Comic Book Talk (3 Viewers)

[Sun Wukong]

Makes me wonder if DC is their own worse enemy. What happened at Midtown?

DC Comics Drops UCS Comic Distributors For Lunar, Sets Minimum Orders

In the summer, as shutdowns affected Diamond Comic Distributors and many comic book stores, DC Comics chose to set up two new comic book distributors from

bleedingcool.com

I do know a lot of retailers were really griping about UCS/Midtown early on, about everything from their online operations to damaged inventory but I haven't heard anything super recently.

I increasingly am not sure management at DC has any real idea what they're doing with this. It wouldn't shock me to see them end up back with Diamond after the pandemic settles down. I thought them leaving back in the spring would be a game changer for what had been an almost three decade long monopoly, but they seem to just be flailing around aimlessly with it now.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

To kinda keep on the "DC is doing too much" tangent, this was a decent interview with Tom King, which includes several examples of how DC editorial, in particular Dan DiDio, influenced, and many times overruled, the direction he wanted to take.

The one that really blew my mind is the story of DiDio reading about the death of Alfred from an LCS and calling King to tell him that he wanted Alfred to stay dead. What. In. The. Actual. fork...

 

[Sun Wukong]

To kinda keep on the "DC is doing too much" tangent, this was a decent interview with Tom King, which includes several examples of how DC editorial, in particular Dan DiDio, influenced, and many times overruled, the direction he wanted to take.

The one that really blew my mind is the story of DiDio reading about the death of Alfred from an LCS and calling King to tell him that he wanted Alfred to stay dead. What. In. The. Actual. fork...

Gonna listen to this later, but what you've said just reinforces my idea that DiDio has some weird hangups/tendencies that almost seem Vince McMahon-like in their inexplicableness and rigidity.

 

[Sun Wukong]

More blood letting at DC today. Remember when they promoted two co-EiCs to run the show? Well, one got fired already.

DC is going to look very different soon if what's being said is true. Stripped down. Way less focus on continuity and a shared universe, more on standalone stories, most of which will focus on Batman/Superman/WW. Major reduction in publishing. Way less emphasis on secondary characters. Also speculation that Jim Lee is kind of getting cut out of things (supposedly the new EiC doesn't even report to him, but directly to corporate).

Not looking great for DC at the moment. They tried to put a bow on these changes a couple of months back, but the reality is setting in now. Slash and burn job by AT*T.

 

[Torgo]

Slash and burn job by AT*T.

That's what they do.

 

[Sun Wukong]

That's what they do.

They literally purchased WarnerMedia to then try and sell off or get rid of as much of it as they can to make up for the fact that they badly overleveraged themselves to buy the company in the first place.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

More blood letting at DC today. Remember when they promoted two co-EiCs to run the show? Well, one got fired already.

DC is going to look very different soon if what's being said is true. Stripped down. Way less focus on continuity and a shared universe, more on standalone stories, most of which will focus on Batman/Superman/WW. Major reduction in publishing. Way less emphasis on secondary characters. Also speculation that Jim Lee is kind of getting cut out of things (supposedly the new EiC doesn't even report to him, but directly to corporate).

Not looking great for DC at the moment. They tried to put a bow on these changes a couple of months back, but the reality is setting in now. Slash and burn job by AT*T.

I knew Javins got promoted, but didn't think it was in that manner.

Will say this. Jim Lee should be stripped of the publisher title. He does absolutely nothing within the organization to deserve it and you can see that from the fact that no one inside DC reports to him; not a single person.

 

[Sun Wukong]

I knew Javins got promoted, but didn't think it was in that manner.

Will say this. Jim Lee should be stripped of the publisher title. He does absolutely nothing within the organization to deserve it and you can see that from the fact that no one inside DC reports to him; not a single person.

Yeah, was confirmed yesterday that Javins (who I have hopes for, I should note. She's been well respected in the industry for decades) got the full time gig and Wells (among others) got axed.

Lee has always been a figurehead in that role. Even when it was the DiDio/Johns/Lee triumvirate overseeing things he didn't do much. There's been chatter about him leaving next year. The fact that he doesn't seem to actually oversee the comics line despite that technically being his job means I can't see them keeping that contract on the books.

I've waffled back and forth on this, but given the fire sale AT&T is having I'm back to believing DC being sold isn't an impossobility.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

I've waffled back and forth on this, but given the fire sale AT&T is having I'm back to believing DC being sold isn't an impossobility.

Yeah. I've been compiling a list of prospective buyers if that was to happen. Frankly, as long as it isn't the Mouse, I'm ok. My tentative (wish) list:
1. Apple
2. Netflix
3. Comcast (even though they're supposedly starting their own through NBC/Universial)

 

[Torgo]

They literally purchased WarnerMedia to then try and sell off or get rid of as much of it as they can to make up for the fact that they badly overleveraged themselves to buy the company in the first place.

Pretty much what they did with DTV as well.

 

[bonnjer]

In recent weeks, I've been having a thought bouncing around in my head. It's been relatively minor most of time.....on the way far back burner, on barely there heat. I've actually been thinking of getting out of comic collecting. Now, I'm not sure that I actually will because the collector in me almost can't break the habit of looking at what comes out each week and ordering them every few weeks. I've just got such a huge pile of issues built up to read and I keep putting it off, which tells me that the urge to read them just isn't quite there. Maybe if I'd actually read them, it would fire me back up again. I don't know. Perhaps it's because I've been more into sports card collecting lately and have my attention focused there (my Youtube sports card channel has been a pleasant project.). I guess I'll figure it out eventually. Either that or I'll just keep buying stuff and piling it up.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

In recent weeks, I've been having a thought bouncing around in my head. It's been relatively minor most of time.....on the way far back burner, on barely there heat. I've actually been thinking of getting out of comic collecting. Now, I'm not sure that I actually will because the collector in me almost can't break the habit of looking at what comes out each week and ordering them every few weeks. I've just got such a huge pile of issues built up to read and I keep putting it off, which tells me that the urge to read them just isn't quite there. Maybe if I'd actually read them, it would fire me back up again. I don't know. Perhaps it's because I've been more into sports card collecting lately and have my attention focused there (my Youtube sports card channel has been a pleasant project.). I guess I'll figure it out eventually. Either that or I'll just keep buying stuff and piling it up.

If you're looking to dump some stuff...

 

[bonnjer]

If you're looking to dump some stuff...

I'm not looking to get rid of what I have. I'm just contemplating whether or not I want to continue on with things. All of these discussions that I see about the state of the industry probably don't help any, either.

 

[Sun Wukong]

So Rich Johnston (yeah, I know) is claiming that he's talked to several higher level staffers at DC who have basically told him the following:

-There's going to be a move away from monthly floppies, to digital serialization for monthly titles and then collecting those in physical trades. They are also looking at doing physical monthly anthology titles.

-The emphasis for these trades and anthologies is the mainstream market: they want them in bookstores, school book fairs, Amazon, etc. and that supposedly the direct market/comic shops are no longer a primary concern with this model.

- The content they're producing going forward is only going to focus on characters with big multimedia presences, so Batman, Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, etc. He speculates that DC conceivably license out the lower tier characters to another publisher (kind of like Marvel licenses out the Star Wars Adventures kiddie comics to IDW), but says that there have been inquiries about this and the licensing fees DC are asking for are too astronomical for any publisher to actually pay.

-DC Comics will no longer be having a notable presence at comic cons (once they're a thing again) and most of their con presence will be just tied up in the broader Warner Bros. stuff as SDCC and NYCC.

Again, it's Rich so take it with a truckload of salt. And he himself even says that it's just company rumor for now. But I will say this: he does have a history of getting leaks whenever sheet starts hitting the fan at either company and people start running to him anonymously to get word out, and he says that he had multiple sources at DC tell him this and no one he asked outside of those sources refuted any of it.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

DC (and AT&T) likes losing money. This will not stop it from happening.