@’s by DC Comics’ Dan Didio!!!
AMBUSH BUG (BUG): So I’m here at the DC booth at C2E2. I’m here with Dan Didio. How are you doing today, Dan?DAN DIDIO (DD): Good, thanks. Everything’s great.
BUG: Good, well this is Day 2. What’s the con been like for you so far?
DD: This is Day 2 and actually it’s going extraordinarily well. I mean, it’s a great crowd, really well versed in a lot that we are doing and a lot of excited people about the new 52 material, which is always good to hear. We know there’s been a good reaction to it, because we look at the sales and all of that, but when you get a chance to meet the people directly and hearing directly from them about the stories they are liking and the books they are liking and how they are getting caught up with so much of it, it gets you really excited that you feel like you’re on track and you want to just keep on making it better.
BUG: You’re wrapping up kind of the first wave of the 52 and it seems like you’re coming forward with Wave 2, I guess.
DD: “Wave 2,” yeah that’s what we are calling it, right? (laughs) Somebody called it that, I’m just going along with it.
BUG: Sadly and I really loved OMAC and…
DD: So did I!.
BUG: It’s pretty great that even though you’re the head guy over here that it didn’t go through, but are there any more plans for OMAC?
DD: Always. As a matter of fact, yeah we’ve got some big plans going on with Omac in JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL. When the last issue came out he actually made a guest appearance in the back of INTERNATIONAL and then will be working with the team for a little while over the next few months. So it’s nice to see and I got a chance to talk to Dan Jurgens about it and explain to him the story, so it was fun to watch the handoff with the character, because that’s when these characters really come alive, when they step out of their own book and they are picked up by other series and other writers and artists and all of that and you see those interpretations and the more you do that with all of our characters and it’s not just about OMAC, it’s about the entire line in that fashion. Mr. Terrific is moving into another series.BUG: That’s what I was going to ask. I was going to see if you were going to start incorporating those…
DD: Absolutely, and everyone in the series, you’ll see more of them later on this year, so that’s the fun part about it and the goal is not to just leave scorched earth every time a series is over or bring it to a close, but more importantly make sure we see there’s enough energy and plot threads coming off the series that somebody else might want to pick up on and add value to other books going down the line.
BUG: Cool. Well you have BEFORE WATCHMEN coming up and I know there’s a big push for it here at the con this year. What’s the reaction been like so far? DD: Incredibly, it’s been completely positive. I mean 100% positive. It’s interesting, because you’re always ready for a discussion where there’s a challenging question or two…
BUG: You’re being very political.
DD: Gosh knows I’ve been looking for it, so it’s kind of fun that everybody is this excited and the best part is that before the show started we had a chance to sit down with a number of retailers prior to this and we had a chance to show them a combined book of all of the art from all of the books in the first issues and it just got them fully energized. These are people who supported the project from the start and now are over the moon with it and I just feel these people know their audience and if they are getting this excited, I can only believe that the people that are buying it will get as excited as they do.
BUG: Yeah, well I’m really excited to see it. It looks really fantastic. Also, with you guys going into issue 8 or 9 with most of your titles right now, does it feel like…you guys have made some really bold moves with BEFORE WATCHMEN and the new 52. Does it feel like now you’re kind of getting into the groove of things?
DD: No, no it goes back to the question that somebody asked me before “How long are you going to call it “The new 52?” Well the answer is that we are always going to keep it new, so we are always going to keep it fresh and we are always going to keep it at 52, so that’s going to stay up there for a really long time, because our goal is to constantly refresh the line, to constantly challenge the characters and push the stories, build the continuity, but don’t fall into the same traps we were doing before, find ways to grow the characters, grow the worlds rather than collapse them, and I think that’s the fun part about what’s happening and especially with a book like EARTH 2, there’s a reason why there’s an EARTH 2 book and you see what the potential of that world is and it just makes you want to see more.BUG: Very cool. What else are you talking about here at the con?
DD: Well you know, it’s a lot of stuff. I mean we’ve really been focused on seeing where we stood with the new 52. We know we’ve got this next wave coming out and the reactions to the next wave have been extraordinary and the great part about it is we want to be even more aggressive now. We want to constantly try to push new ideas, because I see the reaction and what people are seeing is the freshness and new ideas. A perfect example is the “Night of the Owls” story line that’s crossing over throughout the Bat books. That’s elevated that entire line of books and “The Culling” has elevated…they want to see that interconnectivity, but they want to see a freshness in story and see stories that matter moving out of it as well, so that’s our goal right now where we are really trying to identify where things are working and build on those successes.
BUG: I really like the way you’re doing mini-crossovers through some of the books. Is that going to be replacing the giant universe spanning things? DD: You’ll still want to do something ultimately, but the goal right now is to…you don’t want to do a big universe spanning story, because we are still just developing these characters and developing the worlds and the only way you can have a really strong uber story is to have a really strong foundation. All of these books that are existing have to be able to stand on their own and have value unto themselves. Once you have that, then you’re able to build on a very strong foundation. If you’re using the adventures to prop up big selling books, then it’s only going to be for the moment and then it will disappear. We want things that are long-lasting and even with the small crossovers that you’re talking about, those crossovers took place because we wanted to show differences and similarities between characters and also to show how the interconnectivity of the world really matters on certain levels. I mean, we did the first one with OMAC and FRANKENSTEIN, not the best selling books, but it made sense for our story and for what we are doing for those characters to meet. Then it’s just a better story that way and you’re not forcing characters to be together, they are naturally appearing together.
BUG: I’m watching over your shoulder here and they have a DARK KNIGHT preview running. Have you seen anything from the film?
DD: I haven’t seen anything. You know, the fun part about being in publishing is I am really solely publishing. I stay away from all of those things, because ultimately the stories that we tell move at a different pace in a different format and for a different style of audience, not for the mass audience, but for people who are really engrossed in the periodical nature of our business and you know we have to tell stories different than them, but I can’t wait to see the movie either.BUG: Me too. Well thank you so much. I know you’re really busy, so I’ll let you get going. Is there anything else you want to tell the readers at Ain’t It Cool?
DD: Actually, what I’m saying right now is that we are excited about everything. I’m really looking forward to when the WATCHMEN books hit the stand. I can’t tell you. We’ve been building this for a while and we’ve been talking about it for so long that we are just anxious to get them out there and be able to share them with everybody else. Everybody else is getting excited about it too, so we’ll see.
BUG: One last question. As you go along, are you planning on a third wave or a fourth wave?
DD: The goal is always to refresh the line. You know, in any business, periodical storytelling that we’ve always had, we’ve always been able to replace books. Books have been cancelled and replaced continually, but the goal is to not let them just fade away, don’t just introduce it and put it on a shelf and forget about it, it’s introduce things and if the concept didn’t work and you have something in there that is valuable to the over-arcing story, it’s just great and that’s what we are going to do, you know? We know where the universe is going for the next two to three years. We have ideas of just sign posts and milestones that we want to reach and key events that could be shared by everybody, but not tie them all together so tightly and we learned a lot of tricks over the years from when we built INFINITE CRISIS to when we built various crossover events and how we built stories and things and we know that if you build it slowly and get people involved and excited about it, so that when a book does hit it seems natural and there’s a demand for it, too. We don’t want books just thrown out there and forgotten, we want to put books out there that there’s actual demand for.BUG: Well you know, I talked to people at my store and all over in my hometown and everything, my comic stores there, and it seems like there’s this new revitalized interest in DC and congratulations with that.
DD: Yeah, you know we heard that from the retailers and nothing makes me feel better, because you know what…one of the first things we did, we identified our strengths and weaknesses with the problems that we were faced with. We looked at the industry where we saw there were strengths and weaknesses there and we decided to put down a big bet and say “This is where we are going to draw a line in the sand and just be better about what we do.” People always say, “Why didn’t you just do that before?” My argument has always been…the story I say is that it’s like waking up one day and being 30 pounds overweight. You say to yourself “I didn’t eat 30 pounds of food last night, but here I am 30 pounds overweight. How did that happen?” It just happens, so now we decided to put ourselves on a crash program to get ourselves into the best shape possible and make sure that this business is around for a long time.BUG: That’s a great metaphor. Well thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Have a great con.
DD: You got it man, thank you.
BUG: The New 52 continues to be popular with readers. Look for BEFORE WATCHMEN to arrive in stores beginning in June!
Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, original @$$Hole/wordslinger/reviewer/co-editor of AICN Comics for over ten years. He has written comics such as MUSCLES & FIGHTS, MUSCLES & FRIGHTS, VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS TINGLERS & WITCHFINDER GENERAL, THE DEATHSPORT GAMES, WONDERLAND ANNUAL 2010 & NANNY & HANK (soon to be made into a feature film from Uptown 6 Films). He is also a regular writer for FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND & has co-written their first ever comic book LUNA: ORDER OF THE WEREWOLF (to be released in October 2012 as an 100-pg original graphic novel). Mark has just announced his new comic book miniseries GRIMM FAIRY TALES PRESENTS THE JUNGLE BOOK from Zenescope Entertainment to be released in March 2012.Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
