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  1. #1
    Black Belt in Bad Ideas Robanker's Avatar
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    Default New interview with Dan Didio and the state of the industry

    https://www.facebook.com/34748615237...5480013960371/

    Some interesting points that will interest many from someone who has been working in the industry a long time, one of note was that printing on newsprint actually isn't going to reduce the cost much. He goes into the business aspect a lot (starting somewhere in the middle) and the tl;dr is that they have done a lot of research and found price point to actually not influence sales much. People are gonna buy what they want.

    He talks about OGN vs monthlies. Interesting stuff. While I hated his creative direction for DC, I give Didio a lot of credit for trying new formats and trying hard to attract new readers and his love for the medium is definitely on display.

    Curious what many of you think.
    Last edited by Robanker; 04-03-2020 at 05:53 PM.

  2. #2
    Ultimate Member Ascended's Avatar
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    Say what you will, he's such a likable bastard. I'd love to have a beer with him sometime.
    "We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."

    ~ Black Panther.

  3. #3
    Astonishing Member 9th.'s Avatar
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    The reactions to this are going to be good
    Reading List (Super behind but reading them nonetheless):
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    Manga: My Hero Academia, MHA: Vigilanties, Soul Eater: the Perfect Edition, Berserk, Hunter X Hunter, Witch Hat Atelier, Kaiju No. 8

  4. #4
    Invincible Member Vordan's Avatar
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    He’s not wrong about Rebirth being nostalgia bait, but when you bait people in with the promise that things will be similar to the status quo they like only to drop that midway and do a complete 180, of course people are going to be mad. Should’ve just gave Wally his wife and kids and let him sit on the sidelines until someone had a story for him.

    And yes I agree with Didio that DC does need to do new things, but Didio is guilty of running in circles himself. Killing off Titans, telling events where “the villains win!” is the main premise, how many times have we seen this stories. Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, Forever Evil, Year of the Villain, they’ve all got the same basic plot of “the villains win and the heroes have to come back somehow”. Didio can see the problem but he wasn’t exactly fixing the problem.

    I mean good God man, how many events with the goal of fixing continuity can we get before you realize something needs to change? Either embrace the insanity like Marvel and just ignore the contradictions or go back to the Carlin days when DC was utterly anal about continuity.

  5. #5
    Astonishing Member mathew101281's Avatar
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    I like his comparison of the Japanese and European styles of publishing and how American comics are kind of in-between.

  6. #6
    Extraordinary Member MRP's Avatar
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    I think my favorite part was the anecdote he told about talking to Julie Schwartz and Schwartz telling him you have to take super-hero universes and give them an enema every ten years or so to wash away all the accumulated crap and give them a fresh start, which I find ironic and interesting-Schwartz did just that wit the dawn of the Silver Age, but many people/fans point to the creation of Earth- 2 under his watch as a rationale for trying to keep every little bit of story told with the characters "continuity" and never discarding anything.

    But whether you like him or not, Didio had a lot of interesting insights that are food for thought even if you disagree with him on some of them.

    -M
    Comic fans get the comics their buying habits deserve.

    "Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding." -Plato

  7. #7
    Astonishing Member WillieMorgan's Avatar
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    I always liked the guy and wish him the best.

    It's done now. It's happened. The Didio era of DC Comics is over and let's just move on. I assume he parted ways with DC with a generous 'golden handshake'.
    Lower The Pissing Winch!

  8. #8
    Ultimate Member Ascended's Avatar
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    I gotta say, I was a little disappointed we didnt get a deeper dive into how the industry works and how they manage costs, etc. Probably not something most people want to listen to but I love the business side of this stuff and most of what Didio said were things we already knew, or could easily infer.

    And I wish the guy had had more of a solid answer for "what happens next." A lot of what Didio was saying are things that we were already saying in the "virus knocks out market" thread and I was hoping the guy would have a firmer idea of what the future holds than we do.

    I did enjoy listening to what I did (like I said above, mostly just the last half) but I was hoping for more inside info from a former industry insider. Good thing I wasn't interviewing him though, I'd have been all "Nightwing!?? WTF man??!!"
    "We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."

    ~ Black Panther.

  9. #9
    It sucks to be right BohemiaDrinker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ascended View Post
    I gotta say, I was a little disappointed we didnt get a deeper dive into how the industry works and how they manage costs, etc. Probably not something most people want to listen to but I love the business side of this stuff and most of what Didio said were things we already knew, or could easily infer.
    Haven't watched the interview yet, but I know for a fact that a lot of that stuff is covered by NDA's. :/
    ConnEr Kent flies. ConnOr Hawke has a bow. Batman's kid is named DamiAn.

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  10. #10
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vordan View Post
    He’s not wrong about Rebirth being nostalgia bait, but when you bait people in with the promise that things will be similar to the status quo they like only to drop that midway and do a complete 180, of course people are going to be mad. Should’ve just gave Wally his wife and kids and let him sit on the sidelines until someone had a story for him.
    I still didn't mind .

  11. #11
    Ultimate Member Ascended's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BohemiaDrinker View Post
    Haven't watched the interview yet, but I know for a fact that a lot of that stuff is covered by NDA's. :/
    That's a good point. Though the stuff I'd like to hear about is more basic business theory in their industry and number crunching. Might be covered by NDA's, I'm not sure how anal they are about that stuff.
    "We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."

    ~ Black Panther.

  12. #12
    It sucks to be right BohemiaDrinker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ascended View Post
    That's a good point. Though the stuff I'd like to hear about is more basic business theory in their industry and number crunching. Might be covered by NDA's, I'm not sure how anal they are about that stuff.
    They're pretty anal. As far is I managed o dig up, both DC and Marvel have a fixed budget given by WB and Disney respectively. (At DC, I believe this is an annual budget, or was, at Marvel I don't know). During different periods they had different degrees of autonomy on how to spend it. I believe neither Marvel nor DC want the other to know how they manage this money, so besides the NDA's, there's a "hush-hush" culture to it. Not to mention creatives contracts, agents, and so on.

    If Morrison suddenly goes (I won't accept 15k because you're paying Hickman 20k", the industry is screwed.

    That's why most in we have on this sort on this stuff is about creator owned work.
    ConnEr Kent flies. ConnOr Hawke has a bow. Batman's kid is named DamiAn.

    To do spoiler tags, use [ spoil ] at the start of the sentence and [ /spoil ] at the end, without the spaces. You're welcome!

  13. #13
    Ultimate Member Ascended's Avatar
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    That's not surprising, I figured their budgets were set by their corporate parents and it's generally good business if employees don't compare their specific pay rates. Though I hadn't put much thought into how the Big 2 would try to shroud their practices from their competition. So many people go back and forth between the companies (and the indies as well) I didn't think there'd be much secrecy between them. Even on the management level we've had plenty of people like Harras work for both DC and Marvel. And the companies mirror each other so much I assumed there were few secrets between them.

    Mostly I was hoping Didio would have a firmer idea of where we go from here, how we make print work or where we go next. I was a little disappointed when his answer (from the parts I watched) was largely no more developed than what we could reason out ourselves.
    "We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."

    ~ Black Panther.

  14. #14
    Black Belt in Bad Ideas Robanker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ascended View Post
    I gotta say, I was a little disappointed we didnt get a deeper dive into how the industry works and how they manage costs, etc. Probably not something most people want to listen to but I love the business side of this stuff and most of what Didio said were things we already knew, or could easily infer.

    And I wish the guy had had more of a solid answer for "what happens next." A lot of what Didio was saying are things that we were already saying in the "virus knocks out market" thread and I was hoping the guy would have a firmer idea of what the future holds than we do.

    I did enjoy listening to what I did (like I said above, mostly just the last half) but I was hoping for more inside info from a former industry insider. Good thing I wasn't interviewing him though, I'd have been all "Nightwing!?? WTF man??!!"
    I think it's helpful to hear confirmation on a lot of those beliefs. I hear often about how newsprint is going to bring production cost down, we should just copy manga, etc. It sounds like stuff a lot of people want to jump to since they wanna be the guy with the answer, but too simple that it wasn't already addressed in the actual company.

    Yeah, he couldn't go too deep because that wasn't the point of the interview, but he touches on New 52 -> Rebirth, print costs and his projection for how things will evolve on those fronts. That was the most significant thing discussed which is why I added it to the title.

  15. #15
    Ultimate Member Ascended's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Robanker View Post
    I think it's helpful to hear confirmation on a lot of those beliefs. I hear often about how newsprint is going to bring production cost down, we should just copy manga, etc. It sounds like stuff a lot of people want to jump to since they wanna be the guy with the answer, but too simple that it wasn't already addressed in the actual company.

    Yeah, he couldn't go too deep because that wasn't the point of the interview, but he touches on New 52 -> Rebirth, print costs and his projection for how things will evolve on those fronts. That was the most significant thing discussed which is why I added it to the title.
    I didn't catch it when he talked about distribution/print costs. I've been trying for the last week (or more? Stupid quarantine has ruined my sense of time) to remember if it's around ten cents on the cover price or closer to a dollar. I think it's closer to ten cents but can't for the life of me recall if that's right. Did he mention that?

    Anyway, no, cheaper quality paper or digital won't impact the cover price much. Digital's potential is in reaching a wider audience, not a considerably lower price point.
    "We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."

    ~ Black Panther.

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