Well, that’s interesting. Not the announcement of DC’s new zero issues – although, I admit, I like the idea – nor the four new series announced for the line – I’m ridiculously happy to see Amethyst finally getting a revival, however, especially with Christy Marx attached as writer – but this exchange from the mothership where Dan Didio and Jim Lee discuss the whys and wherefores about which books live or die in the New 52:
Jim Lee: We’re looking at the New 52 sort of from a TV model, in that every season, or every wave, we’ll be putting out new books that interject fresh material and new creative teams into the DCU.
When we decide what books get canceled, it’s not just a numbers game. We also look at the diversity of the line, what books are critical in terms of continuity or in terms of some of the backstory or some of the larger story elements we want to build up for the world-building of our characters.
Sometimes some of the fans become overly focused on what books are being canceled, but they’re kind of losing sight of what the entire New 52 is supposed to represent, which is a new universe that’s continually evolving and growing with exciting storyline.
DiDio: What we are doing constantly is developing products. Right now, and always, we have books in the “hopper,” so to speak, always being developed.
We might be developing eight books, and you might have only four slots. But we like to do it that way. We’re allowing the books to develop properly, and picking the best series to be able to launch at the right time.
That way, it also keeps the diversity of the line going, and we’re always going to have material ready to go in case we need to replace series as we go forward.
It’s not that DC always has replacement books in its corporate back pocket to replace canceled titles that sticks with me, but that Lee seems to be admitting that some books will stay alive past their sales figure time if there’s a continuity-based reason for it to survive (Hi, Captain Atom…?). I can’t quite work out if that’s cause for celebration or not… I mean, on the one hand, it’s not all about sales figures! On the other hand, it may be all about the hivemind of an editorial endpoint that doesn’t necessarily support individual creativity, either…!
June 8th, 2012 at 10:03 am
Well, at least we can say that DC doesn’t play favorites just because a book is a) written by the boss, and b) gets good reviews. Otherwise OMAC would still be with us.
June 8th, 2012 at 2:43 pm
Yes, because four titles written by Rob Liefeld in September is “diverse,” but at least they’ve given themselves an out for their nepotism in supporting his titles while other creators’ books get cancelled even when they sell MORE than Liefeld’s work.
June 8th, 2012 at 3:45 pm
I understand why this is bad — some sense that editorial might play favorites, poor titles supported for editorial/continuity reasons, etc.; what you don’t want is for this to turn into another tepid editorially-driven line a la Countdown to Final Crisis.
But why I read this with optimism, too, is because it suggests an emphasis from DC editorial on a satisfactory reading experience. Books like Doom Patrol and JSA All-Stars weren’t stellar sellers and were therefore cancelled, and without any real wrap-up. What we’ve already seen so far is books like Mr. Terrific get cancelled, but Terrific’s overall story continues into Earth-2; Hawk and Dove and OMAC were cancelled, but they get a little extra spotlight in DC Comics Presents #0.
No, we don’t want Countdown, but if editorial is paying greater attention to where everything fits together, maybe this means that even if your favorite series is cancelled it won’t feel like everything that happened in the series was “a waste.”
June 9th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
“What we are doing constantly is developing products”
He should start by doing good books, god writing, good stories. That’s what great editors think about. Not products.
June 10th, 2012 at 10:08 am
Diversity? Sure. He’s my bud, keep all his titles. I hate this guy, cancel his books and put my buddy on theere instead.
June 11th, 2012 at 7:36 am
Captain
Atom HAs been cancelled with issue Zero you grame come lately…./ boy can you write an article without researching anything
one thing no one has to research is that you and your blog is steeped in lack of fact and stupidity.
June 11th, 2012 at 7:49 am
Hey…The AntiWriter…link to the announcement of the Captain Atom cancellation, por favor?