Okay it’s a brand new year, and Marvel is now officially part of Disney, and DC is officially not officially doing anything yet. So what’s the word? Here’s the week in leaks and whispers:

MARVEL: A Marvel insider tells us that a few retailers are definitely sending in covers of their Blackest Night tie-ins — one store sent in over 100 covers. Perhaps more will participate when the Siege Deadpool cover is actually revealed? Related: More on the record retailer reactions to the stunt.

DC: Still no publisher in sight to replace the departing Paul Levitz, either officially or even rumored, although an announcement was expected to be made by the end of the month. Luckily, to fan the flames of the hot stove league, Newsarama has an op/ed listing 10 Candidates for DC Publisher which is so gonzo that even Newsarama posters think it’s all hooey. Grant Morrison? Really? Why on earth would someone with no administrative and business background whatsoever be a candidate for helping Warner Bros. manage their licensing and branding?

So who IS going to take over as DC’s publisher? Will it be someone from inside Warners we’ve never heard of. You know, there’s one week left in the month. Continuing….

1 COMMENT

  1. Unless it’s Dan Didio or Karen Berger (both of whom I consider long shots), my money is “someone we’ve never heard of”.

    Grant Morrison? Really? Did Newsarama hire ex-Wizard staffers or something? That’s the type of suggestion you’d get when you’d read one of their “dream casting for comic-book movie X” articles.

  2. Someone we have never heard of. A person with a lot of high level experience in power rooms and corridors. Someone who has worked in several US corporations, and can bandy about the right words in the right order: mostly relating to: leveraging, impacting, moving forward, brand, the ubiquitous “social marketing” cliches and so on. Comics experience would be um secondary. I can see the career ad now:

  3. I’ve heard a rumor… the person has creative, editorial, and business experience, is well known, and well respected. And he’s on the Newsarama list, which might quash that rumor.

  4. Oh, all right. Since I currently work as an administrator, have a degree in business management and have collected comics for over thirty years, I’ll go ahead and take the DC gig.

    Crazy, I know, but it makes more sense than Joe Quesada jumping over to DC from Marvel and working with Dan DiDio.

  5. I had the same reaction to the daffy Newsarama list. It appears the writer basically just pulled ten well known names out of a hat. Put me down as well for “someone we’ve never heard of” for the publisher position.

  6. If DiDio had been a serious candidate for the job, he would have gotten it months ago. Given the emphasis on transmedia strategies, the publisher could be someone who doesn’t have any experience with comics, but does have experience with transmedia campaigns. Would anyone at Starlight Runner be interested?

    SRS

  7. That list is nuts.

    Dan DiDio, Jim Lee and Bruce Timm all make some sense. Neither Timm, nor Lee, are East Coast based, which strikes me as an impediment. DiDio has hardly set the world afire as EiC and you have to assume that Diane Nelson would want to bring in someone of her own as her first major hire.

    So, my money is on a suit from inside WB of whom comic fans have never heard, or someone internally on the business side of DC to whom we barely pay attention. However, those people are no fun to speculate about.

    If you want some Gonzo names that make more sense, then I have a couple suggestions. Mark Waid is an obvious candidate. He has editorial experience, managerial experience and is working successfully with the Pixar properties at Boom! I would guess that he would also love the job. That strikes me as a plus.

    Another slightly more out there suggestion that is better than seven of the ten names on the Newsarama list would be Al Gough and Miles Millar.

  8. >>Jimmy said

    “I am just glad I didn’t make the list. I got comics to write.” Being DC’s Publisher