Rumblings about DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio move beyond comics blogs and message boards this morning as Hollywood gossip columnist Nikki Finke takes up the story:
With Comic-Con fast approaching (July 24-27) and all the Hollywood studios getting ready, I understand that Warner Bros has been nervously monitoring the deteriorating situation at its subsidiary DC Comics. There could be a major shake-up – especially if Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes keeps cleaning house inside the Big Media corp.
[snip]
The problem isn’t just that, under DiDio’s leadership, fanboys are disappointed with the directions of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and other characters. … But also average sales of the DCU line are down more than 20% from a year ago, and DiDio has lost a big chunk of existing readers in a year while deliberately failing to reach out to new ones.
Much of what Finke writes appears to be culled from the online chatter that we’ve all read, mixed with “[her] own reporting.” But what’s perhaps significant about the post is that Finke, who generally sticks to TV- and movie-industry items, views the welfare of DC Comics to be of critical importance to the well-being of Warner Bros. — and of interest to her audience, which usually reads about box-office tallies, studio and network deals, and behind-the-scenes Hollywood maneuverings.
“With DC Universe so much a part of Warner Bros’ bottom line, getting DC Comics back on track has to be a top priority,” she writes.
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:28 am
This is just getting hilarious now.
“The DCU line” includes inevitably bookstore and library sales, which are the elephant in the room in this debate. It’s the same characters, the same creators, the same mythology, and it’s outselling Marvel’s same releases in that market every month. And that gap is only going to improve in the coming months now that Random House is distributing them.
What’s really frightening is that there is not one iota of reliable information that says DC is “off track” except the blind and angry ranting of fanboys. The numbers don’t exist to back up these claims, all while there are a multitude of numbers that assert that DC is doing just fine publishing comics. Because “publishing comics” is not just beholden to some outdated methodology of calculating monthly sales, it involves monthly comics, trades, merchandising, franchising, etcetera.
Or as Gale Snoats put it so succinctly in the motion picture Raising Arizona, “The sun don’t rise and set on the corner grocery.”
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Cool. Anything that assures, expedites didiots departure is a good thing.
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:42 pm
With DC Universe so much a part of Warner Bros’ bottom line
really?
i mean i like comics, but this seems like pure fanboy fantasy.
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I don’t think Nikki Finke has ever done any of “her own reporting.” From what I’ve seen, she just posts anything that any “insiders” send to her. She has no idea if what she posts is accurate or harmful, and she doesn’t care. People know that she can be manipulated and that she’s desperate for hits and attention, so if they have an agenda to push, they give her a scoop.
It’s actually pretty amusing how much b.s. she posts on her site. Trust me, someone from within Warner Brothers and/or DC gave her this story.
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:52 pm
If DC Comics is really important to Warners’ bottom line, then they’ve got much bigger problems than Final Crisis…
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:02 pm
“Deliberately failing?”
Uh…what?
So they think DiDio is throwing the game?
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Paul, it’s not so much the publishing revenues that make DC important to Warners; it’s the lack of any traction in translating DC’s IP into the sorts of revenue machines that Marvel has made of theirs, both with outside companies (Fox, Sony) and now with their own studio property. DC ought to be generating another eight or nine figures of profit for the conglomerate each and every year via films (and derivative licenses thereof) — but =isn’t=.
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:57 pm
It is because of reports like this I believe there is one group truly responsible for DC’s doldrums… Didio’s bosses.
They need to step up to the plate and either support their EIC publicly to stop this nonsense… or let him go and move on. The longer they wait and waffle silently, the more money and opportunities DC will lose out on. And THAT can not be blamed on Dan.
the Tiki
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:21 am
Fans are unhappy with Superman’s direction? It seems of the books listed that it is the only one fans are embracing with Johns and Robinson doing the book and the spectacular art and stories.
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:28 am
“DC ought to be generating another eight or nine figures of profit for the conglomerate each and every year via films (and derivative licenses thereof) — but =isn’t=.”
Well, the problem here is Warner Brothers is the one responsible for the films.