Aldo reads DC's New 52 (So you don't have to)

It's like they looked at Simon Baz and said "I like the gun but we already have one... WAIT I KNOW WHAT WE CAN DO"

Or maybe the WTF solicits are supposed to be misdirection and the bad editorial and talent haemorrhage is what we're really supposed to be wtfing about, but then again those aren't exactly a new development.

Either way there have been a handful of decent (Flash, Aquaman, Batman & Robin, Action, Demon Knights, Animal Man, Swamp Thing...), to genuinely great (Wonder Woman, I,Vampire, Batman, The Shade, Penguin P&P, Dial H, All Star Western) and there were a few things I wanted to check out in trades but Marvel NOW has produced a lot of great titles and I struggle to justify the amount I spend on this shit in the first place.

Turning my back on DC altogether might not be so painful in the long run.

yeah Marvel is totally kicking DC's ass in terms of putting out stories that are just plain fun to read right now

Apparantly Dan DiDio apologized to the writers at the latest retreat, and promised that editorial wouldn't change a story after it had been aproved. This promise lasted four days.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/02/15/did-dan-didio-apologise-to-dc-comics-creators/

Apparently, I like Dial H? I think?

That would make sense - you can read and you like pictures, Dial H usually scores highly among people who enjoy those things.

Yeah, I want to check Dial H. But it sells very few copies, so it will probably be canceled soon, and I'll probably wait until then, and read it all at once.

This is quite fun: http://www.newsarama.com/comics/the-q-creators-talk-editorial-conflict.html Rob Liefeld is quite hilarious, especially when he tries to be vague on which editor he is talking about, but then his story is about a hero who is no longer an alien, so it's probably not hard to figure out if it is Grifter or Deathstroke or Hawkman...

They've been working on Trinity War for several years, and then this is the first teaser-image:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/assets/images/articles/1365424785.jpg

What is even going on with half these people? I had to look really hard to find out that Superman isn't trying to kill Green Arrow, but might be trying to kill Green Lantern. And where is Superman supposed to be stainding, if the is hitting the bow from that angle. I still don't know what Batman is doing. But it's nice to see Pandora being so weak, in Flashpoint she seemed like an immensely powerful woman, and it's nice to see that DC still won't allow those kinds of things.

Pandora isn't weak, it was established in Phantom Stranger #0 that her, him and (to be revealed soon as The Question) a third were created by The Great Wizards Outside Of Time That Most People Call God to carry on Jesus' work after he died.

Right, but she looks like a weak little girl in that teaser. While Phantom Stranger and Question look like strong supernatural beings.

At least she's not in a refrigerator.

oh right, this is all three Justice Leagues fighting each other, isn't it

it's amazing how little I care about this considering I read all three books

I think it's Pandora vs Phantom Stranger vs The Question and they each have a Justice League to play with - I'd guess Pandora's is the Justice League 'proper', the Stranger's is Dark and The Question's is America.

the hilarious detail of that teaser picture is that none of the JLA recruits are fighting the JL member they were recruited to take down (except mmmmmaybe Katana?)

It's enough to make you miss sadface and Rip Hunter's blackboard

Another hilarious thing is that they are launching their Pandora-book in June, the month before she plays the main character in a line-wide crossover. It might have been smart to tie those two things together, right?

There might actually be more unreadable books at the moment than during the Liefeldening. Although I'm kind of enjoying Vibe, I must say.

This month has really racked up the introduction of new characters though, with Despero and Gypsy turning up on the last pages of JL and Vibe. Can't help thinking the impact of a lot of final page cliffhangers (Birds of Prey, for example) were completely spoilered by the no-longer 'wtf certified' covers.

Interesting that the next issue tag in JL was "Despero returns" - er, surely this is his "first appearance"? Or I suppose it's some sort of Freudian slip reveal that New 52 hasn't actually got any new comics readers...

New 52 current, running and 10-years sales analysis, with delightful commentary:
http://comicsbeat.com/dc-comics-month-to-month-sales-march-2013-now-with-10-year-comparisons/

After issue #18 was solicited as their first issue, and then #19 was solicited as their second issue, and then #20 was solicited as their third issue, and then #21 was solicited as their fourth issue, it turned out that #19 was their first issue, and then it turned out that #19 was also Andy Diggle’s last issue (“I’ve decided to walk away from Action Comics for professional reasons.“), and then DC said Daniel was the new writer in addition to being the new artist, and then it turned out that Daniel was going to be neither the writer nor the artist of Action Comics after issue #21.

This was the issue with which writer Jim Zubkavich, creator of the well-liked independent comics Skullkickers, was meant — and solicited — to take over. Hence, presumably, the book’s stabilization.

“(B)ut,” lamented DC Comics editor-in-chief Bob Harras a month after the issue had been solicited, “as things came together in discussion and the creative churn, we all saw what Christy (Marx) was doing on “Amethyst” (in Sword of Sorcery, see above), and we were looking at Birds of Prey and internally and editorially we were thinking of taking it in a different direction.”

In other words, Zubkavich was unceremoniously kicked off the book overnight, well into his working process, evidently for no reason that should have been hidden from the internal thinking of the DC Comics editorpersons at the time they first chose to insert him into the creative churn.

The new writer is Christy Marx, now, is responsible for the “Amethyst” feature in Sword of Sorcery, a book that tanked so horribly and immediately that it won’t make it past its ninth issue. On January 15, about nine weeks before her first issue was delivered to retailers fully drawn, inked, colored and lettered, Marx said she was “still absorbing a ton of previous material and doing my initial thinking about the direction.”

Evidently, this was the best solution for everybody involved.

For DC, the worrying thing here is that they had a top-flight co-writer and an upper-class artist on a book that launched strongly out of a tremendously successful crossover, and it still ended up in free-fall.

When the sixth Green Arrow writer and artist, respectively, in 18 issues took over in February, there was quite a sales bump, but the book had also been promoted with a 1:50 variant edition and another special charity variant, both of which are likely to have boosted the increase.

In one of the weekly Russian roulette tournaments at the DC Comics offices during which some of the editors and higher-ups at the company take turns discharging randomly loaded firarms at rows of half hogs with the photographs of freelance talent pinned on them in a relaxed and friendly social setting, it was decided that the March issue of Supergirl was not going to feature the creators that had been on the book all along and had been solicited as the creators of the March issue and whose names were printed on the bloody cover, after all, but another creative team entirely.

Which means that sales probably don’t entirely reflect demand for the issue that saw print. But you know the drill.

Or, in other words: Animal Man and Swamp Thing were two rare examples of solid, strong, creator-driven books in the erratic “New 52″ line. And crossing over with one another seems to have ruined them — at least for about 5,000 readers each, if you look at the October figures.

“March of the Hemorrhaging Roaches” continues apace.

Somebody who hasn’t been fired, churned or chased away will probably be writing and drawing this book come June, I’m sure.

1) Constantine #1 was promoted with a 1:25 variant-cover edition, and the same applies to subsequent issues through #4. This is likely boosting the numbers to some extent.

2) When the relaunch was solicited, it listed Robert Venditti (I told you to keep him in mind) as the writer, but ended up being written by someone else entirely, namely Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes. (Keep Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes in mind. They will be important in another round of Freelance Talent Musical Chairs shortly.) Because, according to Editorperson Bob Harras, “Robert (Venditti) and Dan (DiDio) and I spoke, and Constantine was, for him (Venditti or DiDio?), one book too many. It was the one thing that we had to go, ‘If we want you to focus on this one project, maybe we should make a change on Constantine.’”

Which sounds totally like it was a decision that Robert and Dan and Bob all simultaneously felt very strongly in their heads they had to make in the creative churn internally and externally and editorially, and that could not possibly have been decided at a better temporal moment in time by any peoplepersons with heads, in their heads. So the decision-making in the heads occurred in a decidedly smooth-like manner there, temporally speaking.

3) Jeff Lemire (of the Him That Sells Many Books Lemires; I told you to keep in mind in the previous paragraph) will only be around as a co-writer through issue #4, it was such a dream assignment for him.

4) The book name-checks the upcoming “Trinity War” crossover in the advertising copy for issue #5.

So, on balance, I suppose the vital question for DC’s strategical planning is, will Jeff Lemire fans rush in to buy Constantine swiftly enough to fail to perceive the fact that Jeff Lemire is already gone again? And if so, will the upcoming crossover cause enough mental intertia in their peopleheads to not care when they find out, and keep buying the book, anyway?

Stay tuned.

If you paint the sales trajectory of any of the Before Watchmen books in ink blots and fold it over, it looks like a victory sign.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/05/09/how-to-make-your-green-lantern-corps-20-spoiler-free/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

This is why DC should have a decent continuity editor. Ending of the Wrath of the First Lantern published in one of the GL books weeks before it concludes in the main storyline.

This is also why not giving a shit about any Lantern ever is the path to true happiness, in fairness.

So, LoSH, Demon Knights and Dial H cancelled then. But unless I've missed the announcement neither Batwing or Stormwatch, which sell less, aren't.

Isn't LOSH one of those lose-its-license if it's not published things?

Demon Knights is a shame - that started off really well. Would've made a good Toxic/Megazine strip.

There's something weird about LoSH and rights, aye.

Demon Knights has been great in parts but the attempts to Stormwatch it were definitely detrimental.

I would be amazed if there's anything like that with LoSH, since it wasn't created by any one person and all the characters were created by dozens of people over decades and decades

it'd be 55 years this year now I think? blimey

wikipedia has the first legion comic as 1958

is the rights business tied in with the Siegel family dispute over Superboy? That's the only thing I can think of that would affect DC's ownership LOSH

I think it is a Superboy thing but the Internet isn't helping. The first time since 1974 there won't have been a Legion published.

Siegel is one of the five best Legion writers ever but he came on long after the start, didn't originate the team being inspired by Superboy, didn't always have Superboy in the stories, wrote on instruction from Weisinger... and had sold Superboy back to National by then anyway, the poor chump. It would surely be widely known if he had ever had the slightest hint of a Marston clause attached to anything.

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/04/19/federal-judge-affirms-dcs-ownership-of-superboy-multimillion-d/

and to clarify, i wasn't saying that the siegel family were claiming anything along the lines of "our dad insisted superboy appear in the legion" or whatevs, just that with a court case pending over ownership of the Superboy character, there might be all sorts of rights issues and copyright wrangles involved with a comic where superboy was the 'best-known' (if not most 'important' or definitive) member.

that's not loading for me, but does it mention LSH? am on phone but iirc S'boy created '40s, licenced to National 'til superhero slump, then sold off in the '50s once demand couldn't keep their studio going any more. The '00s deal that got upheld last month is about copyright reversion on the distinct elements of S'boy from S&S's (prob just S's) presentation - stuff done by other hands and staff editors while the character fully belonged to DC/Nat shouldn't come under that

But IANAL (and wouldn't expect any Comics Alliance link to stay up through the week btw)

(xpost - yeah I figured you weren't before Ward)

heh am typing this in a hurry at work, so can't check that comics alliance link either at the moment. i might ask a few hardcore Legion fans of my acquaintance if they know more (just scratching my head as to what the legal/copyright issues around the Legion would be other than the Superboy business - perhaps somebody wants to claim ownership of the karate kid...)

At home, now - and no, the Comics Alliance piece doesn't specifically mention LOSH. Have now emailed my best LSOH fan connection, will report back what they say.

James Robinson leaves DC.

i heard back from my well-connected legion fan friend (he also runs an excellent comic shop in london):

"No, the reason for the termination of the Legion was purely and simply poor sales - not surprising, given that, after an incredible sales spike, the 'New 52', on average now, is selling 25%-75% *fewer* copies (of the titles that existed before and after for comparison purposes) than before the reboot. They're going to have to pull out some other trick to stop haemorrhaging sales all over."

Considering how low some of the mainline DC stuff was selling before the reboot, that's pretty astonishing.

Considering how ill-thought-out and poorly-resulting the actual comics have been, that's not in the least surprising.

How many months of better-than-Marvel sales did they mortgage their company for? Five or six?

Let's talk at far too great length about Suicide Squad #1 (2011), and what its characters look like

Loving that he's a comics fan but isn't sure whether an overly fussy redesign with too many lines is down to Jim Lee or not.

He sounds pretty sure?

I am just cracking up that they can't enjoy Deadshot unless he has a mustache

I dunno - it's superhero comics. Minor, asinine details like staches and beards are all part of the iconography. They're still good design.

Also, Superman would clearly be better with a moustache.

Superman would be better if he was still a lion.

Every superhero would be better if they were lions