DC

§ Hank Kanalz has been promoted to Senior VP-Digital of DC Comics, it was announced at this morning's DC Nation panel. He was formerly...

Announcements from today's Vertigo panel -- more at at Graphic Content.

So it's Zack Snyder who's been tapped to direct the next Superman movie. Evidently, the vacation Snyder took directing a movie about feisty little owls wearing helmets put him back in the mood for a comic book movie, following 300 and WATCHMEN.

By Torsten Adair The following is a selection of new comics titles due to be published in October 2010. This list is not comprehensive, as there are over 275 books scheduled. These are just the titles which caught my eye. If you would like to browse forthcoming comic strip books at your leisure, click here. Instead, I have selected titles which caught my interest. These are not necessarily titles I will purchase, but which I will definitely look at once they arrive at my local comics shop or bookstore.

Whaddaya know, Wonder Woman is back she she's getting her own David E. Kelley-produced TV show.

Nothing really, business as usual. Seriously, there is a lot of change going on -- although DC Comics is staying in New York, a lot of people are either leaving their jobs or being faced with a move to another coast. We're not going to run all 80 -- or however many it is -- names, but some departments are newsworthy enough to be reported on.

As part of DC's ongoing reorganization, three editorial personnel have been laid off from the Vertigo imprint: Pornsak Pichetshote, Jonathan Vankin, and Joan Hilty, The Beat has learned. All three are Vertigo veterans. Pichetshote was responsible for the recent hit THE UNWRITTEN, while Hilty and Vankin had mostly worked in acquiring graphic novels, including fall releases, CUBA and HOW TO UNDERSTAND ISRAEL IN 60 DAYS OR LESS.

Former Marvel E-i-C Bob Harras has just been named DC Editor-in-Chief. Harras will be in charge of all DC imprints, including DC Comics, Vertigo and MAD. Since leaving Marvel in 2000, Harras held a variety of consulting positions and and joined DC's collected editions department several years ago as Group Editor. The announcement is a little bit of a surprise as Harras had kept a low profile at DC...perhaps all the more reason to be given a promotion. At any rate, it's sort of a no-brainer since he already has experience running a giant comics publishing company and knows DC's operations inside out.

A lot of think pieces are beginning to come out about the DC upheaval -- it's beginning to be clear that the initial feelings of relief after the first press release were about as accurate as the "We dodged that one!" feelings right after Katrina passed through. As expected, Tom Spurgeon lays out Twelve Initial Questions I Have About DC's Publishing Moves Announcements and it's very thorough. Tom writes from the distinct perspective of someone who isn't immersed in day-to-day DC Kremlinology and yet comes to many of the same conclusions.

When a company spokesman suggested that the LA Times story stating that 20 percent of DC's 250 or 50 employees would be laid off, was incorrect, he was perhaps half right. Bloomberg News uncovered a NY State Dept. of Labor WARN filing (Worker Adjustment and Retraining) which says that 80 employees will be laid off or relocate. Layoffs will begin on 12/27/2010 and continue through 8/27/2011, according to filer June Martin, SVP Human Resources. A DC spokesman told Bloomberg:

As we head into Day 3 of the Bi-Coastal Era of DC Comics, even bigger organizational changes were announced at Warner Bros. Short version: Time Warner head Jeff Bewkes announced that Warner Bros Chairman/CEO Barry Meyer would be staying on for two years (he had been rumored to be retiring before that) but studio head Alan Horn will be moving along in April 2011. Three men will fill a three-headed president role to replace Horn: Jeff Robinov, the movie guy, Bruce Rosenblum, the TV guy, and Kevin Tsujihara the multimedia/home entertainment guy. Although this all seems far distant from the traditional comics business, it is all tied in, of course.

With the announcement of the closure of WildStorm imprint at DC and the retiring of the WildStorm name, it isn't just another in a long list of comics imprints that have ended over the years. In its 18 year run WildStorm has been a vital part of several revolutions in commercial comics, and changed the game in many ways -- Rob Liefeld's post below gives a succinet run down of some of the highlights.

Founded by Jim Lee as one of the original six Image Studios (along with Marc Sillvestri's Top Cow, Todd McFarlane's McFarlane Productions, Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios, Jim Valentino's ShadowLine and Erik Larsen's Highbrow Entertainment), WildStorm immediately established itself as one of the most commercial, with huge sellers like WildCATS and Gen 13. A series of developing fan favorite artists, including of course Lee himself, but also J. Scott Campbell, Joe Madureira and Humberto Ramos, kept popularity up, while the creator owned Homage imprint delivered such strong properties as Astro City and Leave it To Chance.

Although known first for their art, by the end of the decade, WildStorm was really becoming known for some of the most daring mainstream writing of the period, with genre-defining work by Warren Ellis and Mark Millar, strong adventure material by Jimmy Palmiotti and Ed Brubaker, as well as daring experiments like Automatic Kafka, a book by Joe Casey and Ashley Wood that people are still figuring out.

And then there was America's Best Comics, an new line of comics written by Alan Moore that would introduce the world to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Tom Strong, Promethea and Top Ten, the superhero police procedural. And our favorite, Jack B. Quick, the boy inventor who solved science's greatest non problems.

Of course, there are dark parts to the legacy as well, all of which will be trotted out and discussed at length, we're sure. But for now, we asked creators and staff for some of their good memories, and this is what they came back with.