Thanks for your consideration.

I find a lot of your popular titles becoming increasingly dark and violent, and at times unenjoyable to read, what ever happened to innocent & uplifting stories, situations that look fictional, comics that are fun to read for the whole family such as Hanna Barbera! Get the hint “Hanna Barbera”!

Did I miss something that promted the Byrne bashing? I am pretty sure Joe Zhang is, or at least was, a regular poster at Byrne’s forums and I don’t see any relevance in his Byrne statement to the article above.

As far as what Byrne says about lateness in comics, he does make a valid point. I would venture to guess that no comic shop owner is happy when a very popular creator is late in getting comics out. Those late comics are cash the shop is unable to generate. As a fan you may not care about late books, but they do affect a comic shop owners bottom line and it is not like most of those guys are getting rich selling us our comics.

Is there any possibility we could get a trade of the “New Adventures of the Spirit” anthology that came out from Kitchen Sink right before it went under? There were some incredible stories in that run. And I understand, there are likely a variety of nasty rights issues mixed in there.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us here.

With regards to paper choices, please remember that there are multiple opinions out there. I physically find it difficult to read things on glossy paper, and am pleased to see formats like that used in the Fourth World Omnibuses.

Trying to stick to publishing questions, rather than editorial questions:

Has any thought been given to publishing a collection of the various comics history articles that DC ran over the years - From the Wonderful World of Comics in the 1960s to “Behind the scenes” in the 1970s to the articles and interviews in Amazing World of DC Comics?

Any plans to publish more previously unreleased material by folks like Ditko or Kirby? I’m thinking about a collection of the Kirby magazine stories done for Spirit World and Days of the Mob, as well as the romance stories he did at the time, and a collection of Ditko’s Shade the Changing Man including the unpublished final issue or the Creeper Showcase story he did.

I should note that I am very pleased with the ongoing effort DC has made to put lots of Kirby and other great creators’ various works into print. But, being a comic fan, I can’t help but ask for more - I’d love to see a collection in some form (even digital) of work like The Newsboy Legion, Boy Commandos, and the Sandman. Non Kirby work I’d love to see would include Mayer’s Sugar and Spike and Scribbly, Tony Isabella’s Black Lightning, the Science Fiction series edited by Julius Schwartz, and Mike Sekowsky’s Supergirl.

Why does it seem like you guys are always in second place and playing catch up to Marvel? They obviously plan things out years in advance and, as witnessed in the debacle that is Countdown to Final Crisis (which seems now to have nothing to do with Final Crisis, so thanks for making me waste my money on THAT due to false advertising), you guys are constantly changing things on the fly and have no direction at all. I doubt you address this as you are only taking softball questions, proving this is just a New Joe Fridays Lite.

Steven

Also, what about the Spirit stuff that was done in later years, like The Spirit magazine? There’s some Byrne and others work there…

And, any chance of some Golden Age items going Showcase?

And as much as I enjoyed the Legion, the Levitz/Michelinie/Skeates/Aparo Aquaman also deserves to be collected!

Thanks!

I’ve a question for you regarding a major Batman project that was first announced quite a while ago….

Any word on when Frank Miller’s OGN “Holy Terror, Batman!” is coming out and what’s the latest news regarding this long awaited project?

Thanks for your time Mr. Levitz!

Thanks for answering our questions! It is very kind of you. I’m wondering if there are any plans to continue the Superman: Man of Tomorrow Archives, as well as the Dynamic Duo Archives. For me personally, I’m much more interested in high quality reprints of this Silver Age material than the Golden Age stuff.

Please continue the Man of Tomorrow Archives (and having Mark Waid do fan commentary would be a plus!).

first of all I’m a great fan of your work in making comics friendly to creators, while pushing boundaries of the mainstream comics form. Much appreciated.

I have a specific question which I’d like answered, maybe you can mix it in with a few other ones about projects that were announced but never made it -

Back when 52 was going DC announced an ongoing GREAT TEN series (it may have been a mini, not sure). What happened with that?

also a fan of humour Showcases, Sugar and Spike and Stanley and his Monster are two that immediately spring to mind that the younger kids might like…

Paul, I’d like to second Francisco’s suggestion for Fox and the Crow reprints. I’d also love to see Stanley and His Monster, Inferior 5 and Angel and the Ape.

I’d really like to see a SHOWCASE PRESENTS SHOWCASE collection, with the full contents of the first 20 or so issues! That’d be great fun. But not as fun as Angel and the Ape.

Batman has most of what has been published after KNIGHTFALL reprinted in TPB and a lot of the early (Classical???, golden age) issues. How do you measure what will have a commercial success?? In the case of the Batman (and beyond Strange Apparitions) what are the chances of getting reprinted issues by Marshall Rogers, Don Newton, Gene Colan, David B. Reed, Len Wein, Jim Aparo, Gerry Conway, Irv Novick, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez….?

How could you measure what reprints would get a good reception?

Conway and Giffen’s Challengers of the Unknown.

A “best of World’s Finnest” (please, starting with the 70s.

Isabella and Von Edeen’s Black Lightning.

The Green Arrow back-ups (after being thrown out of GL/GA).

Micheline´s Aquaman.

Post Kirby NEW GODS (Return of New Gods, Mister Miracle, First Issue Special 13, Brave and Bold 112, 128, 138, DC Comics presents 12, Super Team Family 13, JLA 183-185)

I, Vampire

Grell’s Warlord

Fox and Crow

Staton’s Metal Men

Your argument as to the economics of paper choice is easily disproven by the fact that Marvel consistently puts out trades and hc’s at comparable price points with far superior paper quality than DC.

No, it isn’t. More fan impertinence and ignorance.

I think a far better way to approach this is to ask about price points, distribution plans and print capabilities. Certain book may have to be recolored in order to upgrade the paper; certain runs may have to be printed in larger numbers to be economical, but projected sales (which, after all, the companies are better at than readers) won’t support that. I think asking about those factors is far more fruitful and instructive than flatly saying this disproves that.

I agree with many readers that the paper quality of DC’s trades and hardcovers is often inexcusable. The Justice League International HC, for instance, demanded a better quality stock than the “phone book” paper it was printed on, and the recent Eye for an Eye Legion tpb paper quality was utter rubbish, esp. considering the original was printed on Baxter paper.

Your argument as to the economics of paper choice is easily disproven by the fact that Marvel consistently puts out trades and hc’s at comparable price points with far superior paper quality than DC. Look at the thick, glossy paper of the recent Iron Man Demon In A Bottle hc versus the lousy JLI HC stock, for instance. Both have the same price point and roughly equal page counts. Why didn’t we get glossy stock for JLI? I’m afraid to spend 50 bucks on the upcoming Starman HC if DC’s going to take me for a ride again. Call me crazy, but for 50 bucks you should be getting some darn good stock, not something you can see the opposite page through.

And please, add me to the clamoring for a Great Darkness hardcover…ON GLOSSY PAPER! I understand that you’re not too big on the aesthetics of glossy paper, but I respectfully disagree. I think comics are art, and art needs to be preserved and have the best presentation possible.

Comics demand the best paper stock, especially when we’re paying for it!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

I agree with many readers that the paper quality of DC’s trades and hardcovers is often inexcusable. The Justice League International HC, for instance, demanded a better quality stock than the “phone book” paper it was printed on, and the recent Eye for an Eye Legion tpb paper quality was utter rubbish, esp. considering the original was printed on Baxter paper.

Your argument as to the economics of paper choice is easily disproven by the fact that Marvel consistently puts out trades and hc’s at comparable price points with far superior paper quality than DC. Look at the thick, glossy paper of the recent Iron Man Demon In A Bottle hc versus the lousy JLI HC stock, for instance. Both have the same price point and roughly equal page counts. Why didn’t we get glossy stock for JLI? I’m afraid to spend 50 bucks on the upcoming Starman HC if DC’s going to take me for a ride again. Call me crazy, but for 50 bucks you should be getting some darn good stock, not something you can see the opposite page through.

And please, add me to the clamoring for a Great Darkness hardcover…ON GLOSSY PAPER! I understand that you’re not too big on the aesthetics of glossy paper, but I respectfully disagree. I think comics are art, and art needs to be preserved and have the best presentation possible.

Comics demand the best paper stock, especially when we’re paying for it!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Paul,

I still want to know where your number of $800 million in sales for 2007 came from. For 2007, Bookscan only reports $95 million and I find it impossible to believe the direct market is accounting for $700 million in sales. Further, if you’re comparing Bookscan numbers to Diamond numbers when making your argument for diversity by DC, then you’re comparing apples to oranges.

When you say that 20% of bookstore manga sales are coming from four properties, I think the fault here is confusing titles with genres. I’m assuming the four manga properties you’re referring to are, in alphabetical order: Bleach, Death Note, Fruit Baskets, and Naruto. While two of those titles, Bleach and Naruto, could ostensibly be the same genre, Fruit Baskets and Death Note are in two very distinct genres of their own. What genre were the top four properties from DC in? Let’s take a look.

For the sake of this discussion, what were the top four properties from DC? (I can only quote numbers from all of 2007, as I don’t have access to the fourth quarter numbers) In order, Watchmen, Heroes, The Dark Knight Returns, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier. So, the top three DC properties are superheroes and the fourth is a comic about heroes from classic literature. It terms of overall sales, those four properties represent 30% of DC’s sales for 2007.

So, I think the question still stands, how do three superhero properties and one literary hero property representing 30% of DC’s sales “spread the readers around to the most titles?”

Anyway, Paul, thanks so much for this access to your perspective. It’s amazing to see the changes in the industry which have occured since your early days. Are there specific events or people which you feel were the biggest prime movers in making these changes happen? You can include yourself if you’d like to…

It appears DC shares your opinion on the Archives project- we’ve seen a LOT less volumes this year. Once Spirit, Doom Patrol, Kamandi, and 7 Soldiers are done, I doubt we’ll see any more Archives in that format.
Looks like DC is retooling their reprint program.

For Paul:
How do you feel about DC’s relationship (or lack of one) with Alan Moore? Is there anything you think you could do to repair the relationship? Do you have any regrets about your dealings with Alan?

(And I still wish you’d write more comics…)

Have you given some thought to different approaches on packaging SUPERMAN and BATMAN reprints? The current Archives approach appears to be limited by the chronological nature and set starting points of the series, as well as the sheer volume of stories featuring these most popular of characters. You would think that a “COMPLETE SUPERMAN” or “COMPLETE BATMAN” series — featuring the best-selling comics of their day with work by DC’s top talent –could be very popular and the tentpoles of the entire DC Reprint program … can it reasonably be done?