Editor’s Note: DC Comics President Paul Levitz returns to Blog@ with some thoughts on John Nee’s departure from DC.
by Paul Levitz
Change is always confusing and traumatic, and the downside of DC’s relatively stable structure is we may handle change more creakily than some other places. Listen to the noise out there, and any change is always the tip of some iceberg-size contortion, analyzed with all the joy of a pack of old Kremlinologists. Most of the time, though, it ain’t so complex.
After 15 years of keeping an amazingly wide variety of plates spinning, John Nee decided to leave DC and try something calmer, like alligator wrestling. John’s most recent title was Senior Vice President-Business Development, but his job was basically being John Nee–knowing people everywhere, connecting them to DC, and making things happen. So when he announced his departure, it necessitated some change and juggling, not all of which has been finalized as I write this blog entry. But between his solid staff and the wider DC team, it’ll sort out soon.
Always happy to amuse the Kremlinologists, but most of the time there aren’t very exciting secrets behind our shifts. Nothing to match whether Andropov or Gorbachev were standing in the sweet spot on the reviewing stand, though.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
A valiant attempt, but I’m sure the speculation will continue unabated.
June 26th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Good luck to him, and to DC in his absence.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
If you take the third letter of each noun used and then rearrange them in a bucket and then just make some carp up, it says… “The Devil is really Dan Didio”.
Dang, Mr. Levitz just gave the ending to Reign in Hell away.
Thanks Paul.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
This is a Press Release disguised as news. And a lousy press release at that. Newsarama owes its readers a better separation between creator controlled information flow and objective hard hitting journalism. Fans are essentially the ’stockholders’ of the comic book industry - god knows we hold all the stock of comics our parents’ basements will allow — and someone has to stop pandering to us and start being accountable to us instead. Fans let Dan Didio get away with this glibness at conventions and now. Someone in a position of power at DC (and Marvel all the majors are guilty of this type of thing) sometime has to sit down with a real member of the media and talk about the real state of the industry. Even a “no comment” says volumes more than this type of tripe from Levitz.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
“Accountable”? Since when is a business “accountable” to the public unless they’ve done something illegal? If you don’t like what’s going on, don’t buy it.
This is a blog, not a press release. And when I read it, I didn’t see a “no comment”, I saw that Mr. Nee had moved on to something else. Its none of our business what that “other thing” is. I chalk up Mr. Nee’s resignation hitting the comic news in the FIRST place being a combination of a slow news day and misguided anticipation of Mr. Didio’s “dismissal”.
DC does not owe anyone an explanation about the personnel choices they make.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Gee, Paul, I don’t know why you are bothering to blog here. Everybody is just so &^%$#@@ negative all the time that it hardly seems worth your while.
Perhaps they’d not be content unless you completely shut down DC Comics. But even then, they’d say it wasn’t done the right way.
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Could we perhaps in one of your upcoming blog posts get some information on collected-editions-to-come for 2009? Or is that something that will be mentioned at the conventions this year?
June 26th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Thanks Mr. Levitz for letting us know about this. Although I am sure that it wont please all those that think there is more to it than there is (looking at you Barry).
June 26th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
“Essentially stockholders?”
Hey Paul, can you and me start a protest to get Barry’s high school economics teacher fired?
June 27th, 2008 at 5:53 am
Unbelievable! you jackals all ponce on Barry because he offered “his” opinion. Isn’t this the general idea for these type of forums? or have you all lost your way trying to impress Mr. Levitz.
Yes companies are not obligated to account for their personnel changes, however when someone who is view as a major contributor to the industry is leaving suddenly in the midst of other recent upheavals <> at DC, folks will begin to become concern. Not all changes are good.
Mr. Nee is probably not in a position to address/discuss anything right now due to his contract, or maybe he never will and just move on the his next adventure.
Even at the “best companies to work for” toxic bosses drive really great employees out of the company. Warner Bros. seems oblivious to Mr. Levitz effect on the people that work for him. Especially when his public persona is one of cooperation and support but a few fully understand how much his tyrannical rule has a negative effect on the staff self esteem, stress levels and general health.
“Chuck Dixon- Don’t blame my editors. DC, currently, is run from the top down (*Levitz) in a way that makes Jim Shooter’s aegis at Marvel look like a hippie commune”
Bottom line is at the end of the day all people want is comics to be good.
*I added Levitz name into Chuck’s quote.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:02 am
Dixon later clarified that he was not referring to Paul Levitz with that quote. Read Rich Johnston’s LITG from a few weeks ago for the *FULL* story…
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16815
June 27th, 2008 at 8:19 am
“Newsarama owes its readers a better separation between creator controlled information flow and objective hard hitting journalism.”
Similarly, Charlize Theron owes me a threeway with herself and Allison Mack. I am more likely to get this than you are to get anything resembling hard-hitting journalism from Newsarama.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Tau, you are making suppositions based on internet rumor. If you know somebody at DC—who is willing to go on the record—with their complaints, have them do so, and maybe then we can have a discussion based on what a real person said.
If they are unwilling to speak openly, then they need to grow up and shut up. Adults adapt to situations; children piss and moan.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:00 am
“Unbelievable! you jackals all ponce on Barry because he offered “his” opinion.”
No, they pounced on him because he offered a stupid opinion.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Alan,
Tau DID offer someone who worked at DC, Chuck Dixon, who was recently let go, and was obviously referring to Didio in his commentary.
June 27th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
People have pounced on Barry because his opinion is full of ignorant statements. Others aren’t doing much better at defending him.
Thanks for the comments Mr. Levitz. I never heard about Nee until he resigned. As a fan of DC I don’t care either, but I hope he enjoys his next endeavor. The stupidity of the blogosphere and rumor mongers and so-called journalism that are reporting gossip and speculation as fact has gotten ridiculous. What I want as a fan are good stories and I feel that I have been mostly getting that.
DC has been putting out a huge amount of fun and entertaining stories that outweigh the One Year Later and Countdown events/misfires. I look forward to more fun and entertainment from DC and don’t give a rip about their private/personnel matters.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Fans are essentially the ’stockholders’ of the comic book industry
No, you aren’t. The stockholders are the stockholders of the comic book industry.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
stealthwise,
Tau said Levitz, not DiDio. And, yes, he did mention Dixon. His main subject, however, was toxic bosses driving employees away. That means the employees left because they were not happy with the job, not that a freelancer no longer is being offered work.
June 30th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
So John Nee quit and this means what to the reader? Nothing, absolutely nothing. John Nee was a behind the scenes guy and his game as Levitz explained was all about reaching out to industry professionals. So if you aren’t a professional…your commentary about John Nee has no weight. Chuck Dixon’s commentary is irrelevent considering who he is directing his comments to…a bunch fans.
Fans should stick to the coming and goings of the books they read, not the office drama that some people can’t behave like professionals, let alone adults.