How to use this Page

Hot damn! About time! Really looking forward to more of the Project Superpowers universe.

I like this post, enjoyed this one appreciate it for putting up.

If this is the Dell/Western character then it is still in copyright by whatever company now owns the Dell/Western copyrights.

Dell/Western published “The Owl” comic in 1967 for two issues. This would have effectively renewed the copyright from 1940. However, I would have expected Dell/Western when relaunching the title would have renewed the copyrights formally, which would still have been in effect at the time. The copyright would then have lasted to 1995.

While the assumption would that the copyright would have expired in 1995, the law changed in 1976 so that anything copyright at that time converted to the new law (70 years for corporate copyright). The 1976 law was amended now changed corporate copyright to 95 years (this was pushed by the Disney Company). Therefore, for Dell/Western’s original 1940 copyright now expires in 2035.

Another major change occurred in copyright law in January 2012 when the US Supreme Court ruled (in Golan v. Holder) if a work previously considered in the public domain would be under copyright if the new rules (1976 law and amended rules), then the work was back under copyright.

The Wikipedia article on the Golan v. Holder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_v._Holder references a few items such as the movie Metropolis (1927) is back under copyright.

Another example is Edgar Rice Burroughs early work (Tarzan, John Carter, etc.) should be in public domain. However, because Burroughs work was under copyright renewal when the 1976 law went into effect, all of the work falls under the new copyright rules.

Tarzan, John Carter, etc., copyrights are now the life of the author plus 70 years. Burroughs died in 1950. So all his work is under copyright until 2020. After that, all work goes into the public domain (unless the law is changed again).

The various law changes would also apply to most of the Superpowers Project characters.

Although one issue for copyright is someone has to defend the copyright and send that “cease and desist letter”. If no one defends the copyright, then the copyright holder has abandoned the copyright.

However, there is an escape clause for the copyright holder. If they are unaware of the infringement, they do not lose the copyright. However, once they become aware of the infringement, they have to take action within a reasonable time.

Alex Ross does such good job with the Dynamite covers but the interior art just doesn’t do anything for me.

“Dell/Western published “The Owl” comic in 1967 for two issues.
This would have effectively renewed the copyright from 1940.”

Err…no.
The copyrights on the original material published in the 1940s had to be renewed at the 28-year point or those stories fell into the public domain…which is exactly what happened.
All the Golden Age Owl material is PD.

“Another major change occurred in copyright law in January 2012 when the US Supreme Court ruled (in Golan v. Holder) if a work previously considered in the public domain would be under copyright if the new rules (1976 law and amended rules), then the work was back under copyright.”

“The Wikipedia article on the Golan v. Holder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_v._Holder references a few items such as the movie Metropolis (1927) is back under copyright.”

Doesn’t this only apply to international copyrights as opposed to domestic? It wouldn’t apply to Dell Comics since it wasn’t operating outside the U.S., unless I’m mistaken on that.

“PC Word”. I wonder what decade that was part written in?

Must be able to tell Gail Simone that she is fired via email.

Must be able to fool ‘creators’ into staying on books that’ll eventually be overwritten by editorial.

So many openings and none of them are for what DC *really* needs: a new publisher to do the one job that two incompetents — one of them a megalomaniac, the other a video game addict with severe ADHD — are failing to do right now and an editor-in-chief, one who wouldn’t embody the Peter Principle the instant s/he was hired.

Until those positions are filled with people who are actually capable of doing the jobs, the rest of the openings are just deck chairs on the Titanic.

I’d apply, but I can’t afford the pay cut and the job insecurity.

Editorial Scheduling Coordinator difficult? Maybe to some kid right out of college. with my experience, I could do the job in my sleep.

But DC doesn’t seem to want older and experienced people like me. It’s a moot poinr anyway. I can’t afford the pay cut and the job insecurity.

For anyone who thinks this is an easy job, I have medical bills racked up doing this for Marvel to show you.

Awesome! My tenure at Universal is almost over- so I’ll just jump on some of these postions then. Thanks Beat!!

~

Coat

“Hard” is a relative term. And stressful jobs aren’t always all that hard.

I went through a period where a job was so stressful I had a medical issue, but that was once, when I was in my 30s. And I vowed to never let it happen again. Some people learn to deal with stressful jobs without being consumed by them. I’d like to think that I did.

Part of the secret is losing one’s fear of being fired.

Another secret is to jettison the need for outside approval from ANYONE. If one can get to the point where one makes decisions based on what one thinks is right and is in the best interests of the organization, stress can melt away.

A third secret is to keep things in perspective: There are people whose daily job involves life and death decisions. That’s not the case with an editorial scheduling director, or most other desk jobs.

A fourth secret is one that’s a spinoff of the last: Avoid feel sorry for yourself. It serves no useful purpose, and no one really cares that you think your job is tough. Most people think their jobs are tough — even when they aren’t.

A fifth secret is avoid taking the job home when you walk out the door (however late it may be).

There are more, but I think this is a good start.

Oh, yeah. Reports that exercise tempers the effects of stress are true. And if one happens to be a classic geek who hates sports and gyms, then walk. I guarantee if one walks two three or four miles on a regular basis, it will temper the effects of stress and lead to a better night’s sleep.

The floggings will continue until morale improves.

That first photo … damn … Must be difficult to work all day, knowing Batman is watching you, waiting to pummel you for goofing off.

I’d apply, but I’m sure I sleep easier being homeless and unemployed.,

Considering the character’s name is Angela and not Valkyra or Amazona, I’m guessing she’ll remain an angel of some kind.

Do you think they will run with the tagline “Because no one remembered or demanded it!”?

Didn’t Bendis write Miracleman into a Spawn comic for McFarlane a decade ago?
Fun to see it come full circle.

Sounds a lot like what happened when Death was written into a Superman comic a few years ago—Gaiman got credit for the dialogue in the creator captions.

So, what does this mean? Is Gaiman now the sole owner of the Angela IP? Or, since Cogliostro, the other significant character Gaiman created for Spawn, is appearing in Spawn again, does that mean that Gaiman and MacFarlane horse-traded their 50% interests so that Neil owns Angela outright and Todd owns Cog outright?

What I want to know is why is he using the character in a work for hire setting, unless he has sold his rights to Marvel.

I’ll second Rob J.’s question. I didn’t follow the particulars of the lawsuit, but I thought the eventual conclusion was that Angela and the other disputed characters were co-owned 50/50 by Gaiman and McFarlane.

There does seem to be some sort of triangle of interests here: Marvel Comics, Todd McFarlane, and Neil Gaiman, all tied together somehow by a triangle of characters: Spawn, Angela, and M/arvel/iracleman.

I second the notion that Gaiman’s writing credit may well be the equivalent of an Executive Producer credit on a film. His name goes on in, but he didn’t do any of the actual heavy lifting.

As regards the outcome of the most recent lawsuit between Gaiman and McFarlane, nobody knows what it was, as the outcome was not revealed. So, whereas the most likely conclusion is that they own Angela 50/50 between them, there’s absolutely no proof to back that up.

Meanwhile, Bleeding Cool is reporting that Gaiman owns 100% of Angela, but I suppose we’ll have to wait to see the credits in the actual comics to be sure, as they’re not quoting any source for that, as is usual with them. Maybe Neil has swapped his share, whatsoever as it might turn out to be, for something that Marvel have that he might be interested in…

Wow. Sure seems like someone is grinding an ax in public. Why would you shoehorn this character into ANYTHING?

I smell a rat. This is cover for the Miracleman return, which Gaiman would likely be part of.

One this is for sure, she’ll have to wear more clothes in today’s Marvel Universe.

This comes off as an incredibly douchey move by both Gaiman and Marvel. So unnecessary.

Gaiman’s giving Marvel use of Angela does not require him to own 100% of the character (and I’m not saying he does or doesn’t, I’m not privvy to this deal). A shared copyright holder is legally free to license out what he owns, so long as he splits the proceeds with his co-holder.

http://comicsbeat.com/and-so-it-ends-gaiman-and-mcfarlane-finally-settle-epic-spawn-lawsuit/

This is an early April Fool’s, right?

Certainly feels like one.

This is a really shame. I was really looking forward to trying these books, after reading his ideas for them.
DC’s revolving door of replacement writers they can just conjure up is insane!

I’ve yet to see a more crazy time to be in DCU than now. Unless you’re Johns, Lemire or Snyder, you may be off a book in a second. I still feel DC has no idea where to go next.

This is just scary. No other way to put it.

I love these characters and have so much respect for these creators. But I can’t imagine what it’s like to work at DC these days. Good for Fialkov for doing what he thought was right for him, and being such a mensch about it online.

This is quite a bit of fun, seeing which book will lose its writer before he starts next.

I thought it was fun with just the title churn and the deathwatches that created. Spitballing the over/under on whether or not a title would make it out of the 8 issue kill zone has been glorious fun.

But now adding the realism of talent churn…the editorial maneuvers are becoming legendary. I could see The New 52 possibly marking a new era of editorial obnoxiousness.

We’ve gone from the Age of Superstar Artists in the 90s to the Age of the Superstar Writer in the 00s to the Age of the Superstar Editor in the ’10s. To the shock of absolutely no one at all, editorial heavyhandedness is NOT actually producing quality books that sell terribly well.

As long as the current big 2 comic books sell the Editors will do whatever they feel will keep the sales figures climb up.
Some of us, a vocal group on the blogs and fora, are not pleased with that, but it’s not like there are not good stories being told from other companies and/or creators!
Just bury and mourn your Batman/Spiderman/GL/Wolverine and move along. When I need a fix of good old fashioned spandex action I have quite a few books from the past to get it from ;)

Why don’t the editors go ahead and starting writing the books? I mean, really, at this point that seems to be where it’s headed.

Do the vomit lanterns really need their own title?

You’re naive if you think that the Big Two comics haven’t been Editor-driven for the last 20+ years. Its just that these days with the internet shedding light on all things once unseen, its more obvious…

I was having a discussion with a friend about this last night. I mean, aren’t editors around to make sure words aren’t misspelled, and that Superman doesn’t have blonde hair on a random panel? I can get if a writer really wants to take something in a crazy direction that the editor completely disagrees with, and therefore tells them no. But when did it become the norm for editors to direct where storylines were going, make major changes at the last minute, etc. It seems that’s been around in comics forever, from the stories you hear of great creative teams leaving titles because of a disagreement. But is this just happening in the land of comics, or is this what editors everywhere do? Seems like they’re overstepping their roles…

I’m guessing that the changes in editorial directions aren’t due just to arguments about what works better. DC Editorial is under pressure to hit sales targets; when books are in groups, a change in direction affects several titles simultaneously. If an editor or editors come up with a plan to boost sales on the GL titles–

The situation demonstrates the drawbacks to selling the characters instead of situations (standalone stories) or the talent. The talent is replaceable, the editors are replaceable–the characters aren’t.

SRS

I really enjoy Fialkov’s writing. Any idea what he’ll be focusing on next? (I’m there!)

Is anyone expected something else when Jim Lee made Bob Harras EiC?

@Nathan — What you describe is exactly the editor’s job, in any area of publishing. Copyeditors are the ones who make sure nothing is misspelled. In comics, a good editor is also making sure there are no color mistakes, as you point out, but that’s the last step in the process.

In a shared universe setting, the initial story concepts are even more the responsibility of the editor than in an author-driven setting. Sometimes the stories pitched are dead-on and exactly what the editor needs, so no fiddling required. Other times the editor comes up with the story from whole cloth. More often it’s a blend of both.

If you’re a novel editor, or editor of something else that comes to you intact from an author, obviously your job isn’t to come up with the story but to help the author hone it and improve it. The copyediting piece falls to someone else when you’re finished.

To be fair, Fialkov and Diggle walked away. They weren’t fired.

WTF, DC?

Wow. SMH!!!!

DC seems like such a mess right now it’s not even funny anymore. Ugh.

My sincere respect for Josh Hale Fialkov’s decision, and frankly whomever wanted to kill DC’s longest running African-American hero should be ashamed of themselves. It’s just plain ignorant and stupid. Go kill like 90 worthless Whitey-white heroes instead…they have no place in the new DC.

John Stewart?
Give him his own title INSTEAD of Larfleeze.

And if you need writers to actually WRITE, try these guys out for these books. (Or hire me to consult…seems you might need that these days.)

Paul Cornell (Wolverine) for Green Lantern Corps
Greg Pak (Hulk) for Green Lantern Corps
Judd Winick for Red Lanterns
Simon Roy (Prophet) for Red Lanterns

Yeah, solved. and APOLOGIZE to Josh.
That would be a great place to start…

What is going on in that Superman office? First the Brian Wood debacle with New 52 Supergirl. Then George Perez walks off Superman. Now this.

Not just this, but Supergirl showed up today with a prior solicited team of Mike Johnson and Mahmud Asrar. The cover even had those credits…the inside credits read: Frank Hannah/Robson Rocha (W/A).

There are also rumors that Joshua Hale Fialkov has left GLC and Red Lanterns.

This isn’t unique to the Superman office, it has been going on for some time across many of the DC editorial offices.
What’s the point of having a creative summit if editorial issues are going to cause folks to jump off? DC hired these creative people, they need to trust them to do what they were hired to do. Otherwise, why not just have the editors write the books themselves and save all concerned a lot of grief?

Just another in a long, long line of similar problems at DC. If it was an isolated incident here and there, you could easily chalk it up to “creative differences.” But this has been happening from day 1 of the New 52, so even though I’m not there and don’t know the business dealings going on, the project manager in me can plainly see it’s a top-down management problem.

Perhaps the “WTF” event should just be extended to year-round and labeled on all DC comics? Seems appropriate, given how they’re running their business.

*Tony Daniels suprrised a lot of people with his sales on DETECTIVE…*

On the other hand, HAWKMAN.

And another one bites the dust.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/20/235086/

If DC doesn’t want writers to do any more than transcribe (ever-changing) Editorial Mandates why do they bother hiring good writers who won’t put up with being treated like that in the first place?

@caleb – Yeah, Hawkman was mess.

@Dara – You sure do hear a lot of stories like that. (See: Liefeld) It does give the impression there’s a lot of second-guessing on going somewhere up the chain of command.

When was the last Marvel incident of someone walking off a book?

I don’t understand why these creators accept work from DC and then bail immediately or after a few issues. Did they not ask exactly what the job would be when they took it? It’s starting to seem almost as unprofessional on the freelance side as it has been on the editorial side.

I imagine this is especially frustrating for retailers who order copies in advance, often basing sales on the creators involved, just to get a big LOL J/K for their trouble.

Also, does Joshua Hale Fialkov look like John Byrne to anyone else?

@Steve – I’m going to go with the JMS departure on that.

@Johnny: “Did they not ask exactly what the job would be when they took it?”

I think they did, but before they could even get their first issue out, they were told it was something different. Then they were told a third thing. then a fourth change was foisted upon them.

Speculation on my part, obviously. But the many, many stories (including candid interviews, tweets, blog posts, etc.) seem to corroborate this. I can’t believe so many different professional freelancers (ones, we can assume, who would rather have a paying gig) are walking off of books because *they’re* the unprofessional ones.

[...] seems like a good day for announcements about leaving DC titles.  First news breaks that Andy Diggle has left Action Comics.   There are now two reports that Joshua Fialkov has left Green Lantern Corps and Red [...]

Why don’t they hire Jerry Ordway? He’s written Superman before and would probably appreciate the work!

Matt Idelson sure has a good track record of keeping talent on books (sarcasm)

Simply ridiculous. DC really needs to get their act in gear. This sort of thing is happening way too often. Makes one wonder what the heck is going on in the DC editorial offices these days.

And while not a big Andy Diggle fan, I was interested in reading his take on Superman. Tony Daniels? Eh, not so much.

I guess operating margin wasn’t good enough.

Hope he lands on his feet!

-B

Brian, c’mon, man. Uncalled for.

Yeah, Brian; you know I love you, but that was pretty shitty.

In Brian’s defense:

Everyone was thinking it.

Brian was commenting on the situation, not the person.

Been there.

Good Luck, RJ. You’ll do fine.

From his LinkedIn profile:
“Drive revenue strategies and tactics for Marvel Publishing by leading the sales, marketing, and pr team. Oversight over global and territory licensing of comic book and graphic novel rights. Macro oversight of licensed published products of Marvel intellectual property. Lead producer of Marvel Knights Animation.”

Well now maybe RJ can work for a place where he doesn’t have to defend oddball business practices.

A bit confused.

Either he was fired for something other than performance, or the performance numbers he was touting weren’t quite as successful.

Corporations are weird. The farther up the ladder you go, the less your job is evaluated on performance and the more beuacratic weirdness you have to do. I’m willing to bet Mr. Jayatilleke wasn’t let go because he wasn’t doing a good job.

I don’t understand why anyone would want to work for Marvel or DC in any capacity. I work for a large corporation that treats everyone like crap and compared to Marvel/DC, it seems like heaven.

The wording of two sentences in CBR’s article on Jayatilleke suggests that his departure was less than amicable:

CBR News has learned that Marvel Comics has dismissed SVP Associate Publisher Ruwan Jayatilleke. [. . .]

When asked about the move, a spokesman for Marvel offered no comment.

If a corporation plans for an executive’s departure, there will normally be a statement issued regarding the reassignment of duties, the executive’s future plans, etc. The statement might just be for show, but it will allow the people involved to save face. There’s no saving of face in CBR’s article. The word dismissed almost certainly means fired.

SRS

I know that he is a major share holder, but how long will Perlmutter be allowed to poke his nose into other people’s divisions and run off talented Marvel employees? I have no idea if Mr. Jayatilleke left or was removed, or the reasons; but it seems to fit a pattern of well regarded people at Marvel either being shown the door for nebulous reasons or heading for the hills, on their own, running and screaming.

Not so sure this is Mr. Perlmutter’s influence so much as it may very well be the shadow of ‘the mouse’ increasing in size and influence.

@Argh: Maybe, but murmurs keep popping up on Disney sites that Ike keeps trying to meddle in other areas of the company and that nobody in Disney or Pixar wants to deal with the man. Between Marvel’s profits and Perlmutter’s status as a major stockholder, he’s been left alone to run Marvel as he sees fit. As long as Marvel makes money, its expected that he will be left alone.

Looks pretty cool. I’ve never read a Red Sonja book, but the character looks interesting and I’ll probably give this new series a try. Oh, and I love Fiona Staple’s cover!

So many conflicting thoughts and emotions over this.

In theory, I love fantasy heroines. I grew up worshipping Valeria (who starred in a movie with some guy called Conan as her sidekick), which inspired me to become a life-long swordfighter (several different forms). But as a child the movie Red Sonja left me cold. Every time I’ve ever tried to delve into fantasy heroines in comics, I’ve been met with a wall of stupid writing and sexist art.

I love Gail Simone and usually buy anything with her name on it, but….I don’t know. I am *deeply* skeptical that the interior art won’t veer into off-putting male-gaze crap. A google of Giovanni’s previous work does not inspire confidence.

It feels excruciating that they didn’t go with someone like Becky Cloonan.
Using beautiful covers like the one above by Staples won’t ‘trick’ me into a purchase. I actually flip first.

My resume is in the mail.

LAYMAN FOR PRESIDENT! SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT! OF SALES AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT!

I voted Layman for Best Dressed. Am I doing it right?

Maybe they could hold off on filling this position and go try to find some good writers?

Oh, no. What will Joe Kalicki say about Mr. Layman applying for work at DC?!?

Heute DC Entertainment, morgen die ganze Welt.

I sure hope that DC doesn’t expect even a brilliant salesperson to be able to sell the steaming pile of crap that is the Nu52 publishing line. Nobody should be expected to make any sort of sense out of Didio, Lee and Harras’s editorial mess, so my advice to anybody qualified for the position is to wait until 1) the Nu52 BrainBust of Didio, Lee and Harras get fired and 2) the line reverts to the pre-Flashpoint DC Multiverse and *then* you should submit your resumes.

The last thing this corporation needs is yet another meddling suit.

Ok, do we have any idea just how much (or little if you prefer) money DC makes?

There’s lots of kvetching about poor sales but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it stated just what the comics, single issues and collected editions from trade papers to absolutes, make in a given year.

So does anyone know these numbers? Same applies to Marvel, Image, and Dark Horse.

Additional skills:
• Needs to be obtuse about comic readers needs or wants. The ability to maximize profits with minimum investment via tired storylines and retrofitted Golden Age characters is essential. New62, Death of Savage Hawkman, Firestorm meets Sandstorm in a Wildstorm or Agent Frankestenstein eats Animal Man stories are what what we came up with at our latest DC Summit. Feel free to add to our imaginative universe.

* Willing and able tot explore new avenues of profitably with the brand. Savage Hawkman and all colors of Green Red & Yellow Lanterns should be brought to full profitability and international success by the end of your tenure.

• The ability to convince the untapped markets, Facebook and social media users that the overwrought realism and extreme violence of DC books is cool and they should come inside comic retail stores , find our section tucked in a dark corner, then forgo lunch money to pay the high prices of our books about the Justice League and its subsidiary characters.. If you are successful in this venture, the possibility of Microsoft and Dell accessing your services to sell their products may be a lucrative side opportunity.

Just ONCE I’d like to see one of these recruitment bits say stuff like…
* Relaxed, laid-back, calm individual required to use thoughtful analysis & common sense to fix our many previous fuck-ups brought about by extreme, in-your-face, know-nothing, multi-tasking assholes.
* Must actually like comics & know a bit about their history.
* If you can read and retain what you read, and can converse and listen with any degree of skill whatsoever, then you know that a MBA isn’t worth the toilet paper its printed on.

More Chiefs is always better than more Indians. A lot of leaders here, that usually works well.

I think he’s been busy with Vision Machine:

http://www.visionmachine.net

I think this is honestly one of the more interesting creative team announcements I’ve seen in a while. Pak writing for DC leaves me hopeful, while anything by Lee is welcome.

I concur. We’ll see if there are any more surprises like this in the next few announcements.

Yeah right Pak said there was an “element of danger” in Batman and Superman meeting. A comment like that is beyond stupid not to mention that DC has an opportunity to cover new ground but decides re-tell a story that has been done and re-done. Ooh I wonder if one of them will kill the other when they first meet? I wonder if they will team up and have a begrudging respect for each other that will become genuine over the years? I hardly think you could call this writing any more than someone writes a McDonalds commercial.

When skimming, “Pak and Lee” can very easily be misread as “Pat Lee”. Scary. Reality much better.

Also, “Batman/Superman”? Wow, that’s a radical departure from PreNew52, when they had “Superman/Batman”!

Greg Pak is known for excellent buddy books ala Amadeus Cho and Hercules, so the question here is… will he give us Jimmy Olsen and Alfred as a buddy book in the guise of Superman/Batman?

One can hope, right?

Wow no one here follows Pak’s work huh? He’s been around on several Marvel titles though most notably he’s been head writing XTreme Xmen, although that series is ending soon. When I went to NYCC last year and met him for the first time (he’s awesome BTW), he was indeed pushing forward his new digital version of Vision Machine, which is a good story. I am excited for this new book though as I also love Jae Lee’s art and I love the promo image for Supes they released with this news too.

Oh and is Larfleeze really getting his own title? Isn’t Threshold his ‘home’ right now? And what about Green Team and the Movement? Aren’t those part of the new wave?

While I haven’t formally heard whether Larfleeze is exiting Threshold (or what would be replacing him there), that’s correct. Green Team and the Movement are May titles, though. Batman/Superman and Larfleeze are launching in June. It depends whether you consider it an ongoing wave or group it by the month.

My guess would be Venditti was pulled from Constantine before it launched because they were putting him on Green Lantern, not the other way ’round.

“You have to admit, giving Venditti Green Lantern is a helluva make-good for pulling him off the Constantine re-launch. ”

Little revisionist history? Venditti admitted it was his choice to come off Constantine as his schedule was getting so full.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/robert-venditti-demon-knights.html

I began writing Demon Knights with a finite story in mind, but DC liked my ideas and scripts so much they asked me to stay on the title. That put me in the position of having more books on my schedule than I was comfortable writing. If I start missing deadlines or, worse, rushing scripts, that doesn’t help anybody.

“So [Co-Publisher] Dan [DiDio], [Editor in Chief] Bob [Harras] and I talked and decided Constantine was the one to let go. I’m sorry to lose a chance to work on the character, but it ended up being the best possible solution.”

I’m surprised and impressed by the names. Fialkov did great work on I Vampire, so I’m glad to see DC retaining him. Not as familiar with the rest, but I’m willing to give them all a shot.

BTW – totally agree with you on that promo image.

I am intrigued. Not a fan of Tan’s artwork, so I am hoping that he’ll be off GL sooner than later (Brad Walker should draw that book), but I love the indy writers being brought into the mainstream! Great idea – it’s already working for GREEN ARROW, which was horrible for the entire run until Jeff Lemire’s first issue, which was great right out of the box. Good deal, DC!

Congrats to Chris. One of the great comics guys around.

No scalloped edges to the cape ala’ the original?

[...] Fuente: Comics Beat. [...]

My prediction is that they’re clearing the decks for all of the Green Lantern books to be written under the singular creative vision of legendary science fiction novelist Orson Scott Card.

(Kidding.)

Don’t kid jason. OSC is already doing work on Superman.

Glad to see some new talent coming on board for Green Lantern. Sinestro and the Rainbow Corps is getting pretty tiresome.

Would love to see DnA take over GL. They “get” comics set in sci-fi universes, plus they’ve got the chops.

Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning would be a wonderful choice. Their Nova was fantastic.

“under the singular creative vision of legendary science fiction novelist Orson Scott Card.”
So he will be writing about the Earth-Two GL, right ;)

Abnett and Lanning…. yesssss….

Way past time for some new blood on the GL books. The Rainbow stuff wasn’t great to start off with, and it’s beat to hell now. If DnA took over, I’d give the books a shot.

I wish people hadn’t suggested DnA for the job. Because I really doubt it’s gonna happen, but now I reeeally want it to.

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/dc_comics_hires_anti_gay_author_to_pen_superman_digital_release/

Orson Scott Card’s gay-bashing comments have some fans calling for a boycott.

It is not gay bashing to disagree with gay “marriage”. Are you a satanic marriage basher?

Svott, Card is a basher. He said: “he dark secret of homosexual society—the one that dares not speak its name—is how many homosexuals first entered into that world through a disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse, and how many of them yearn to get out of the homosexual community and live normally.”

It’s a goddamn fact that homosexuality isn’t caused by rape/abuse/etc. There are gay animals in the wild. Did an otter molest a dolphin to make that dolphin gay? Jesus.

I’d love to see Dave Gibbons take over on story/art…

Get Harlan Ellison to write.

Hey…the current creators…what are they gonna do next?

It was a joke, people. A bad one, probably. Let it go.

DnA would be awesome. I love their Hypernaturals from BOOM!. It still has the cosmic feel they brought to Marvel during Nova and GotG. I really miss both of those titles. I am on the fence about Bendis/Loeb reboots/continuity adjustments to those series until they get a couple of issues in.

Fair play to him, it was never my cup of tea but it is a highly success run that should be applauded.

I always wanted to like Green Lantern growing up but never did. When I first read Rebirth, I officially became a fan. I got lost a little afterwards, but when the New 52 started, I made sure to stay on board. Green Lantern, Corps, and New Guardian are all amazing books. Since Johns does not write the other 2, I still have high hopes someone good will take over. Thanks Geoff for the great years.

Johns nine-year run is something to be celebrated, even if there was a lot that didn’t appeal to me personally. Looking forward, I wonder if DC will try to maintain some continuity with the current group of creators — and have Tomasi and Bedard switch to different books — or pull a 180 and really shake up the line by recruiting a group of new writers. Can Jeff Lemire squeeze one more monthly into his schedule?

Honestly, I’d like to see some new voices get a shot. Creators like Jim Zub, Justin Jordan, Sam Humphries, Marjorie Liu, Joe Keatinge, Brandon Graham, Kathryn Immonen, and Jamal Igle (as a writer — his Molly Danger pages are fantastic) would all be choices that would get me excited about the GL line again. New blood, you know?

Bedard, Tomasi and Milligan are all ending their runs on their respective titles as well.

I read that Lemire would be co writing JL with Johns but i don’t know if that was confirmed.

Johns did some great work but I do think it was time for him to move on. Looking forward to whoever writes Hal next

With Morrison’s Batman run also ending, how about all of DC’s big writers just switch books? Snyder’s going over to Superman already, so Johns could take over Batman, Morrison Green Lantern. They could call the whole endeavor DC NOW! and then… um, never mind. Who’d ever believe such a gimmick?

Yeah, goddamn Marvel Now, curse them for using their quality stable of writers to put out a quality stable of books. What is their problem?

And now Vibe…with MORE BATMAN. Please…for the love of God…buy it.

*The other Super book that’s getting a new writer is “Superboy,” as Justin Jordan is replacing Tom DeFalco. Justin was the guy working on the now-cancelled “Deathstroke” and “Team 7.” Why the shift him away from those two books to “Superboy?”*

I wonder, was that a subtle way of asking, “If this Justin Jordan fellow was writing two books you totally canceled due to low sales, why give him ANOTHER title, instead of hire someone whose work isn’t being rejected by the market…?”

I already know the answer though: Churn.

The one problem that DC doesn’t really understand is that readers have financial and time budgets. We can’t really afford dozens of extra books especially if they are just mediocre on their best days. Even within the Batman line, there is no way i’d have to time to read all those books let alone the finances to buy them each month.

DC might be better off publishing less books that were higher quality than trying to push B and C list characters on readers who are already maxed out.

No doubt about it, nepotism reigns as DC assigns writers chores. Vibe was the who cares titles of the week, and now it’s “star” writer found better commitments. DC REALLY needs to get it’s act together editorially and start utilizing writers as an important tool to publishing successful comics. Artists seem to be in great supply, but now that Morrison is gone, Johns doesn’t seem to be able to deliver interesting work, and their biggest draw is Snyder, I’d say they have pretty severe problems in getting books established again that will last beyond a years worth or less of issues.

About Vibe… DC always said the Johns woukd only co-write the first issue. Kreisberg was the co-writer for issue 1 and solo writer from issue 2 and onwards. The problem is that he is being changed with issue 4.

I really have no interest in that character but I guess that Kreisberg probably has some specs to write and pilots to sell before May.

This is the worst idea you’ve ever had, DC. The good news is, there’s nothing you can do beyond this that will get worse. Because this was rock botoom.

Rock bottom?

How about ‘Mazing Man as creepy Collyer Brother, hoarding weird stuff, running a comics shop which is closed more often than open, with a supporting cast of characters that were too weird for Seinfeld?

Or Sugar and Spike as savant babies, running a crime ring from Midvale? (Actual profanity is encoded in their gibberish.)

Or Wally “Speedy” West running a meth lab in Blue Valley?

Or Supergirl having a love affair with Comet?

@Samuel Blanco: Even worse than the Tim Drake fiasco? Or hiring Liefeld? Or G.I Combat? Or Pink Lanterns? Or any of a hundred other things? I think this is pretty tame in comparison.

Is Rocket Raccoon even that popular that he needs a “rip-off”?

This is DC’s Guardians of the Galaxy with its own Rocket Racoon.

Kinda like when all those asteroid movies came out.

“the majority of DC fans had been wondering where Captain Carrot was in the New 52 relaunch.”

Really? The majority?

I suppose that would only have to amount to 50k odd people these days.

@Tim: I was thinking the same thing. “It may well have been the #1 question posed to Dan DiDio at conventions, causing the company to frantically lay a Stephanie Brown-shaped smoke trail across their plans for the burrowing hero, in the hope to distract people away from the floppy-eared protector of the galaxy.”

Really?

I truly hope this is a lame attempt at sarcasm.

And to think, some people say DC is out of ideas!

Giffen’s full quote/description for K’rot is here for those interested in context: http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/12/captain-carrot-hopping-into-new-52-as-thresholds-krot/

“One of the top three intergalactic bunny rabbits of all time”

Along with Bucky O’Hare and…?

Jax from early issues of Marvel’s Star Wars comic.

The character here is a joke, folks. Maybe funny, maybe not. But just a joke.

Dumb as DC’s move might be, nobody “truly hope this is a lame attempt at sarcasm”, it’s obvious enough in the article. They’re poking fun at DC’s turnaround of the character, I’d imagine, which they evidently hold for ill-considered, as everybody who commented does. I hope for the sake of Giffenand DC that he can make it a funny story, at least, because he’s a good writer anyway.

Keith Giffen is probably doing this as part Rocket Raccoon spoof, part grimdark New 52 redesigns spoof. After years of stuff like Ambush Bug how quickly people forget that making fun of edgy reimaginings and the industry in general is one of the things he likes to do.

If anyone is doing this as a lark, it’s Keith Giffen. I am all for the inclusion of more bunny rabbits in comics!

Yeah.. I trust Giffen doing as a lark… but are the DC offices in on the joke or do they take his crap 100% super serious and think a grim n gritty Captain Carrot is what comics needs? These are the schmucks who thought making Doctor Light a rapist and turning Justice League into a Watchmen knockoff was the direction the company shoud go.

Congratulations!

Shelly Bond, Will Dennis, and Mark Doyle are all very very very good at their jobs, and have been nothing but gracious at the conventions I’ve met them at. For all the doom and gloom speak that has gone on, this is very good news for Vertigo. Very excited to see what they do in the future.

(And just as an aside, it also very nice to see DC keep a woman in such a highly visible and influential position in their company.)

Hats off to Shelly Bond! This is good news…

There is no one else in comics who can do what she does. No one.

Shelly has a unique flair for finding, developing and managing talent. Add to that her distinct creative vision. Working at Vertigo gives both her and her creators the latitude to make books no one else could, really wonderful risk taking works that have changed the industry.

Being a latter day editor is hard anywhere, but Shelly has worked harder than anyone else to do her job right.

It’s nice to see a great editor get rewarded for hard work and creative risks. Bravo!

I’m glad to see this continuity retained. I know of one project that’s been in development with Vertigo for a while (going through a few editors in that time) that I’m very much looking forward to seeing.

I’m confused by the positive reception this news is getting. I know a few people who worked on the Minx books and they have described that time in very negative ways. I know all people have good sides and bad sides and not everyone will like someone, but why is there unbridled optimism for this incarnation of Vertigo? Has the Minx experience been a big learning opportunity? I hope so, because DC Comics on the whole has been a confusing entity lately. I’m pretty cynical with any corporation, I pretty much hate them all, but I truly hope the happiness is warranted and Bond can bring some really good strengths back to Vertigo.

@Chris Hero: Would you at least concede that it’s a positive note that 3 of the first four comments above are directly from creators? All three of which I believe have worked with her directly, and Paul Pope And Dean Haspiel being well known and well regarded as I would argue independent creators first?

Sure, Minx wasn’t a success but Shelly Bond has been working for the company for much longer than Minx, has had a direct hand in creating and guiding some of my personal favorite books of the last decade and far more successes in her role as editor then what happened with the Minx line.

I just don’t understand why everything always has to be so negative.

@blaucaucasian

The people I know worked on the Minx books. They were creators. They’ve told me, at length, of their very miserable time working on the books. I don’t know what else to go on than the word of people who worked for the person. I’m not exaggerating when I say they don’t have one positive thing to say about anyone at DC they were in contact with. One of the people swore off ever working for a corporation again due to the experience. So, yes, I am confused by the optimism. Either the people I know fabricated some really awful stories or Minx was run very, very poorly (to put it nicely).

I know you’re generally pretty optimistic in regards to DC, and that’s cool, but I’ve spoken, at length, to enough people who have worked there and didn’t like it to have a pretty dour outlook on them.

What about the people who would have seemed to have positive experiences working on the Minx/and or for DC and Shelly Bond or Will Dennis or Mark Doyle.

Ryan Kelly and Brian Wood continued to work on their New York Five stuff even after Minx closed shop and it was moved to Vertigo. Cecil Castellucci had work in the last anthology Vertigo put out and is actually going to have work in the new DC Valentine’s anthology in February. Mike Carey continues (I believe) to work with Shelly Bond on the Unwritten.

I just don’t think it’s fair to show the environment there as a complete nightmare as you choose to portray things. Sure, editors and creators don’t always get along and DC isn’t always the place for lots of indie creators. But you can’t discount those like Paul Pope and Gene Ha who are giving her praise, nor can you discount her track record of past works she’s edited and creators she clearly has had long standing fruitful and creative relationships with. Even including Minx, I think her track record, as well of the track records of Will Dennis and Mark Doyle point to being more optimistic them pessimistic.

Minx was a gamble that failed. It happens. As the old saying goes, “Victory has a thousand fathers; defeat is an orphan.” There are inevitably bad feelings coming out of a failed enterprise. As Blacaucasian says, the fact that other respected creators are applauding the promotion of “Ms. Bond. Shelly Bond” says more than the sentiments of frustrated creators on an imprint that was shuttered four years ago. One more thing: As well-respected as Karen Berger was, she could also be a tough boss — as, I believe, The Beat’s founder has noted. No one in this world is perfect. Not Berger, not Bond, no one.

I wonder if Libre will make Viz charge more for titles they license from Libre the way they seem to have been doing with JManga. Most JManga titles, even yaoi/BL from other Japanese publishers, are the equivalent of $4.99, or occasionally $5.99. But everything that’s licensed from Libre is $8.99–almost twice as much.

Let me be among the first to wish Bill Schanes a great retirement, and to thank him for his many and varied contributions to our industry. I got my start at Pacific Comics in 1975, working for Bill and his brother Steve, and was able to tag along as they evolved from a comics shop and mail order dealer into one of the first direct-sales distributors, and eventually one of the first viable independent publishers.

At Diamond, Bill was (and is) an important part of the management team as the business continued to weather many ups and downs. Throughout it all, he has been a consistent “straight shooter” and stand-up individual. A lot of people and companies have come and gone during his long tenure at Diamond, but Bill has remained a voice of reason and consistency.

You may not always get the story you would like to hear from Bill, but he will give it to you straight, and different people get the same honest appraisal. That’s integrity in my book.

Agree with above comment. Bill is a stand-up guy; glad to hear he can go back to his rock’n'roll roots in SD!

I never knew Bill, but his PB Pacific Comics location was the first comics shop I ever went to as a kid, in 1976. I wish him well.

Who knows, Ed, we might have been in the store at the same time at some point!

I’ve known and worked with Bill for a lot of years in the business as a retailer and as a publisher and he was not only an asset to Diamond but the industry as well. I wish him the best of luck in his future plans.

Congratulations Bill! I was fortunate enough to work with Mr. Schanes during my time on the books distribution side of Diamond and as David already said, Bill is the guy who tells you just how it is. Bill, I hope you will still be around the circuit for a while to come but in any case, may there be many more good things to come. Who knows, maybe they’ll let you move back home to San Diego.

Bill has certainly earned every good thing that has and may be coming his way. Among my former DC colleagues, I was a latecomer to a relationship with Diamond, but after one meeting with Bill, I felt like we had been working together for decades. When I hatched the plan to form Bonfire, Bill became our earliest supporter, adviser, partner and, at times, client. “Good guy” doesn’t do him justice; I feel fortunate in being able to call him friend.

I like Bill tremendously, and he’s always been very good about listening to suggestions about products Diamond might want to carry, or how they might change their front-facing data and structures.

Plus he has that awesome ‘stache!

-B

Brother Bill:

I am so proud of you. You are an amazing man who moved the Comic Book business forward for 40 years. Happy retirement !!
Love always

Steve

[...] Recently Diamond announced that longtime VP of Purchasing Bill Schanes was moving to a consultant role, to be replaced by John Wurzer. [...]

Just how many more rebooted properties do DC have to see fail before they cry uncle and bring back the proper DCU?

I don’t think that they’ll bring the old DCU back, but I agree with Steve that clearly 52 dcu titles a month is too many. I think all the books suck except for Snyder Batman/Batman Inc, but clearly there are fans out there for stuff like Superman/JLA/GL. Not the case for Firstorm/Hawkman/Grifter/etc.

If the winter of this article had bothered to read the CBR article, he would have noticed that no artists were fired which means they lost their jobs as they were moved to other titles. And can one fire work for hire employees anyways as they work on a contract basis?

I didn’t say anything about artists being fired. I said writers were fired.

And yes, you fire work for hire employees.

I’m still hoping for the announcement of the relaunch of “Mazing Man.

Jeebus. Does anyone there have a clue about how to run a company? It’s like watching the Titanic go down.

I agree, I think DC would never bring back the old DCU. But I do miss the old DCU titles and having them return is the only way I’d go back to buying more than 1 or 2 DC titles. I think this periodic launching and cancelling of titles just reinforces that this New 52 is not working out. Whether it’s because there’s too many titles, or the wrong creative teams are on the wrong books, or editorial is being too hands on, it’s just not as successful as it could have been. This New 52 has allowed me to explore other publishers and I am finding some really great stuff out there. So there is a silver lining for me.

Yeah, you can fire them. Look at Waid/Ringo off FF a few years back. Everyone involved agreed they were fired and then reversed the decision.

It is a bit of fun to watch DC dig through old Who’s Who trying to find enough characters to maintain the “52″. I think it’s Air-Wave’s turn next. (Or does Red Tornado get a solo series?)

Bob Harras: “The main focus on this, and this is the big picture, is we try to take a look at it as, these characters will not go away.”

Ahhh, the goal of New 52 makes much more sense now. There is one surefire way that DC’s trademarked characters will “go away.” Abandonment. “New 52: Where All Our Ducks Are Placed In Rows.”

I would not be surprised if ‘Mazing Man does make an appearance somewhere.

Silly But True

I remember coming on here when the original 52 was announced,then read the DC 52 Omnibus, and said it was boring for the most part. I then predicted the the new DC 52 universe would eventually be a bust. I then remember fanboys defending how great the new DC was,and how wrong I was to knock its mediocrity. I will say it again, The new DC 52 was a hail mary, a last ditch effort to keep most of the line up going,and eventually DC Comics will just publish only Batman,Superman and Green Lantern related titles because just about everything how they publish can`t sell! Nobody cares about the fifth reboot of Blue Beetle, Firestorm,Hawk and Dove and other characters. Nobody cared the first time about these lame characters!
respectfully
“The Amazing Stam’
Make Mine Marvel!

I don’t know that the cancellations on the low-end of the line say anything about the New 52 in general — all of the books they’ve cancelled have been things that weren’t really selling before the New 52. I agree that it seems like they should trim the line down, but maybe the boosts from the constant first issues this treadmill generates is enough to keep it above water. It’d be interesting to look at the sales numbers and see if the benefits of launching a new #1 are diminishing over time, though.

The reality of most of the high sales were do to number ones for Batman,Superman,Green Lantern and Justice League titles, plus all those variants that made the LCS order thousands of extra copies to get.
The new DC 52 will have even lower sales over the next few years as they can`t pull off a whole new reboot again so soon, but the biggest failure was it failed to bring in new readers,as all it did was bring out the speculators who wanted a new number one gimmick variant to flip on Ebay.
respectfully “The Amazing Stam”
Make Mine Marvel!

Not a gobsmacking surprise: I wasn’t reading any of these besides “Sword of Sorcery,” which I will miss, but not terribly. I do appreciate that DC is experimenting, but as it’s been said, they’re stretched pretty thin with 52 books, even if a third of said books are devoted to the Super/Bat/Lantern families (& a third of THOSE are readable, speaking charitably). Can you say “glut”? Somehow Marvel was the Johnny-come-lately who made a line-wide rejiggering work better. I don’t envy Jim Lee when he’s called before the Time-Warner death panel asking where their promised riches are.

I agree with the first poster, Ron. When will they give this up as a long-term failure?

Also Stam, there aren’t bad characters, there’re bad writers. Firestorm and many of the other characters that have been screwed up in the New 52 have a lot of long term fans.

If the books aren’t selling it’s best to kill’em and move on to the next property. Why keep drag the dead horse around the track. Good show DC.

If you approve a pitch for a book, you should give the writer more than three fucking issues before you take him off. It’s a really shitty thing to do and it makes you look like an idiot. If you can’t hire writers that you are happy with then you shouldn’t be in the business of hiring writers.

Didio has to go

Jim Shooter was fired for the New Universe failing (and for being tall) after 9 years of success. When will the Editor’s heads roll?

I can hardly wait for the updated version of the Vince Coletta letter….

I’m glad you wrote this. Great analysis. I’ve noticed this has seemed to be the case since Mike Marts took over the Bat office. The Gail Simone kerfuffle seemed to occur after Bobby Chase had been promoted and Brian Cunningham had been placed as the new editor. It seems that a lot of the good will that seems to happen on the Bat office book comes down to not only Mike Marts himself, but the editors he (I’m assuming being a senior editor) chooses as his associate and assistant editors on these book. Despite the ill will Liefeld had towards him, Gail Simone had nothing but good things to say about Brian Smith.

With the whole Batgirl fiasco, I”m wondering if that was senior management making an decision for a new editor over Mike Marts. Because when that all went down, it simply didn’t seem like the way his office has handled things (even the Batwoman controversy that happened with Amy Reeder seemed to be handled fairly quietly compared to a lot of the other blow ups that were going on around the same time.)

While different editors obviously are going to have different management styles and characteristics, it seems the fact that the Bat office has been so rock solid for such a seemingly long time now under Marts leadership, you’d figure other editors would strive to have the stability and success he’s had. I realize he’s only one man and can only do so much, but I wish his example was more widespread throughout DC as a whole. I think it would lead to at least a perception of more stability in what’s going on line wide right now.

Marts deserves all the respect in the world. Would love to see him take an expanded role at DC/Warner in the coming years. It might be a little geeky to get excited about editors, but as a fan, I’m really digging what he’s done with his corner of the New 52.

You’re with The Beat now, Jonny! Getting excited about editors is What We Do.

Eventually all DC will publish will be Batman,Green Lantern comics, and Superman comics.
When was the last time something non- Superman,Batman,Green Lantern and Geoff Johns related that sold well?
It`s been a long time.
DC could put out an Alfred the Butler comic book or Lois Lane comic book and they would outsell the majority of any announced upcoming DC new 52 replacement comic books.
respectfully
“The Amazing Stam”
Make Mine Marvel

@STAM – The Aquaman relaunch has been doing pretty damn well, finding itself in the top 10 and 20 regularly.

Just sayin’.

And I don’t think DC is looking for or needs any of the 2nd or 3rd tier characters to be top sellers. A lot of the reaosn for the relaunch I feel was in boosting sales on their midline titles, which they were able to do for the most part. Books don’t have to sell 100K+ to necessarily be considered a success.

@blacaucasian
Hence why I said non- Superman,Batman,Green Lantern and Geoff Johns related. Aquaman is written by Johns, and now that Johns has left writing Aquaman we shall watch the sales drop to the bottom of the ocean(pun intended). :)
respectfully
“The Amazing Stam”
Make Mine Marvel!

With the consistent sales and decent reviews of the Bat, GL, Justice League, and Superman books the case can be made to just have ongoing comics under those umbrellas while putting out B and C, even D list titles as mini series.

For as long as I can remember Batman has sold well. Even when the book sucks it sells because it’s Batman. Batman is like pizza even when it’s bad it’s good.

For what it’s worth — and I know I’m in the minority here — I’m not finding the current Batman books to be at all enjoyable (except for BATMAN, INC) and have dropped all of them from my list, the first time I’ve ever walked away from the Batman line in decades.