We’re not sure exactly what’s going on with the Doomsday Clock publishing schedule, but it sure sounds like something’s up.

It all started yesterday when Newsarama tweeted:

A bit later they clarified:

And that Twitter thread got what seems to be a confirmation from Doomsday Clock artist Gary Frank:

We haven’t seen a formal statement from DC on this, but they don’t seem to have rushed to correct anything, either.

Looking at those tweets, it would seem Doomsday Clock is theoretically going bi-monthly for at least a few issues?  If the water cooler talk about a new wave of titles spinning out of the of Doomsday Clock are true (Legion of Superheroes and Justice Society are a couple things that are suspected to be spinning out of it), does that mean those titles can’t be launched for a few more months?  Potentially an extra 6 or 7 months?

There’s so much about this revelation that’s not good, if it’s accurate.  Going bi-monthly will almost certainly cause some additional sales attrition and cause people to wait for the trade (and roll their eyes at the schedule change while doing so).  That’s a big selling book that’s now only going to be appearing every other month for awhile at a time when the retailers really need a hit series.

Hopefully, we get some clarification on this… but right now this sounds like a scheduling nightmare that didn’t have as many issues in the can at launch as it probably should have.  Especially if it might cause significant delay for DC’s next slate of new titles.

14 COMMENTS

  1. I see this book getting later and later and soon we’ll laugh at the idea of even a bi-monthly schedule.

  2. They have been building to this for well over a year. They couldn’t have had enough done to ship a year long book on time? Bill something as a sequel to the best comic ever and attract non-comic customers, then disappoint. Most people don’t know or understand how unprofessional the industry actually is. Imagine Game of Thrones announcing the last season is coming out in a year and then having to push episodes back for weeks because they couldn’t finish them on time.

  3. Probably looking for other Alan Moore characters they can sneak in without telling anyone. Anyone left from ABC they haven’t used yet?

  4. In general, this is what happens when publishers rely on “premier artists” to tell stories now. Long gone are the days of cartooning for the company and going to the stable of artists to keep a regular schedule. It’s a shame that the major publishers can’t plan big books and get them out on time because of chronic art delays. Either don’t try, or don’t hinge your entire line on one artist. It’s disheartening and disappointing for the periodical reader. But hey, at least the art will be consistent when that last issue is published in 2 years…

  5. If it is going bimonthly, that is its choice and we need to respect it. I have an uncle who is bimonthly and he and my Grandpa fought all the time but the rest of the family understood that it’s hard to be bimonthly and we made a concerted effort to respect him and try to understand bimonthly culture.

  6. What’s even funnier is the belief was that Gary Frank had finished 4 issues before they went to press on issue one. So he’s just been hanging out, waiting to finish issue 5 now?

  7. “The new Watchmen book running late seems like a nice tribute to the original Watchmen.”

    How? The original WATCHMEN shipped twelve issues in thirteen months…..

    -B

  8. “The original WATCHMEN shipped twelve issues in thirteen months”

    Which pretty much destroys any and all artists who can’t get their books done at least vaguely on schedule. Not everyone can be Jack Kirby or even John Byrne or John Romita Jr. but being able to get one book done a month, ESPECIALLY when you’re working from a full script, should not been this hard.

    Mike

  9. Bi-monthly starts with this issue (#3). #4 was supposed to come out 2/28, but in a DC email to retailers #4 has been moved to 3/28 (which to me is better than having two months between issues which is what would have happened if #4 came out 2/28 as #5 isn’t coming out until May).

  10. “Probably looking for other Alan Moore characters they can sneak in without telling anyone. Anyone left from ABC they haven’t used yet?”

    If DC owns the characters thren they can do whatever they want with them (and they should!).

  11. 3 issues in and I’m bored already 15 dollars and the story shows Comedian is alive. Uh…wow? Batman reading a journal for a whole page. Batman in the wrong costume. Pancakes? I think people should stop buying the single issues and just wait for the trade. At least then you might save some money on this …this story?

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