What about 26 titles, each published twice a month?

[Trey Strain]

Instead of publishing 52 titles a month, half of which don't sell, wouldn't it make more sense for DC to publish 26 titles that do sell and that come out twice a month each?

From the company's standpoint, wouldn't that work better?

And if your response is, "But I'd spend too much money on comics then," be aware that you're actually arguing in favor if DC's doing this.

[stephens2177]

I would be cool with this,but what would be the 26 titles?

[Factor]

Then the focus would be even more on the biggest titles and the other ones wouldn't be able to survive with a biweekly schedule.
Quality would also take a hit as there'd be even more fill-ins.
No, thank you.

[WillieMorgan]

Well, it's not the worst idea ever suggested on here.

The thing is, the likes of Martian Manhunter and Booster Gold, the characters that you've started threads about in the past looking for ways to 'fix'? They'd be doomed if DC did that.

Half of the 26 titles would be Batman related for a start.

[The Whovian]

I would be cool with this,but what would be the 26 titles?

Instead of 26 titles twice a month, just these 26 titles every month:

1. Pre-Flashpoint Batman
2. Pre-Flashpoint Detective Comics
3. Pre-Flashpoint Batman & Robin
4. Pre-Flashpoint Nightwing
5. Pre-Flashpoint Robin (Tim)
6. Pre-Flashpoint Batgirl (Steph)
7. Pre-Flashpoint Batwoman
8. Pre-Flashpoint Black Bat (Cass)
9. Pre-Flashpoint JLA (the big 7)
10. Pre-Flashpoint JSA
11. Pre-Flashpoint TT
12. Pre-Crisis Legion
13. Post-ZH Legion
14. GL
15. GLC
16. Pre-Flashpoint Flash (Wally)
17. New 52 Batman
18. New 52 Detective Comics
19. New 52 Batman & Robin
20. Grayson
21. Batgirl (Cass)
22. Robin - SOB (Damian)
23. Pre-Flashpoint Catwoman
24. New 52 JLA
25. New 52 Shazam
26. Pre-Flashpoint WW

[dan12456]

I'd rather get to read about less common characters once in a while. Even if they only get 12 issue runs.

[Carabas]

Bad idea.

Creative teams struggle with deadlines as it is.

[Lee Stone]

Bad idea.

Creative teams struggle with deadlines as it is.

Not if they used a "paint-by-numbers" method of a certain number of panels and length of story for every series.
Then they could just have an assembly line studio system, where one artist does the backgrounds for every comic, one artist does all the females, one does all the males, one group does special effects and coloring...
Then reduce the credits from listing the writer and artist to-
By DC Comics Studios.

They could list the actual writers and artists involved on the website, with a link in the comic for those interested.

[MajorHoy]

Instead of publishing 52 titles a month, half of which don't sell, wouldn't it make more sense for DC to publish 26 titles that do sell and that come out twice a month each?

From the company's standpoint, wouldn't that work better?

The silly little thing is, artists can only produce so much quality material at a time. Going from once a month to twice-a-month would require either rotating artists (either every other issue or every few issues, depending on lead time allowed FOR ART, not just lead time that's eaten up by the writer or others involved prior to the art, and would mean NO CHANGES after a certain point) or a drop in art quality, with either very basic art (think old Yogi Bear cartoons, where half the action is just the head moving from one side to the other) or crappy art (lower than a rushed Liefeld job).

Pass.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Not necessarily a bad idea, but it could be a logistic nightmare.

Then again, if there's one thing we can admire in Didio is how good he was at stablishing a a way for weekly comics - a format thought undoable until him - into a profitable reality.

So, considering this, it could be done. Personally, I think that the ideal way to do it would be giving artists more lead time, so the teams would only need to rotate at the end of each arc; but that would require some badass long-term planning.

The bad side is that the fringe, niche titles would probably just vanish, which means that that model could end up hurting DC trade sales (for stuff that sells better on trade than floppies).

Also, this may be just a question of habit, but I find it a little confusing. I remember just letting a lot of Waid's Daredevil and Hickman's Avengers pass me by just because it seemed to soon for them to come out. Not an issue for me (all digital), but it could be for physical customers.

[GlennSimpson]

I'd be good with a mixture of weekly titles and twice-a-month titles, with at least one of the weeklies being a "Showcase" type of book that rotates among the lesser characters.

[JasonTodd428]

I don't care for the idea myself. The weeklies we've had really don't fill me with much confidence that a twice a month schedule would work out well. There would be quality issues on the part of both writers and artists even with fill ins among other things. On a more personal note, I would definitely become a trade waiter with DC titles if they moved to double shipping schedule since keeping up with titles in such a scenario would be to expensive for me. When Marvel started double shipping I moved to reading trades for those titles the key word there being "reading". I didn't even buy those trades, I got them from the library and I would be doing the same for DC if they went that route. I also wouldn't like a mix of weeklies and twice a month books either for the same reasons. I'd rather they just stick to what their doing for now or maybe have a mix of monthly, twice a month and the occasional weekly that way everyone can get their books in the amount they want.

[Ascended]

I think the idea has its good points and bad points.

On the one hand, you'd have to adjust your schedule and make allowances for twice the content per month. So you'd have to rotate artists, limit the number of titles a writer can have at a time, and plan much further ahead than DC seems to. This would also make dealing with unexpected events a lot harder. Your artist breaks his arm? You dont have nearly as much time to get a new artist to finish the issue. Something happens in the real world which puts your next issue in really bad taste, you have no time to re-write the script.

Perhaps instead of shipping a twenty page book once a month for four bucks, you ship a ten page book twice a month for two bucks a piece.

I also dont mind the idea of an art studio, where art chores are broken down across several people who all contribute portions of the whole. But again you find yourself with new logistical problems for every problem such a scenario would solve.

[Güicho]

Instead of publishing 52 titles a month, half of which don't sell, wouldn't it make more sense for DC to publish 26 titles that do sell and that come out twice a month each?

As of Sep. DC's top 26 selling ongoings.

1- BATMAN #44
2- BATMAN ANNUAL #4 ?
3- JUSTICE LEAGUE #44
4- HARLEY QUINN #20
5- DETECTIVE COMICS #44
6- SUPERMAN #44
7- BATMAN SUPERMAN #24
8- GREEN LANTERN #44
9- ROBIN SON OF BATMAN #4
10- ACTION COMICS #44
11- WONDER WOMAN #44
12- FLASH #44
13- HARLEY QUINN & POWER GIRL #4
14- NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #12
15- SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #21
16- GRAYSON #12
17- DEATHSTROKE #10
18- BATMAN BEYOND #4
19- BATGIRL #44
20- STARFIRE #4
21- AQUAMAN #44
22- GREEN ARROW #44
23- EARTH 2 SOCIETY #4
24- BLACK CANARY #4
25- WE ARE ROBIN #4
26- RED HOOD ARSENAL #4

And Aug.

1- BATMAN #43
2- JUSTICE LEAGUE #43
3- JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #3
4- HARLEY QUINN #19
5- DETECTIVE COMICS #43
6- SUPERMAN #43
7- BATMAN SUPERMAN #23
8- GREEN LANTERN #43
9- ACTION COMICS #43
10- FLASH #43
11- WONDER WOMAN #43
12- HARLEY QUINN & POWER GIRL #3
13- SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #20
14- ROBIN SON OF BATMAN #3
15- NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #11
16- DEATHSTROKE #9
17- GRAYSON #11
18- BATMAN ARKHAM KNIGHT GENESIS #1
19- TEEN TITANS #11
20- BATGIRL #43
21- BATMAN BEYOND #3
22- AQUAMAN #43
23- STARFIRE #3
24- GREEN ARROW #43
25- CYBORG #2
26- EARTH 2 SOCIETY #3

If you are looking at coldly cutting off the fat, these are their top sellers of late.
It is obviously Batman heavy but still actually a somewhat diverse line.

Most artist and some writers probably can't deliver 2 books a month though.

And while these titles are safe, they have their loyal audience, that's great!
You lose many vehicles for newer and experimental titles to find that new audience.
You need those odd ball, diversity, experimental titles, even if they are cut after 6 issues, because sometimes something worthwhile new comes out of there.

[SmokeMonster]

What about a new system where teams finish most of their 6 issue arc beforehand, then they're released weekly.

It it sells, the team could be asked to return for the next arc. There'd be a gap, but no longer than if the 6 issues were released monthly. No different to when people wait anxiously between tv seasons.

People are used to getting an hour of tv a week. 15 minutes of story every month is an outdated system that doesnt make for the most engaging experience imo.