Play "Fantasy DC EIC" and Redo The DCU!

This is like Fantasy Baseball, but instead of pretending to play a professional sport, you pretend to be the new Editor-In-Chief of the DC Universe.

You come in to the job, and are given carte blanche to totally rearrange the DCU as you see fit. Among your powers:
1. Killing characters and/or bringing them back from the dead.
2. Canceling titles.
3. Starting new titles.
4. Creating events.
5. Hiring talent and editorial.
6. Offering exclusives.
7. Steering the "direction" of characters and books.
8. Creating special projects (movie tie-ins, new initiatives, etc).

You have an awesome responsibility in front of you. Choose wisely and fairly. And play nice...remember, any decisions you make will have repercussions.

Those Who Go And Those Who Stay

Just as an appendix to the previous post, I decided, just for fun, to figure out how many of the editors in the DCU department who I worked with have either resigned, been fired, or have transfered to other departments since Dan DiDio was hired.

I'm not going to list the names, but the number is about 12.

Those who have remained? About 6. About 6 of my former co-workers are left.

There is more I could say -- I could analyze things, break them down, etc. But I'm not.

I guess I could say that with such a steep turnover in staff, the department is hardly the one I left. And yet -- it still is.

Oh well -- Que Sera, Sera:

The DCU Assistant Editor Exodus Continues...

According to the latest LITG...

"Today, I hear DCU Assistant Editor Nachie Castro gave his notice to DC Comics, to move to Disney Publishing. As is standard practice when an employee chooses to move to a rival, he won't have to serve his notice, was asked to pack up his things and left DC this morning."

Nachie is a really great editor who brings a lot to the table, not the least of which is his knowledge of and outreach to indie comic artists. He's an asset to whomever hires him.

This means of course, dear readers, that another slot in the DC editorial department might be opening up -- and that you too might have the chance to know the joy that is working as an assistant editor for the company.

DCU Fix

This, in my estimation, is how you fix the DCU:

EIC: DiDio. Concentrates on Hollywood stuff and general big picture. He's been working hard the last five years or so, so it's cool if he just wants to coast and let new managing editor handle a lot of the details.

Managing Editor: Ron Perazza, and I'll tell you why: a) former Marvel editor, b) tons of experience running DC's custom publishing line, c) very well-liked by workers and freelance talent, d) great cultivator of new talent, e) extensive marketing experience.

Superman Editor (aka "Geoff Johns Editor"): Covers all Superman and Green Lantern titles.

Batman Editor (aka "Marts"): Handles all Bat-books.

Quirky Editor (aka "That Indie Guy/Gal"): In charge of aggressively pursuing new talent that can revision classic DC characters (a la "Starman"). This is an important role, because in theory a lot of that is R&D for eventual Time Warner movies/TV. Oh yeah, also -- talented people with unique things to say get work.

Team Books Editor: Justice League/Society, Legion, and Titans books.

Etc Editor: Handles a potpourri of assorted solo books. Give this to an associate editor who looks like s/he has the chops.

Johnny DC Editor: this goes to another Associate Editor.

Now --

It is of tantamount importance that all these editors get along and share information.

Incentives should be given to editors to pull in new talent, retain happy older talent, and create cutting-edge new titles. $incentives$ should be given.

And if any editor is caught saying they are tired of being there, are jaded, are just going through the motions, etc., go find another editor. You can't afford jadedness.

On the topic of assistant editors: an assistant editor should be the next generation of editor for your company. Hire and reward accordingly. They are not glorified administrative assistants.

Now --

All the books that have been f**ked by extreme creative changes, etc -- axe them and start clean.

As for the continuity between Final Crisis and the build-up -- that's completely f**ked, so don't even worry about it at this point. Just move past that.

And the most critical element: Making DC's books accessible - top to bottom - increasing their casual and ongoing reader base.

Accessibility

From a Publisher's Weekly interview with Dan DiDio:

PWCW: The recent 50-cent special DC Universe 0 has taken some heat for being fairly inaccessible to people who weren’t hardcore DCU customers already. How did that issue end up being presented as a jumping-on point?

DD: My opinion is that DCU 0 was accessible to the people who understand and read comics and understand the stories and characters and world.

No, but seriously --

If the income generated from monthly floppies are not the bread-and-butter of a company like Time Warner -- if it's the intellectual property generated from the floppies that is the prize -- and DC fanboys and fangirls provide steady numbers and dollars for the floppies, how would it benefit the current regime to deviate from that?

I mean, seriously, if the comics themselves were selling millions of copies, and DC said -- "no, we don't want your millions, we want Kamandi!" -- then I could see how they were willfully screwing themselves.

But they are selling to people who in some instances buy $300 replica "museum quality" DC Direct items. They buy $100 absolute editions and $50 omnibuses and they go to Midtown Comics on a Wednesday and just pick these comics off the rack like they were grapes, a stack of new comics to devour the size of two phonebooks.

And they will buy anything. As long as it has the characters they love -- in the versions they loved as younger collectors -- in the comic.

That sort of readership feeds not only the DCU monthly floppy machine, it feeds the DC Direct machine and the DC Backlist machine.

Now, do I think lighting a fire under the DCU's ass on the level of what happened in 1999, 2000, 2001 at Marvel -- with Axel Alonso and Marvel Knights and making Captain America strong again and all that great new talent -- would benefit the company? It very well might.

But --

It's not necessary. I know it may seem, from where we sit, necessary that DC beat Marvel in sales. But, that is not what is really important to The Powers That Be. What is more important is that Marvel is kicking DC's ass in movies. That's what the Powers That Be care about.

Now, the movies are the macrocosm. Let's go back to the microcosm, the comics industry.

Is DC going to risk that nice, steady income from their monthly floppies by doing anything that might alienate the fans? Are they going to take that chance? Are they going to go with the "devil" they know, or the "devil" they don't?

It's like the Buffy The Vampire Slayer universe. It's not for everybody. And the comic is very successful -- but I don't find it that new-reader friendly either. You really have to be familiar with that mythos to understand and appreciate and, frankly, stomach it (it can be sooo emo!). But, how to make Buffy more new-reader friendly? Explain every issue, either explicitly or implicitly, all the bits and pieces of that tortured story? You alienate the hardcore fans this way. The hardcore fans just want to dive into the story like a mosh pit and get their rocks off.

That's what books like Final Crisis appeals to. It is a sticky yummy mosh pit of continuity and story for hardcore DC fans. It will have its ups and its downs, but it will be purchased.

As for courting new readers, that's what the other imprints are for -- far easier to experiment with webcomics and manga than it is with that Justice League comic that brings in the steady numbers every month.

But don't get me started on how they offered a second printing of DC Universe 0 for $1.00. That's where, for me, the sidewalk ends and I get cranky.