Geoff's New Kill Zone Imprint

[Trey Strain]

I love the idea of giving more page time to characters that don’t get as much attention as they may deserve.



Good call. Stargirl will most likely be one of the heroes he uses.

I appreciate that Geoff has been an advocate of the Doom Patrol over the years. There’s an example of lesser known characters that he’s realized could be more marketable. Leading to the Doom Patrol getting their own tv show.

Some other characters I would love to see used:

The Creeper: he’s a mix of The Joker and Spider-Man and was created by Steve Ditko. I’ve always felt that there was so much potential with this character.

The Question: we’ve heard that Bendis is going to use him in his Superman run, so maybe that will increase his profile a bit.

The Guardian, Steel, Commander Steel, Amazing Man, Gangbuster, Ambush Bug

There’s too many to list.

Let me copy and paste my original proposals.



The Justice Society in the Forties and Fifties.

The street-level JSA members in a team title with Batman.

The Charlton characters in a team title, minus Captain Atom because he's too powerful.

Captain Atom.

The Brave and the Bold as a teamup of Wonder Woman and Power Girl.

Batgirl, Catwoman and the Huntress in a title.

A recurring Elseworlds title.

Metal Men.

Hard Traveling Heroes starring Dick Grayson and Conor Hawke.

A teamup of the Elongated Man and Plastic Man.

A team title with all the Atoms.

A sci-fi anthonlgy.

A DC-Marvel co-production of Sgt. Rock and Sgt. Fury.

Blackhawk.

Spy Smasher.

Etrigan the Demon.

Deadman.

Metamorpho.

Doctor Fate.

The Martian Manhunter.

Sandman Mystery Theater.

[WallyWestFlash]

Pretty excited about this. Johns is a great writer but more importantly he LOVES the DC universe.

Glad he's back on the comic scene. Not too excited about the name. Kill Zone is pretty foreboding.

But I love the DC icon, throwback to DC's best era.

kz-red-blue-distressed1-1024x1024-1-768x768.jpg

[Ascended]

First, this is probably a stupid question, but what is a pop-up imprint?

Supposedly, he's going to write some lesser known DC characters. Which ones would you use or want to see being used in this imprint?

Do you think Geoff is going to hire other writers to write other titles?

My hope is that Johns pulls out characters I would never think of. When the time comes to start announcing the titles for this imprint, I want to be saying "Oh damn, I never even thought about that character! Interesting!"

Of course, Stargirl is probably a sure thing. She's not showing up anywhere, and that's a very special character for Johns. But beyond her? I don't even want to guess.

And if this is going to be an actual imprint, he's gonna need to bring in other writers. Not many writers out there who can actually manage to write a half dozen titles at once. Kirby could've done it (and drawn, colored, inked, edited, and lettered all of them too) but that dude wasn't human; he was a gift sent by the comic book gods to show us the way to glory.

[PyroTwilight]

My idea was for a label of recurring minis for lower-tier characters, which is something I've never seen done. Maybe you have.

Is Geoff doing something different from that? Besides apparently publishing fewer of them than I had proposed, and a different publishing sked?

The difference I can see is that I called it DC Specials and he calls it The Kill Zone. I think my name is better.

Your idea wasn't even for a line. Just recurring minis. And minis in of themselves especially in the modern day are largely aimed at characters who either A) Don't have their own normal book and are thus "minor" B) A super important character DC wants to make a book of but not derail the main book of.

Even the set up is different as it sounds like a temporary venture (thus a pop up line) which just necessitates a titles being a mini (but even that's not clear as we know virtually nothing about the line yet).

[Frontier]

Stargirl is probably a good bet since she’s a character really close to Geoff’s heart.

Unless she ends up back with the JSA.

It's not enough if that is the only place you see them.

Because there is no assurance that the book will be in a comic book store or book store.

And then you have the echo chamber who will have no trouble adding that line to "these books are killing comic book stores and we need to act a FOOL about it."

I would be more open if it was more than just HIM writing the books.

I've always been under the impression that these kind of "prestige" imprints do very well in comic book stores and book stores compared to regular comics.

I also think we'll have to wait and see whether this imprint is just for stuff Johns write. I'll be kind of surprised if that is the case.

[nickytesla96]

Awesome! My main reason with being so disinterested Rebirth was that it was mostly Bat-, Super-, and Big Seven characters. But I'm really happy with DC's imprint focus.

[Trey Strain]

Your idea wasn't even for a line. Just recurring minis. And minis in of themselves especially in the modern day are largely aimed at characters who either A) Don't have their own normal book and are thus "minor" B) A super important character DC wants to make a book of but not derail the main book of.

Even the set up is different as it sounds like a temporary venture (thus a pop up line) which just necessitates a titles being a mini (but even that's not clear as we know virtually nothing about the line yet).

How is this not a line that I proposed? Of course it was a line.

***

I'd do 12-24 a year. You could sell six of them out of just one bin in the comics shops.

I wouldn't call them minis. I'd call the DC Specials or something like that.

**

I know it's hard work to CLICK ON A LINK AND ACTUALLY READ A PROPOSAL before you say there was no proposal, but you should do that or refrain from such pronouncements.

I didn't say to just "publish minis." Why would I say that, since they already do it, and why would people then discuss it?

Or maybe when I say DC should launch a designated line of minis for lower-tier characters, then it's not a proposal, but when Geoff says it with a different name, then it is a proposal.

Nobody dismissed the idea as something that DC was somehow already doing, until you just now did that. People saw it was a new thing and were interested in it.

[Korath]

I have a feeling the Johns will use the characters he teased in the back-up of Doomsday clock 5. Most of them fit the bill for the new imprint and could allow for an organic extension of the DCU outside of the US while not killing more obscure US heroes to be used later on.

[ross61]

It's not enough if that is the only place you see them.

Because there is no assurance that the book will be in a comic book store or book store.

And then you have the echo chamber who will have no trouble adding that line to "these books are killing comic book stores and we need to act a FOOL about it."

I would be more open if it was more than just HIM writing the books.

Of course these books are going to be in comic/book stores wtf

[stephens2177]

This imprint will be where superboy prime kills all the minor characters DC hardly uses

[scary harpy]

This imprint will be where superboy prime kills all the minor characters DC hardly uses

If so, this series will have to be in print for a decade - at least!

[Ascended]

I have a feeling the Johns will use the characters he teased in the back-up of Doomsday clock 5. Most of them fit the bill for the new imprint and could allow for an organic extension of the DCU outside of the US while not killing more obscure US heroes to be used later on.

I'd be down for that. It's always fun to explore some of the other regions in the DCU and I'd love to see some stories set in China or Khandaq or Biyala (spelling?). Khandaq especially always struck me as a fascinating setting. I mean, Black Adam is like the Doctor Doom of DC; he's *almost* noble, and he genuinely cares for his nation, but he'll never be the hero he believes he is.

[Robotman]

I'd be down for that. It's always fun to explore some of the other regions in the DCU and I'd love to see some stories set in China or Khandaq or Biyala (spelling?). Khandaq especially always struck me as a fascinating setting. I mean, Black Adam is like the Doctor Doom of DC; he's *almost* noble, and he genuinely cares for his nation, but he'll never be the hero he believes he is.

Good comparison. Geoff is a big reason why Black Adam is as awesome as he is. Would love to see him write a mini series.

[Sandy Hausler]

I'd like to see Black Orchid (faithful to her original conception), Bulleteer and the Creeper.

Sandy Hausler

[Flash Gordon]

I hope he does some pulp action hero Aquaman stuff. Anything Aquaman related, really.