Layoffs at DC?

[Restingvoice]

Yes, it's branded character no matter what so there will be ground rules.

Back to the countries
I remember China's had art movies and dramas about homosexuality
They're the tragic, Brokeback types of course
I don't know about the current one

[Crazy Diamond]

I'm sure there will be a few ground rules, "No letting Batman eat babies" and whatever. And there *should* be a small handful of ground rules, because DC is hoping to translate and print some of this stuff in the States if it does well overseas. The best case scenario is a book doing well in foreign markets then getting shipped over here so DC can profit off it multiple times.

But generally, and this will piss people off, but generally it'd be in DC's best interests to stay the hell out of the way and let those creators create. It's not the place of business to decide what is morally correct, despite what some people think (I have studied this concept *so* damn much I'm sick of it, CSR is mostly just marketing to make you think a company gives a sh*t so you'll buy their product), so I'd rather not see DC judge these other cultures by our own standards. Outside of a few basic ground rules.

Like, just to get away from using Japan as an example like we keep doing, I've known a ton of folks from Jamaica, and almost every single one of them was super homophobic. That, I guess, is basically the norm there (maybe not, I'm just speaking from my own experience and conversations, so let's pretend its true). And I don't agree with it, at all, on any level. But that's not my culture, and if a Jamaican creator writes a Batwoman story where Kate is straight? I won't like that, but it doesn't matter what I think because I'm not the target audience.

Instead off having a Jamaican creator write a story with any Batman character, it would be better to let that creator do an original story of their own. I mean, when Alan Moore worked for DC he wrote stories for Superman, Batman, Swamp Thing, and Green Lantern but he also came up with John Constantine. That character later got his own book Hellblazer with Jamie Delano. It wouldn't be very interesting to basically just have creators around the world writing stories for existing characters all the time.

As far as a business deciding what's morally correct, seems to me they're going to be motivated by their bottom line so if some hypothetical creator were to do a racist or homophobic or sexist story DC would run the risk of losing money overseas. They're not going to loan out their characters (assuming that's what they've decided to) to anyone who would do that and if they did they'll just let them go.

This is Marvel granted, but I remember there was a story of an artist who got fired for promoting Islamist ideology in their art.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...nuck-in-comics

[Ascended]

I imagine some creators might make new characters while others will use established ones. Half the point of this whole thing seems to be using the brand recognition of the big names overseas in stories designed for those audiences. But I don't see any reason to limit creators to those IP's either.

And yeah, the bottom line rules all. Brand image and company trust play a strong role in sales, which is why DC will likely have certain ground rules for foreign adaptation, to ensure any IP's creators use are "bent" but not "broken." But here's the thing; what is offensive in America is not offensive elsewhere. So a story made and published in another country should play by the rules and culture of that country to ensure it sells where it's supposed to. And assuming it doesn't cross too many lines or goes too far for American readers, it'll be translated and reprinted.

And that Marvel guy got fired not for promoting Islamist ideology so much as sneaking bigoted anti-Jewish/christian content into the books. It's a different situation entirely; that guy was making content for American readers and that content was offensive by our standards. DC's initiative here likely isn't meant to play by our standards, otherwise they'd just ship our comics overseas (which they already do). This is supposed to be about making comics that foreign audiences will read, not comics that we will.

[Holt]

The sheer incompetence.

[Ascended]

The sheer incompetence.

Damn, if they're that bad they really *should* hire me! I'd be way better at marketing than that guy!

[Frontier]

The sheer incompetence.

Marvel made the right call trying to tie-in some of their characters with Scholastic. It kept some books alive longer than they would've been otherwise.

I'm not sure if some of the DC Kids Graphic Novels are with Scholastic, although it would be cool if they were.

[Digifiend]

How'd that guy get hired in the first place if he hadn't heard of Scholastic? I hope the HR guy responsible was also fired.

[skyvolt2000]

How'd that guy get hired in the first place if he hadn't heard of Scholastic? I hope the HR guy responsible was also fired.

I would question what did the job requirements for that post include.

If you hire someone who has not done that-that is on DC but he should still KNOW who Scholastic.

And sometime these guys get hired because they know someone or HR did not care.

I'm not sure if some of the DC Kids Graphic Novels are with Scholastic, although it would be cool if they were.

I don't think they are. I looked through my district's library database to find this.

Cassandra's book is there at 9 schools.
Aqualad's is not-probably due to the virus.
The rest of those kids novels are there in low numbers (1-2 copies).
DC Rebirth titles
New Superman has 12 copies. Birds of Prey with 8 copies. Batgirl & batman have 9. Supersons with 5. Hellblazer with 3. Blue Beetle has 2. Superman has 3. Justice League has 2. Doomsday Clock & Hal & TGLC have 1. That is it. Think of WHO is missing.

Meanwhile Miles, Ms Marvel, Moon Girl and Squirrel Girl account for over 400 books. SG has 125 by herself. Toss in Black Panther, Shuri and a few others at Marvel-their most recent trades and novels (I'll say before June) are here or still being processed.

Cass is the most recent one for DC overall. Birds of Prey and Doomsday Clock vol 1 are the most recent for DC.
I am NOT going to believe we don't have Rebirth titles for Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Supergirl, Arrow, Cyborg, Black Lightning, Teen Titans, Flash, Harley and Young Justice. Unless we couldn't order them.

[superduperman]

How'd that guy get hired in the first place if he hadn't heard of Scholastic? I hope the HR guy responsible was also fired.

Probably because their biggest concern were comic shops. Both Didio and Haras are comic shop loyalists. Which is probably one of the reasons they got fired. Every business has leaders who don't want to change.

[Ascended]

How'd that guy get hired in the first place if he hadn't heard of Scholastic? I hope the HR guy responsible was also fired.

My (serious) guess? The fact that DC kept their publishing regimented means that anyone who dealt primarily with comic shops and the direct market never had to do anything with the kids books, bookstore stuff, etc. The guy either didn't have kids, or those kids were older than the elementary level where Scholastic book fairs are a big deal.

Kind of like....say you cooked burgers at a restaurant, and only burgers, and the salads and everything else were made in a different kitchen on the other side of the restaurant. You wouldn't know anything about making salads, and might not even know your restaurant offers them. Of course, if that restaurant promotes you to burger manager, you should probably have a better idea of how the entire operation functions and be familiar with the entire menu, not just your little corner of it. So I'm not excusing the guy's ignorance, just theorizing on how someone could get to that level of business and still be so damn foolish.

See, crap like this is why it's a good move for DC to combine all their publishing efforts under one chain of command.

[J. D. Guy]

Depends on what country you are looking at.

For you minorities-it's not going to be as big of an issue as you can always use characters who are minorities in those countries.

Gay characters. Yeah now that is going to be an issue. I would probably push that content to OGN and Graphic novels. If you are doing a solo title.
I am not verse on all the countries that have issues with it. I know Singapore because one of the artist I follow on Deviant art mentions it and he lives there.

I remember reading the TV Tropes page on Singapore a year or two ago. You could tell whoever wrote it was fine and proud of Singapore. They would cast the country in a positive light, praising the aspects that they felt made it great.

Then they mention the anti-gay thing, and how it's technically a big thing over there. And it was kinda hilarious how they tried to casually low-key such a thing. Something along the lines of "Okay, so Singapore is super homophobic systemically. But everything else is great! So that's still great, right?"

[J. D. Guy]

Japan tend to put LGBTQ+ characters for teen and up
Thailand has gay dramas about young adults
Indonesia allows LGBTQ+ for adults but got protested by hardliners anyway
Malaysia... pretty sure you can do that never

At least in reference to Japan, LGBTQA+ representation tends to be a niche "flavor" meant to appeal to a straight cis Japanese woman demographic rather than be actual representation. This leads to a lot of fetishised and/or toxic portrayals. And outside marketing to that demo, implicit or explicit portrayals and coding tend to cop hard into harmful and derogatory gay stereotypes.

I've seen a number of people assume Japan is a progressive bastion of LGBTQA+ representation, when the reality is that they aren't.

[J. D. Guy]

Is that really different in the US and Europe?

In the US and other more progressive Western locales, such portrayals will usually either get co-opted/reclaimed by actual LGBTQA+ people, get called out by the general LGBTQA+ community, or some form of both.

The gay guys for straight female pleasure and enjoyment thing also isn't really something openly done in Western media, and is generally confined to shipping communities within a work's fandom slashing straight characters (explicitly confirmed straight or not, and sometimes at the expense of a work's actual LGBTQA+ representation).

[Gaastra]

Only men 20-35 are interested in comics.

No most 20 to 35 if they are still reading comics are reading manga like attack on titan and naruto and not batman and aquaman.

Probably because their biggest concern were comic shops. Both Didio and Haras are comic shop loyalists. Which is probably one of the reasons they got fired. Every business has leaders who don't want to change.

And this is why they fail. I had book orders when i was i kid way back in the 80s with smurfs and garfield books. Dogman and smile were in comic news crushing batman in sales so how the heck did the dc marketing never hear of it? Books a million had a huge event over the last dogman book treating it like it was a new harry potter book with huge displays and toys and even displays of more young readers comics and yes ms marvel and moon girl were on it as well! My niece grabbed marvels first wasp trade as well as one of the babysitters club comic trades from that display in fact!

Comic shops are great for comic fans but 90% of america won't step into one so if you only focus on just that small group how do you expect to grow? Manga didn't and grew world wide. Comic shops are fine but you need more then them. When the same comic fans you had for the last 30 years die or move away from comics then what? You need new readers. Books orders are young new readers and dc had books like batman adventures, looney tunes and others they could have done back then long before now.

[Konja7]

At least in reference to Japan, LGBTQA+ representation tends to be a niche "flavor" meant to appeal to a straight cis Japanese woman demographic rather than be actual representation. This leads to a lot of fetishised and/or toxic portrayals. And outside marketing to that demo, implicit or explicit portrayals and coding tend to cop hard into harmful and derogatory gay stereotypes.

I've seen a number of people assume Japan is a progressive bastion of LGBTQA+ representation, when the reality is that they aren't.

Yeah. It is because there is confusion between many people in the West that I want to explain the situation.

This is because entertainment media using gay guys for straight female pleasure and enjoyment is uncommon in the West. So, many people in the West assume that the reason why shonen-ai exists in anime is due to representation.