The Uncanny Omar's relationship with DC Comics versus Marvel Comics for upcoming books
Many of us here undoubtedly get our information about upcoming releases from The Uncanny Omar, aka [Near Mint Condition](
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUX...zQaKJKBaqzuNdg). As many of you know, he does quite a few videos about upcoming Marvel collections. He hardly does any for DC, though.
The Brave and the Boys podcast recently [interviewed](
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0opx8DPFZY) The Uncanny Omar and the topic came up. Here's what he had to say (transcribed from the video) from [22:59](
https://youtu.be/M0opx8DPFZY?t=1378) to 31:25:
>**Omar**: The guy that used to run it, Hank, he contacted me... really nice guy, really good friends with Rob Leifeld and the Image guys, that's where he got his start. [...] He was like their David Gabriel. But the way that DC does things [and] the way that Marvel does things is night and day. It's not about me being a Marvel fanboy, it's just... that's a fair statement to make. My phone calls with everyone there were a nightmare. It was four months of somebody saying "you need to talk to so and so." This is after Hank said "this is your guy." He'd put me in touch with somebody. I'll leave names out to protect the innocent, but none of these people work there anymore. So I would call so and so and we'd have a conversation, I was so excited (and I'll never forget this), I said, "okay, one of the things I love to do is—I get to announce things by Marvel ahead of time. I would love to do that with you all." And he was like "yeah man, that's cool. You can look on Amazon to see what books we have." Like I swear.... my heart broke a lot. If the guy in the collected editions department is telling me to go to Amazon... I kind of stopped asking questions. It was like, I think when most people think I reach out them they're like, "okay, this guy wants free books." And for me that was never the thing, the goal. I wanted an in to make suggestions or to change things. I feel like I have that relationship with Marvel... David is really cool. [...] I'm free to suggest adding books to the mapping of a certain omnibus if I think it adds to the story and they'll discuss it. Whereas with DC, I think for the longest time, I swear this is what happened, so for three months I'd talk to different people—"you need to talk to so and so," "oh this is whatshername, you need to talk to her, she's the one in charge of this"—none of them knew. What they ended up doing was sending me Superman Golden Age Omnibus Vol. 2, which is six years old, and I was like, "is this what they think that I want? I want a free Golden Age omnibus that came out six years ago?" I did an overview of the book and ended up giving it away. But then they started sending me things. But they wouldn't answer questions—which is cool! Getting stuff early was awesome, but the end goal was me having a connection with them and having a voice for the masses.
>**Interviewers**: I think the important thing is that DC needs it the most. As DC omnibuses/collected edition fans, we understand the disrepancy [between DC and Marvel]. It can sometimes feel like DC doesn't have a consistent plan or vision and it can be discouraging.
>**Omar**: [...] I'll never forget Hank reaching out to me. [...] He asked me, he's like, "hey, I just want your honest opinion. We're thinking about doing Starman in compendium format," because they'd just cancelled the Starman omnibus. "What do you think if we gave them two compendiums? If we promise to do it?" I told him "people will buy those, because people want these stories they read 20-30 years ago in the best possible format. That's why your absolute editions sell so well." [..] So two months goes by, they announce the compendium, and then Hank and lots of people lost their jobs at Warner Bros/DC. [...] That department is a mess.
So, this is a paraphrase—there are some gaps that I didn't think were relevant—but I highly recommend watching at least this short snippet if you're curious about this like I was. Especially since I didn't capture everything that was said. It's a neat interview.