Mr. Le Clear, does your job title ever get you involved in selecting what issues do or don’t wind up in “best of” reprint collections?
Also, have you run across any particular ad(s) from a comic book that stuck out as the worst ever attempt to sell a product?
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Thank you for answering our questions. My question for you is was there any piece of DC history that you have seen or held that you never thought or even knew about being in the vault and can you tell us what it was?
Only one real question, not sure if you have any say, but;
- Any chance of us getting any golden age Shazam issues? Whiz? Captain Marvel adventures?
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Thank you for taking the time! My question was already touched on, but I’d just like to expand on it a bit:
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If you have any insight into the digitization and restoration team, how do they prioritize their work? Because issues from big series like Detective Comics that are missing from digital, those make sense. But then the team is constantly working on more obscure titles. In general terms, what is their work driven by?
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I’m also curious about the oldest issues. Recently there was the release of More Fun Comics #1, DC’s very first comic book. Was this just to celebrate the anniversary or is there a will to preserve more of these early comics? And is there any hope to have all of the contents in early Detective and Action issues restored, not just the Batman and Superman stories? My hope is of course that eventually every single issue from DC and its imprints is preserved and fully digitized, but I’m sure that will take a long long long time.
P.S.: Very much yes to the original Captain Marvel comics (all Marvel Family comics please!)
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Hi MR. Le Clear I was wondering what is the Status of DCs War and Western comics such as Our Army at War, Sgt. Rock, The Black Hawks, and Jonah Hex Etc Are they Complete and in a condition to be Digitized?
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Howdy Mr.Le Clear
Are there any fun stories of people consulting the archives when bringing adaptions or stories to life like for batman the animated series, richard donner superman or comics like batman white knight?
Are there any sizable, notable holes in the archives? Stuff you’re pretty sure still exists in some form but you don’t have it. Do you have a league of people always on the look for things that could be bought up and preserved?
Mr La Clear,
Thank you for doing this. It means a lot to members such as myself.
In your archival and print to digital system. How much restoration does the team do?
I am guessing that not every issue in the archives is in mint condition. But perhaps I am wrong.
Is the restoration done on the comic itself or done on the digital version?
With the Sothobeys auction, it is known that the collection there is more complete than the DC Archives. At a guess, how many comics are “missing” from the DC Collection?
One of DC’s greatest assets is it’s history and that it is also a mirror of our own history. You and your team are preserving some of the most important elements of popular culture of the 20th and 21st century. It is a great responsibility (and I’d guess a great honor) to have a hand in doing that.
My personal gratitude to you and your team for ensuring that these important historical items are not lost to the sands of time, really is beyond expression. “Thank you” seems a totally inadequate way of expressing my gratitude.
Thank you again for taking the time to do this. It is an honor.
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Hi Everyone,
Thank you all so much for your questions and your clear love for all of our comics and History. So much of our comic book history is known to us today because of the work of the fan and collector community. We keep comic stories alive by reading them and talking about them - so thank you all for keeping our stories vital.
Now to answer some questions.
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giddy clapping
Thank you so much for joining us today, Mr. Le Clear! We’re so excited to welcome you 
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Hello @benjamin.leclear, welcome to DC Universe, I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about Real facts comic!
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Thank you for your kind wishes and may I wish the same to you and yours.
I can’t speak for all Archives - but being an Archivist for DC is a dream come true that i never knew was possible.
It’s a tremendous honor and responsibility. Not just being trusted with one of the worlds most important collection of comics but an obligation to our characters and their artists and writers to tell their stories and tell them accurately.
I became an Archivist in a weird way, I got the keys to the DC Vault and basically have refused to leave ever since. It’s a more complicated story than that - but time is short.
But in either case - this was not a career path I originally sought out. I am trained historian who loves comics but I never thought this was what I’d end up doing. My childhood dreams were to be a U.S. Senator, a Movie Director or play baseball for the San Francisco Giants.
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Wow! That’s a cool way of getting a job.
Thanks for the answer, Mr.@benjamin.leclear!
6:08pm 5/13/2020
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Hello 
In your job as historian/archivist, what’s the downright weirdest thing you’ve ever come across?
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I have two questions for you. I could have gotten cute and given you “one question in 37 parts”… (gold star for you if you acknowledge and recognise the 80’s movie reference, btw.) But anyway. Two short questions. 1: How did you get my life’s dream for a job, and is it hard to keep track of everything that’s been written? 2: Does knowing all these minutia details about DC history ever make you dream up ideas of what stories COULD be told, and have you ever wanted to pitch those ideas to a writer? I ask because I’m FULL of ideas and wish I could share my knowledge. Actually, there are distinct times I read something in a storyline that makes me cringe at the obvious continuity error.
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I’d really like to get copies of all the Platinum Age comics we produced in the pre-Superhero era - so most of the first year of New Comics (later Adventure Comics) and New Fun #4.
But there are so many comics that we would love to have a loose displayable copy of the we only have in in a Bound Edition.
But it’s issues of More Fun that have been the hardest to find over the years - so I’d really feel a lot better when we’ve acquired the few more we need.
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Whoa, I didn’t even know “Platinum Age” was a thing. But it makes total sense. I learned something new today lol.
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Yes I do stare.
Often.
It would be an insult to fans and the books themselves not to stare. I’ve also come in early and stayed late just to look at something in person I’ve stumbled across online.
And when you walk the stacks of bound books – some of the older ones will whisper “please read me”. Maybe I shouldn’t tell people that.
Great question about the original target audience.
I think depression era youth were always the intended primary audience of the first comics, but its also clear that the first publishers were hoping that they’d be enjoyed by audiences of all ages and genders. Comic Books have their roots both in PULP Magazines (and especially) Newspaper Comic Strips. In both cases, those stories were seeking mass audiences and not just a small niche. A lot of other publishers may have just been throwing stuff out there to see what sticks, but we were founded by a romantic visionary named Major Malcolm Wheeler who had dreams about the possibilities of original content comic books and a wider audience in mind. Editor Lloyd Jacquet promoted our landmark first issue New Fun #1 by recommending trying “it on the youngsters from 2 to 90”.
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I wonder if some of these missing issues could be loaned from the Sotheby’s collection, at least to get them digitized.
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What is what unexpected perk you have at your job?
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