Jes’ sayin.

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DC still has the problem of attracting the kind of artists that will sell projects. Shane’s work falls into what I perceive as DC’s house style. has no presense. Shane’s work lends itself to supposedly writer-dominated.
comics that DC is known for where the art really does not do as much as it could. DC’s superstars fail from low productivity syndrome just like Marvel but DC has the habit of keeping ’super star’ artists AWAY from promoted books for the most part. Bagley’s on BATMAN. How much of a push is that book getting? Jim Lee has been allowed to walk away from their top-selling comic to do other work. The Kuberts do close to nothing.

Oddly enough, The whole things reminds me of the effort Marvel puts towards its licensed comics, especically with their Classics Ilustrated and with their Anita Blake series. Ron Lim really phones it in on the Anita Blake comic series and I see that same approachwith Earth One so far. . This project could have been an opportunity for DC to break away from everything DC is known for but I get the feeling that they’ve already blown it. Somone mentioned that JMS’ sensiblities don’t lend themselves to a character like Superman. I don’t know if I fully agree,since DC may be going for an “edgy” approach to Superman, but the same can be said about Gary Frank. Gary Frank’s sensibilities don’t lend themselves to Batman. Nothing wrong with Gary, but he’s too slick for Batman. He draws really pretty people. He’d be a better fit for Superman.
Don’t know why they’re going through with this.

I ditched superhero books for manga, jeez, almost 10 years ago. I don’t even buy trades because the of the mish-mash of creators jammed under one cover. This has me interested.

How is Naruto Volume 1 different from Earth One Batman Volume 1? Both start an ongoing story. Ultimate Spider-Man is the same, yet each number is sequentially numbered, and although it crosses over with other Ultimate volumes, it is mostly self-contained and accessible.

Currently, if an Innocent requests an accessible Superman or Batman title, I can recommend:
DC Showcase (reprints 25-issues in black and white, usually done-in-one stories)
Chronicles (reprinting golden age stories in chronological order, basically the paperback version of the DC Archives)
Superman: The Man of Steel (reprinting the 1980s reboot in chronological order)
Adventures (based on the animated cartoons, usually done-in-one)

There’s also the reprints of Justice League International, as well as the JLA reboot from Morrison. DC has also started reprinting the Perez reboot of Wonder Woman.

“Oh dear Lord. Once again DC proves I’m an idiot.”

One set up line, so many potential responses.

As far as these books, I have no idea who they’re trying to market to here. I think they’re going after the people who walk into bookstores and say they want to “start reading Batman from the beginning” or some vague phrasing like that. The people who are dismayed to find there really is no starting book to Batman or who shake their heads when given The Dark Knight Returns to start. The problem is there are literally hundreds of Batman and Superman books on the shelves, so how do you make these stand out? (I have a hunch no one’s considered that question yet.) This just reeks of the same lousy pre-planning that went into Minx. It’s more a desperate attempt to compete for manga dollars than an actual targeted strategy at how to take dollars away from manga.

The benefits of manga are the price point and the accessibility. Looking at accessibility, this kinda addresses that by being a new line of books starting at the beginning, but if someone wants to start reading One Piece or Naruto, they can pick up One Piece vol 1 or Naruto vol 1. With Batman and Superman, there are sooooo many other Batman and Superman books, so it’s not going to be as easy as just picking up Earth One vol. 1. As for price point, that’s the rub. Manga is popular to buy because it’s $8 for a volume. DC wants to compete by going in with $20+ a volume? I don’t get it.

I was really hoping DC Entertainment would mean giving thought to what they did with DC IPs, but if they’re going to give it the same half-thought out attempts as they did with Minx, good luck.

I’m also no longer amazed by people complaining about the content of something they haven’t read yet.

Perhaps someone should start a movement now to get these banned from a library somewhere. Why wait for the big rush at release time?

But really, this begs the bigger question – why in the hell, in a year when the top selling item on Amazon is the Amazon Kindle, and the most awaited item at Barnes and Nobels is the Nook, is DC so effing hell-bent on killing trees and placing items on already dusty shelves? Why not release these as web comics *then* sell them in bookstores, like they did with High Moon and Bayou?

I can only imagine that DC is having to make do with last year’s budget before greenlighting anything really exciting.

I hope their experiment succeeds. I would like to see if the creators break the instinctual 22 page format. With Shane Davis doing some of the art, I hope they have a good running start at the deadlines.

Do we know who in editorial is cracking the whip?

Superman looks great from the shot…but honestly not a big fan of J. Michael Straczynski’s work. And the cover is Superman smashing a building in Metropolis? Doesn’t fit with the Superman most people know.

The litmus test: 5 year old son doesn’t think it looks cool.

Pass.

So what if he is, Wraith? Are you saying black men can’t be newspaper photographers?

Or are you secretly hoping for it to be true so you can complain?

Exactly what is your motivation for bringing that point to the discussion?

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I’m black, and proud of it. And I wouldn’t like nothing more then to see more black and other non white minority characters (both old and new ones) appearing in more DC and Marvel comics. That being said, I’m against changing white characters to black (or any other non white minority) in order to make a book’s cast more diverse. I’m a firm believer that this type of race retconning can and will be flipped the other way, and we will see cool black or other non white minority character turned white and the justification for that will be “We made Jimmy Olson and Nick Fury black, so fair is fair”.

Another reason why I brought this up, is because JMS said that out of all of Superman’s supporting cast, Jimmy Olson will be changed the most from his traditional portrayal. Which is not to say that he will be black in this series. It’s only a guess/prediction of mine based on what JMS said in the AICN interview and on the fact that Warner Brothers was at one time rumored to wanting Chris Rock to play Jimmy Olson in the remake of the Superman franchise before they finally settled on the craptacular SUPERMAN RETURNS.

Or are you secretly hoping for it to be true so you can complain?

Exactly what is your motivation for bringing that point to the discussion?

DC already does great all ages material aimed at younger readers. It’s called the cartoons. Just ask my nephews who all want some kind of toy tied in to Batman Brave and the Bold. Now, we have the next step.

The comics don’t need to be aimed at anybody. They just need to be interesting and good. And a line of OGNs, with the right kind of crosspromotion in the first few pages with the other OGN releases, could do well if marketed right.

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It’s thinking like yours why the industry is in such crappy shape. Putting out all ages Marvel and DC superhero comics that can be read and enjoyed by EVERYONE without talking down to the readers, is one of the ways (BUT NOT THE ONLY WAY) to help save the dying AMERICAN comic book industry.

The audience for these books will be the general public, and Random House will be distributing them to book shops all around the world.

Who cares what the LCS reader thinks?

I hardly doubt the OGN will spend the entire time covering origins. It will probably last a few pages at most so I don’t see what people are getting so worked up about. I think the point is they are starting at the beginning free of continuity and in a format that will be carried by bookstores. I mean original work in bookstores first, that’s great! A format that wider audiences might be interested in and removing them from the LCS ghetto and removing the continuity-fetish are all good moves for DC.

The Earth One title seems pretty self explanatory to me but I think a lot of people are over thinking it. One: as in start, new, original, beginning. It sets it apart from current production while at the same time ties it in to the history of the company. Is it the best title? I don’t know, but really not that confusing as to what they are aiming for.

I’ll be looking forward to these and will check them out when they hit the bookstore.

That is all.

@KET I think DC did a might fine job of marketing their Batman books during The Dark Knight movie release. Not only did the classic backlist sell VERY well (as seen on BN.com sales rankings that summer), but they also released the remastered hardcover “Killing Joke” and an OGN HARDCOVER of Azarello’s “Joker”, both which sold very well.

Then there was Watchmen. The fan base bought their copies years ago, yet DC managed to sell hundreds of thousands of copies after the movie trailer aired during The Dark Knight. Perfect storm? Perhaps. But that’s what marketing is all about.

Oh, and Random House? One of the reasons DC signed with RH was to utilize RH’s sales force and contacts. DC sent a free copy of Watchmen to every RH account which didn’t stock graphic novels, asking them to read the book and consider stocking a growing category.

And then there are the reviews in the New York Times… Incognegro and Absolute Watchmen to name two. And the Dark Knight movie adaptation made the NY Times mass market bestseller list.

DC has also been active in selling books to bookstores and libraries, attending ABA and BookExpo for over twenty-five years. They partnered with the New York Public Library in the late 1990s to investigate if graphic novels would appeal to teens, placing a selection of graphic novels in library branches. They also partnered with WaldenBooks to feature DC titles in a dedicated display near the Science Fiction section (back before there was a “graphic novel” section in bookstores).

True, I would like to see more DC author events in bookstores (why they didn’t promote “Superman: True Brit” more, I don’t know…) but there’s always room for improvement.

The only reservation I have is that DC’s past is littered with failed imprints: Paradox, Piranha, Minx, Matrix/Helix, Impact… I hope this isn’t one of them.