Lee & DiDio Call June Launches "First of Many Steps" in Building the "New" DC Comics

[CBR News]

DC Co-Publishers Jim Lee & Dan DiDio detail the inspiration behind the 24 new launches arriving in June, and responding to a changing readership.


Full article here.

[Sirzechs]

Lol so much truth in those opening statements but seriously bro New DC needs a name my Status needs to be updated when June arrives.

[Vinsanity]

Really excited for what's to come.

[Triple J]

We'll have a core line of about 25 books that will have that internal consistency, that will consist of our best-selling books. But then the rest of the line, about 24 titles, will be allowed to really shake things up a little bit.

Wow, that sounds awesome!

[Aroguetennant]

**** man I'm so excited! Fringe books are the best!

[Triple J]

What we've done is created eight-page original stories that will be made available free to our fanbase in the month of May. These stories will be inside the second month of "Convergence" monthly titles, these stories will be comprising our "Divergence" Free Comic Book Day comic, but at the same time, we're going to be making them available on the DC website, making them available for free through comiXology and all our other digital distributors, and our goal is to get these in as many hands as possible, so people get a real sense of sampling of what goes on here.

This is also awesome - useful if you are not planning to get Convergence issues.

If you get yourself into a grind with event after event, sooner or later, you're going to be only artificially propping up the sales of your books, and your line itself. Only the event is what's driving people, not the individual characters, and you're being forced to add more and more things in just to attract attention. The bigger win for us is to be able to rotate the crops a little bit. Replant the land, grow strong characters, and that way, when we build something else out of it, we have a much stronger base from which all these other stories can be told.

Every character existed and breathed in its own right, and when they crossed over, it was special. What we want to do is make those individual things special again.

We've got some major storylines taking place. The Batman story's going to play across the Batman books. The Superman's storyline's going to play across the Superman books. The Justice League storyline's going to have little one-shots, things like that, that are built around it and help support that. But the last thing we want to do right now is cross over a bunch of books, or remove them from our stands while we're trying to let them grow, and take form, and shape, and find their audience. We're giving everybody some running room to really be able to establish themselves, and to build themselves solid series.

This is great. Seems like Dan wants to avoid using cross over events so often.

[cranger]

So, all new #1s.

I can see how you inferred that but I think DiDio is just saying the continuing titles have to compete against all of the new (#1s) titles, while Lee is saying that every title needs to be striving to form a unique identity not just the new ones.

[Tom Reed]

I must admit that I do like most of what I am hearing. I do like more emphasis on individual storylines and less on crossovers. Let each title build it's own world as it also adds to the DC Universe. I am a bit worried that as a long time reader, I am starting to fade into the background and that my opinion does not count anymore like it once did.

[Triple J]

I can see how you inferred that but I think DiDio is just saying the continuing titles have to compete against all of the new (#1s) titles, while Lee is saying that every title needs to be striving to form a unique identity not just the new ones.

Ah, okay. I was a bit confused about that.

Thanks!

[JBatmanFan05]

I don't care for their ideas.

They continue to not have any clear strong interest in pre-FP titles for fans who prefer pre-FP. No diversity there.

[blackbolt396]

**** man I'm so excited! Fringe books are the best!

They always have been.

[Alucard2099]

I'm looking forward to a lot of stuff from DC but I'm a little wary isn't the point of a shared universe is to have continuity in the story telling?

[Joe Kalicki]

I must admit that I do like most of what I am hearing. I do like more emphasis on individual storylines and less on crossovers. Let each title build it's own world as it also adds to the DC Universe. I am a bit worried that as a long time reader, I am starting to fade into the background and that my opinion does not count anymore like it once did.

That's the danger of being old and having those hordes of youth take your place! The trick is to find the stuff you do like and read that. DC publishes about 70 books a month through all their imprints, there's definitely something for everybody.

[Gordonstar]

Not really. Prior to post crisis only Marvel itself was really tight with it.

[Lee Stone]

What I liked was their admitting that the problem with the 2011 reboot was everything being the same flavor. Basically what a lot of readers had been complaining about.
What I see is a new DC that is more receptive to their audience. And including the audience from all the various media in their considerations for new comics projects.