Layoffs at DC?

[Dylan Davison]

Sucks about Hawkman since I heard good things about that, guess I'll check it out in trades.

Silver lining with SS cancelled is one less Harley Quinn book.

Well the writer of it on Twitter seems to imply that he has plans for the people left alive in this series.

[Vordan]

Well the writer of it on Twitter seems to imply that he has plans for the people left alive in this series.

Give Taylor the relaunched Harley Quinn book, he’d be perfect for that, and it would keep him away from the characters I actually like.

[Artemisfanboy]

Am I?

I’m think of merchandising: coloring books, Underoos, t-shrits, toys and etcetera.

Imagine a t-shirt with Alan Scott and Jay Garrick on it.

We see Green Lantern and Flash.

Young people see two old men in bad/strange costumes.

Besides merchandise(which people have pointed out is produced), In anything beyond the most simplistic levels of storytelling the three veterans have storytelling value as mentors and supporting roles in the stories of the younger characters. I see no reason why they would be removed from the current post-doomsday clock reintroduced team .

um, do you think this disproves my argument?

I didn't say there were no t-shirts with Alan Scott on them...or that we would not buy them.

Your argument is predicated on the probably false assumption that WB/ATT has a myopia where they only care about money made off a very young age category, and that they intend to only produce merchandise and fiction for that very young age category and are thus only evaluating the characters based on opportunities geared towards a very young age category. You assume for some reason despite most tv shows and movies being pg-13, that they intend to force the comics into being highly dumbed down for this very age young age category.

[cranger]

Give Taylor the relaunched Harley Quinn book, he’d be perfect for that, and it would keep him away from the characters I actually like.

His SS Harley seems off to me, but if he is going to be keeping her in SS, or DC wants to take her in that direction, it makes sense. It might just be better to keep her ongoing on hiatus so this main continuity version of her can take root, and having SS (or whatever follows) be the main book for her might help that book.

Although it looks like Tynion still has plans for her in Batman.

[DragonPiece]

Jim Lee clears up a lot of rumors and worries in this new interview: https://t.co/tY3uMCHVXg

[kjn]

The layoff might have nothing to do with the ending of books but this is not looking good.

And it's only troll fuel bait and you are giving them a week to be toxic even more.

I probably would not have announced any books ending until the event after announcing future plans.

I'm 99.9% sure that these cancellations have nothing to do with the layoffs. Any books solicited right now are pretty far ahead in the pipeline.

I agree that DC would have been be better off holding back those cancellations for a week or so after the layoff announcements, but at the same time the layoffs happened on AT&T's schedule, and they don't (and should not) care about the scheduling constraints of a piddly little division.

Things to look out for are the following to me:

* Any changes in DC's relationship to distributors. Note that I'm fairly sure that DC got support from higher up on ditching Diamond, but their relationship with the new distributors will be a key part in how much DC is willing to be involved in the direct market.

* Signs of active recruitment of new creators, or trying to mend fences with writers like Mairghread Scott.

* An uptick in the publishing pace of YA and middle-grade titles (I speculated that the announcement earlier this year to limit these titles to two per month to "guarantee proper marketing" was due to internal office power plays within DC).

* The way DC talks about future events, and here I'm especially thinking about any changes in presentation from now until the next planned event starts. The new winter event is probably rather far ahead in planning, and probably won't be ditched. If they ditch it, it's probably a sign that DC's new leadership is really serious about cleaning house, or that they thought the event was stupid.

[cranger]

Jim Lee clears up a lot of rumors and worries in this new interview: https://t.co/tY3uMCHVXg

I have to say, for someone who has been considered invisible as far as leading the company since DiDio left, this is rather reassuringly delivered.

[Holt]

John Ridley Batman mini???

[Dylan Davison]

Jim Lee clears up a lot of rumors and worries in this new interview: https://t.co/tY3uMCHVXg

A good example of that is Injustice, the digital comics that tied into the video game. When that came out, it was the best-selling digital comic of the year, it outsold Batman. And brought a lot of adjacent fans into our business. And when we took that content and reprinted it in physical form, we sold hundreds of thousands of units. It was as big of a hit in physical as in in digital.

We’re using that as a model as we go out and do more digital content. We’ll take the most successful books and repackage it as physical books

I'm confused on that last part. Are they going digital only?

But other then that, great interview. Smaller amount of comics is fine, as long as it's not all Batman haha.

[cranger]

I'm confused on that last part. Are they going digital only?

No. Shortly after New 52, DC started experimenting with digital first. This was mostly stuff like Injustice and other media tie-ins like Smallville and Arrow, some of which were than printed as monthly books afterwards. This is just continuing on with that.

[Dylan Davison]

No. Shortly after New 52, DC started experimenting with digital first. This was mostly stuff like Injustice and other media tie-ins like Smallville and Arrow, some of which were than printed as monthly books afterwards. This is just continuing on with that.

Ah, I remember those. Okay, thanks. I think my lack of sleep made that part hard to read haha.

[Mr.B]

What were the sales of these axed books?

[Gaius]

I'm confused on that last part. Are they going digital only?

But other then that, great interview. Smaller amount of comics is fine, as long as it's not all Batman haha.

Sense I get in the context of the rest of the answer is more digital-first comics. Probably that tie-in to current or famous media adaptations.

Can only hope they do better than Injustice.

[skyvolt2000]

I'm confused on that last part. Are they going digital only?

But other then that, great interview. Smaller amount of comics is fine, as long as it's not all Batman haha.

It sounds like they want to do digital first and later toss out a trade down the line.

So if they do a Digital first book-if it does okay or well, it gets to be a trade later on.

In other words instead of everything and it's mother getting a trade-you get select ones.


The DOWNSIDE to is what about fans who don't do digital? Them getting a trade is based on what OTHERS do.

For folks like Batman that is not an issue.

For Adam Strange it might be depending on the writer. If it gets a bunch of press and awards-yeah it should come out as print, If not.

The other DOWNSIDE is what do you do with folk like Cyborg- who are unwelcomed in both markets. What does he get? Do we do an OGN or what?
Because most of those folks will be POC, LGBTQA, some females, Ted Kord, Booster, Guy, Warlord and Hellblazer.

We know Hellblazer has done well as trades in other markets.

[vasir12]

Jim Lee clears up a lot of rumors and worries in this new interview: https://t.co/tY3uMCHVXg

This was a good interview.

Seems like most reports were pretty much right except some mixs ups. Michele and Marie are co-EiCs.

I'm happy that they included Milestone there and I do want to see what DC shows of now they reaffirmed a focus on diversity and a need for international markets.