For Part 1 of our retrospective click here.
For Part 2, click here.
The final thing to bring up from 2014 is, what is happening
to the other half of the big two publishers, DC Comics?
DC Comics were beyond ambitious by telling big superhero
stories with three simultaneous weekly series. That means that while most comic
book stories have to produce an issue once a month, a weekly series needs to
produce the next chapter of their story once a week. I can only imagine the
editorial nightmare keeping all of those stories together. Although DC has experimented with these
stories in the past, putting three together was impressive. They varied in
success, but having stories with a big cast and cool central themes is
something I want more of and hope they learned from this year.
Worlds End, Batman Eternal and Futures End, are three weekly series that become 12 comics a month at least.
While they had some success and setbacks in publishing and
huge success in television this year, DC Entertainment felt dominated by their
real world story. At the end of 2013, it was announced that the company was
moving all of their comic book operations to the west cost to be with their
larger parent company, Warner Brothers.
They are doing a two-month story called Convergence,
designed specifically to give the company the time they need to set up their
West Cost offices. No matter what that event brings and what interesting
stories they are telling, DC’s biggest year will be 2015, when their comic book
fans get to see what changing offices really means to the comics going forward.
The biggest thing to look for is how the comic publisher
will be dialed into what DC Entertainment is doing with their TV and movie
worlds. What I am hoping for is more connection between the talent involved with
DC’s best writers and artists that work in comics, animation, and live action
projects. After all, how much better can they collaborate when everyone is
involved in each other’s professional lives? I would like to see more comic
book creators working in DC’s TV, video game, and movie worlds, and would not
mind seeing some of the talented writers on shows like Arrow and Flash work in
the comics more.
On the other hand, the fear is that the comics will have to
reflect the needs of the live action projects to the detriment of the comics.
We have seen with Marvel Comics, a very direct correlation between how their
comic books need to reflect what people see in their movies and TV shows (For
example, they were nervous that movie fans would be confused that Nick Fury is
not black in the comics, so they changed the character in all of the comics to
look like star Samuel L Jackson).
For DC, I think this will be a huge mistake and hope that
the comics still have the freedom they need to explore their own ideas and
create new stories with their characters. Comics are an amazing storytelling
platform in their own right and though they are not as profitable as television
and film, they can create far more content for fans and grow these stories even
further. I hope that the company sees the comic books as the best form of
R&D for their properties; letting them test their characters in new stories
with new ideas that can feed the other platforms. I do not want my comics to be
a tie-in to the new TV shows no matter how much I enjoy them. I would much
rather have a great Flash TV show and a different great Flash comic. Then if
the comics produce a new cool concept, the movies and TV shows can use them
later on.
 |
| It's gonna be crazzzzy! |
There are a lot more eyes on DC in the next year to see how
they handle the move. I hope we get a better and improved streamlined story
from the publishing and get new artistic takes on these ideas. I like where DC
as a company is going, and I hope this move means getting better people working
together on cool new ideas.
Oh! And this year,
they made Wally West (The Kid Flash) black instead of white. The world did not
end. Go figure eh?
Dov Smiley is an independent
comic book publisher and founder of the Smiley Spot. His current works can be
found at jonahcomic.com, as well as amazon under the same name. His full portfolio can
be found at dovsmiley.blogspot.com
