MTV was able to catch up with DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio to discuss the "new 52" from a different standpoint and what's in store after the first issues and first 52 roll out. Interestingly, he reveals that there were other titles originally scheduled to roll out in the first wave but weren't up to their level of standards and that they were really hard on the writers to come up with good stories. Check out what DiDio had to say
Attacks the DCnU from a different approach:
DiDio: Oh, and the actual last thing – which is probably the most important – being the level of professionalism, and how we do our business, too. You know, we’ve all gotten very… I don’t want to say lazy, but we’ve gotten soft in how we met schedules, and how we deliver our product. We broke our contract with our fans. We were out there saying we would be monthly, and to not be monthly… They lose faith in us, and we’ve got to rebuild that faith, and rebuild that story with them again. And rebuild the sense of periodic nature, because that’s what comics are built on! It’s a monthly business, and that means you have to be out monthly.
So, like I said, there’s a lot of different pieces, a lot of moving pieces about what was working, and what wasn’t working in comics. Our goal was, rather than attacking them separately, let’s go at ‘em all at once. Rethink the way we do our business, rethink the way we are. Rethink our characters, and lets go out there and attack it… And let’s go make some magic!
On what DiDio is most looking forward to reading:
From my stand point… I like a lot of the corners of the DCU. I’m excited about what Jeff Lemire is doing on Frankenstein. I’m excited about Scott Snyder on Swamp Thing. Because these are characters I really gravitate towards. But at the same time, I’ve never felt like our top books have been in better hands. Justice League, with Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. Batman, with Greg Capullo. Scott Snyder, Tony Daniel, David Finch…
On maintaining long term success:
That’s the hard part! People keep asking, aren’t you excited, don’t you feel relaxed? And I say, “I don’t know!” After Wednesday, we have to put out issue two. And issue two has to be better than issue one. And issue threes got to be better than issue two, and issue fours got to be better than issue three.
You’re going to find some things, as people figure out different ways to work through, and everything is moving at a slightly different pace. But by the time you’re into your third book, you should be developing a rhythm, and understanding what your story is about, where everyone should feel very comfortable with it, and everybody should know everything they need to know in order to read the series.
We want that in the first issue, we want to make sure that’s in the second issue, but it better be there by the third issue, for sure. And from my standpoint, we’re in the monthly business, and the main challenge – the biggest we face out of everything that is out there - is not taking our foot off the gas. We’ve pushed really hard, we’ve been hard on people, we’ve sent a lot of books back, done a lot of rewriting to make sure that we’re doing the best we can do.
On "the next 52" or new titles after the initial 52:
The goal is to build a series of books, just the same way a network would build a series of mid-season replacement shows, or a sixth season of a series… We had a lot of projects that we have a lot of faith in that didn’t make the first cut, but it’s something that we want to see on our schedule at some point or another. What we want to do though is give these books their time, and a chance. I don’t want to be talking about the next wave of stuff… Because the first wave isn’t here yet!
As to when they’ll actually come out? Yeah, they’ll be next year. As to when next year, it depends on how well the first fifty-two are received.
On whether we'll hear any surprise developments come out of New York Comic-Con:
I think you should hear more about some of the books here and there. There’s some obvious ones, there’s some really big surprises in there. But I think what’s going on is that we want to put the same level of care and consideration in the next wave, because once that initial trick is over, everything really stands on their own merits. So the second wave books have to be even better than the first wave books.
DC’s New 52 launches Midnight on August 31st with Justice League #1!
The 2011 reboot of the DC Universe is an upcoming publishing event following the conclusion of the current "Flashpoint" crossover storyline. It will entail changes to both the publishing format and fictional universe. Publishing changes include same day release of physical comics with digital platforms, all DC Universe titles being cancelled or restarted at a new issue 1, the former Wildstorm imprint being rolled into the greater DC Universe, and a number of new titles being released to round the number of ongoing series being published on a monthly basis up to 52. It will be also accompanied by a number of in universe changes designed to make characters more modern and accessible, though the scope of the changes will vary from character to character.
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