1984 Comic Books DC Comics were not selling well while Marvel was doing great. Warner Brothers almost closed down the DC Comics publishing imprint and wanted to license the characters to Marvel. According to Jim Shooter. Marvel would have continued to publish DC’s seven most popular properties – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Justice League, Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes – and would have had room to expand the line later if they so chose. Shooter wanted deal but Marvel executives declined, thinking that DC was failing because of the characters, and that it would not be profitable for Marvel.
That cant happen now
Because Marvel is owned by Disney a direct competitor to.AT&T
The company makes billions off of the Intellectual Property of DC Comics
I think the 100 page giants are the way to go for the best-selling monthlies. The rest can go digital-first and get collected in print trades later. To incentivize fans to buy the trades at the local comic shops, DC can stop selling digital versions of the trades. In other words, if you want it NOW, you buy it digitally, issue by issue. If you want it TOGETHER, you buy it in print.
Ok with this as long as the digital trade is available after a period of time. I’ve read many an old title I missed out on by purchasing digital trades during sales on Comixology. Especially useful with collected editions of crossovers.
All I need is Superman and Batman and ill be okay. I love the DC Universe as a whole, and want as many characters to live on as possible but I definitely need those characters to live on in comics forever.
First of all I’m glad you took my advice, I find this to be a fascinating question.
And honestly I’m not even sure I have an opinion on it, lol.
Does anyone have the info on how many regular titles come out a month by DC? Because I honestly have no idea…
Then you need to consider there are 4 weeks in a month, so is only 4 - 5 titles a week from DC enough? This in fact, may be why they put out so many titles, it might be more cost effective for printing and shipping to put out 10-15 titles a week from a distribution standpoint. This is ignorant speculation, I don’t exactly know how that works. I just obsessively purchase them.
I couldn’t accept DC discontinuing print editions of Batman or Detective Comics. I’d have to assume they’ll remain in production until the industry wide complete digitalization, along with Superman and Action Comics. I pray that complete digitalization doesn’t happen in my lifetime (and I hope to live another 30 or 40 years).
Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Shazam, Nightwing, Red Hood, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Teen Titans, JLA definitely deserve their own books. I’ve never read an Aquaman story but I guess he’s a known commodity so maybe him too. Ultimately what I’m most interested in is seeing which books you’re reading now that you feel should still be made. The reason I started participating in the forums a few weeks ago was to sing the praises of a book that got cut from a 12 issue maxi series to a 6 issue mini series (Inferior Five). In doing so the community here directed me to other great stories. I’m kinda hoping for a DC wide version of that on current titles.
Keep the physical books that are keeping and selling above a certain profit threshold and if they stay below that threshold for 3 months or 3 out of 12 months, put them to digital only. If you have books (new or existing) that are breaking that threshold, start doing psychical publication as well. If books aren’t selling, physical or digital well enough, cancel them or make them every other month.
Try making more stand alone issues or shorter arcs, so it’s easier for somebody to jump into a book. Stop doing so many crossovers, do more tie-ins instead. They did this with COIE back in the day. Tie-ins might be useful or fun for a more in depth experience but you didn’t need them to read COIE. They were more “optional extras”.
Actually, having some time to think on it, I guess if I was the AT&T people and I decided to do this (which they shouldn’t), I’d want those 20 titles be some combination of “has a movie or TV show” and just relaunch with new creatives and #1’s, that way I’d know there would be at least some kind of a fan base that might use this as a jumping on point.
So, 7 “League” titles:
Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
Green Lantern
The Flash
Aquaman
Justice League
Three “Arrowverse” titles:
8. Green Arrow
9. Black Lightning
10. Supergirl
Three “DCEU” titles:
11. Shazam!
12. Birds of Prey
13. Suicide Squad
And then 3 more titles using perennial favorites to help round out the line and possibly be adapted later:
18. Nightwing
19. Legion of Superheroes
20. Hellblazer
I think another reason to use a threshold type system, rather than a strict number system is to maximize revenue. I think if a book is below the thresholds for physical and/or digital release. Go to once every 2 months. That might entice buyers to get back into it regularly to save it. Or if sales drop, it’s a good indicator that people really aren’t invested in the book, and three issues should be enough time to resolve, at least half way decently a story arc.
Although, keeping books to stand alone issues or shorter arcs could fix that item regardless.
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