The sad truth is that film success has done little for comic success.
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for long term ongoing monthlies sure.
But if youâre advertising budget amounts to a hotdog, then doing 1 elementary school grade power point slide at the end of your movies could actually work.
Like everything else that involves marketing, DC needs to constantly remind us that their comics exist.
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On the bright side, DC is planning on publishing comics in 2023.
Now letâs see if we can get to 2024.
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Kicking that can down the road!
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hopefully, in 2024, there can still be more than one.
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I feel like I have seen them doing that recently.
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As a huge fan of Conner and Dick and Jim and Jean-Paul, why should they have to? I think the problem is that weâve lost the art of standalone stories that are still enjoyable.
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I hope so. In what I have watched of Doom Patrol, Superman/Lois, and Stargirl they donât do that. Nor do I recall seeing anything in Black Adam other than a room full of posters.
Itâs cheap, easy, and probably as effective as a billboard.
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Iâm not exactly sure how the art of standalone stories would solve the logistical problems of continuity build-up and generational pile-up. Unless the suggestion is to stop moving time/continuity all together and just focus on standalone stories that wonât necessarily connect to anything outside themselves. That would be an intriguing way to go about things, but Iâm not sure Iâd want that.
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@TheCosmicMoth Agreed with you both.
People are calling things ârebootsâ with a poor grasp of what that actually implies and signifies.
We had a significant editorial regime change, particularly one which removed some people who had been in charge of DC Comics for a good chunk of the recent past - and the people replaced were ones who had the bad habit of starting initiatives (e.g. Earth One, Multiversity, Zoom, DC Ink, only to quickly ignore them or let them fall by the way side).
New 52 is the only proper re-boot weâve had in the past twenty years.
And given that New 52 was modified by Rebirth/Doomsday Clock and continued to be modified, but not undone, by Scott Snyderâs fan fiction, weâre still in, essentially, a modified DCU informed by its pre- and post-Flashpoint existence. Since nothing has been fully undoing, e.g. ârebootingâ the New 52 reboot, implying, suggesting, or outright saying that thereâs been one (much less two or three reboots post the 2011 is not accurate.
I also think itâs a mistake for people to conflate events, even events that allege to be world changing, with reboots. Letâs be honest, cross-overs whether they happen within the DCU or they happen at that other company, or even if they happen within one title (because, frankly, what else did Kirkman do when he had several series of omniversal battles happen within the pages of Invincible but explore the same tropes and writing conventions used in crossovers within that one title).
I agree that crossovers are cash grabs. But crossover/event = reboot is a mistaken way to interpret this problem. And cross-overs or events are part and parcel of the problem of the existence of floppies and the direct market and frankly, what I think has been happening for the past decade is that this part of the business is dying a slow death, in the same way that broadcast/linear television is dying a slow death.
No, floppies are not going to disappear tomorrow, just like the broadcast networks are going to be around for many more years, but their primacy in the television business (or in the comic book business) is a relic of the past.
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After the new 52 reboot, there was a slow reboot (retroboot) back to much of pre flashpoint starting from around the time before Titans Hunt (2015 Dec), Rebirth (2016 july) all the way to Flash Forward (2019 nov), Doomsday Clock 12 (2020 feb) and even after that. Undoing the new 52 reboot required another reboot but it was implemented as a slow retroboot (probably to avoid shocking people bec new 52 reboot was a shock to some). New 52 reboot cut down history to about 5 years of history and this history was slowly expanded up to current time when we are still learning more things being added to the history (much of the restored history is from pre flashpoint).
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So, essentially, youâre saying that breathing requires breathing, but you do it more slowly and you open your mouth even wider than before, or perhaps not as much as before, or perhaps just barely?
Also, your last sentence buttresses my point and simply helps make it for me. I suspect you are not trying to disagree with me and perhaps even agree with me except that you are overusing and in that sense miss-using the term âreboot.â
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Names like reboots are just names and usually, the names are given just for convenience, and what we choose to call things can differ. In my own headcanon, I count 4 reboots so far by dc. I use my own headcanon 4 reboots mainly to prepare my outline of dc history. Calling some things reboots is just a help for me to identify the various Ages in dc history like golden age, silver age, dark age.
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But potatoes are still potatos, chum!
Just as with certain immortal warriors from bad movie franchises, there can be only oneâŚ
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I study biology as a hobby, and in biology you can actually see debates about at what point to identify a species like a potato bec evolution is actually an unbroken process of about 4 billion years. Calling particular points of evolution a potato in this 4 billion year process is just a name given for various reasons, similar to how we call some points in comics history a reboot. Calling new 52 reboot a reboot is just a convenience bec in reality, it was not a reboot for batman and it was not a reboot for green lantern.
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Reboots, soft reboots, retoolingâWHATEVER! Just tell good stories, with well-rounded characters who exemplify the heroic ideal.
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to have good stories, probably have to pay more money to get high quality writers. If you have high quality writers, can maybe get classics like those Harry Potter novels. DC has been lucky in the past to have produced classics like Watchmen, Morbius Sandman. Watchmen is not in continuity but is elseworlds so it is in the infinite multiverse. Morbius Sandman was produced including some bits of earth 0 continuity like golden age Sandman, Hector Hall and Lyta Trevor.
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Yes, pay your creatives what they are worth. Stop pinching the pennies. But put in place an editorial structure that recognizes talent that should be properly compensated.
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I agree that creators should get paid more. However, to pay them more, the companies need to sell more books. And that, to me, means adding more distribution channels. And depite DC trying a lot of stuff - bookstores with the OGN lines (some of which has been a huge success - Primer and Kami Garciaâs Teen Titans lines particularly - but DC has not capitalized on these books, instead focusing on ever more dreary angstfests or every more wacky quirkfestsâŚseriously, I feel like the whole research and sales reaction to their OGNs has been really backwards, never seeming to really reward what is succeeding, but instead throwing more of their preconceived ideas after the failures). Also Webtoons - with not only the solid success Wayne Family Adventures, but also creative risks like Zatanna and Vixen (but I have to say, much as I enjoy these webtoons, I do feel that DC could be doing a lot more. Iâm not wholly sure if Iâm right there. And I super applaud them for trying and succeeding at least with Wayne Family Adventures!). The Walmart line of books was a really good idea - with a lot of value for money for new collectors between generally well chosen reprints and really solid new stories (for the most part). But that fizzled because of their really weak distribution partner and plan. The current Page Punchers line is a better implementation of the line, but since I havenât been able to read any of the comics, no clue if thatâs actually effective marketing. And of course DCUI, adding the Ultra option, too! Love all of these things in concept, even though I clearly have a problem with the execution often. (Also bring back cereal box comics!)
BUT. The writers and artists for the âmainâ line of books are sadly not really benefitting from these experiments because theyâre not really expanding the sales. And I will say, once again, that I think for the main line, at least, DC should stop spending money on twitter/social media marketing AND conventions, and instead spend money to send market researchers and editorial staff into comic shops around the nation and find out what people actually like to buy and why they like to buy it, and shops to get their impressions on what will help.
And not to the loudly complaining shops. The shops that are just plugging along selling the meat and potatoes of the business.
Iâll get off my soapbox now and be excited about our new titles! Green Arrow! Woohoo!
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And here I thought I was the only one that isnât as enamored with Mark Waifâs work as the rest of the world! I think the only work of his that I really enjoyed is Kingdom Come (but that was driven heavily by Alex Ross) and The Brave and the Bold (which I think may have been a fave of mine because of George Perez).
I feel I should love Waidâs stuff because heâs such a big Superman fan, but I am usually a bit disappointed with his stories most of the time, or they just donât stick with me.
Still, I was a bit sad when he left DC because of whatever falling out was going on back then. He just really seemed to love the DC universe that it seemed like a big loss.
Not sure about Geoff Johnâs and Waid being back at DC to be honest. I used to be the biggest Johns fan, but I was seriously let down by the Three Jokers. Well that and some of the mess that happened with the DCEU involving him totally made me not like his work.
I will still be reading though and giving them both a chance. I hope theyâre hungry to make some waves and push DC to the top. A new JSA book is a good start.
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