Seeing as how it was somehow unearthed by Bleeding Cool, there is no way of knowing where this video featuring all of DC’s major editorial players save Geoff Johns talking about the relaunch was created for. It’s definitely aimed at consumers, but the actual venue we may never know. Or it may never have been released.
The video shows Dan DiDio, Jim Lee, Eddie Berganza, Bob Harras, and special guest star Grant Morrison each uttering the word “new” about 30 times each. Our impressions is that they want us to know that this is a NEW initiative and a NEW way of doing things. It’s NEW.
Commenters at Robot 6 go a little heavy on the subtextual relevance
“Things that seemed stale and boring have been revitalized” [shot of Babara Gordon as Batgirl] Fxxx whoever put together those images. Fxxx them.
Also “plugged into feelings people are having right now” [zooms in on the bare chest of Juggalo Hot Topic Harley] What? Feelings in their pants?
This strikes us as a little too deep. BUT see the next post.
Here’s my problem with this:
In this video they used the terms ‘Readers” and “read” only once each.
However they used the terms “collecting, experience, visual(s), branding, new and event” multiple times.
And yes, I am reading into this, but that’s what comics are for right – to be read?
This is a “retailers please order heavy” video. There are rumors of returnability for the #1’s. DC must think that there is an untapped internet market that does not share any buyers with the direct market. I’m not sure I’m interested in the new direction, and I can save 33% of my comic purchases by waiting a month? I’m strongly considering the digital solution.
Oh wow. My DC Comics bashing rant been quoted by The Beat. I feel like I’ve accomplished so mu.. nope.. nope.. Oh. I’ve wasted my life. -runs off to stand in line for DC protest at Comic Con- If I’m gonna waste my life, may as well not waste it alone!
Haven’t fans’ complaints about costumes gotten reactions in the past? IIRC, Marvel responded to complaints. Unless an artist has his ego invested in a particular design, nothing is lost in acknowledging complaints. Doing so can only help sales.
SRS
And dear heavens. Dan DiDio, Eddie Berganza, and Bob Harras? Can these guys just stay behind the scenes? For heaven’s sake get some of the writers and artists on these promo things, not these guys. Talk about stale and boring!
Even if you can’t always understand his sexy Scottish accent, at least Morrison is well spoken and entertaining.
@ Synsidar
Eh. I was just joking that protesting DC at Comic Con seems like a waste. There’s enough to do there already. Maybe if anything go to a Q&A and lob some well thought out questions. I don’t see the point of an actual protest or even how it would work.
With the fact that less comics are being sold thru either comic shops or retail, maybe now that comics are sold on-line the same day that they are released in print will increase sales and keep this industry alive.
Look at Amazon.com. They are now selling as many books thru their Kindle (or more), then they are with ink and paper books.
If this is what it takes to keep this industry going I’m all for it. It’s time to look outside the box and stop navel gazing.
I still prefer at my age (all of 54) to go to the shops on Wednesdays and get my books, but it seems the youth of today prefer to download. Just look at iTunes now the major retailer of music in the world if I’m not mistaken.
Let’s go forward, not backwards.
It might be a better use of time than, say, putting on a character’s costume.
You could say, though, that the more interesting a hero’s costume is, the less interesting the person is. Nobody cared much about what the Wasp wore, because she was ditzy and changing costumes was part of her character. Readers cared more about what she did than how she looked.
SRS
I really DO love to be EXCITED by comics!
… unfortunately nothing in that video got me excited. Except Grant Morrison. He always seems genuinly interested in what he is creating, and that rubs off.
But nothing here in this 52 relaunch has me interested. It’s like they’re trying as hard as they can to pander to the lowest common denominator by making things “NEW” and “DIFFERENT” while mangling everything that’s classic!
I just like reading good comics.
Well, we’ll all see how this pans out soon enough…
Ehhhh…just more corporate comics. What’s really new about that?
How truly horrible. New new new. It’s not new at all. It been done to death. By both of the big companies. You want to do new? Scrap your entire line-up and create 52 new characters from scratch. I stopped buying comics abut 2 years ago. I still haunt the web sites and dip in occasionally for my favorite writers, but this won’t get me into the stores.
“I stopped buying comics abut 2 years ago. I still haunt the web sites and dip in occasionally for my favorite writers, but this won’t get me into the stores.”
—well, then please please tell us what the industry needs to do to get you specifically back. ugh.
faker. you can’t wait til september. you’ll be in store buying away…that’s why you are bitching now, cause you know what you are gonna do in september.
I feel like this video should be served with laced Kool Aid.
I Think its exciting…love the idea or not…the idea that some new readers might be coming on board is a welcome thing.
Each company has to embrace this in their own way.
Each creator as well.
If I had a choice between taking an editorial job at DC or Marvel, I’d probably opt for DC. While the unit has obvious problems, they’re a mix of marketing and editorial problems, all of which are potentially solvable. There’s also considerable love, still, for their iconic heroes, even if that love doesn’t translate directly into comics sales. Focusing on the kids’ market is an option.
Marvel, conversely, has editorial problems, in the MU especially, that a reboot would do nothing to address. They’re committed to events but have run out of ideas for events. If Marvel Editorial were all in an SUV, you could say that they’re on a one-way street that might have a dead end. DC Editorial, riding around in their SUV, might be lost and low on gas, but they can potentially refuel and get directions.
SRS
Getting new readers to pick up books is great. Keeping them is even better. That’s where the problem lies. This, as far as I’ve heard and can tell, is not a linewide reboot. Meaning some titles will be rebuilt from the ground up, some will just have a change in the status quo but keep their continuity, and some, including two families of titles that would be most attractive to brand new readers–the Green Lantern and Batman books, will remain essentially the same. New readers who come into these titles will have to deal with decades of continuity, same as if the came in on Batman #713 or Green Lantern #68.
And, as for getting new readers from the pool of existing comics fans? Well, if they weren’t buying a JT Krul Green Arrow book before the relaunch, they won’t after, no matter what changes.
As for the editorial thing, quite frankly, if I had a choice between taking an editorial job at DC or Marvel, I’d probably opt for whoever had the best salary and/or benefit package. That being said, I can’t see where Synsidar gets their ideas about DC vis a vis Marvel editorial. Marvel is coming off of a span of seven years where one even led to another event, all of which touched many other titles in their line, without many, if any, glaring holes. DC’s last big event, Final Crisis, couldn’t even mesh with the series that led into it, Countdown, without them contradicting each other.
And as for DC’s love for its characters, well, this might get all fanboy geeky, but they took a character, Batman, whose main characteristics for decades was to abhor guns and never kill people, and have him kill a bad guy with a gun, pretty much for shock value and Internet chatter. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t consider that love.
I am not a DC hater, per se. I can’t wait for Morrison on Action and Simone on Batgirl. But, other than that, I’m not excited about this event. I’ve been collecting comics for 30 years and have seen it before.
That was much more of a marketing success than an editorial-creative one. The holes are there in abundance, if you look for them. In FEAR ITSELF, the lead villain is a “forgotten” god, the Serpent, who can’t logically exist, and, as a plot device, is a repeat of the Chaos God from CHAOS WAR. Didn’t anybody at Marvel Editorial realize that they were repeating themselves in less than a year?
One nice thing about editorial problems is that a single problem is eminently fixable, even if it entails reducing a story to its premise and starting over. DC has given itself an opportunity to do things better with its reboot/relaunch. To fix Marvel Editorial’s accumulated problems, one would have to scrap material going back to 2005, and then put policies in place to prevent the problems from immediately reoccurring.
I was referring to the public’s recognition and good feelings for Superman, Wonder Woman, et al., not DC Editorial’s.
SRS
Didio, Harras and Berganza look like Manchurian Candidates who are spouting talking points; Lee is more enthusiastic but looks like he’s been up for three days straight drawing JLA. Only Morrison seems to have any spontaneity or liveliness.
I noticed Dan, Eddie, Jim, and Grant, but no Geoff. Should we assume that it was because it was “button and colllar” shirt day at the office, not T-shirt day!
I think y’all misunderstood the point of the video.
It’s GNU! Everything is GNU! GNU characters! GNU writers & artists! Welcome – welcome to the DC-GNU!!!
“It’s GNU! Everything is GNU! GNU characters! GNU writers & artists! Welcome – welcome to the DC-GNU!!!”
If that was true, the video would be hosted by Gary Gnu. And it would have been awesome.
For some odd reason the Tom’s of Maine PSA comes to mind watching this, yes im calling bullshit.
here’s the toms commercial:
why does jim lee say computly instead of completely? although i do like that didio says characatahs. harras and berganza should ban themselves from on camera interviews immediately.
Wondering how the Milestone characters will fit in (if it does) now that Dwayne McDuffie has passed on.
This promo video is just silliness. I felt like I was being pandered to. Condescended to. Creators doing cheerleading for their own work.
The best part for me, and of great value to me, was the reassurance I felt while watching Jim Lee sketching, then art directing (the colouring of a comic page?).
THAT’S what I like: seeing creators actually at work, not just hyping and inviting me to ‘join the party’.