PhantomStranger

http://ew.com/books/2017/04/20/dc-co...k-matter-line/

http://www.cbr.com/dc-comics-dark-matter-line-details/

http://www.newsarama.com/34145-dc-co...mmit-live.html



This was the big announcement by DC today at the Diamond business conference. Five new books by "star" teams that are creator-driven that may work like early Vertigo.

Paul_SD

I produced some dark matter this morning.


Batman wielding two battle axes. Sounds edgy (insert eye roll)...and like a bid for appealing to 90's nostalgia.

PhantomStranger

I have a hunch this is about DC giving creators a venue to publish material closer to indie fare than mainstream superhero books, with the best stuff eventually getting incorporated into the wider DC universe.

It takes the creative pressure off if writers don't have to worry about integrating their books into crossovers and continuity.

Paul_SD

I've been all for that for a while now.

But part and parcel of that to me is closed ended stories and that suggests a more European, album based approach to disseminating stories which I've been told by retailers is not what their customers seem to want. The ritual of picking up a 20 page (or whatever) every Wed. is just ingrained in so many collectors.
In a sense, that form mandates function- so if these are still monthly floppies with their own serial continuity, nothing is really that much different.
It just seems like a more cosmetic, 90's era "this is so extreme, yo!" style affection.

fujishig

Isn't that what Young Animal is already? Or Earth One? Or the All Star line?

I'm all for featuring artists, though, especially if that means consistent creative teams, which is like the opposite of what Marvel is doing. If you look at the best selling/critically acclaimed titles, they all have singular visions, and at the very least a writer and artist combo that lasts a while, often out of the confines of strict continuity. Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, All Star Superman; heck, look at the Marvel recommendations thread, almost every one of them is basically a creative team doing their work on a book for a year or more.

The 20 page floppy format is basically a slow drip to keep the addicts around. You need the diehards coming back week after week, month after month, variant cover after variant cover, with crossovers to make sure the completists buy up other titles before the inevitable reboot. Something like this will still appeal to them because the creators are well established, but otherwise an OGN series or one shots are like the kiss of death unless they're collected. However collections are the long haul, how much money has Watchmen or Sandman made DC above and beyond the monthly floppies when they originally came out?

PhantomStranger

I think those are all good points. I hadn't realized how much bank DC Comics continues to make from a few titles that never seem to stop selling like Watchmen. Dark Matters appears to be about empowering creators to produce more books along those lines.

Timber

Have we gone back in time? Isn't this just the All-Star line?

brayzie

Yeah, this sounds just like the All-Star line.

Sounds just like buzz-words and phrases that end up being just about superficial changes to keep their remaining customers returning. The New52, DC Rebirth...

Or maybe this is an attempt to make their more mainstream comics R-Rated like the recently successful Deadpool film?


???
Haven't the writer and artist been a been a big selling point in the comic community for a while now?


That's not crazy.

Okay, from the rest of what I'm reading, Batman Dark Matter is going to help introduce some new characters/titles like Sideways, New Challengers, Damage, Silencer, and Immortal Men.
So maybe they're trying to actually come up with some new concepts? Damage and Challengers sounds familiar but the rest I don't know about. I don't think Jim Lee's ideas are helpful to bring in a "new generation." His art is still amazing, top tier stuff, but some of his ideas and design work is still very, very dated.




I would be more impressed if DC announced something along the lines of how the manga industry operates.

PhantomStranger

It's also about using entirely new characters and ideas in a vaguely DC setting. This isn't just Elseworlds versions of Superman and Batman.

Fans keep throwing around creator books like early Image as an example.

brayzie

Ah, okay. So, DC doesn't feel confident that totally new stuff will survive without it being tied to Batman and co. I definitely see where they are coming from. There's some comics that I really enjoyed, which I felt were of a higher quality than the stuff at Marvel and DC and yet it barely registers sales-wise.



When I started reading this comic it was actually slightly cheaper than Marvel/DC, slightly more content, and way better art, writing, and lettering. More importantly it was something new.

But damn, it's hard to get the non-superhero fans to pick up something like this, when it's only sold in speciality stores that specialize in the superhero genre. On top of that, magazines and periodicals are going under in liquor stores and supermarkets, so forget about comics being seen by the average person.

And that's a stupid tag line (Dark Days, Dark Nights...).

fujishig

Let's be honest, both companies desperately need new characters that can stick and not just be propped up by an already existing icon. But are these then creator owned or partially creator owned?

PhantomStranger

As far as I can tell, everything is still owned by DC Comics. Think early Vertigo before it got folded into the DC Universe.

It's about giving creators more creative freedom outside the constraints of a dense superhero continuity and feeling pressured to conform with crossovers.

BGPu

It could be interesting... for the 6 or so issues the artists are attached to the titles before they move on.