DC

The internet is NOT forever. DC's website is undergoing a huge overhaul in a few weeks, according to The Source, with a new design, and new, exclusive content, and the old forums are going to be erased.

The new Nerdist YouTube channel is hosting the first look at the Plastic Man shorts that will be airing shortly on DC Nation. As we reported earlier, Tom Kenny voices Plas, while Andy Suriano and Stephen DeStefano are involved in the animation—the John K. influence is strong but it works with the character.

The major con season for 2012 kicked off with MegaCon in Orlando. And so did the con news tidbits season.

New collections from Marvel, including a storyline which takes place between paragraphs in another book! And the Justice League as zombies! New Titles from DC, including Silver Surfer and Captain America!

Via Fast Company, of all places... So this is going to be the Minutemen Frontier? No surprise there. And, of course, it does look great.

Dropped into this little item about BEYOND THE FRINGE, a digital tie-in to the popular TV show, is the news that Jhonen Vasquez, the incredibly popular creator of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, will be doing some digital comics for DC, along with Becky Cloonan. SWEET.

Comic books crossing over? The crossover quote of the week goes to Dan Buckley in his Comic Book Resources interview:

What is James Robinson's and Nicola Scott's Earth Two comic really about? The official line is, it was originally to be titled Justice Society. We know that Worlds' Finest is about the Earth Two Power Girl and Huntress (who is confirmed as the daughter of Batman and Catwoman, per the original concept of the character) getting trapped in whatever DC is calling its main dimension. But I don't think anybody's ever said Earth Two was necessarily going to be where the superheroes started out in World War II. Like most people, I'd just been assuming that was what they were talking about, and then DC releases an alternate cover for the first issue:

How many statistics can one news day handle? DC has just released results from their Retailer Survey which they launched in conjunction with the New 52. As we noted at the time, the survey was aimed at gauging interest in each and every New 52 title, as well as general readership demographics. As such, it represents the most comprehensive reader survey a comics company has made in some time. While it's very New 52-centric, it does reveal a lot. While DC has released their own bullet points, which we've shown below, ICv2 has more info and an interview with John Rood. You'll want to head over there and digest the whole thing. But here's the broad picture:

In the 4th "New 52" writer shuffle of the week, DC has announced Gregg Hurwitz as the new writer for Batman: The Dark Knight, as of issue #10. I suspect they really mean co-writer on that, as I'm under the impression artist David Finch, for whom the title was created pre-relaunch, has a pretty good amount of input on the plot.

Oh, we all knew the Watchmen sequel was coming. The art leaked and DC's lawyers went wild -- unusual enough to know something was close to an announcement. Then the last round of announced reprint books included The Art of Amanda Conner (some of her art was in that leaked batch) and a HC reprint of Dave Gibbons' Green Lantern work (more on that in bit) made it clear an announcement was imminent. What do we get with the actual announcement? Comedy. And more comedy from the PR than from the reactions, if you ask me.

Whether you think the original WATCHMEN is akin to Moby Dick—as Alan Moore opined—or the Bible, as J. Michael Straczynski thought, it is definitely something—DC's bestselling graphic novel of all time[*], a beloved classic taught in schools, one of Time's Best 100 novels of the last 100 years, the book that defined grim and gritty. You name it. Like all great works, it's multifaceted. So doing a "Scarlet" on it brings up every argument over whether comics are literature or licensing. You wouldn't get much argument that Watchmen is literature and Moore is a literary figure. But there's also the obsessive need of devotees to get MORE -- there's a reason why 12 volumes of the J.R.R. Tolkien's jumbled, confused notes and scribblings were published as hardcover books. Once you enter a beloved fictional world you don't want to leave -- even if your hosts are yawning and looking longingly at their pajamas.