DC Comics Taking Some Series Bi-Weekly in 2016

[RobinFan4880]

Harley?

The Gotham Academy girls?

Aquaman & WW probably as movie time arrives.

Gotham Academy sells like poop in print

Aquaman is a candidate. WW needs a new writer if they want the double shipped title to work.

[Trey Strain]

Here you go.

http://community.comicbookresources....-twice-a-month

[solletaire]

I think it's safe to say that it did what it was supposed to do, but it was never intended to be the driving force of sales 4 years later. At some point, it stops being a factor.

Oh, yes, I completely agree that it could not drive sales for 4 years and that it provided a great boost to DC when it launched. I would be more curious to know what people who know more about the industry than me thought DC' current line would look like or what readers' reception to the line would look like if the DC was not rebooted with the New 52.

Instead post-flashpoint series re-launched with new number 1s, new creative, new status quo, but still retained the history of these properties albeit with some tweaks.

Would readers be more keen to buy books with characters that have a rich history interacting with each other or do readers prefer more of a blank slate when it comes to the characters' histories? And most importantly if the creative spent less time re-telling stories from its storied history and re-introducing old characters and their origins and more time on new concepts?

Would it have benefited DC to start small i.e. re-invent key properties first and gradually add new elements to its mythos?

Does having all these limited series and ongoings that have nothing to do with the shared universe help attract new readers?

In our day and age should DC still continue to manage its IPs by managing a title and making sure it lasts as long as possible or should they switch (much like Marvel has done and the Batman line is attempting to do) to managing characters and curating their publishing line around the best way to continue a character's story?

[Lee Stone]

Probably Batman and Justice League.

I'm not expecting much, tbh, these printed bi-weekly or weeklies always end up suffering in pacing or art.

That's what I'm expecting, too.
Double-shipping the only two books that sell good will increase their monthly market share.
Also, if they double-ship any new titles, the second issues will have better sales because they act more like a #1.5.

JLA will probably go on a hiatus while Hitch catches up and then be double-shipped in its first month back.

[Starchild]

My coworkers at the comic book shop often say that DC should just quit comics altogether, because nothing seems to be working for them. Day by day, I'm actually starting to agree with them. Maybe they would have been better off if Marvel purchased them back in the 80's. They shouldn't have to wait until movies come out in order to do something with their books. I would love it if some of my favorite titles got the bi-weekly treatment (Green Arrow, Flash, Red Hood/Arsenal, Omega Men) but I doubt it. After all, dc is the Batman and Justice League company right?

[SuperiorNova]

I've got to blame consumers more so than the company, they're just trying what seems to be working.

Recipe to DC's success: Batgwen ongoing, Supergwen "party" issues, and yearly series renumberings. You win. If it were possible, getting Star Wars would help too. The rest of the books don't matter.

[SuperiorNova]

My coworkers at the comic book shop often say that DC should just quit comics altogether, because nothing seems to be working for them. Day by day, I'm actually starting to agree with them. Maybe they would have been better off if Marvel purchased them back in the 80's. They shouldn't have to wait until movies come out in order to do something with their books. I would love it if some of my favorite titles got the bi-weekly treatment (Green Arrow, Flash, Red Hood/Arsenal, Omega Men) but I doubt it. After all, dc is the Batman and Justice League company right?

Its kind of silly to blame DC for that. They're actually trying to push new characters and teams, people just DON'T buy them. All they can do is give people what they want, even if what they want is something that's on comic book shelves and being ignored.

[Trey Strain]

I also first got the idea that they should reboot their universe, and for a long time I was the only person on the old DC boards who was calling for them to do that. In the face of a hell of a lot of trolling over it too, I might add. They've never thanked me for all the money they made off that either.

Heh, heh.

Anyway, it'll be a little tricky for them to pull these biweeklies off. They're going to need at least two pencilers on each biweekly comic. It would help there if they'd use the same inker and cover artist on each issue of a title. They'd get at least some artistic consistency that way.

You're welcome for that idea too, DC.

[JasonTodd428]

What a nice Christmas present this is! Not. Sorry DC but I don't buy double shipped titles from Marvel so I sure as heck won't be doing so for you either. Whatever titles that are currently on my pull that end up being double shipped will be summarily dropped and will be regulated to the trade wait pile.

[My Two Cents]

Feels like D C plans to rope-a-dope Marvel for a few months

[Lee Stone]

Its kind of silly to blame DC for that. They're actually trying to push new characters and teams, people just DON'T buy them. All they can do is give people what they want, even if what they want is something that's on comic book shelves and being ignored.

I dunno... they could probably put Paul Levitz, Dan Abnett, Peter Milligan or another not-a-celebrity-but-still-a-competent writer on Justice League, since it'll sell regardless...
And put Johns on Suicide Squad... or some other property that needs help.

Or maybe instead of tapping Morrison or Miller for books that have no bearing on their universe, they could get them to do a mini-series or event that spills over into their regular line of comics.

[bishop88]

i know marvel has done this first but recently marvel as been letting up on keeping up this as a regular thing . I really hope now marvel goes back to producing 18 issues a year on their bigger books. beacuse speaking as a retailer sure we all love diversity and diffrent genre books but honestly even as succesful as all new marvel has been not naming books but theres a lot of garbage being produced thats doesnt sell worth a damn. Much rather have a guarenteed 2 issues of amazing 2 issues of x-men every month than some of these lesser titles

[solletaire]

Its kind of silly to blame DC for that. They're actually trying to push new characters and teams, people just DON'T buy them. All they can do is give people what they want, even if what they want is something that's on comic book shelves and being ignored.

I agree that DC shouldn't be blamed for potentially adopting a safe strategy... BUT

Then DC should ask themselves WHY are people not buying the new characters they are trying to push? What are they doing wrong so much that their new characters consistently fail to connect with audiences? Having in mind that DC does not make comic books for the sake of making comic books (they are in fact making comic books for people to read), it's even more silly to blame the audience for not buying their product, imo... When an entertainment product does not connect with its intended audience, the people who are producing the product are at fault...

Edit: Why did DC not take advantage of the Supergirl show to launch a Supergirl ongoing series? At the same time DC felt it's a good time to launch Telos ongoing? A series that pulled 11K on its SECOND issue! What was that all bout?

[Dzetoun]

The other difference with weeklies is the weeklies generally tell one story from beginning to end, while the bi-weekly books would still be 4-6 issue arcs. So that's much easier to coordinate, I would think. As long as you know about any major changes set to occur (if any) at the end of each arc and account for it in the next one.

I'm mildly curious how you start doing this, though. I would imagine the writer has to work ahead further than previously planned, which could take a while, or they have to have a guest writer do an arc while the regular writer gets ahead. Something like that. In other words, this doesn't seem like something you could do with less than 4-5 months notice.

True about the timing. But we know from solicits that this isn't going to happen before April. I doubt the leak was accidental, either. So a 4-5 month head start may be what we are looking at, especially considering we don't know how long this has been in the works.

[Deniz Camp]

Here's hoping this new initiative comes as part of a soft revitalization for some of those books which have fallen out of fan favor -- Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Earth 2, Aquaman, Teen Titans, etc.