DC

By Todd Allen The November solicitations for DC have been released.  As I was scrolling through them, I thought to myself, "that sure is a lot of...

When the new 52 was launched, there was a little eyebrow-raising at the extent to which DC was raiding the Vertigo creator roster. The Trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were all staffed by writers of a Vertigo pedigree with Grant Morrison, Scott Snyder and Brian Azzarello. I'll grant you Morrison does a little more superhero work (pun intended), but it was noticeable and a lot of people thought that Animal Man and Swamp Thing were really Vertigo books that just happened to play in the superhero world.

We knew the crossovers were coming, but as things go, this one sounds fairly modest -- a mere three-issue tale spanning Supers Man, Boy and Girl as they face the menace of the shirtless, alien terror, H'el, who is so horrible he wears his cape around his waist like a skirt. Sounds pretty basic and maybe even jumponable? Going by the cover art, though, it looks like some injury-to-the-arm is headed our way.

Jaws dropped around the comics movies-o-sphere yesterday when Variety boldly announced that Ben Affleck might direct a Justice League movie. The story made a bit of sense—although the less said about his acting career the better, Affleck is growing in stature as a director, even if a three-ring circus like a JL movie would tax anyone but D.W. Griffith or Michael Bay.

Well, despite what you're thinking Affleck's directing career—THE TOWN and GONE BABY GONE—is much admired within the halls of Warners. So much so that they are thinking of giving over the proposed Justice League film to Affleck. After all, he played a superhero once. He also knows Kevin Smith personally.

After a successful roll-out at C2E2—and in light of how artists everywhere are doing it themselves—DC Collectibles is making more than 20 new posters available at their online store, all in the highly designed style that has become so popular with things like the Alamo Drafthouse and so on. Can we say, it's about time? You can see all the prints here—no creators given, alas, in the licensed style of the Warners and Disney stores, but there are some nice items.

In May, DC reminded us that the old sales-boosting tricks still work. In June, we're reminded how short-lived those sales increases are. Coming out of the "Night of the Owls" crossover, the Batman line basically dropped right back to its previous levels, and the same applies to other titles participating in other crossovers in May; second, DC cut many of its variant-cover editions in June, with predictable results; third, the six replacement "New 52" titles all show second-issue drops between 20% and 44% in June; finally, a range of "New 52" titles display bigger-than-usual drops for no readily available reason in June, so it seems retailers weren't done yet trying to catch up with actual demand, after all. As a result of all this, DC's numbers were actually slightly down in June, despite the Before Watchmen launch and despite the fact that DC published two more DC Universe (and one more Vertigo) titles than they did in May. The DC Universe imprint's estimated average comic-book unit sales dropped from 39,179 units in May to 37,599, total unit sales from 2.69 million to 2.67 million, and total dollar sales from $9.05 million to $8.98 million. On the up side, though, the numbers are still golden overall, thanks, of course, to the four juggernaut debut issues of the Before Watchmen line, all of which made the Top 10 and cleared between 110,000 and 120,000 units each. Consequently, average DC Universe unit sales were still the 25th highest ever since March 2003, total DC Universe unit sales the 8th highest, and total DC Universe dollar sales the 6th highest. While it seems unlikely that DC will be able to sustain these types of sales levels through the rest of the year, it's well worth mentioning: They're doing very well right now.

We're told that today, August 1st, 2012 marks DC Senior Vice President, Sales of DC Comics Bob Wayne's 25th anniversary at DC, that's a pretty astonishingly long run and there aren't too many people who have been at the same place in the industry for longer.

It's time for ICV2's annual sit down with the DC publisher, or in this case, co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee. As is usually the case, DiDio is more the quotable provocateur. And boy, did he drop a bunkerbuster of a bomb in this one...

By Jeff Trexler

-- Whatever the merits of the latest summary judgment motion in the dispute over the Superman copyright, its supporting exhibits bring together a number of important documents in two accessible filings.

If you didn't see the trailer for Man of Steel, the upcoming Zack Synder Superman film, in the previews before The Dark Knight Rises, the trailer has finally started turning up online. The trailer is bleak and somber in tone. It might be the whole film has this feel or it might be a deliberate attempt to differentiate a new project from the Richard Donner version the viewing public is familiar with (and that Bryan Singer was attempting to emulate in the last Superman film).

We discover some overlooked items from Comic-Con. Lobo, bubble gum cards, Margaret Atwood, and Weird Al!