Wow. Gotta admit I’m somewhat rocked by the editorial shake-ups at DC currently being reported by Newsarama.com. I’ll tell you, if Mike Carlin is privately annoyed and/or angry (which I’ve no idea if he is) you sure can’t tell by his public face. Maybe he really, truly is more comfortable getting his hands more deeply back into editing. And Dan Didio has a lot on the ball. He’s one of the spearheads behind getting “Fallen Angel” up and running. Truth is, these days if you look at the major new titles with original characters that folks are talking about, they’re coming out of DC.
We’ll see how it all shakes out.
PAD
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As much as I’m sorry for the three editors fired, I think this could be a very good thing for DC’s fortunes… Fingers crossed, anyway.
I must ask: why did it happen? What was so bad about DC’s fortunes that a shake-up of this magnitude was required? Were they all caught smoking pot in the bathroom or something?
Better question: what causes the editor of DC’s best selling book (JLA) to get fired?
Was that last comment a veiled derogatory remark towards Marvel in such a way that praises DC? Such bitterness.
Dude, just as soon as Firestorm is back in a DC comic (POWER COMPANY by Busiek…go buy it now!) you bring up the spectre of the DC Implosion. Are you trying to jinx it for me?!
BTW, Brad, did you hear that Liefeld and his Extreme comics crew were all coke-monkeys? No real point to that, but I followed a link to Millar’s message board and Liefeld himself admits to it!
too bad MTV doesn’t do celebrity deathmatch.
we could get likenesses of higher ups from DC fighting the higher ups from marvel. 😛
or even Bill Jemas Vs. Peter David to the death.
…
ok I’ve either been up to long or taken too much cold medication cause that suddenly seems much funnier than it really is.
What is so bad about DC’s fortune’s that a shakeup was required? Maybe that they keep churning out relaunches and they all fail within the first two years…
Also, JLA is not their highest selling title. Batman sells more. Twice as much, in fact.
Back in the day (not that long ago actually) we got the reorganisation of JLA, Titans (and they were good). Two new series JSA and Young Justice (and they were good) then things seemed to stop seeming so big.
Titans gone…Young Justice gone… sore point.
Yeah Green Arrow came back and Batman is doing well, but maybe new ideas aren’t bad. Comics should push and shape the boundaries of society, like TV and movies.
So in with the new (as long as Dan doesn’t try to do Superboy again) Kick some áršë (New Zealand spelling) make something new.
One day I’m sure I’ll be replaced by the newer model, but till then I’ll be the new model. So nice too see some new models on the floor.
Hope that wasn’t too obscure for you.
DC’s been annoying enough the last few months that it doesn’t bother me. YJ was my favorite title and it gets cancelled for a dámņ commercial to be written by DC’s Golden Boy (how many books does Geoff Johns Really need to write?), the Birds of Prey TV fiasco, Superman’s books are worse now than they were before he died, and a seemingly endless string of cancellations with no obvious effort to draw in new readers, and I’ve almost been put off my comic books. I swear, if it weren’t for Tom Strong and back issues (I love Captain Marvel, Peter, but I don’t have a lot of faith in “Joey da Q” to let you keep it, win or lose), I’d write the manager of my comic shop I go to a “Dear John” (or rather, Sean) letter.
Oh well, there will always be back issues and ebay.
Wait, back up!
The editor of JLA has been fired? This after the recent PROMOTION for the editor of the badly underperforming “Superman” titles??
Not much of an incentive plan at DC, is there? I expect the Batman editor to be let go soon…
I think that the changes at DC reflect the way of life in all businesses today. It’s all about towing your weight, and if Raspler and Helfer’s books aren’t selling, then this is the consequence. Fair? Probably not. Normal? Yup.
As for Carlin, he isn’t the first editor to be promoted and then to return to the land of the blue pencil. His former position was an administrative job and it’s possible that he never really did it as well as he’d hoped. He did a good job editing the Superman books all those years ago, and I hope he’s still the same editor.
In general, I think DC is doing simply what it has to to stay competitive. Will it work? IOnly time can tell, but they can’t afford to do nothing.
All the new books launched by those two editors whose contracts they let expire over the past few years, have been flops – at least sales wise. Let’s not forget, that this is a business – one that operates on a very lean profit margin. I’m hoping that this is a signal that DC plans to publish fewer, but better books.
So while Marvel is throwing a bunch of titles out there that look like they will be crappy and uninteresting with their Tsunami line launch in an effort to increase their market share compared to DC, DC is going to decrease their market share and go with a leaner meaner approach with a focus on quality as was Quesada and Jemas’ original stated game plan? Why doesn’t each company just swap their entire editorial staffs and call it done?
DC saw Marvel remove Chris Claremont from the anchor X-Books because they blamed him for the sales not going up around the time of the movie. DC may have been similarly looking for someone to blame for JLA not increasing in sales significantly enough considering the Justice League cartoon is out there every week and should be drawing in new readers. The recent use of Hawkgirl and John Stewart in JLA indicate that there was definitely some pressure coming down on the creative team from somewhere.
JLA has taken a dive since Waid left. Yes, I said Waid, not Morrison. Morrison was fantastic, but Waid was a more than adequate replacement. That and the fact he had Hitch doing the art didn’t hurt either. I gave Kelley until the end of the Obsidian Age to convince he that he’s worth reading. He failed miserably, and I dropped the title. Plus the artwork for Kelley’s run is best described as acquired taste.
Is this the fault of the editor? If Raspler had an indication that sales were slipping on JLA during the recent team’s run, yes absolutely. Does this warrant a firing? Only if he failed to take any action to stop the decline. I don’t know for a fact that JLA sales did slip, except at the store where I shop.
Sales of JLA, while still among DC’s highest books, HAVE slipped. A lot of people (myself included) were dissatisfied with Joe Kelly as writer and dropped the book. Plus Raspler’s office flooded the market with JLA-related ancillary titles and specials to diminishing returns — think about all those JLA “prestige” books you’ve seen over the last few years.
The other books in Raspler’s office that were doing well — JSA, HAWKMAN, the relaunched AQUAMAN — weren’t really seen as his successes as he wasn’t the direct editor on them, just the group editor in charge.
I always liked him and Helfer but the fact is that I wasn’t reading any books that they were directly editing (having dropped the last of them, Helfer’s DOOM PATROL, a couple of months ago), and given how many comics I read a month, that doesn’t bode well. Both guys will land on their feet somewhere, I think, and I will bet that new challenges will spur them to new heights (here’s hoping that a relaunch of the Raspler-written YOUNG HEROES IN LOVE is among them).
I am really feeling that this is going to be a positive move and I look forward to seeing what’s going to come of it.
I’m not surprised that “if you look at the major new titles with original characters that folks are talking about, they’re coming out of DC.” These days it seems with the Ultimates books, Marvel is more interested in retelling/recreating its existing characters than actually making new books and characters. DC went through this phase — Batman Years 1-3 — but they grew out of it (more or less; I think there’s a Batgirl Year One coming out). Let’s hope Marvel can too.
I don’t know any of these guys, but I think Raspler’s handling of the Spectre posed a unique problem. For that series, JMD wrote some of the best stories I’ve read in years, but also some of the worst. And while the product itself has some stellar high points, the market simply never gave a dámņ.
I think this is where DC is looking at Raspler and saying – we know you’re doing great work. Now we want you to do great work AND make the fan base happy so your sales will stop the endless downward spiral. But this book has two very different fan bases, and Raspler and JMD never picked either one – they struck out to create a new variation on the Spectre, and neither the Hal Jordan fans got a cosmic hero gone ghostly nor the Jim Corrigan fans got a spooky avenger of the afterworld.
It was painfully obvious and widely discussed on the DCMB that this strategy was a flop – and the sales demonstrated it. (Besides this concept was flawed — Hal Jordan and the Spectre was a doomed combo from the start.) But Raspler never made the course adjustment, in two years of the series’ run. He just continued on his merry path. It doesn’t matter how great your work is if nobody’s buying it.
Pete Tomasi edits JSA and maybe Hawkman. (don’t have resources in front of me to corroborate.)
I know there are plenty of people not shedding a tear about Raspler leaving. I’ve heard he can be prickly with creators, among other things.
I am very sorry to see Helfer go, as I’ve always been a fan of his writing and want to see DC continue with a strong “alternative” line.
Dan D seems qualified to beat Quesada and Jemas at their own game- making DC marketable but backing up the hype with on-time product and sustained quality. It seems that DC has been in a bit of a coasting mode since the early 90s (though there have still been several nice books to enjoy). Now they’re gonna get agressive and take full advantage of the icons they control. We could have a replay of the heady days of ’86 when DC started a push that utterly blindsided Shooter’s Marvel; Marvel had been ahead for so long they didn’t see it coming. It helped considerably that Shooter had such a talent for alienating his best talent…
Will Quesada play into Dan D’s hands? There’s a very good chance he will…
I must admit I’m a bit sad to see those guys going, but it does look like DC’s taking some pretty good steps towards making some much needed improvements on their franchises. Superman for example could use some improvments, and so could Green Lantern. I sure hope that things work out well in the future.
Except for Helfer,(sic?) I did’nt know squat about the editorial staff at DC. Evidently, the powers-that-be at DC feel that JLA, Superman titles, etc. were in a downward spiral.
They’d be right.
Check out the TOP 50 column in Wizard #138 and you’ll see that only Batman is in the top ten (at number three). You have to go down to number 17 to see the next
DC title; that would be JLA. Ðámņ! NUMBER 17!! Was it really that long ago that JLA was a DC juggernaut and was so popular that they had a bazillion guest-appearances accross the DCU?
Hey, DC! Some free advice:
1)*DO A WAKE-UP CALL*
Wake up and smell the coffee, and then read the sales list! The vast majority of top-selling titles aren’t just “Marvel” brand, they’re ULTIMATE MARVEL brand. My point is that Marvel has gotten to the “core” of each of their iconic characters and coupled it with kick-ášš writers (Mark Millar for instance). The end result? CHA-CHING!
2) *GO ON A DIET!*
Waaaaay back in 1985, DC had the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” that was supposed to “slim down” the DCU and make it understandable to the casual reader.
Nice idea. Too bad it didn’t last.
Look at their titles now: a whole butt-load of multiple Superman/Batman/JLA titles that have watered-down some truly great characters. Superman, IMO, should have two titles: SUPERMAN and ACTION. Likewise, Batman should be limited to BATMAN and DETECTIVE. And JLA? Stop bombarding the market with crappy JLA mini-series that do not develop JLA characters or have any lasting impact! Limiting titles, but maximizing your talent (Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee on BATMAN) will do a hëll of a lot for your bottom line. In this case, less is more.
3) *COMIC BOOKS ARE NOT CARTOONS!*
Cancelling both TEEN TITANS and YOUNG JUSTICE should be made solely on the basis of sales and not as the RESULT of the suits in Hollywood putting this character or that character into their cartoon version of our young DC heroes!
Was TITANS doing poorly? A strong case can be made for that. But YOUNG JUSTICE had a loyal fan base following an established, popular writer(*nudge,nudge! wink! wink!*).
The comic book fans want to know that you listen to them. That their opinion matters to you. If there is a resurgent interest in a character(s), then give them a chance to support the book through word-of-mouth (or internet). Cancelling SUPERGIRL should have only be done after, say, four to six months. It should not be the result of a plot thread in the current SUPERMAN titles.
All of this is said in the hopes that DC can turn things around. I’ve been a fan since the (gulp) silver age and I’d love to see DC’s quality back at the top of its game.
Peter don`t praises “New DC” so fast: most moves since Didio has been there have been more political than going for quality. A creator have a problem with Marvel? You can be sure DC is going to kiss his ášš. Right now that`s why we see so many of them being signed exculsive, to get the point across that “DC is a great place to be”.
Meanwhile, Marvel go after creators that they feel are just too fantastic to pass up.