DC

A lot of changes have been announced over the last month at DC. Here's what we know or can guess.

With Smallville wrapping up, the WB is firing up the oven to cook up another DC-themed TV show. Now in development, rather surprisingly, Raven, the demon-spawned empath created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez for the Teen Titans. Diego Gutierrez (V) is developing the concept for the CW. Raven previously appeared on TV as a Goth-type character on the Teen Titans cartoon.

Clark, we are not in Metropolis anymore. In the continuing evolution of DC Entertainment into a pillar of the Warner Brothers library, Amit Desai...

Popular Publicity Manager Alex Segura Jr. has announced today is his last day at DC Comics.

More PR as DC continues to restructure. Longtime employees Alison Gill and Nick Napolitano have been promoted to SVP, Manufacturing & Operations and VP, Manufacturing Administration, respectively. More recent hire Jeff Boison has been promoted to VP, Publishing Operations. Gill is an industry veteran whose promotion reflects her in-depth knowledge of all things concerned printing and production.
Much of the job duties mentioned for the trio includes working with the new bi-coastal set-up of the company.

Continuing DC's rollout of promotions and restructuring, Mark Chiarello, the mastermind behind WEDNESDAY COMICS and many other much-admired projects over the years such as BATMAN: BLACK AND WHITE, has been promoted to VP Art Direction & Design. Chiarello had been overseeing most of DC's art-related output for some time, and the appointment consolidates functions which had been under several positions that were eliminated in the restructuring.

Well here we are, the final month of the year. Most publishers have already launched their big titles last month, so that titles would be...

Via the Source, DC Editor-in-chief Bob Harras has announced the new structure of the DCU, with long time editor Eddie Berganza getting promoted from group editor to Executive Editor. Group Editors Matt Idelson and Mike Marts will oversee the Superman and Batman groups, respectively, while Ian Sattler has been promoted to Director--Editorial, Special Projects & Archival Editions. The post doesn't go into details of what that will cover, but since Harras left running the recently downsized reprint department, it sounds like Sattler will be taking that over. The editorial team is rounded out by Vertigo's Karen Berger and MAD's John Ficarra-- it isn't clear if they are reporting to Harras or not, nut in any event they will be working closely.

The much-anticipated ALL-STAR SUPERMAN dvd is coming out in 2/22/11. Based on the popular tale by Grant Morrison, the animated film includes James Denton (Desperate Housewives) as Superman, Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) as Lois Lane, and Anthony LaPaglia (Without A Trace) as Lex Luthor, with additional voices by Ed Asner. Frances Conroy, Matthew Gray Gubler, Linda Cardellini, Arnold Vosloo, Catherine Cavadini, Finola Hughes, Alexis Denisof, Obba Babatunde, Michael Gough, and John DiMaggio. Creative credits include Bruce Timm executive producer, Sam Liu, director and Dwayne McDuffie, writer. More info here.

Were you a good boy or girl this year? Did you avoid Internet snark, practice goodwill towards your fellow human being, and cross with...

September was a fairly low-profile month for DC's comic-book business. In terms of new releases, there were the debut of the Freedom Fighters series, a Justice Society of America Special and a bunch of one-shots reviving the company's old war titles. Still, thanks to a handful of returning DC Universe and Vertigo books that had missed their release dates in August, average and overall periodical sales slightly recovered, as expected. WildStorm published a few one-shot specials tying in with the Red film and reviving Wetworks, of all things, with less than spectacular results.

We had a few moments to stop by a signing for 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking last night, and snapped a picture of author Paul Levitz, DC's Steve Korte, and Taschen Art Director Josh Baker. I have seen a lot of books about comics, but I have never seen a more beautiful one than this -- the reproductions are incredibly crisp and vibrant, and there are double page pull-outs, charts and even a chromium insert to mark the "modern age." With the text, Levitz proves that if knowing everything there is to know about a company's history qualifies you to run that company, he was the best qualified president in history.