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-Blackadder- posted:Can you guys talk a bit about what DC has been like for the last 10 or so years? There was a hard reboot in 2011 called Flashpoint that launched The New 52, which was an attempt at a totally clean slate that was an ostensible jumping on point for brand-new readers. It ended up not because certain lines continued through The New 52 with their pre-Flashpoint canon more or less intact, and there was also a five-year timeskip after Flashpoint that attempted to wedge all the previous canon into the story. So, New 52 Batman, for instance, was ostensibly a totally brand-new take on him but it starts with him having had three Robins in five years. In either case, New 52 ended up a complete critical disaster and they tried a couple of events to fix it - most notably Convergence, which brought back the multiverse - but it all failed, and commercial sales were suffering. So like literally two weeks ago they did a "medium" reboot, titled Rebirth, which brings back a whole bunch of dropped plot elements that a lot of people despised N52 for eliminating - most famously Wally West Flash, who died in Flashpoint - and more-or-less branded the entire New 52 as a "cursed" universe that was doomed to fail, which was DC metatextually branding the entire past five years of stories as a mistake. Grant Morrison's Batman run is really great, at least until Final Crisis (you need to read The Black Casebook first, though, in my opinion). It's pre-New 52 up until volume 2 of Batman, Incorporated, which ends up being a direct continuation of the pre-N52 story with some of the N52 changes folded in, it's a total mess. I'm currently doing a readthrough of New 52 Batman, and it's pretty great so far. Zero Year (a re-imagined Batman origin story) is, in my opinion, better than Year One. But yeah, New 52 Batman is considered at least pretty good.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:25 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 04:17 |
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X-O posted:Dan Didio: "They have Star Wars. We have Wacky Raceland." WB Exec: "Why haven't you asked if you could do Harry Potter comics?"
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:25 |
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-Blackadder- posted:
My perception is that Marvel is still better at shades of grey, human stories, and DC is still good at big epic crazy universe good vs evil poo poo. There's exceptions on both sides but that's my broad strokes. The Crisis/relaunch stuff is dumb but has its own charm, especially when they get into like, meta-timeline stuff like how New 52 has its own history but people somehow go back in space-time to before the original Crisis, or how Old Superman found his way to New 52 Earth. It sounds like you are a Batman fan. Snyder's Batman run (which lasted the whole of the New52 era) is super acclaimed and people argue over whether it's one of the best Batman runs ever, so probably check that out. Grayson is cool. Batgirl is good. Everyone loved All-Star Superman. Beyond that, it comes down a lot to whether you like Geoff Johns as a "showrunner" and writer. If you do, a lot of what has gone on in the past ten years will be good to you. If you hate him and his ideas, which even I admit his stuff has its ups and downs, you will have a bad taste in your mouth about the current DCU.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:27 |
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JoshTheStampede posted:I'm certain that some executive at WB has sat down with Didio or whoever and said "explain to me why Marvel sells twice as much as you and explain to me why you aren't doing whatever that reason is." The rumor was they told Didio to right the ship or control of DC Comics would be handed over to Time Warner Books. Of course the threat of that dissolved when TWB was sold off.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:29 |
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Oh, and for reference to Blackadder: Rebirth so far has been pretty okay. There's only been five comics out so far (counting Rebirth 1, the launching "event"), but people are positive so far, which is a fair sight better than what they were even a month ago. There's a huge canonical change that they made as to why the New 52 failed that I, and a fair amount of other people, absolutely despise, but beyond that it does seem like a more positive, hopeful creative direction DC is moving in.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:31 |
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JoshTheStampede posted:Beyond that, it comes down a lot to whether you like Geoff Johns as a "showrunner" and writer. Have you read a lot of these comics you're laying a giant blanket upon? He didn't even get a single other comic to tie into his business in the final year. e: Hell. His influence over the comics will be much larger now. Teenage Fansub fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Jun 7, 2016 |
# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:33 |
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/\/\ A lot? No, but some. And I do tend to like Johns, so that blanket is me saying "most of it is decent", not "it all sucks because Johns is a hack". His influence on the DCU is kinda hard to ignore or deny. Toxxupation posted:Oh, and for reference to Blackadder: Rebirth so far has been pretty okay. There's only been five comics out so far (counting Rebirth 1, the launching "event"), but people are positive so far, which is a fair sight better than what they were even a month ago. There's a huge canonical change that they made as to why the New 52 failed that I, and a fair amount of other people, absolutely despise, but beyond that it does seem like a more positive, hopeful creative direction DC is moving in. It helps that it's not a real reboot - everyone has Crisis fatigue to the point even characters in the books are saying the universe can't handle a real Crisis. It's just a "ok, we'll add back in the stuff we left out of New 52, sorry", which people are way more likely to be ok with.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:33 |
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Gaz-L posted:WB Exec: "Why haven't you asked if you could do Harry Potter comics?" Dan Didio: "Children don't buy comics."
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:33 |
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-Blackadder- posted:Can you guys talk a bit about what DC has been like for the last 10 or so years? I would say DC is overall much less likely to take chances now. My impression is that the people who are in charge of the company now do not really understand why their characters have resonated with fans for 75+ years. They know their characters are popular and iconic and powerful but they are struggling to harness that in a way that makes them money (or good comic books, for that matter). I'm hard on DC because I know what they're capable of at their best and I love their massive stable of characters. There have been great stories in the last 10 years. Being that I mostly keep up with Batman stuff I can talk a bit about that. Grant Morrison's Batman spans like five series over what, six or seven years, and it's all extremely cool if occasionally impenetrable. A lot of great stories sprung up in the wake of Bruce's 'death' and Dick Grayson's time as Batman, including Scott Snyder's stuff, Rucka's Batwoman in Detective Comics, Brian K Vaughns Batgirl series. Not to mention Gotham Central which is one of the best things DC has ever done. Even after the much maligned reboot youve got Batman & Robin, Scott Snyder's run on the main series, Batwoman's ongoing which is a good read up until issue 25 or so. Babs Tarr and Cameron Stewart's Batgirl. Tom King's Grayson. Morrison on Action Comics and Azzarello's Wonder Woman. But at the same time, their misses have been spectacular PR fiascoes and extremly bad stories. They have whittled their 'legacy' down considerably, taking out a bunch of Batgirls and Green Lanterns and Flash family members and people like the new Atom, so they could put the 'safe' (silver age) heroes back in those identities. A lot of those are being reintroduced as people have been shrieking about them for the last five years but it remains to be seen how well that works out. Lots of good looking stories in Rebirth but a lot of the same old crap is still lurking around too. The same people are still in charge so who knows if things are really going to change or not.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:37 |
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Gaz-L posted:WB Exec: "Why haven't you asked if you could do Harry Potter comics?" They probably have. Harry Potter seems to be under fairly strict lock and key at least when it comes to JK Rowling.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:43 |
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Travis343 posted:I would say DC is overall much less likely to take chances now. My impression is that the people who are in charge of the company now do not really understand why their characters have resonated with fans for 75+ years. They know their characters are popular and iconic and powerful but they are struggling to harness that in a way that makes them money (or good comic books, for that matter). I don't think this was a thing that existed.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:45 |
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Gaz-L posted:WB Exec: "Why haven't you asked if you could do Harry Potter comics?" DC has been pursuing the Harry Potter rights for over a decade and WB has told them no. ImpAtom posted:They probably have. Harry Potter seems to be under fairly strict lock and key at least when it comes to JK Rowling. We were told at a retailer summit that JKR isn't interested in a comic book adaptation of her works.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:46 |
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Madkal posted:I don't think this was a thing that existed. Bryan Q Miller. I knew I was gonna gently caress that up.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:48 |
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Madkal posted:I don't think this was a thing that existed. Only one Brian in comics should have a middle initial. e: There shouldn't have been a Jeff King and a Tom King working at the same time. Mark Millar should have changed his last name a long time ago. Teenage Fansub fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Jun 7, 2016 |
# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:50 |
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Rhyno posted:We were told at a retailer summit that JKR isn't interested in a comic book adaptation of her works. I can't really blame her. I wouldn't want someone writing a story where Voldemort returns and rapes Hermione before ripping off Ron's arms and blaming The Hunger Games for making himself too gritty and realistic.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:50 |
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They should just have an ongoing Books of Magic title with a huge header saying something like "from the company that produces the Harry Potter movies" on it.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:50 |
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ImpAtom posted:I can't really blame her. I wouldn't want someone writing a story where Voldemort returns and rapes Hermione before ripping off Ron's arms and blaming The Hunger Games for making himself too gritty and realistic. From what I recall they wanted to do straight up adaptations of each book at 25 issues per book. It's a drat shame because with her name attached it would outsell any and every book on the stands. Madkal posted:They should just have an ongoing Books of Magic title with a huge header saying something like "from the company that produces the Harry Potter movies" on it. Is there a box on the cover explaining that Tim predates the HP books?
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:52 |
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People are kind of understating how DCYou "didn't do that well in singles" or "didn't sell great" or whatever. For better or worse, when there are sales like this on your launch titles that don't directly involve Batmans:code:
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:53 |
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Madkal posted:They should just have an ongoing Books of Magic title with a huge header saying something like "from the company that produces the Harry Potter movies" on it. Didn't Mike Carey write a Harry Potter like book for Vertigo? I never looked at it because that kind of story doesn't interest me, but Mke Carey is a good writer of comics so it was probably good.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:54 |
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Just show her Scooby Apocalypse and she'll change her tune about licensing.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:54 |
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Edge & Christian posted:People are kind of understating how DCYou "didn't do that well in singles" or "didn't sell great" or whatever. For better or worse, when there are sales like this on your launch titles that don't directly involve Batmans: God that Prez number is depressing from a quality-to-sales standpoint.
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# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:55 |
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Section 8 is getting another series. That tells me that they're still okay with producing a niche-rear end thing, just as long as it's not line-wide now.
Teenage Fansub fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Jun 8, 2016 |
# ? Jun 7, 2016 23:58 |
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Teenage Fansub posted:Section 8 is getting another series. That tells me that they're still okay with producing a niche-rear end thing, just as long as it's not line-wide now.
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 00:00 |
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Edge & Christian posted:People are kind of understating how DCYou "didn't do that well in singles" or "didn't sell great" or whatever. For better or worse, when there are sales like this on your launch titles that don't directly involve Batmans: Yeah, most of those books were gonna die either way, but I think the main complaint is that DC just came off as tonedeaf or clueless about WHY it didn't work. Lke someone else above said, DCYou was a bad execution of a pretty good idea, and they at least externally seemed like they wrote it off as a bad idea instead. \/\/ Hell, some of those might not even come out in trade. JoshTheStampede fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Jun 8, 2016 |
# ? Jun 8, 2016 00:03 |
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Again I am curious about the impact of trades. I know it is too early to tell with the fact that Omega Men and such haven't even come out in trade yet, but I would love to see once all is said and done how the DCyou titles sold in trade form.
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 00:03 |
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Edge & Christian posted:Though that doesn't explain Coming of the Supermen. There's a god of insane comics up there that you have to appease.
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 00:04 |
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The only book in DCYou that people were asking for is Constantine, and that shows with its pretty good drop-off rate. I ended up loving loving Omega Men but I only started it when issue 11 dropped. They're learning with Rebirth.
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 00:06 |
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I'm sure this is totally unfeasibly financially, but I wish publishers would commit to getting at least two arcs of a book out and collected in trade before they decided to cancel it. I have to imagine some of the smaller titles could be nursed along if they were given time to build word of mouth through the people who only buy stuff in trade or go back and buy back issues digitally if something starts to build an audience. It'll probably be easier to give those smaller/niche titles more time to grow once they're a smaller percentage of the overall line instead of having an entire line refresh based around them.
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 00:08 |
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Well before too long all comics are just going to be distributed digitally anyway and without the massive overhead of printing and distribution there will be room for stuff that sells less than 10k a month. I guess let's just hope DC stays solvent until that happens.
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 00:11 |
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https://twitter.com/MitchGerads/status/740243144185286656 Check Sheriff of Babylon. Dude rules. He'll make a great Batman artist when Finch drops out. Young Animal launching in November. http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/06/07/gerard-way-to-launch-young-animal-comics-at-nccomicon-in-november/ Teenage Fansub fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Jun 8, 2016 |
# ? Jun 8, 2016 00:28 |
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Teenage Fansub posted:https://twitter.com/MitchGerads/status/740243144185286656 Quit playin' games with my heart, Teenage Fansub
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 00:39 |
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https://twitter.com/DCComics/status/740306425285468160 Nice one, guys. e: ee: Remember those unused Travel Foreman Stargirl and Animal Man designs? He just released a bunch more of them https://issuu.com/zuerst/docs/jlu.sketchbook. (Oops. Fixed url. A period at the end is weird.) Teenage Fansub fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Jun 8, 2016 |
# ? Jun 8, 2016 00:52 |
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Alright, I'ma be the crazy person who says the Rucka WW Rebirth preview was just...passable. From what little we see so far it seems really prosey and tell-not-show-y and practically Johnsian. The rest of it could be really incredible! But the preview pages aren't really meeting my (admittedly, unrealistically high) expectations.
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 00:57 |
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Wally has better things to do, right? Like seduce Linda? There'e already a Flash and a Kid Flash in this world, dude has got stuff to catch up on.
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 01:35 |
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BrianWilly posted:Alright, I'ma be the crazy person who says the Rucka WW Rebirth preview was just...passable. From what little we see so far it seems really prosey and tell-not-show-y and practically Johnsian.
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 02:08 |
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I really like that Flash costume.
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 02:24 |
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Teenage Fansub posted:https://twitter.com/DCComics/status/740306425285468160 Those Stargirls are awful. Those bottom Liberty Belles are stellar. What book was this supposed to be? Edit: why did DC use the period flower for spring?
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 02:38 |
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Mr Hootington posted:What book was this supposed to be? Click the link. JLU. He must've been designing for Jeff Lemire's run, which took place in space most of the time. Foreman ended up drawing on the short lived Jeff Parker run, but Stargirl's costume was traditional. If all of those extra characters were planned before Lemire left, I'm very sad.
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 02:43 |
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Teenage Fansub posted:https://twitter.com/DCComics/status/740306425285468160 Dude I really like your posts but would you mind just posting a new reply instead of constantly throwing fun stuff in old replies.
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 02:43 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 04:17 |
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JoshTheStampede posted:You can. But apparently people come in and say "hey I want to write a story about batgirl being Barbara Gordon living in Brooklyn" and the default answer was "no, she's paralyzed and oracle and you cant" and DCYou changed that answer to "awesome, go for it". I like DCYou as a concept, but I would rather DC had continuity to handicap stuff like that rather than not. Hell, I wish they did more. I kinda hate that a writer can jump on Batman, decide they like Barbara more than Cass, and just write Cass out of being Batgirl in favor of their Batgirl. Johns did it with Flash and it sucked canal water.
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# ? Jun 8, 2016 02:44 |