Editor’s Note: Paul Levitz returns to Blog@Newsarama to talk about a variety of recent topics.

by Paul Levitz

Sorry for having been absent from this space for the past two months, but family matters dwarfed my ability to balance life, work, and incidental pleasures like writing. My dad passed away after a merciful short battle with cancer at age 88, and that started a chain reaction of family travails, still ongoing, but mercifully slowing in their ability to consume my life.

I’m not going to go back and try to hit on the various DC activities and controversies of the ‘missing’ weeks, because I’ve been viewing them through a very different lens than my usual, and I’m not sure how much that’s been the wiser perspective that a touch of mortality provides (always loved the Samuel Johnson quote, “Nothing so concentrates the mind as knowledge that one is to be hanged in a fortnight”) or the fuzzy judgment of someone stepping off a roller coaster and trying to decide where to throw up. So let me warm up with a few small bits from the recent calendar.

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Anyone who’s seen me knows I’m far from a native of the fashion world, to the extent that my longtime assistant Linda Fields years ago suggested I try an adult version of the Garanimals system for getting dressed. My only affectation is a leaning towards wearing ties of our characters, or similar such visual theme pieces (e.g., a NYC subway map tie for events for my old high school, Stuyvesant, to which nearly all of us commuted by train). Other than that I stick with very standard business gear for the office, and basic jeans and a shirt when I have a choice. All of which is a roundabout segue to point out that it was odd to find myself at Diane von Furstenberg’s signature store in Manhattan’s meatpacking district last week, for a special event to kick off her new line inspired by Wonder Woman. The project was spearheaded by a team from Warner Bros. Consumer Products and our own Cheryl Rubin, and as part of it we produced a unique tabloid comic including some classic WW material and an original story by Diane von Furstenberg and artist Konstantin Kakanias. Not sure how easy it is to track down, but I have confidence that Andy Mangels has already found one for his WW collection. The dresses, tops, tote bag and journal are available at the high end retailers who carry the DVF line, for those so inclined.

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Warner Bros. Pictures showed off a chunk of WATCHMEN at a press event, and brought along a roomful of costumes, props, Zack Snyder himself, and even Dave Gibbons. The reception was as enthusiastic as anyone could ask, and the more you see of the film the more amazing its visual fidelity to the original graphic novel is. With luck, I’ll get to see a cut of the full film this week, after several scheduling misses, the last of which when I had to rush home during Dad’s final illness. Speaking of Dave, got an early copy of his WATCHING THE WATCHMEN book (on sale now from Titan Books, thanks to the DC Licensed Publishing team). Dave saved unbelievable amounts of prep work from the original series, which was, of course, one of the most deeply thought-out projects ever in comics, and now shares it all…even the supermarket shopping bag turned fan letter from Archie Goodwin. Most of us trash what little prep work survives, and it’s a treat to go back and trace the process of how this legendary body of work came together.

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Said a farewell to one of the usually unacknowledged workhorses who made DC run, as Marvel managed to lure Ski (only rarely called by his full name of Jim Sokolowski) back to their halls after we’ve had the benefit of his talents for the last four years. Ski grew up on the newsstand side of the business, and is one of my few remaining colleagues in the field to have shared the experience of doing hand order-regulation, figuring out which comics to send to which newsstand outlets in the days before computers ate the world. In recent years he’s run our Publishing Operations team, playing a key role in keeping our titles in print and available, and a hundred other unglamorous tasks. Marvel created a big job for him running similar areas plus much of what we class as Manufacturing and Editorial Administration, and I’m sure will benefit from gravelly good sense and dedication.

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Played BATMAN LEGO video game at its launch event. The deliberately mumbled voices reminded me of some meetings in our third floor conference room, whose acoustics occasionally are defeated by the building’s heating/air conditioning system. Kids seemed to delight in the game, even ones older than what I would have thought of as the target age group for Lego. Thought they built a cool Gotham, and once again was utterly jealous of the great stuff available for our young fans compared to the meager super hero merchandise of my childhood.

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And for our application to join the American Association of Publishers (the book publishers’ trade group), had to decide when DC first became a book publisher. Far as I could tell from a quick scan of the shelves, the first “book” we published ourselves (instead of packaging for another publisher) was THE GREAT SUPERMAN COMIC BOOK COLLECTION, put together by Laurie Sutton and Nelson Bridwell in 1981 for an odd mail order deal. Any of our historians have a better idea?

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More next time.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Creators, DC Comics, Movies, Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.