News of more cancellations at DC come with the end of The Savage Hawkman, as reportedly announced at this weekend’s Amazing Arizona Comic Con. It’s hardly the most surprising news; the title has relatively poor sales for the publisher, ranking with the already-announced-as-ending I Vampire, Blue Beetle and DC Universe Presents in terms of Diamond chart placement, and has lacked a strong creative direction since Rob Liefeld walked away from the publisher last year (Firestorm and Deathstroke, two other titles selling similar amounts and also victims of creative churn and unclear, constantly changing directions, have to be close to cancellation point as well, at this point).
Dan Didio has previously talked about his desire to keep the DCU line at 52 books, saying that it’s a good number of the publisher. Judging by the number of cancellations we’ve been seeing over there in the last few months, I’m not sure that the market is necessarily agreeing right now.
January 28th, 2013 at 11:07 am
Well said Graeme. The only books I have any interest in picking up from DC are Batman and Batman Inc (which we know is finite as well).
The rest of DC just is one big mistake at this point. It is very easy to tell which books are trying and which don’t. And it is starting to seem that even Geoff Johns isn’t that interested anymore.
January 28th, 2013 at 12:28 pm
With such a strong digital-first program already going, DC should just shelve every title under 10k and just sell them digitally. 10 pages a month for 99¢ and we’d still get a fix of I, Vampire or Blue Beetle. Etc.
That would be a great home for DCU Presents as well, (re)introducing characters and concepts in short arcs or one-shots like in LOTDK every week, and using that to gauge how popular something is before giving it a full blown ongoing title. Like a modern day SHOWCASE.
Maybe mix in some ‘NEW TALENT SHOWCASE’ in as well, and build a new bullpen of fresh talent. If something doesn’t work, just pretend its out of continuity and try the concept another way in a year or two.
January 28th, 2013 at 12:56 pm
And the correlation between number of books in the line and number of cancellations is demonstrable how?
January 28th, 2013 at 4:28 pm
DC should just shelve every title under 10k and just sell them digitally. 10 pages a month for 99¢
The formatting and scheduling is a little different on the digital books–they’re primarily weekly (except for Saturdy’s 3 “Beyond” titles, which tend to rotate). They’re specifically designed for the format, with each digital page making up a precise half-page on the printed editions. And they’ve pretty much kept to big-name franchises: three Batman books, Arrow and Smallville (the Smallville title is remarkably fun and well-done, I think!)
I’ve noticed, also, there don’t seem to be many “top-name” creators on the DC digital formats; I wonder if this will change and if royalties are dramatically different under this distribution model.
January 28th, 2013 at 8:36 pm
“The rest of DC just is one big mistake at this point.”?
bullshit. Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Justice League Dark, Demon Knights, Earth 2, AND YES I, Vampire disagree with you.
The big problem is that the DCU should have been like the universe in the tv show Young Justice.
January 28th, 2013 at 9:56 pm
I understand how their digital comics are formatted. They are 10 page comics cut in half to fit a 4:3 tablet screen.
There’s no reason not to release low tier books as a small digital monthly. They only release Li’l Gotham on holidays now. There’s no reason something like Firestorm or I, Vampire would need a weekly release, when 10 pages a month would be enough to keep the characters out there for audiences.
Now something like the DC SHOWCASE idea could be a weekly.
January 28th, 2013 at 10:05 pm
The Dark books are DC’s best right now, just like the pre-Vertigo horror line they are emulating. Sadly, their superhero books largely seem to be emulating the Image and X-books from that early-mid 90s era instead of something modern, because that’s what Bob Harris knows best.
YJ is a great example of how a DC reboot could have gone with better creators and less micromanaging from talentless hacks like Didio and Harris running the line into the ground.
Its mostly by accident that books like Smallville by the highly underrated Bryan Q Miller and the return of the Legends of the Dark Knight anthology managed to squeak out of the micromanagement stranglehold that has infected the reboot and given readers some of the best Superman and Batman comics out today.
A Superman who likes being Superman is a refreshing change from the new and ‘improved’ Superdouche in the New 52. Maybe having Lois in his life is for the better after all…
January 29th, 2013 at 6:57 am
“Dan Didio has previously talked about his desire to keep the DCU line at 52 books, saying that it’s a good number of the publisher.”
Numerology is not a good way to run a business.