While we never wish for anyone to lose their jobs at TIAH Blog (...unlike certain other less-mannered forums have been known to do), I cannot honestly say I feel bad about the apparent ouster, over this past weekend, of Dan DiDio as DC Comics' Publisher (shared with Jim Lee), a position he pretty much held for 18 years.
You can read one account of it HERE!
I don't have to tell you that I've been a DC fan since the Silver Age! And it took Dan DiDio's time as Publisher to get me to leave... pretty much for good!
For me, modern era DC (that is post Silver Age, from the Bronze Age onward) reached its height under the leadership of Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz...
...And was at its absolute best, when under this particular logo!
Constantly shifting continuity, that an adult with a career could not keep up with - even one as dedicated as I. You never knew who-was-who and what-was-what from one month to the next.
It was just after trying to make sense out of the jumbled mess that was "52 Weeks", reaching the end and still feeling lost, that I jumped the (not so) Good Ship DC!
And the over-rendered, grotesque imagery that a classicist like me so despised in 1990s Marvel and Image comics finally infiltrated (perhaps even dominated) DC under Dan DiDio's watch. (Though I'm sure that, as a former Image founder, Jim Lee had a bit to do with that!) I don't need to illustrate it... just go to your local comic shop and look through the DC section! ...BATMAN can still be "dark" without looking like SPAWN or VENOM! ...And, under Kahn and Levitz, he was!
To be fair, all of it was not a "hot steaming pile of train wrecks inside a giant dumpster fire"... just MOST of it!
There was SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP...
...But, even that withered and died under DiDio's administration.
And there's the HARLEY QUINN title...
...Which is the only mainstream DC comic I still buy, because it can be clever and funny...
...As seen by this tribute to ACTION COMICS # 421!
But, considering the seismic-shock that it would have taken to separate me from DC... Dan DiDio, and those who worked under him, somehow found a way to create it!
Of course, I'm fully expecting that he will be replaced by someone worse! They almost always are! That is just the state of comic books these days... and why I'm spending virtually all my time - and money - on back issues!
10 comments:
I was never a DC reader, apart from Legion of Superheroes in my early teens, so I can't comment on the substance of your post. I do hold out some slight hope, though, that Things Might Get Better, at least in spots, that it's not all inevitably downhill! I bought Spider-Man in college, then no superhero stuff at all for 30 years or so, then Marvel suddenly brought out a bunch of titles I liked in recent years: Ryan North's Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, above all; Kate Leth's Patsy Walker, a.k.a. Hellcat; G. Willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel; Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur; Nnedi Okorafor's Shuri. All gone now, sad to say. (Though Moon Girl is getting her own animated series soon, I believe.) I have no idea whether there was one higher-up at Marvel who was responsible for this brief flourishing. But I do think that good things may resurface, if there are executives who encourage it.
Meanwhile, I'm also focusing on re-reading my collection, supplemented by the occasional new graphic novel (just enjoyed Kat Leyh's Snapdragon) and some Disney Ducks from Europe. And Fantagraphics Disney Masters, of course! I get the all-ages IDW Star Wars Adventures and Marvel Action Black Panther (which features Shuri prominently) for young relatives, and I have to say I enjoy them myself more than the regular versions of these titles--more humor! From Star Wars Adventures #3, a disgruntled Storm Trooper: "This is stupid. Why do we always have to land on mud planets? I mean, planet of the cakes? Cake planet? That could happen, right?" That sums up my feelings on many a morning!
Elaine:
Your observations on Marvel (of which I’m considerably less a fan, for reasons stated elsewhere) are similar to one aspect of my own on DC.
As part of the “great pendulum swings” that comic books always seem to take, the period of good all ages, non-mainstream titles appears to be over at both publishing giants.
I feel for the loss of your personal Marvel list, as I do for SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP and BATMAN ’66 (two of the most enjoyable things to come out of DC this decade - and subjects of many a glowing Blog post around here) and the demotion to bimonthly of SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU? and LOONEY TUNES – both of which are now at least half (or more) reprints.
And, YES… It all depends on the good (or otherwise) graces of a particular “decision-maker”, and right now it doesn’t look as if we have that at Marvel, DC… or IDW!
Or, as I’ve often said to “Fellow Core-Four Translation and Dialogue Team Member” Thad Komorowski, in discussing both comics and animation DVDs, “The wrong people invariably get hired into the key positions”. And, relating this to the subject of the post, Dan DiDio was one of them!
On the bright side, my extremely withered new comics purchases have shifted more resources toward my still-missing back issues, which are presently providing far more enjoyment than the remaining new stuff ever could!
If two people held the position before, it may not even mean replacing him.
Anyway, I recognize that my "day" for reading a LOT of superhero comics ended sometime in the 90s when the Image guys were getting popular. Every once in a while something strikes my fancy (including that astounding 2017 Flintstones series by Mark Russell and Scooby Doo Team-Up) but they'll need newer and younger audiences if they hope to survive, so that leaves me out. But that's okay, I can still enjoy the older stuff as much as I want.
But if you thought the New 52 was a mistake (and I do) what rumors say is coming in the fall sounds just as disastrous.
JoeC:
Glad to know the Image guys had the contempt of more than just me. I’d like to think so of the majority of “our generation”. You know… The generation that thought STORY was better than “cool art, no plot, big guns, and disgustingly long tongues – in a ridiculously over-rendered style”!
Those guys thought they were more important than the characters! Bull-Chips! If Jack Kirby felt HE wasn’t more important than the characters – then where do Todd, Rob, Jim, and the rest come off acting so? The arrogance was astounding… and unwarranted, give the level of talent (…or lack thereof)!
Throughout the ‘90s, DC, under the leadership of Kahn and Levitz, held out against that “rising tide of foul water” that flooded a market that quickly abandoned it, once folks realized that “Wizard” was lying to them about inflated price guide values. Why did they leave? Because they DIDN’T CARE ABOUT STORY as we did, and “cool art, etc., etc.” wasn’t so cool once no one was believing the false values anymore!
But, under DiDio and Lee, DC capitulated to what I believe are the wrong market forces. And here we are today!
“But if you thought the New 52 was a mistake (and I do) what rumors say is coming in the fall sounds just as disastrous.”
Um, er… (Gulp!) I’m not sure I even wanna know!
From what I'm hearing, Jim Lee is a sharp businessman, but his position as co-publisher is just as a figurehead and is actually very laidback - Didio is the one who everyone reported to, who was in charge of everything, who was in charge of firing people, who was in charge of greenlighting books and sheparding publishing plans...a lot of the fear emerging is that there's nobody else who could fill that role so suddenly in the short amount of time required, except maybe Mark Chirarello, who was fired by Didio a year ago, but could be brought back..
A lot of professionals made their careers working for Dan Didio and a lot of BIG concepts got greenlit under him. I don't think "Scooby-Doo Team-Up" would have existed if he wasn't there, ditto the wilder crossovers with Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera characters. That "Batman/Elmer Fudd" one-shot is widely viewed as a masterpiece.
In general, I thought Didio's regime accomplished a lot more in a short time than Jeanette Kahn and Paul Levitz - they were known more for setting up roadblocks than allowing innovations...whereas this is just a sample of good things from the Didio era:
Giving Bill Finger co-creator credit..
Keeping the trade paperback and hardcover collections going beyond expectations..
Ousting sexual predator Eddie Berganza..
Making Barbara Gordon Batgirl again...
The "5G" thing doesn't sound hot at all, but it's likely going to be marginalized and compromised into nothing by the time we actually see what they are offering..plus I seriously doubt that alleged $7.99 price point within the next 3 years on a standard issue is a good idea and could be the final nail in the coffin..
Younger readers are still reading comics...just not what the "Big Two" comics peddlers (and other direct market publishers) are putting out. Kids are reading paperback comics like "Phoebe and Her Unicorn", "Dogman", and the various works of creator Raina Telgemeier. Kids and teens are reading translated manga (Japanese comic books). Younger readers are also reading webcomics. Their tastes in comics has shifted from the direct market/comic book shop offerings. As for myself? I really find that I'm reading very few current monthly comics anymore, and a lot of rereading old books and newer volumes of reprinted material (Peanuts, Disney Masters, Barks/Gottfredson/Rosa, Krazy Kat, Little Lulu, etc.). Sigh. Grandpa Simpson had it right when he said, I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. It’ll happen to you!"
Deb:
That Grandpa Simpson quote is perfect for what’s going on today!
Yet, from all the reading and research that I do, I never got the impression that (by and large) Golden Age readers felt that way about the subsequent Silver and Bronze age comics, and the changes that they ushered in. I’d say even through the ‘80s and into the ‘90s before Marvel, Image and Wizard made things so crass, ugly, and mercenary. But even then, there was more than enough to satisfy the “long-timers”.
Or, for that matter, Silver Age readers – of which I was one – felt that way about later times. Sure things “marched forward” (quotes intentional to imply subjective view) but, the “Marvel- Image thing” aside, things never became as truly unrecognizable to “long-timers” as they are now.
Meaning, there was always a place to go for readers of prior sensibilities. Granted that “place” would both expand and contract with regularity – but it was “always there”, for those who desired it. And publishers like DC, Gladstone and its successors thru 2018 IDW, and other independent sources were there to provide it.
Now, I’m sorry to say, that “place” is (almost) completely gone, with only the “creakiest of arthritic limbs” (Don’t ya love the way I describe things, sometimes?) remaining from DC… and other irregular publishers like American Mythology.
Dan DiDio was one of the persons who got us here. Too bad he drove me away before he, himself, was also “driven”!
‘Rehab:
You present an interesting counterpoint to my view of DanDiDio… and I’m glad you did!
The list of “good things” are indeed true and should be noted to, in-some-way, balance the rather negative picture of DiDio that I paint.
Besides "Batman/Elmer Fudd, “Yogi Bear/Deathstroke” (could you imagine a team-up so unlikely) was also a masterpiece – and all the more so for Hanna-Barbera fans. And there’s no way I could resist the sublime perfection that was “Lobo/Road Runner”!
In, in one tremendous “last gasp of DC’s dying mainstream”, there was the amazing “Batman: Hush”!
But, that just reinforces the fact that “no one is ever completely evil or incompetent”! With Dan DiDio and Jim Lee, that is as true as with anyone – even you and me! But the totality of the transformation of DC Comics, from a publishing entity I loved for over 40 years, and through changes both good and bad, into something unpleasantly unrecognizable, occurred under their watch!
“The "5G" thing doesn't sound hot at all, but it's likely going to be marginalized and compromised into nothing by the time we actually see what they are offering…plus I seriously doubt that alleged $7.99 price point within the next 3 years on a standard issue is a good idea and could be the final nail in the coffin..”
…And this is exactly the sort of thing I mean!
I really appreciate your giving voice to the (just as valid) alternate view! That’s what makes this Comments Section so great!
Interestingly, there is a rumor circulating that AT&T (the still-fairly-new parent company of DC) is considering closing down DC altogether! If this comes to pass, DC's characters (and presumably titles) would be farmed out to... Marvel. Which means that Marvel would once again be publishing "Scooby-Doo"! Who would have thought such a thing possible?
Sergio:
We live in an insane world controlled by rapacious corporate and media giants!
On the bright side, I suppose, the original Captain Marvel (aka “Shazam!”) could once again have an eponymous comic book title.
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