DC Comics Coming To Webtoon

[Frontier]

I think a pure romance comic would be to "off-brand" for most of there characters, I think they will have to mix it up with some other genre if they go in that direction.

Probably would need a Superhero spin, but I think there are definitely characters or couples where you can spin it easily into a Superhero romance comic.

[Aahz]

Probably would need a Superhero spin, but I think there are definitely characters or couples where you can spin it easily into a Superhero romance comic.

Question is if that will get you the people who are interested in Romance Comics. Or if you end up with something that neither the superhero comic fans nor the romance comic fans are interested in.

And even if you get the audience for the romance comics, if there is any chance to bring them over to more main continuity version of the character.

[Frontier]

Question is if that will get you the people who are interested in Romance Comics. Or if you end up with something that neither the superhero comic fans nor the romance comic fans are interested in.

And even if you get the audience for the romance comics, if there is any chance to bring them over to more main continuity version of the character.

I feel like there is more of an intersection in those audiences than one would expect. Especially for webtoon where I've seen stuff that kind of straddles the line like that.

I don't think we should be expecting the webtoon audience to jump into the main comics.

[Mantis-Ray]

Raising profile is a decent enough goal I think. Generally speaking the Bat-brands strength stems from the fact DC consistently supports the franchise with constant installments.

Like WFA has wrapped up a first season with 51 chapters. That is more issues than most books nowadays get. If Vixen and Zatanna manage to get up to like 40 chapters then thats a good boon for those characters. Even they don't become Batman level successes, anything helps and there's nothing wrong with being a mid-level success.

The consistency helps with the branding which could mean stuff further down the line. The Outlaws comic for instance while ostensibly is named after a Batman character, also uplifts both the Superman and Wonder Woman brand through the major inclusion of Bizarro and Artemis. It helps grow the Outlaws brand and who knows maybe we'll get like an Outlaws movie or show, that will definitely include Bizarro and Artemis.

Granted if this wasn't profitable to some degree I feel like DC wouldn't be going all in on this so presumably its doing well for them.

[dietrich]

Raising profile is a decent enough goal I think. Generally speaking the Bat-brands strength stems from the fact DC consistently supports the franchise with constant installments.

Like WFA has wrapped up a first season with 51 chapters. That is more issues than most books nowadays get. If Vixen and Zatanna manage to get up to like 40 chapters then thats a good boon for those characters. Even they don't become Batman level successes, anything helps and there's nothing wrong with being a mid-level success.

The consistency helps with the branding which could mean stuff further down the line. The Outlaws comic for instance while ostensibly is named after a Batman character, also uplifts both the Superman and Wonder Woman brand through the major inclusion of Bizarro and Artemis. It helps grow the Outlaws brand and who knows maybe we'll get like an Outlaws movie or show, that will definitely include Bizarro and Artemis.

Granted if this wasn't profitable to some degree I feel like DC wouldn't be going all in on this so presumably its doing well for them.

I agree with all the above.

Familiarity and higher profile amongst non comic readers can be translated into future financial gains. It's not just bout short term gains.

[skyvolt2000]

I feel that these webtoons are more to raise the profile. Just like movies these webtoons I'm not confident translate into actual sales.

First you gotta have MATERIAL to sell.

Which when you deal OUTSIDE of comics becomes an issue.

DC Super Hero Girl had Bumblebee. What was there to read about HER?

New 52 Justice League in terms of solos-what material did Cyborg have? At least with say All New All Different Avengers everyone on the team had a solo or solo material.

I mean we have seen what a movie or tv show will do to trades.

Marvel lost a LOT of money with Marvel Truth NOT in print when Eli Bradley's Granddad was on Falcon & Winter Solider.

Think of how much the Boys and Invincible are making now. Static just RUMORED to have a movie show his old stuff jump in price.

[CPSparkles]

First you gotta have MATERIAL to sell.

Which when you deal OUTSIDE of comics becomes an issue.

DC Super Hero Girl had Bumblebee. What was there to read about HER?

New 52 Justice League in terms of solos-what material did Cyborg have? At least with say All New All Different Avengers everyone on the team had a solo or solo material.

I mean we have seen what a movie or tv show will do to trades.

Marvel lost a LOT of money with Marvel Truth NOT in print when Eli Bradley's Granddad was on Falcon & Winter Solider.

Think of how much the Boys and Invincible are making now. Static just RUMORED to have a movie show his old stuff jump in price.

Agree that it would be ideal for there to be a fair amount of source material for fans to jump on to but that doesn't change the fact that 99% of the time it doesn't translate in comic sales.

You just cherry picked. Aquaman, WW and Black Panther aren't flying off the shelves and this is also true to pretty much most comic characters who have broken through and had success in outside media.

Virgil just had a 6 issue mini recently. I don't think the announcements affected interest in that.

WW, Harley, batgirl are all head liners on DCSHGs. They all have plenty of comics yet those fans of DCsHG aren't seeking out the material in a significant way. [Are they even old enough]

[Aahz]

I agree with all the above.

Familiarity and higher profile amongst non comic readers can be translated into future financial gains. It's not just bout short term gains.

I just don't think that the 70K/140K views per episode of Vixen and Zatanna are even remotely enough to do that. And I think a good number of the people who read these stories are already comic readers, or at least are aware of these characters due to other media.

I mean have any other (non DC) Webtoons comics, sofar really translated into anything outside of Webtoons.

[Rac7d*]

So small update in this regard, now that WFA has finished it's first season:

WFA has now 53,9 million views with 51 chapters, so about 1.06 million views per chapter.

Vixen has 1 million views with 14 chapters, so about 71.4K views per chapter.

Zatanna has 1 million views with 7 chapters, so about 143K views per chapter.

So Zatanna has twice as manv views as Vixen per chapter, and WFA hast 14-15 times as many as Vixen.

Redhood is very quickly outpacing the latter two

[millernumber1]

I wonder if the success of these would have DC consider making their own, in-continuity, webtoons. At the very least, considering a digital format for books they aren't convinced would sell well in non-trade physical format.

Will these books ever be recounted in print or not? I think that would help provide evidence about the potential success of digital-to-trade.

I think if they could figure out a way to connect a Webtoon with an in continuity book, it might be good - maybe "buy a copy of this comic at your local comic store, with bonus material" or something? But editorial on that would be very difficult, given the very different schedule and pipeline that a normal comic and a webtoon issue go through. Though they do have normal comic editing staff doing editing for at least some of these webtoons.

So small update in this regard, now that WFA has finished it's first season:

WFA has now 53,9 million views with 51 chapters, so about 1.06 million views per chapter.

Vixen has 1 million views with 14 chapters, so about 71.4K views per chapter.

Zatanna has 1 million views with 7 chapters, so about 143K views per chapter.

So Zatanna has twice as manv views as Vixen per chapter, and WFA hast 14-15 times as many as Vixen.

Seems not too unexpected. Zatanna seems perhaps the most "natural" fit for Webtoon's brand in terms of main character and type of content they're using for this story. I think it was very smart of the team on Vixen to put Batman pretty early. Not quite sure why they've chosen to focus as heavily on Grace - even though I'm very glad to see her, as a fan of Dixon's run on the Outsiders, it feels like they might have gotten a bigger draw by using more Beast Boy. Though I'm sure he's coming later down the pipe.

I'm very glad they're doing a big variety of stuff, though! Slice of life, slice of life with adventure, lost in time adventure, and wacky road trip adventure. This is the kind of thing I think DC should also be doing with their hard copy publication - maybe not in the Direct Market, but in the OGNs they've been pumping out. Instead, it's mostly angsty teen angstfests, which I think is a huge mistake. And the things that seem to be selling best - Primer and the Kami Garcia Teen Titans series - are focusing much more on happier, more positive content (though of course the Garcia Teen Titans books also do deal with heavier issues - but they're not unrelentingly angsty like Mera Tidebreaker or Nora and Freeze and most of the rest of the content - and I liked Mera Tidebreaker - I just think the overfocus on one tone and one genre is a huge mistake.)

They should make DC Universe Infinite exclusive comics, it’s what Marvel does.

I really don't think that's a good idea. I am a subscriber to DCUI, but that's a diehard fan platform, as is MU. Webtoons is a casual fan platform, and that is what DC needs desperately.

Aquaman/Mera webtoon would be kickass.

Ooooh, that would be pretty cool. You could do a romance webtoon, or a The Crown-style royalty webtoon (reminds me a lot of Levelling My Husband To The Max and a few others)!

All the main Leaguers should get one. A GL one that’s just the GLs teaming up and bantering with each other would do well I’d wager.

I get that DC is testing the market with both a trustworthy Big Hit and Experimental Pieces, but I do hope that something similar to WFA is coming for at least Wondy and Supes.

Icv2 isn't to be trusted for example for Robin #15 which was released on the 28th the website used just 2 days worth of sales to represent the sales for the whole month.

Icv2 the wrong place to go if you want a pictures of how comics are selling. They straight up lie.

I feel that these webtoons are more to raise the profile. Just like movies these webtoons I'm not confident translate into actual sales.

The webtoons don't translate into sales of the floppies, but like the newsstands in supermarkets, they get the characters in front of eyeballs, so when they see a trade in Walmart or Barnes and Noble, they'll think, "Oh, I liked that character on webtoons, maybe I'll check out a book of them". Plus action figures!

Question what for an effect this "raised profile" will have.

I don't think that the webtoon audience is really into buying action figures and other collectibles. And the audience is likely still to small to really have an effect on movies and games.

In case of Red Hood and the Outlaws, you might get some people to check out the trades of the rebirth run and might them to pick books should they ever continue that team, but Vixen and Zatanna don't really have much when it comes to solo comics, and I'm not even sure at what comics you could point people that got in by WFA.

The webtoon audience as a whole probably not. But enough would be out of a million that action figures sales could go up! It's certainly more eyeballs on characters like Vixen, Constantine, Stephanie Brown, and others than have been for a long time. Cassandra Cain and Duke Thomas and Zatanna have cartoons that get them in front of eyeballs (or will soon), but this is the kind of thing that gets people curious, I think.

Probably would need a Superhero spin, but I think there are definitely characters or couples where you can spin it easily into a Superhero romance comic.

One of my absolute favorite comics is Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane by Sean McKeever and Takeshi Miyazawa - I don't see why a Superman Loves Lois Lane webtoon couldn't work like gangbusters! Or Aquaman Loves Mera. Or heck, Beast Boy Loves Raven - that book sold like hotcakes!

Raising profile is a decent enough goal I think. Generally speaking the Bat-brands strength stems from the fact DC consistently supports the franchise with constant installments.

Like WFA has wrapped up a first season with 51 chapters. That is more issues than most books nowadays get. If Vixen and Zatanna manage to get up to like 40 chapters then thats a good boon for those characters. Even they don't become Batman level successes, anything helps and there's nothing wrong with being a mid-level success.

The consistency helps with the branding which could mean stuff further down the line. The Outlaws comic for instance while ostensibly is named after a Batman character, also uplifts both the Superman and Wonder Woman brand through the major inclusion of Bizarro and Artemis. It helps grow the Outlaws brand and who knows maybe we'll get like an Outlaws movie or show, that will definitely include Bizarro and Artemis.

Granted if this wasn't profitable to some degree I feel like DC wouldn't be going all in on this so presumably its doing well for them.

I think it's not quite fair to say that WFA had 51 chapters and that's more than most books today. I think each chapter is more like about half a floppy in terms of content - so we're talking about more like 25.5 issues of a comic. Still a respectable number for sure, but not the same as a 4 year run of floppies.

That being said, a million eyeballs on each episode is 10x what even the best selling comic has gotten for decades. And even 80k eyeballs for Vixen or Zatanna is a great thing!

All the interviews seem to indicate that DC hired these creative teams when they first made their plans, so I think the four webtoons we have gotten we always would have gotten - but I think they are feeling a pretty good success from it.

[Frontier]

One of my absolute favorite comics is Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane by Sean McKeever and Takeshi Miyazawa - I don't see why a Superman Loves Lois Lane webtoon couldn't work like gangbusters! Or Aquaman Loves Mera. Or heck, Beast Boy Loves Raven - that book sold like hotcakes!.

I too love Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane and would love more series like that .

(Though we are getting the My Adventures with Superman cartoon which is advertised as a romcom...)

[millernumber1]

I too love Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane and would love more series like that .

(Though we are getting the My Adventures with Superman cartoon which is advertised as a romcom...)

That could indeed be something similar! But I'm a comics guy more than a cartoon guy. So a webtoon would be right down my alley.

[thefinalguy]

Honestly, a romance-leaning book could easily work, especially in this format. There are a bunch of iconic couples they can utilize. It's just a matter of who.

Go the simple route with Lois and Clark. Add a little spice with the Bat and Cat. Iconic couples like DickKory or GA&BC. More recent couples like Harley and Ivy. Dig into lesser-known couples like Midnighter and Apollo or John Stewart and Fatality.

An anthology series could be a remedy.

[Vakanai]

Look, Webtoons is never going to translate to comic book sales - and it doesn't need to. Raising the image of other heroes has nothing to do with "our" comic books, our books are a non-factor - comic books is a diminishing market as is, it's not gonna grow. The point is raising the profile of characters so they can help make money elsewhere - merchandise. YA books, t-shirts, toys, key chains, coffee mugs, dolls, fuzzy slippers, whatever. Bumblebee was on DCSHG, she doesn't have a comic book true, but hey if some girls bought her dolls then WBD got money. That's the point of all these other appearances in other media outside our floppies and trades. It's never been about expanding our corner of book geekdom, it's about making money everywhere else. And there's nothing wrong with that. If the Vixen and Zatanna webtoons means that they don't see much comic book sales growth, but they still get some webtoons fans who enjoyed their webtoons comics and maybe buys a shirt with one of them on it later because it makes them feel good because they enjoyed the webtoon, I'd still say that's a win. Not everything is about increasing readership in the books we love - just getting the characters we love out there is pretty sweet regardless.

[Vakanai]

Honestly, a romance-leaning book could easily work, especially in this format. There are a bunch of iconic couples they can utilize. It's just a matter of who.

Go the simple route with Lois and Clark. Add a little spice with the Bat and Cat. Iconic couples like DickKory or GA&BC. More recent couples like Harley and Ivy. Dig into lesser-known couples like Midnighter and Apollo or John Stewart and Fatality.

An anthology series could be a remedy.

I'm looking forward to the My Adventures with Superman cartoon more than just about anything else going on in this world right now precisely because it's pitched as a romcom first, with action. Romance can definitely easily work. People like romance, and it's weird sometimes to me that there's a section of comic readers who want to push so hard against that. Superheroes are primarily about action sure, but they've never just been about action. The soap opera elements have been there longer than any of us have been alive, the romance elements are part of the genre.