently reported much the same thing. Plus, whatever you may think of BC, they get it right more often than their critics give them credit for.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

From the Syfy wire article:

This, IMHO, is the truly bad news about all this. Because it signals that the days of storytelling gambles at DC may be in the rearview and fewer chances may be taken on ambitious projects. Considering we’re talking about the publisher that helped elevate comics with groundbreaking stories such as The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, The Sandman, and, more recently, Mister Miracle, this should depress comics fans the most.

Exactly.

[cranger]

I don't know. Multiple comics journalists have apparently reported much the same thing. Plus, whatever you may think of BC, they get it right more often than their critics give them credit for.

A lot of these sites just relay what the first one to get the scoop said, and likely have a lot of shared sources. As for BC, my criticism has never been that they did not hear what they report, it is the commentary they add on to it that I always find full of holes.

[cranger]

From the Syfy wire article:



Exactly.

That snippet is the type of commentary I dislike. There is nothing about not being beholden to the publishing division with regards to movies or other uses of the characters that means the publishing will stop trying to tell great stories. Pretty much none of those stories listed were done with the intent of making a movie afterwards. To me this sounds a lot more like Disney Marvel telling New York Marvel to stay out of their movies.