SDCC ’23: When DC’s Two Toms collide!

At DC Comics there are two Toms, and those two Toms do some of the biggest books at the publisher. On Thursday at San Diego Comic-Con, those two Toms teamed up to host a panel, wherein they talked about those big books.

The Toms are — maybe obviously — Tom King and Tom Taylor. Dubbed Between Two Toms, the panel saw the two host their frequent artist collaborators, Mitch Gerads and Nicola Scott. It also saw them poking fun at themselves and each other and the artists, all much to the full crowd’s delight. 

There really wasn’t any news at the panel to speak of — or rather, no new books anyway — but it’s still worth a post, I think, for the insights and the quips and for some teases of the books they are currently working on.

I’m going to run through some of the highlights in brief in reader-friendly bulleted list form:

• In an upcoming arc of Nightwing, they will go into the history of Nightwing’s current home city, Bludhaven, because as Tom Taylor says, “…basically it’s an excuse to do a swashbuckling Nightwing story.”
• Taylor also said that there are no plans for him to leave Nightwing at all, not any time soon, and he and artist Bruno Redondo have plans for cool future arcs.
• As it also relates to Nightwing, Nicola Scott says drawing Dick Grayson’s posterior has bought her a house.
• Tom King meanwhile says that Wonder Woman #1 (due out in September) is the biggest book he’s ever written, adding, “The whole idea is to make Wonder Woman the center of the DCU. To make her story, the story, and that’s how big we’re going to go.”
• Both Toms talked about writing books they absolutely love…that no one reads. Taylor pointed to his Suicide Squad run, while King points to Gotham City: Year One, saying, “I put my heart and soul into that buck, and six people read it. Even my wife didn’t read that book!”
• King talked about his forthcoming The Penguin comic, which clicked after he realized that with enough time Batman can defeat Darkseid but can’t ever keep all the crime out of Gotham…and The Penguin is involved with preserving that crime, making him a secret power in the DCU.
• King has worked almost-exclusively with letterer Clayton Cowles for the last decade or so, but at one point he also did a few issues with John Workman, after which he cheekily said Workman called him and said he’s never working with him again.
• Taylor said of his mash-up superhero-fantasy series, Dark Knights of Steel, “It’s 12 issues…for now.” 
• Finally, Taylor teased a forthcoming announcement for something big he’s doing for the DC Universe in the next 24 to 36 hours…what is it? The context made it seem like an outsize DC crossover event, though it was indeed kept pretty vague. But hey, maybe keep checking The Beat for all our future excellent SDCC coverage! 

Miss any of our earlier SDCC ’23 coverage? Find it all here!