The New York Times profiles Karen Berger as she leaves Vertigo – which happened almost three months ago, now – and finds some affectionate creators, and a somewhat defensive Dan Didio discussing changes in DC Comics over the last few years:

Dan DiDio, the co-publisher of DC Comics, said there was “some truth” to these feelings of a shifting landscape, which he said were industrywide. For comics published by Vertigo and by DC, he said: “There’s not a challenge to be more profitable out of the gate. But there is a challenge to be more accepted out of the gate.”

Mr. DiDio said it would be “myopic” to believe “that servicing a very small slice of our audience is the way to go ahead.”

“That’s not what we’re in the business for,” he added. “We have to shoot for the stars with whatever we’re doing. Because what we’re trying to do is reach the biggest audience and be as successful as possible.”

Not more profitable, but more accepted? How, exactly, is that acceptability measured, I wonder, if not in sales? Nevertheless, it’s sad to see such comments about “trying to reach the biggest audience” come at the end of a piece that’s essentially all about the value of doing good work that might be ahead of its time and letting everyone else catch up with you.

Last week’s news that Vertigo will be publishing both Tom Strong and Astro City is another reminder that things are very different for the DC imprint in its post-Karen Berger era. Both books are good, sure, but both are also all-ages superhero titles – far outside the previous Vertigo remits of horror/supernatural genre work and Suggested for Mature Readers titles. Of course, those two things are now being published under the DC Comics imprint – Swamp Thing, Constantine and Animal Man for the former, and Before Watchmen for the latter.

That both Tom Strong and Astro City are former Wildstorm titles is doubtlessly worth noting – Vertigo now falls under the control of Hank Kanalz, SVP of Integrated Publishing at DC Entertainment and former Wildstorm GM. But what I find myself wondering is whether or not we’re seeing Vertigo slowly shift to an imprint for DC’s creator-owned or creator-controlled works (What is the status of the ABC books, anyway?).

The relative failures of books like Lot 13 and Insurgent have to have clearly demonstrated to DCE and DC Comics that pushing out non-DCU books under the DC Comics brand is likely to result in a lack of audience awareness and media coverage – Really, who was talking about Insurgent before it got cancelled early? – and, meanwhile, there was Vertigo lying around, its line shrinking and doing nothing much apart from waiting for Sandman Zero and some new Fables titles. What could go wrong?

I could be wrong, of course; these may be the only two off-topic additions to Vertigo that we’ll see, and other creator-owned/controlled books from what would’ve been Wildstorm will appear in future without the Vertigo banner. But somehow, I suspect that we’re watching the Vertigo imprint and brand be rebuilt as something else right in front of our eyes…

So, what to make of the new Vertigo plans announced yesterday for OGNs for both Fairest and The Unwritten, in addition to their ongoing series? It was something that was both surprising – Neither series has seemed a success the size of Fables or Sandman, say – and unsurprising (Both Fables and Sandman have gone the “additional OGNs in parallel with the regular series” route before for the imprint) at once. It was, if nothing else, a sign of movement and life for the imprint in a week where the final issue of Hellblazer shipped and sounded something similar to a death knell – A really bad cough, perhaps, or an unfortunate operation – for many. I wonder whether it also was a sign of things to come. Given the relative lack of success of Vertigo’s single issues in the Direct Market, could the imprint move to a direct-to-OGN format overall and still succeed with its target audience…?

The news that Karen Berger will step down as Vertigo Executive Editor in March 2013 is a massive shift for DC Entertainment, and arguably for the industry as a whole; it’s impossible to consider the mainstream American comics industry without Vertigo these days, especially when you consider that Marvel’s EiC these days cut his editorial teeth at the imprint (as did numerous Marvel creators). The list of titles that she helped create and curate is beyond impressive, and it’s hard to imagine an editor who has done as much to shift perception of comics as a whole in mainstream pop culture, thanks to Vertigo’s legacy of work including Sandman, Y The Last Man, Fables, 100 Bullets, Preacher, The Invisibles et al.

The official DC makes a point of mentioning twice that her departure doesn’t mean the end of the Vertigo imprint – It goes so far as to mention “veteran staffers” who’ll be taking over, although it doesn’t name them (It’s got to be Shelly Bond, though, seriously) – but Vertigo’s future has seemed shaky at best in the last couple of years, with low monthly sales – especially when compared to the New 52 line – the departure of many of the imprint’s core company-owned characters back to the New 52 line (Most recently seen with the cancellation of Hellblazer – DC’s longest-running, un-renumbered title – in favor of the New 52 series Constantine) and the imprint’s slow shrinking in size and importance. With the Before Watchmen titles debuting the “mainstream” DC imprint’s Mature Readers rating, it could be argued that Vertigo’s one identifying trait within the company – That it produced comics “suggested for Mature Readers” – had finally been stripped away.

It’ll be interesting to see where both Berger and Vertigo go from here. One thing’s for sure; many people will be watching the next steps of both.

And what does Hellblazer‘s end mean for Vertigo? Well, for one thing, it reduces the line’s number of ongoing titles even further after the recent or upcoming conclusions of iZombie, Scalped and Sweet Tooth; with American Vampire going on hiatus so that Scott Snyder and Rafael Alburquerque can work on some DCU material – Snyder is staying with Vertigo for The Wake, though – there’ll only be four ongoing series running from the imprint: Saucer Country, The Unwritten, Fables and the Fables spin-off, Fairest.

It’d be nice to think that that clears some space for a new ongoing series to be added to the line, but that’s not necessarily going to be the case; even if it were, we’ve already seen one attempt at a new Vertigo ongoing – Dominique Laveau, Voodoo Child – get cancelled for low sales after just eight months – which isn’t a good sign for the line’s long-term health. Neither is Brian Wood’s tweeted observation this morning:

The long-term prospects for Saucer Country are difficult to intuit; as Marc-Oliver Frisch points out, it’s lost 48% of its orders in the first six months, and is currently around 8,100 copies a month in the US direct market according to estimates from Diamond numbers. That’s not a confirmed death sentence for the book at all – Scalped continued for five years with lower sales – but both iZombie and Sweet Tooth were cut when their numbers were in the mid-7000s. (As someone who really likes Saucer Country, I’m hoping for more of the former and less of the latter model, to be honest).

All isn’t lost for Vertigo as a line: Next year sees both the imprint’s 20th anniversary and a new Sandman series by Neil Gaiman and JH Williams that should significantly increase the average Vertigo order numbers. But revisiting former glories - Grant Morrison has shared that he was approached to return to The Invisibles, too – can’t be enough to keep the line going as an ongoing, viable prospect. It needs new material, new hits, to survive – and maybe the mainstream DCU line to stop stealing the hits and successful properties that it already has (Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Shade the Changing Man…).

Between the success of Saga and this surprise news, it seems as if everything’s coming up Brian K. Vaughan:

Well-placed sources tell us that New Line Cinema may finally be getting around to making a feature-film adaptation of the graphic novel, Y: The Last Man.

Of course, when a project has been in development for almost a decade, it can sometimes be difficult to get excited about the latest twist or turn. But even still, we hear that the studio is very pleased with a draft from former Jericho writers Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia, and has already begun the process of meeting with director candidates to hire for the project.

Hands up everyone who thought that this movie was as dead as the entire male population on Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s Vertigo series? Exactly. Nice to see that we were all wrong.

(And where is Guerra these days? Outside of her Doctor Who: The Forgotten series with Tony Lee a few years back, I can’t think of anything she’s done post-Y. Is she off working on something wonderful and I’ve been missing it?)

Ahead of Vertigo’s big launches this month – Four new series all debuting, in what feels like the biggest push the DC imprint has seen in some years – Marc-Oliver Frisch looks at January’s Diamond sales and points out why everyone at the imprint should be hoping that the push succeeds:

For Vertigo, it’s a particularly bad month. Viewed over the 107 months we have consistent data on, January 2012 brought both the lowest total unit sales and the lowest total dollar sales for the imprint. The previous low point was November 2003, with estimated total Vertigo comic-book sales of 108,050 in units and $297,858. In January 2012, it’s a total of 89,957 units and $268,971, respectively.

I’m one of those people who thinks that Vertigo is something to be protected and treasured within DC, with the material it publishes something with a longer shelf-life (and longer-tail when it comes to sales, too) than the New 52 line; Vertigo, increasingly, is where the new IP for DC comes from, and in order for DC to be anything more than an exercise in nostalgia to differing levels of success, I think the publisher needs Vertigo or something similar. But looking at those numbers, especially in comparison with the New 52 books, is just heartbreaking and tough to argue with from a business perspective should DC decide to put the resources elsewhere. In January, for example, Vertigo as a whole was outsold by any one of the top five superhero comics put out by DC. That’s just horrible.

With, it seems, the New 52 reclaiming the classic DC properties, many have been wondering what kind of future the Vertigo imprint had to look forward to. Yesterday’s solicitations might have answered that question with the revelation that March 2012 will see the launch of four new ongoing titles, the biggest push the imprint has seen in recent memory. Both Selwyn Seyfu Hinds and Denys Cowan’s Dominique Laveau: Voodoo Child and Paul Cornell and Ryan Kelly’s Saucer Country have had previews in recent anthology oneshots, and Fairest is a known quantity by the fact that it’s a Fables spin-off (That said, a Bill Willingham/Phil Jiminez pairing for the launch story seems like a strong first-foot-forward), but Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard’s The New Deadwardians remains an enticing mystery for now.

Vertigo titles hardly race up the DM charts, but recent ongoing launches like The Unwritten, American Vampire and Sweet Tooth have been both acclaimed and had some buzz about them, seemingly leading a critical renaissance for the line. It’ll be interesting to see how these new books turn out, and whether Vertigo becomes the place for DC’s new ideas, while the DCU is the sales engine where old ideas are kept fresh through relaunches and revamps.

What does Fables creator Bill Willingham think of the similarities between his series and the ABC show Once Upon A Time? Well, he interviewed himself over at CBR to explain:

Is “Once Upon a Time” (which we should now refer to as “Once” for brevity) a rip off of “Fables?”

My best guess, based upon the scanty evidence, is probably not.

Is “Once” influenced and at least in part inspired by “Fables?”

Despite superficial similarities, “Fables” creator Bill Willingham firmly believes any similarities “Once Upon A Time” has to his comic is simply a result of working form the same source material

My best guess, based upon the same scanty evidence is, yes, it probably is, but perhaps not on more than a “this is the type of thing that’s in the air these days” level.

He goes on to elaborate on the crossover between the concepts for the show and the series, and their similarities, before explaining that what he’s trying to do is “a call to arms — or more accurately, a call to disarm”:

As grateful as I am to discover so many loyal “Fables” readers, willing to man the barricades, to help protect a story they love; as much as it moves me to realize I’ve been part in creating something that clearly moves you, affecting your lives in ways only a good story, well-told can, I think it’s time to lay off. Perhaps it’s time to quit rising up in public venues to accuse these folks of Grand Theft “Fables,” even if you still think it’s so.

I’m quite enjoying Once Upon A Time, in part because I just enjoy seeing Jennifer Morrison’s attempt at being a badass private eye/bounty hunter on a weekly basis; I also love Fables, so I’m glad to see Willingham being so calm about similiarities between the two.

So, everyone’s had a chance to read Flashpoint #5, right? If not, click for the rest of this post at your own risk. (more…)

Here’s a treat for process junkies: Todd Klein, uber-letterer, runs through the creation of a page from Fables, including the ways in which Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha differ from traditional penciler/inker teams:

Before sending the pencils to Steve Leialoha, Bucky paints gray washes over them, as seen here, sometimes doing a bit of the inking as well. Here he’s inked Bufkin’s eyes in the last panel, and I think a bit of linework on Bungle, the glass cat, as well as the panel borders. He’s also added shrubbery in mostly darker watercolor grays where there was nothing in the pencils. This is what Steve received from Bucky, and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen art done quite this way before: doing gray tones over pencils. Steve told me it’s not a problem for him to ink them, though it takes him longer than the standard way and size, and if anything doesn’t come out quite right he fixes it on the computer after scanning his finished inks. Frankly I don’t think there are many inkers who would be able to handle this as well as Steve, who is a fine artist in his own right.

As a fan of Fables, I may be biased but, with Buckingham’s style taking on a mix of Mignola and Kirby in recent years, it’s become one of the best-looking books around for me. Seeing behind the scenes like this is great.

Whoever thought to fire up the hype machine for the DC relaunch with a group interview with Scott Snyder, Jeff Lemire, Paul Cornell and Joshua Hale Fialkov (Each one writing a book in DC’s new “dark” line) deserves a raise. There’s a lot to reassure in the whole thing, but my favorite part may be this, from Lemire:

I don’t think that up until very recently when things were going to be announced that Paul’s book or Peter Milligan’s book would be linked in terms of this overall banner. There was never any editorial direction for the line, but for me I approached it as if I was writing for Vertigo, basically… [O]ther than not being able to use swear words and stuff, I pretty much just let loose, and like Josh said, they haven’t made me scale back at all. “Frankenstein” has some pretty over the top violence so far, and “Animal Man” I thought some of the stuff in the first issue they’d want us to pull back on, but they loved it. They’re letting us go further than regular DC titles in that respect.

I can’t be the only one who finds this to be good news, right? It’s not that I’m a massive fan of violence and swearing (Although, in context, it can be quite fun), but I’m very glad that these books aren’t going to be repurposed into some new “They’re superheroes – but with magic instead of superpowers!” direction.

The mention of being allowed to go further than the creators expected makes me wonder whether we’ll see some of DC’s new 52 using that M for Mature rating, come September. Snyder follows Lemire’s comment with an interesting one that may reflect DC’s current thinking about the actual Vertigo line: “I think the thing that makes this different than Vertigo is that Vertigo has more of a creator-owned feel now. There isn’t a shared universe as much as it is a shared sensibility.” I think there’s definitely an argument that that’s been the case for awhile now – Whereas the line started with company owned characters like Sandman, Doom Patrol and Shade The Changing Man, the standout books for the imprint for a long time have been creator-led and not in any shared universe setting: Fables, Y The Last Man, 100 Bullets, and now things like Scalped, American Vampire and iZombie (I think Hellblazer may even be the only company-owned, DCU-related book still at the imprint these days…? ). Will Vertigo switch to an almost all creator-owned/participatory model, leaving the “dark” line to pick up a slightly censored version of the slack with a more mature line of supernatural books set in the DCU?

Dear whoever is in charge of casting over at DC Entertainment,

This:

Make it happen.

Love,

Graeme.

(If you’re wondering what that is: It’s Carlos Pagulayan’s take on Sherlock‘s Benedict Cumberbatch as Morpheus, which I discovered via a tweet from Sandman creator Neil Gaiman, who called it “actually quite spooky.” He’s right, and I’d really, really love to see someone try to make it happen… as long as it didn’t effect any future Sherlocks…)

The Nobody
Written & Illustrated by Jeff Lemire
Lettered by Sean Konot
Published by DC/Vertigo

In Jeff Lemire’s first book from Vertigo The Nobody, he appropriates the protagonist of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man to explore a theme obviously dear to Lemire, the interconnectedness and occasional small-mindedness of small towns. John Griffen, bandaged head to toe, arrives in Large Mouth, where everyone knows everyone, checks into the local hotel and stays to himself.

Lemire explores Griffen’s tenuous friendships and the community’s complicated sense of acceptance and respect for privacy against a simultaneous and conflicted urge to question this stranger in their midst. Like his Essex County books and his Vertigo serial Sweet Tooth, Lemire’s The Nobody moves slowly, contemplatively, focusing on the small moments in ordinary lives.

With his rough-hewn artwork, Lemire captures the worn-in quality of Large Mouth and its residents, and his natural dialogue draws readers into their lives quickly. The characters aren’t the deepest you’ll meet, but Lemire provides a range of personalities, and the major players have a few wrinkles to keep them interesting. The haunting plot pulls readers in, and everything builds to a tragic, and effective climax.  The Nobody‘s another worthwhile offering from a cartoonist with a talent for mood and small-town exploring.

Neil Young’s Greendale
Based on the album by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Written by Joshua Dysart
Illustrated by Cliff Chiang
Colored by Dave Stewart
Lettered by Todd Klein
Published by DC/Vertigo

I already reviewed this one a while back, but that was based on a black and white advance copy. I got a permanent edition, finally took time to read it during my 2011 dig-out, and wanted to give some props to Dave Stewart. Greendale‘s a beautifully colored book, soft (maybe a little too soft at times) and organic, warm and inviting. Lots of cool, natural tones.

DC did a very nice job assembling the book also, something I rarely feel they deserve credit for. It’s an attractive package. The script holds up well – Greendale‘s not exactly nuanced, but it’s engaging and fun to read, and my sympathies lie along its message. And Cliff Chiang, man, that dude makes it look fantastic.

And so the great dig-out of 2011 begins. I’m cutting back on the library for a little while. With all the review comics I get, some library books sprinkled in, and a few comic strip collections, and the prose books I squeeze in as often as possible, I’ve basically not read a single comic that I’ve purchased for myself since last August.

It’s gotten a bit ridiculous. I’m talking about nearly 70 books (including a few rereads, mostly for reasons that’ll become clear about two paragraphs down) piled up on my end table. They’re going to collapse one night and kill me in my sleep, I’m convinced. So it’s time to whittle that bastard pile down, come hell or high water.

So over the new few months, you’ll see some … not very timely reviews. But I’m going to get it all read, and you’ll see what I’ve been missing out on.

Young Liars v. 1: Daydream Believer
Young Liars v. 2: Maestro
Young Liars v. 3: Rock Life
Written & Illustrated by David Lapham

(more…)

Delirium’s Party: A Little Endless Storybook
Written & Illustrated by Jill Thompson
Published by DC/Vertigo

Jill Thompson’s latest visit to the realm of Neil Gaiman’s Endless characters finds the whimsical, whirlical Delirium in the spotlight again, as Delirium decides to throw a party for her surly sister Despair.

Delirium’s Party is the result, a bringing together of all seven Endless in an effort to get a solitary grin, just a tiny little uptick of the mouth’s corner, from Despair. Thompson pretty much nails everything about the story – Delirium’s swirling, track-leaping logic arranges a perfectly wonderful and utterly grandively (her word, not mine) party. Keeping all the Endless on track, with small touches in their dialogue and in their perfectly suited gifts for Despair, Thompson captures the essence of each fundamental being. But most of all, she’s able to give the book an engaging, insistent readability, a pleasant breeziness that makes for a too-quick and entirely pleasurable reading experience.

Thompson’s watercolors and page compositions match the unexpected, yet somehow totally dream-logic reasonable, mania of Delirium’s party organizing talents. A cake with all your favorite things: bicycles, books, cupcakes, paintbrushes and action figures; the warm, psychedelic colors of Delirium’s… hair, clothes, bed… pretty much everything, really; flying pickles and ice cream cones – it’s all here. Jill Thompson’s practically born to draw this character – and yet she’s still born to draw all of her own wonderful characters too. It’s really too much talent for one person to have. How about sharing a little, Jill?

Delirium’s Party: A Little Endless Storybook is a pure blast, superduper fun, with intoxicating prose and colorfully twisted artwork. Fans of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman will want this one; it’s one of the best non-Gaiman Endless stories to date (and better than a couple of Neil’s even). Fans of Jill, of beautiful illustration, of just-plain terrific stories should definitely keep an eye open for it.

It was recently announced that director DJ Caruso would be taking on the task of translating Garth Ennis’ Preacher comic series to the big screen. Now the I Am Number Four director talks a little about what he has in mind.

Speaking to the French website, CloneWeb, Caruso mentioned how controversial the story is as well as who he’d like to cast in the main roles.

“It is a crazy trip and I think what’s amazing and what makes Sony so brave is they can see there’s a real universality in the story when you have good versus evil. And I think when you have these crazy characters that are not necessarily politically correct, there’s something genuinely attractive to those characters and those elements,” said Caruso, “but at the end of the day, it really is a story about good versus evil and the decisions that you make and whether the demons are gonna win or the Genesis, or the good inside of Jesse is gonna be there.” He said that even though he thinks the story can be commercial, it will shock a lot of people at times.

Preacher follows Jesse Custer, a minister who has a crisis of faith when his entire congregation is killed when he’s possessed by a supernatural being called Genesis. He sets out on a journey to find God and have a few words with him along with his ex-girlfriend and a vampire.

Caruso said he read Preacher when it was first released but Sam Mendes was originally set to direct it. “Then when Sam went off to do James Bond, the opportunity came up again so I inquired,” he said. “But you know, I think the possibilities are great and I’m a huge fan of the comic. It is a lot of story to put into one movie and so that’s really the challenge.” Caruso also mentioned John August (Charlie’s Angels, Corpse Bride) is doing a great job with the script.

As far as casting, Caruso said he’s got a couple of ideas but isn’t quite there yet. However, he’s looking to Star Trek star, Chris Pine, for the lead role of Jesse. “I want to get the script in really good shape then start to put it together but I will say that for any movie I’ve ever done I’ve never gotten more phone calls or texts or things from actors,” he said. “An actor that I love very much and I’ve had a conversation with is Chris Pine, for Jesse. Shia LaBeouf loves Arseface. He wants to play Arseface, so we’re kinda working that out too.” LaBeouf previously worked with the director on Disturbia and Eagle Eye.

“And this guy right here [speaking to Alex Pettyfer, his I Am Number Four star], he’s thinking, he’s really thinking that the Saint of Killers is a good role even though he hasn’t read it yet. But he will.”

Caruso admitted he’s not a huge comic book fan but likes a lot of DC’s Vertigo line. The director was also attached at one time to adapt Brian K. Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man.

iZombie v. 1: Dead to the World
Written by Chris Roberson
Illustrated by Mike Allred
Colored by Laura Allred
Lettered by Todd Klein
Published by DC/Vertigo

It’s probably not Roberson and Allred’s fault, but I found this particular trade paperback less than satisfying. It just never provided any sense of resolution to the reader – and I understand, this being an ongoing serial, some storylines will remain open for perhaps years. Yet I still prefer that each book in a series gives some closure to some piece of the narrative. I quit monthly comics ten years ago because trades were a more satisfying reading experience. With longer stories becoming the norm, but publishers opting for low-cost collections of only five, maybe six, issues, even trades are often unsatisfying these days. Putting more pages in these collections is strongly encourged, by me anyway. Price resistance kicks in when I know I have to pay many times for what I could have in fewer installments.

Of course, even if Dead to the World provided a clearer resolution, I’m not sure I’d be back for more. iZombie‘s a cute series, about Gwen, a zombie lady who must eat brains once a month or become a mindless, shambling monstrosity, and what occurs when her latest brain comes with memories of its own murder. But it’s still a zombie book, with vampires, monster hunters, ghosts and a were-terrier. It’s building its own particular take on these creature mythologies, but it’s all still monster mythology.  The monster subgenre of horror isn’t really my thing, so I can appreciate a solid twist and some nice art, but there’s no deeper hook here to bring me into it.

Roberson’s stiff dialogue carries the story, but doesn’t get deeper into the characters. The plot swerves effectively in a few key places, such as Amon’s back story, but it’s all plot – there’s no deeper significance to any of it. Mike Allred’s long been a favorite comic artist of mine, with a clean pop-art, cute-girl style that doesn’t seem obviously suited to a monster comic. Yet he acquits himself very well in iZombie, with strong character designs and clear page layouts, bringing a brightness and clarity to Gwen’s sullen lot in life.

In short, iZombie‘s an interesting series, but not necessarily a compelling one. I’m sure many readers will dig it – those with more interest in monster movie riffs than I, for example – but Dead to the World doesn’t set the series up to be anything more than a middling (if pretty-looking) genre exercise.

ABC’s new drama pilot sounds kinda familiar if you ask me.

The pilot, called Once Upon a Time, has just snagged Ginnifer Goodwin from Showtime’s Big Love to play the lead role…Snow White.  From Deadline:

[Once Upon a Time] centers on a woman with a troubled past who is drawn into a small town in Maine where the magic and mystery of Fairy Tales just may be real. Goodwin will play Snow White/Sister Mary Margaret, a beautiful woman with dark hair and very pale skin who has been placed under a wicked spell by the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla), and is brought back from a living death by Prince Charming.

It’s not exactly the same as Fables of course, but awfully fishy when you consider ABC optioned the highly-successful Vertigo comic series for a pilot just a few years ago. Back then, Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner were writing the script that would follow the fairy tale characters in their exiled home in modern day New York and feature Bigby and Snow White. Fables creator Bill Willingham did in fact read the script for the pilot but nothing more came of it from the network.

Once Upon a Time comes to us from Lost executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. And it’s a well known fact most of those Lost guys are big comic fans. In fact, Kitsis and Horowitz produced and wrote for the short-lived Birds of Prey television series. Time will tell if the duo were simply inspired by the comic or are borrowing directly from it.