And please just don't spam anti woke, it's a given and I know it's going to be the No.1 thing.

>>148977905 (OP)
First and foremost, hire good writers.

>>148977905 (OP)
Black and white newsprint publishing

>>148977905 (OP)
DC is doing pretty well on the comics side with the Absolute comics. I'm more worried about DC games. Marvel is throwing out banger after banger.

>>148977958
DC got better with the multiversal, retcon and "Earth: [Number" Faggotry

Marvel however...

>>148977905 (OP)
Only 5 unlimited ongoings
>Wonder Woman
>Batman
>Superman
>Superman Family - B-title, Superman allies
>Shadow of The Bat - B-title, Batman allies
>Action Comics -anthology with Superman-related main features, while newer writers use thematically appropriate heroes for other stories
>Detective Comics -anthology with Superman-related main features, while newer writers use thematically appropriate heroes for other stories
Other "runs" become limited series. This proceeds until nature heals.

>>148977905 (OP)
Cancel Aquaman, replace that with a Batman book
Cancel JLA, replace that with a Batman book
Cancel Green Lantern replace that with...a Joker book
Cancel New Gods, replace that with another Harley book

>>148977905 (OP)
This, >>148977938. also:
>After the story is planned, they must be revised by someone who actually knows their shit and cares about the characters, someone with the authority to say 'this character would never do this or that in that situation'. >All writers must also communicate their creations with each other, in other to achieve consistency. The limits, capacities and ideals of each character must be well-defined, and steering away from those concepts must be avoided.
>Do not do stuff you know will upset the real fans of the comics

>>148977905 (OP)
I personally would get darker.
Bring back Dark label and at most just make it a main part of DC.
Gotham is a very dark and cruel place. Make it dark and cruel again and have Batman be Batman.
Even in a dark Batman story he should be able to comfort crying children.

>>148977905 (OP) (OP)
This, >>148977938. also:
>After the story is planned, they must be revised by someone who actually knows their shit and cares about the characters, someone with the authority to say 'this character would never do this or that in that situation'.
>All writers must also communicate their creations with each other, in other to achieve consistency. The limits, capacities and ideals of each character must be well-defined, and steering away from those concepts must be avoided.
>Do not do stuff you know will upset the real fans of the comics

I also personally if comics have an end, otherwise it is only a matter of time until the story gets derailed.
I think the 'brand' (Batman, Superman, etc) can exist for an indefinite time, with different versions of the heroes, but that specific version of that hero needs to have a planned end, eventually

>>148977905 (OP)
Easy question to ask, hard to answer. There's so many things fucked with DC as a business that dealing with all of them is above my paygrade. I got a few bullet points though:

- Get good writers. Currently you don't have enough of them. Actively, CONSTANTLY search for new, better ones, and I really mean this shit. They should continously have an open writing contest going on. Entrants should only be judged based on the story's cleverness and entertainment value. No DEI hires, that's what killed this project the last time when it was Snyder's writing camp. Look for actual honest true talent. Seek to hire back previous good workers you fired for political reasons.

- Once you have actual good writers: Story ideas should come from the writers, not editors. Editors are there to shut down truly bad ideas, uphold continuity between titles, and help with coordinating shit. They should NOT be the people who decide what the actual stories are, like they were in Didio's era. That results in trash comics. Let writers do the storytelling, not editors.

- Those pocketbook editions (whatever they were called) are popular. Do more of them, that's good money. Look into the possibility of releasing new comics in that format too and ending floppies entirely.

- Cross-promote with videogames. Arkham games were the best thing that happened to you in decades, get something similar going fast. Make sure it's not utter shit like Suicide Squad (this part is easy, a small child could have told you that game would flop from the first screenshot).

- More boobs and butts

- Etc.

>>148977953
In giant manga-sized volumes, yes. That way you can also tell ongoing stories starring characters like who are criminally underused these days like Dr. Fate, The Spectre and others.

>>148978231
This. All good stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. If I were running DC I wouldn't worry about continuity, just have story arcs with the characters instead.

>>148978527
Also in case they haven't already: get rid of that fucking idiotic policy where writers are NOT allowed to write their favorite characters. That's crazy as hell. "You're the biggest fan of Green Arrow alive? You've read everything he's ever been on and can recite all his lore from memory? Great, I'm noting on your file to never let you write Green Arrow. You're on Flash now."

>>148977905 (OP)
I wouldn't save it. Honestly, it's too late at this point. License out all the popular IPs (Batman, Superman, Harley Quinn, etc.), cancel all the existing ongoing series, and focus on creating a few bimonthly or trimonthly b&w genre-specific anthology comics, like action, adventure, detective, mystery, horror, humor, romance etc. No more capes, just 48 pages of 3 to 4 short, self-contained stories. No sequels, multiverses, etc. Hire some talented East Asian and Slavic artists instead of all the talentless Latinos they have now. Basically, make it like WSJ, but print them less often.
In any case, comics are dying as a medium. There was some hope that webtoons would become popular and DC was experimenting with that format, but that didn't happen because Gen Zers hate reading, even short comics. They have severe ADHD and are addicted to TikTok, Shorts, porn, and video games, so they'll never read any comics, no matter how good or bad they are.

>>148977938
>First and foremost, hire good writers.
>>148978527
>Get good writers.
Where? The entire industry is barely afloat, and that's only thanks to guys like Hickman and Ewing, but even they're mediocre compared to retired boomer writers. There are no good writers who want to write comics anymore. China Mieville was asked in an interview why he doesn't want to write another comic book, since his Dial H for Hero was good. He said that before trying to write one, he had an idealized view of writing comics. After trying, he realized that writing books is easier, so he went back to writing books and doesn't plan to write any new comics, even though he admits that fiction is not as popular anymore as it was. I bet Gaiman and Moore would say the same if they were honest.
Comic books are dying. Good writers just aren't interested in writing them because they need to earn a living, and there just isn't enough money in the comic book industry now. Everyone is trying to break into video game scriptwriting or plotting for short clips. That's where all the money is right now.

>>148978756
>Where?
Not my problem. There's over a billion people in the world who speak English. If you tell me the best you can get out of all that lot is your current stable, you're not either looking hard enough or offering enough.

>>148978756
>Everyone is trying to break into video game scriptwriting or plotting for short clips.
That's why so many comics now (glares at Image) are just glorified storyboards for Netflix pitches.

>>148978809
That's another problem they need to solve. The attitude that it's okay for comics to suck and sell nothing cause the comic isn't the actual product and what you're really looking for is a TV show or something - that needs to go. You can't treat things like TV pitches, you need to get into the mindset that the comic itself is the product you're selling and it needs to, by itself, be popular and be profitable. Impossible? No. Manga companies have that attitude. They very much treat the manga itself as the main product, even if they do every kind of merchandising possible on top of that.

I wonder what would happen if they simply fired the three least popular writers every month and replaced them with unknowns.

Cutting down the number of titles seems like common sense to me. Currently both DC and Marvel release about 50 titles monthly each: how many of those make a profit? Even half that amount seems like a lot to me.

I don't have it anymore, but somebody else made a pretty good outline of what the DC comic lineup would look like if it was trimmed down to just 24 monthlies and it honestly looked nice enough that I could hardly tell what was missing. Every major character got a title, Batman got four so that there's a Batman book every week, and despite that there was enough room for 4-5 flex slots where you can try new ideas and take some risks.

>>148978855
Make it every year, gotta give 'em time to work. But you're right, regularly paring away at the bottom 3% would do wonders for overall quality.

>>148977905 (OP)
>it's a given and I know it's going to be the No.1 thing.
I mean I won't say it but it's ultimately gonna be the end result even if it wasn't my direct focus.

>>148977905 (OP)
Cut all the gay shit

No more decompression. Period.
Hire editors who know their shit and will tell insane writers to shut up.
Hire writers who aren't just bucking for a netflix deal.
Hire artists who can draw super heroes. Not foodies hanging out.
Lower prices, bring back outside ads and revive the newstand.

>>148977905 (OP)
I don't really feel like DC comics needs to be saved. I don't really care much about business stuff. It's not like I'm making any money off of DC.

I'd slim back on comics that repeat the same main character. Instead of releasing several comics that star Batman per month, try to slim it down to just 2.

Make Gotham feel dirty, grimy, and sleazy. The second main character of Batman has always been Gotham City. Show me more of the day to day lives of people of Gotham, just trying to survive.

More experimental and unique panel layouts. I get very bored of the typical evenly divided panel layouts.

More romance stuff. I really liked the romance between Damien and Flatline. Romances are very memorable in comics, and I seek out certain storylines just because they have romantic storylines. Many of the most memorable episodes of Teen Titans have romance plots. DC used to put out dedicated romance comics called Young Romance

I like showing skin. I like seeing nudity, tits, and ass.

>>148977905 (OP)
behead the entire board of directors at WB
DC is going through the same type of corporate misnagement that Looney Tunes did in the early 2000's

Thoughts and prayers?

Make stories shorter. Most should be single issue tales. Print on cheaper paper again. Bring back flat colors. Put comics in impulse buy sections of stores that aren't comic shops.
>>148978756
Where to find writers? How about they open up submissions?

>>148980783
>How about they open up submissions?

Yeah, it's fucking retarded how these companies categorically refuse submissions. It's like the only way to get in them is to be somebody's IRL friend or fuckbuddy. You can't run a real business like that.

>>148977905 (OP)
Consolidate everything DC under a single umbrella. Books, TV, movies, merch, games, etc.
Treat DC Comics as a cost center. Don't expect a big return on investment from book sales, just try to break even. They're the IP farm.
With that in mind, stop pushing derivative characters. They don't need "<JLA Character> but black/asian/gay" and we don't need 4 Batgirls and 5 Robins and 6 Flashes and 7 Earth Green Lanterns. They need to up the visibility of B/C-listers like Firestorm and Mister Terrific and Plastic Man and Black Canary. More recognizable IPs means more opportunity for monetization.

Also, do good comics.

>>148981143

Man, Shooter was too based.

>>148977905 (OP)
Massive talent drive to bring in fresh blood. Submit your character and maybe we’ll give you a book. Read the submissions and find the good stuff. Go back to all ages. Make the Joker actually act mentally ill and lean into the chaos clown prince of crime instead of the creepy murderer angle. Launch a new anthology the size of a phonebook for twenty bucks where we pay the artists and writers peanuts but almost anyone can get in and it’s a chance to showcase new talent. One feature is “Just Imagine” where we do the Absolute, Tangent or Stan Lee thing where we take characters and produce a different version of them . Another feature is “redeem this character” where we take a terrible old character and have the writer and artist fix them so they’re interesting. Syndicate wars is the various versions of the Crime Syndicate’s waging interdimensional war against each other and trying to take over each other’s earths. Including the originals who are the “good guys in this situation” along with a reformed Alexander Luthor Jr. House of Terror is a horror anthology hosted by whoever the artist decides. It could be Cain and Abel, Dr. Fate, Swamp thing, or one of the Endless. Bring back reader’s mail column.

>>148977905 (OP)
Cancel evrything that isnt Batman bc all their other chracters are shit! SHIT! DC needs to publish nothing but 52 monthly Batman comics
The new new 52:

Batman
Detective comics
Batman Shadow of the bat
Batman black and white
Batman legends of the dark knight
Batman Gotham Knight
Batman and Robin
Robin
Batgirl
Batwoman
Nightwing
Robin and Batgirl
Batgirl an Batwoman
Nightwing and Robin
Robin and Batwoman
Nightwing and Batgirl
Batman Inc
Batman in Europe
Batman in Mexico
Batman in Brazil
Bat-Manga
Bat-Manhua
Batman and the Titans
Batman and the JLA
Batman and the JSA
Batman and the LOSH

>>148981299
>No Batman and the Outsiders
who let this failEIC in the thread?

>>148981299
cont.
Batman & the Outsiders
Batman & Nightwing
Batman & Batwoman
Batman & Batgirl
Batman Earth 2
Batman Earth 3
Batman Earth 5
Gordon
Alfred
Ace th Bathound
GCPD
Gotham Central
Batman the X Files
Batman Arkham
Joker
Harley Quinn
Catwoman
Man-Bat
Riddler
Pinguin
Clayface
Poison Ivy
Poison Ivy & Harley Quinn
Joker & Harley Quinn
Joker Inc.
3 Jokers
Joker Gotham Clown
Batman & Sandman

>>148977905 (OP)
I support
>>148977938
>>148978004
>>148978096
>>148978231
>>148978527
>>148978938

>>148977905 (OP)
Fire all the writers, use AI.With no money wasted on writers you can pay the artist 2x

Do more gimmicks to draw in the subhuman normies. "Superman or Batman vs (insert real athlete).." "WW goes to Washington" "Guy Gardner says the N-word"

More crossovers with the Turtles, Hellboy, Naruto, Garfield, Doctor Who, Lovecraft, the WWE, etc.

>>148977905 (OP)
well as I was saying 15 years ago I'd cut the number of books to something sane like, say, no more than 5-10 per month so that real retailers would take the DC line again, and I'd switch from Direct to sale or return again, like a sane person would do

and I'd do all of this - most importantly - 15 years ago when it might have made a difference and DC wasn't doomed

>>148981595
>Fire all the writers, use AI.With no money wasted on writers you can pay the artist 2x
Just use AI for art too and save all the money since you're clearly not interested in quality.

- Stop hyping up character deaths
- Make sure most character deaths are permanent and irreversible
- Less time travel and multiverses

>>148977938
Wrong. Writers are pointless for a cheap, disposable format like Comics. The most important thing is to hire good artists who are willing to double AS writers, like John Bryne. I would buy a Bryne or Frank Cho comic over a Hickman or Moore any day of the week.

>>148977905 (OP)
First off LEAVE WARNER BROS. WB has done more damage to DC in this decade alone than the 90 years it's been around. DC should either go independent or get sold to someone who MIGHT care. Disney don't need any more properties. Paramount might work, but knowing Nick, I don't know.

>>148981610
See>>148981650

>>148977905 (OP)
Reboot it around Batchad and his sidekicks/rogues. Also have Batman fuck Lois Lane/Selina Kyle/Diana Prince/Carol Farris/Iris West/Mera...

>>148981717
Yes, yes, you already made that joke
>>148981299
>>148981356

>>148981723
I am not joking....

>>148977905 (OP)
You absolutely don't attempt to reboot it and hope the problems going away while retaining the same editors and writers that caused the problem in the first place.

>>148980915
How about you try to think about it for five seconds? If they opened submissions they would get flooded with thousands of emails every day, too many to actually swift through. The current way is that you have to prove your mettle in other publishers until your name gets buzz and you appear in their radar, it's economically sound.

>>148978938
Comics are actually dirt cheap to print. So, they all make a profit. In fact, that's why they publish filler books. They need a minimum amount of comics each month to break even. Cutting down the number of series is the opposite of common sense, you're suggesting them to earn less money.

>>148979278
>The second main character of Batman has always been Gotham City.
Moviefag...

>>148981632
I doubt you could even name the last multiversal comic release lil parrot

>>148981936
>it's economically sound

Oh, so that's why DC is raking in cash all day and has no economic worries whatsoever.
Oh wait, that's not true at all, they're about to fucking die.

Look. Retard. It doesn't matter if reading submissions is hard work. It's work you gotta do if you want actual fucking talent. They are getting zero fucking talent now, all their new hires are people who got FIRED from other companies for being incompetent.

>>148981990
>Oh wait, that's not true at all, they're about to fucking die.
Are they? You know sales numbers have been propietary data for over a decade, right? No, the Bleeding Cool polls to 200 people are not accurate.

>>148981989

NTA but I couldn't name it either because it had like 20 different names. Something like Death Doom Black Metal 2: Crisis on Infinite Metal Black Metal Doom Metal.

>>148978016
Cancel the joker book and replace it with a Batman book
Cancel the Harley book and replace it with a batman book
Cancel all books that aren't Batman and just publish 1000 Batman comics a month
No culture, just Batman

>>148982001
Yes, yes they are. Sales are in the shitter and have been death spiraling for more than a decade. Don't try that gaslighting shit here, it won't work. Comics that would have been canceled for low sales in 2000 are among the best selling comics right now.

>>148982004
So the last multiverse story was 2 years ago? Wow what a big problem

>>148982013

It should be 20 years ago. There should literally be a whole human generation between Crisises.

>>148982012
>Sales are in the shitter
Source?

>>148982020
I won't humor you, you braindead shill. We all know the truth and you do too, you just pretend you don't.

>>148982019
The original anon wasn't complaining about Crises, he was a MCU parrot crying about the multiverse boogeyman

>>148982030
>DC is dying because vibes

>>148981595
>>148981650
>let's make DC comics complete shit so they go out of business in less than a week
Nice try Marveldrones.

>>148977905 (OP)
Bring back Dan Didio

>>148977905 (OP)
It's doing alright right now.
What I'd do is sell the video game rights to these characters to various well-respected game studios to get more people on board with these characters. So a Wonder Woman game, a Superman game, a Marvel Rivals-styled game, a Flash game. That sort of thing.

Then I'd try to sell collections of older, beloved comics in grocery stores next to those Archie compilations and try to get various trades and omnibuses in school libraries and book stores to get more attention.

I'd also try to make DC movies smaller in budget moving forward into a post-superhero-blockbuster age. So there could still be movies, but ones which would have a 100mil or less budget. More weird shit like Superman and the Mole Men.

And a Wonder Woman cartoon

>>148977988
The only reason modern DC ever brings the Earth-[number] shit up is with Power Girl. Who's whole thing is that she's from Earth-2.
Given how shit she's been recently, I say drop her and forget about all other Earths.

>>148978016
Who are you, DC's executive producing board?

>>148977905 (OP)
not doing the new52

I'm not doing shit, man. I don't care if they crash and burn.

>>148977905 (OP)
Cancel every book that isn't Superman and Batman.
Then make every other book be
>Superman Team Up! Aquaman
>Batman Team Up! Wonder Woman
>Worlds Finest: Justice League!
Actually scratch that Wonder Woman idea, she really isn't needed. We can dedicate an entire book to Batman teaming up with Harley Quinn instead

>>148977905 (OP)
>How would YOU save DC comics
I wouldn't.

>>148977905 (OP)
Lower the subscription cost of DC Universe Infinite to $3 and fix the app. If Shonen Jump can have a $3 subscription, why can't DC?

>>148981650
There are plenty of comics with good or great art coming out, and most of them are unreadable.
You need both good writing and good art.

>>148983210
But DC has color pages

There is no real saving the existing comic runs.
All of them carry 80 years of history, requiring you to read tens of thousands of unorganised and hard to find back issues to really understand the full story of any title.
No amount of rebooting/new #1's can fix this. It is baggage, and it is a major obstacle to any potential new reader.

New comics must be made.
To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, these new comics will follow the following rules:

>1) No multiverse/crossovers
All new IP's will be self contained. Anything you need to know about the comic must be found in the comic, allowing it to be read in isolation as a self contained item.

>2) No changes in artist or writer
Each series will have a set staff that draws the characters, writers the story, etc the whole production, and this must not change. Think of this like changing an actor in a movie midway through, you never want to do it.

>3) The role of the editors shall be reduced drastically
They must serve only as an advisor, and not be part of the creative team. Their job is to ensure comics meet quality standards, regulatory standards, and fit the target audience of the publisher.

>4) Produce comics that meet a target audience of males aged 13-25,
i.e. you do not have to make a superhero comic, nor follow a set art style or writing style, but can instead produce any kind of comic that the target audience may be interested in.

>>148983501
Fine...$6
I saw Supergirl #1 on the homepage. I remember when there used to be a 6 month delay.

>>148977905 (OP)
Do a hard reset back to the status quo of post-Crisis. Revert character designs and dynamics back to classic versions. Make comics acceptable and attractive to children and parents.

Growing up DC always hit it out the park with tv shows and cartoons. as a kid i grew up watching smallville, justice league, batman tas, batman beyond, superman tas, teen titans, etc

I think thats why i prefer DC over marvel.

the only thing DC has failed at is the movies post nolans batman

I have no idea how i would save the comics division, comics in general seem to be on a down ward trend

>>148983897
I like to think these rules are well thought out and cover in a broad way, the many issues with not just DC, but comics as a whole. But I will list the problems anyway and how I think these rules will stop them

It's worth mentioning that these rules do nothing about the woke problem. That's because a rule to stop that would be as follows:
>5) The company shall produce products that sell
Which sounds very silly because any company should be in the business of making money, but the woke problem is a problem of internal corruption and as such neither cares about making money not about following any company guidelines.

>1) No multiverse/crossovers
This is to stop the compounding problem of demanding more and more of your readers time. Where a character from another series appears in your series, you must read that other characters comic to understand what's now happening in your own comic.. and then more characters appear in that other comic and so on, it compounds very quickly.
You actually get this problem in the real world of non-fictional literature, where to understand a modern philosopher you must read Plato and Aristotle and Kant and Marx and it becomes a very daunting task. The same is obviously also true of maths of science where to understand the forefront of academia you must learn a great deal of foundational maths and science, aka a university degree.
This is not a problem that should even remotely exist in comic books.

But another problem it should solve is the diluting effect that cross-overs have.
Imagine if you were watching Breaking Bad or Dexter or some other quite serious TV show and midway through it, Batman and Robin show up and they beat up the main bad guy. The entire tone of the series would be lost. Its characters would cease to feel real, its world would become a cartoon.

>>148984421
>2) No changes in artist or writer
There is a bad trend in the industry of artists and writers making comics about characters they don't care about. And vice versa, of artists and writers being taken off characters they loved to work on.

By keeping the artists and writers pinned down, they will either stay on a comic they love, or they will learn to love it over time, or they will insist on moving to a comic they do love. But they will no longer produce shit comics under the excuse of "this is just a stepping stone" or "this is just for this month until I get back to x".

But more importantly, this will produce a more cohesive comic. Where the same writer has been writing the story for x years, they will know it back to front, they will be able to plan years in the future and create a stronger narrative. And equally the artist will have time to learn how to draw the character properly.

Look at Scott Pilgrim for example, whether you love it or hate it, ask yourself: Could another writer drop in midway through and write Scott Pilgrim? Even if you gave them an outline of the story to work from, it wouldn't be enough, it's a deeply personal story, every line the characters make has subtle character building. And same the art, despite it's simplicity, it is drawn with an intimate understanding of the comic.

>>148984611
>3) The role of the editors shall be reduced drastically
While editors can have great ideas, and some of them are creators themselves... they are generally not suited to creating comics.
Especially today where entertainment quality standards are so much higher than they were in the past, you can't just have a guy in a suit say "okay make a superhero and uhh give him a motorbike, that'll be popular".
To make a series that's popular today, it has to be a work of genius, and only a writer or artist can do that.
You can't engineer success from a commitee, it has to come from the heart, a deep personal story from the artist or writer, something they've probably been dreaming of since they were a child.
No editor can do this, and as such they must be booted off the creative team.

>>148977905 (OP)

This thread is filled with terrible ideas that would generate *LESS* money than DC is currently making.

DC is healing and making a lot of the right moves.

Most of the doomposting in this thread is stuff DC stopped doing post Didio. In fact Marvel is much more guilty with these bad trends and yet it's seen as more successful

>>148984670
>4) Produce comics that meet a target audience of males aged 13-25
This is actually the most important rule because it can essentially be paraphrased to say
>produce comics that are actually popular

Comics today are tunnel visioned. They seem to believe that they can only produce superhero comics and specfically a very narrow genre of superhero comics. There is not really a market for this. Not in comics atleast. They sell well in movies because of handsome celebrities and flashy special effects. This was a very popular subject matter in the past, but it is not today.
By focussing on a target demographic, they will be able to break this habit and learn to innovate. They will be able to expand their horizon and ask the question:
>what do people actually want to read?
They will be able to produce scifi comics, detective comics(pun intended), horror comics, comedy comics, romance comics, comics based on videogames, modern culture, etc. They won't have to just make superheroes, nor will they have to adhere to a specific style of writing or drawing.

>>148978016
Riddler, Bane, Killer Croc and the guy that pumps the Batmobile tires don't have monthly books just yet.

>>148983897
>All of them carry 80 years of history, requiring you to read tens of thousands of unorganised and hard to find back issues to really understand the full story of any title.
No, they don't. You can basically start at COIE (or, better option, from New Teen Titans #1) and read everything you're interested in from there, in a publication order. Or, you can just start with last years DC All-In, it's a decent entry point for most people.
And pic is very relevant.
>New comics must be made.
I agree. I'd like it if DC created something like the Bergerverse/Vertigo again, not just in name, but spiritually and conceptually. They could create some sort of imprint or sub-brand where they publish primarily non-cape comics in speculative fiction genres. Sci-fi, fantasy, horror, magic, and detective stories, for example. It would be basically what the original concept behind Johns's Ghost Machine was, but less of the "Netflix-bait" type of comics, more experimental stuff.
>No multiverse/crossovers
Multiverses and crossovers aren't inherently bad; it's just that there should always be more justification for using these plot devices.
>No changes in artist or writer
That's what they're already doing now. Marvel does it even more often. Pretty much every time there's a new creative team behind a comic, Marvel relaunches it as a new volume with a number one.
And sometimes, bad things happen. A writer or artist could become ill, experience personal problems, or even die from natural or unnatural causes, which is becoming increasingly likely for everyone living in America and the West in general.

>>148983897
Cont. from >>148984815
>The role of the editors shall be reduced drastically
Yes, I agree with you on this one. I've recently been rereading articles about the New 52 and how the editors ruined many great ideas and concepts by becoming too involved in the creative process. They should have guided the writers and artists on what the characters could or could not do or say, not intervene into the writer's creative routine all the time.
>Produce comics that meet a target audience of males aged 13-25
No. Just no. Zoomers don't read comics, books, or newspapers. Many have severe literacy issues and can't focus on reading for more than a few minutes. There's no point trying to cater to a demographic that simply won't buy your stories. Focus on men aged 34-50 who grew up reading Morrison's JLA and ASS, Waid's Birthright, Loeb's The Long Halloween, and other comics like that. These men have enough time and money to buy 4 to 5 good books or 2 to 3 cheaper paperbacks like DC Compact Comics every month.

>>148984815
Forgot the pic, obviously

>>148977905 (OP)
Make Grant Morrison and Chuck Dixon together the new 'Didio'.
Remind everyone the comics are for kids first and foremost and produce accordingly and appropriately.

>>148984836
The big about the target demographic is a bit hard to pinpoint imo
I say 13-25.. but I know that it's unlikely any actual 13 year olds would read it, and I would fully expect many people over 25 to read it and be a major financial drive for it.

I think of it more like a guiding direction as to the sort of comic that should be produced.
Alot of the stories coming out of Marvel and DC today are frankly targetted towards people 40-50+ They cover boring marriage problems, medical problems, political problems. These are not childrens stories.

On the flip side, stories about heroes fighting bad guys, giant space lasers, explosions and fast cars, these are targetted towards that younger audience... but they also just make for very entertaining stories that appeal to that older audience as well.
I suspect if you were to go behind the scenes at the studios of Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto videogames, you would find that their target audience are 10-16 year olds, even though their games are all 18+

The major thing I want to push for is to make that sort of comic, and not the sort of boring comic that is made today

Continue to invest in these good ideas:
Build up the Compact Comics line
Build up the DC Finest collections
Build up the Kids and YA original graphic novels
Build up the new DC Go vertical webcomics on the app. I get why all the current comics are so Tumblr ific but I'd like to see if theres an audience for the non gay, non woke stuff. can they get an audience for a traditional cape web comic?

Long term project: can the app convert *all* comics to a vertical scroll?

Add a free ad-supported section of the app that hosts free comics to sample, no accounts needed. Curate themed collections like Summer of Superman

Curate a healthy stream of Black Label and Elseworlds books for the bookstore market

More free explainers and recommendation guides for YouTube and social media

One or two free webcomics formatted for social media like the Bite Size Archie.

License kid friendly classic reprints to Archie so DC Digests are sold in grocery stores

I know it didn't work the first time but they need another walmart anthology initiative. Doesn't have to be Walmart and should probably spend more money on more original exclusive stories but they need to get new stuff in stores outside of comic shops and anthologies with the heavy hitters seems like the best approach

Floppies are dying. Just serve the traditional audience meat and potatoes. They're doing it with Mark Waid and Jeremy Adams.
Jon Kent, Alan Scott and Fire and Ice are the only "woke" things still being published

>>148984868
>Make Grant Morrison and Chuck Dixon together the new 'Didio'.
They hate each other's politics too much, and Dixon just isn't a very good person in general AFAIK.
>Remind everyone the comics are for kids first and foremost and produce accordingly and appropriately.
But modern kids don't read comics, and they won't start even if comics were as good today as they were in the 80s. It's like trying to sell tunics in the style of the early Middle Ages, no matter how attractive and high-quality they are, people just won't buy them because fashion has changed drastically. Comic books are dying, just like literature or radio.

>>148977905 (OP)
Billion dollar franchises with animation, live action and print all in house, yet never has Disney or Warner done what animals and Manga industry do - print to TV to theater. All faithful adaptation of ongoing books. Not even faithful adaptation of old classics. Always weird animated versions that differ drastically.

Take absolute batman. A cartoon should be in production right now. I should see season 1 after 12 + issues are done. Exact 1 to 1 cartoon of it. Not some absolute batman the animated series with complete different tone and look.

Could stagger seasons of absolute superman ww and batman.

Feel like black and white Manga newsprint weekly would be more well received. Force people to buy entire line basically to read current the 1 or 2 they want like jump mag.

>>148977905 (OP)
Stakes. Consequences. Kill the Joker.

>>148984990
I didn't ask you, annoying contrarian faggot.

>>148984815
>>148984850
The "how to get into comics?" issue is an issue, and the existence of flowcharts and infographs only serve to highlight the fact that it is an issue.

It's not an issue to hardcore fans, who are invested in the series and are willing to put forth effort to find out how to read a series. But you absolutely will never attract any new readers if there is even the slightest obstacle to entry.

It must be instant and effortless.
Imagine you walk into a fast food place, and you cannot see the menu which is usually plastered along the wall. How long will you take to look for it before you choose to walk out the door? For most people, less than a minute. And comics are the same. A new customer is not yet invested, it is the comic of the comic to grab their attention and suck them into it. If that process is not made easy, they will walk away.

What often happens with new #1's is that they attract that new reader by the attractive #1 sign.. but then 3-4 issues in and a character from a completely separate comic shows up and involves them in another story, and this new reader has no idea what's going on, they don't know who this character is, where they're coming from, what the story is about, and they check out.
Furthermore, even within that #1, it's almost never truly a #1, characters are never introduced, concepts are not introduced, the tone is not established, it's not written with new readers in mind.

And finally, it's just simply become the common culture that "comics are convoluted", the general public knows this. Those old characters and their comics are tainted in that sense. Even if they pulled off a magic trick to restructure and reorganize them to provide the perfect #1, the perfect entry point for new readers... most people won't give it a chance.
That's what I mean by baggage.

>>148984963
>one or two free webcomics
All webcomics must be free
I recognize this is an unviable business strategy, but the simple fact is that nobody will pay for a digital comic. It's just simply not worth any money.
They may pay for a patreon subscription to get it two weeks early or get unreleased sketch material. But if your comic is in anyway paywalled while also being entirely digital, nobody will buy it.

>>148978004
They are never NOT going to have a Flash and Lantern(s) on-going every month, sister. Otherwise, they are already doing what you want as far as making every other run a 'limited series' save they have kept some shit long-term (e.g. Nightwing, Catwoman, "sad" psychotic murder clown girl, and coincidentally almost all of that shit is batwank related.

What DC really needs is to ween it's audience and itself off the excess batwank.

>>148985082
It's not an issue. Let me explain it to you:

1. Make cool comics with cool shit in them and on the covers
2. Kids buy them, because kids dig cool shit

Tell me what you fail to understand.

>>148984963
>reprints of Archie
Archie, Dick Tracey, Popeye, Tintin, Asterix, Beano, etc. These old comics which once appealed to children really do not appeal to children today.

In the worst case, they are groslly antiquated, featuring styles of humor that nobody relates to, fashion styles that are old even for your grandfather, and depict a world that simply no longer exists.
But more simply, they're just not very interesting to a modern audience. You hand a kid an archie comic in one hand, and a youtube video of some fortnite whatever in the other hand, and he's gonna forget that archie comic exists instantly. It just can't compete. From a sheer entertainment value point, it won't make a dime.

>>148984963
>Build up the Compact Comics line
It sold quite well for the first three months, then people started to complain about the fonts and the loss of gutter space, and then, the Gaiman scandal happened, and DC Comics had to cancel the Death volume. Suddenly, everyone lost interest in Compact Comics.
>Build up the DC Finest collections
These are good, but the way these books are published is inconsistent and unpredictable. Some people have questioned how the stories are collected. For example, in the Batman: Year One & Two volume, they started with Batman #401, which had never been collected before despite being the first official post-COIE Batman comic. However, it doesn't add anything to the Batman origin story, so there have been discussions about it, whether it was necessary to put Batman #401-403 there or not.
>Build up the Kids and YA original graphic novels
They already do that, remember the Big Barda OGN? It's just that kids and teens weren't buying it. The main audience for this type of book is still adult men.
>Build up the new DC Go vertical webcomics on the app. I get why all the current comics are so Tumblr ific but I'd like to see if theres an audience for the non gay, non woke stuff. can they get an audience for a traditional cape web comic?
They tried it with webtoons; it just didn't work. Hardcore DC fans disliked the format, and new audiences weren't interested in DC characters.

>>148984990
>Comic books are dying
While that's true, they're not dying nearly as badly as Marvel and DC would have you believe by their own sales figures.
I don't think I need to mention the name of the other "comics" that are selling considerably better and have turned book stores from a dying business to a thriving one.
There is a market for comics. Comics are just a medium, if they contain within them a compelling story, and that story can only be found in that comic, then people will flock to it, becuase people love a bit of entertainment no matter where it's found.

>>148984815
I think the only way you could do crossovers well is if you treated it like cartoon crossovers
Where it's just a one-off non canon bit of fun, and has no connection to the main universe of either series, and the two never impact eachother in anyway whatsoever. Completely non canon

>>148985125
>1. Make cool comics with cool shit in them and on the covers
OK, you can do that, and then
>2. Kids buy them, because kids dig cool shit
will never happen because kids hate comics and hate reading. They prefer more interactive content, such as video games or Tiktok clips. You just don't understand how different modern kids are from us when we were young. We grew up reading good books in schools and watching cartoons like BTAS, STAS, S-MTAS, X-MTAS, and, uhm, Spawn, at home. Then, we wanted more of that stuff, then we learned that there were comics with all of those characters and teams, as well as many other characters and teams. That's why we spent all of our lunch money on comics. Modern kids just aren't interested in anything that isn't on their iPhone or iPad screens. They find reading exhausting. They don't want to spend their allowance on anything besides Fortnite and Roblox skins, or whatever else they can buy in those games. They're not like us. They're different.

>>148984850
This is also a bit that modern audiences really don't like
>only a cursory knowledge of x, now you can ready 99% of it
This is not good enough, it's not even remotely good enough.
Stories today, if they are to be popular, must be a complete package.
People no longer watch Live TV, or settle for watching the sequel movie before the original because the original wasn't available.
Absolutely nobody is going to start reading a comic from any issue that isn't issue #1. and if that #1 isn't the absolute definite #1 (which is almost certainly isn't), they will drop it instantly, which is exactly what they do do when you look at the sales.

A good example of a reboot is Doctor Who 2005. The series had decades of episodes behind it going back to the 60's, the creators of the reboot deliberately depicted the show to get as far away as possible from this baggage because if the viewers felt like they had to watch the old series to understand the new series, even if it wasn't the case, they would drop it immediately.
The show was written entirely to appeal to a new audience and it succeeded tremendously at that.
You didn't need a cursory knowledge of Doctor Who to watch the 2005 series, it was never even asked of you.

The Phase 1 MCU movies are another good example, most people who watched them were not even aware of the comics existence, and they were not expected to. It targetted a new audience and ditched the past.

Comics, even when they are #1's are not ditching the past. the New #52 is the most embarrasing example of that

>>148985226
>I don't think I need to mention the name of the other "comics" that are selling considerably better and have turned book stores from a dying business to a thriving one.
Millennials are buying those other comics, not zoomers. The manga audience may be slightly younger, ranging from 25 to 35 years old instead of 35 to 50 years old, but it's still mostly people who grew up watching Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, DBZ, or Sailor Moon (millennial women). Their brains weren't as spoiled by screen addiction and infinite content as zoomers'.

>>148977905 (OP)
1- They need to work on their endings. Too often now DC has a big event and the ending is a some lame flop.
2- They need to work on their action. Since abandoning Superman for Batman, the art has focused more on people tilting, throwing a punch, and flying kicks. It could be more dynamic.
3- Know when to stop pumping up your z-listers. Suicide Squad and Harly Quinn got totally out of control. If they had stayed in their range, dealed with threats slightly above their level, then maybe the SS game wouldn't have been so bad. Using Keven Conroy was a good idea though.
3- STOP turning your good guys into bad guys. It's not interesting, or new, or cool. Meanwhile you've got 10 baddies for every good character just going to waste.
4- Superman is better than Batman. Better than current Batman, at least. If the writers don't know how to use Alfred, that's their fault.

>>148977905 (OP)
Batman story arc where a family member or someone else close to Bruce is placed in a state where living is a worse suffering than death. Really stretch the whole idea of "nothing's as bad as Bruce losing his parents" to its limits and make him question his own ethics

>>148985421
You can see kids probably not even 10 years old playing around as anime characters on Roblox by the thousands

Now you might say that they're only watching anime, and you're probably right. But if one of those kids reaches the end of that anime and wants to know what happens next, do you think he's going to say "oh no I won't read the manga, that's for old people?" no, the story is the same and he'll read that manga

>>148985520
Batman would sooner kill his own parents before he kills the Joker.
His ethics are joke, a bandaid to cope with the Comics Code Authority in the 1950s that should have been abandoned decades sooner than it did

>>148985782
More reason to finally change it and make him kill someone out of mercy

>>148978606
Is that a real thing?

>>148981595
Dumb faggot

>>148985842

I've heard it from multiple sources. If you become a big star you can do whatever you want though.

I'd make either a Justice League Dark animated series with Invencible levels of gore or revive the Justice League Bruce Timm animation(keeping it mature like Harley and Batman movie)

>>148977905 (OP)
Do what Mark Millar said on twitter: give incentives to artist and writers, a 1% of every book that sells more than 100k units and 10% for every million units. Every talent in the world would beg to work with them. Amd you just know (((marvel))) would never do such a thing.

more black girls

>>148977905 (OP)
Not sure, maybe start with bringing supersons back and make Tim Drake straight again, I’d focus more on getting badass editor in chiefs then writers honestly, having a 2nd PoV can be really good.

>>148983323
>There are plenty of comics with good or great art coming out, and most of them are unreadable.
They are unreadable BECAUSE of their writers. Writers who specialize in writing and yet fail in that one simple job they have to do because they want to push an agenda or get a tv show. Get rid of them, put the artists in charge of the writing. You won't get Shakespeare, but you'll get something entertaining at least.

>>148977905 (OP)
You hire better editors first, then better writers second. There are so many artists to have out there, but editorial and writers come first.

First order of business, mount Bendis and Taylor's heads on the wall outside of my office. Tom King will be given an editor and a warning.
Second decree, fix Jon Kent and bring back the Super Sons.
Third order, find out when Gerard Way has an opening in his schedule and see if he's down to revive Young Animal.

>>148987599
>a 1% of every book that sells more than 100k units and 10% for every million units

Currently almost nothing sells above 50k, just so we're clear on the scale.

>>148987666
Satan always sounds like he has good ideas, but the devil is in the details.
None with Electricity or Tech powers, and no leaching off White legacies.

>>148987755
When I read "unreadable comics" the first thing that comes to mind is Bendis style walls of text or pages with panel work too crazy and creative, both are terrible for the reading experience.

>>148987882
What has Taylor done that's so bad? Just give him a stronger editor.
I would blacklist everyone who architected Infinite Frontier and Dark Crisis, though.

>>148987883
I guess the idea is to really motivate ppl to do their best, you do that with the promise of more and more $$$

>>148977905 (OP)
>How would YOU save DC comics
i wouldnt. who cares? just read what you like and ignore everything else

The publishing line up
>Justice League (Unlimited)
>JSA
>Titans
>All-New Teen Titans
>Suicide Squad
>WildCATS

>Superman
>Action Comics (double feature)
>Supergirl
>Super-Son and the Legion of Superheroes
>Superman/Batman: World's Finest

>Batman
>Detective Comics (double feature)
>Nightwing
>Robin
>Batgirl
>Birds of Prey
>Gotham City Sirens
>The Outsiders
>Brave and the Bold (team-up series)
>Batman Beyond AD

>Wonder Woman
>Shazam!
>Aquaman
>The Flash
>Green Arrow
>Green Lantern
>Green Lantern Corps

>Zatanna & the Sentinels of Magic (aka Justice League Dark)
>Blue & Gold (aka Justice League Incorporated)
>Plastic Man
>Strange Adventures ("Weird DC" anthology, Metal Men, Metamorpho, etc)
>New Gods prestige series

>Swamp Thing Black Label
>Lobo Black Label
>Jonah Hex Black Label
>The Golden Age Black Label

>Kids line
>Amethyst
>Wonder Twins
>Krypto and the Super-Pets

>>148981948
>So, they all make a profit.

I don't believe that for a second.

>>148977905 (OP)
not just wokeness, but the writers are getting farther and farther from the tough heroes they are writing. every writer has to be jacked in real life if they are writing a jacked character.

Absolute line is great though?

>>148977905 (OP)
Abandon the modern era - the wokeness, the constant multiversal events - jon kent - all of it.

Just go back to the height of things and keep things at that aesthetic. It was good and whether it is 'timely' or 'modern' is much less important than 'is it good?'.

Find the height for each title and go back to that aesthetic, whether it's 80s or 90s or 00s or whatever.

>>148978016
yeah then cancel the joker book and replace it with a batman (but this time he's black) book

>>148981595
i would LITERALLY take AI over tom king or bendis. straight up 100%.

>>148989520
Uhhh I think you mixed up writers with actors pal

>>148989177
WAAAAY too many titles - pick 6-10 to be monthly on-goings and cut another 5-12 as crappy ideas and let the rest work themselves out as 6-8 or 10-12 issue limited series.

>>148989546
okay boomer
what does DC do when you and people of your generation start to die in the next few years or when you need to start saving your comic book money to buy arthritis gels and pills that will no longer be covered on medicaid?

>>148989664
nope.
writers need to be jacked. artists, too. everyone should be absolutely fucking jacked to the gills, jacked stacked, and on the attack, a succulent-and-dense display of muscularity.

>>148977905 (OP)
>Batman
"NO SUPERHERO SHOULD EVER KILL EVER"
>Every other superhero
"I mean, I won't kill shoplifters or jaywalkers, but if Joker comes to my part of town I'll kill his ass"
>Batman
"Okay, that's fair"

THEN END. Same for Spider-Man in Marvel.

>>148987755
A lot of those writers are also the artists. They're artists in service of writers for a reason: they tend to be even worse.

>>148990532
Tom King isn't an artist. Bendis isn't an artist. Mark Waid isn't an artist. Joanne Starer isn't an artist. Who is worse than them?

Bring back Leave it to Binky
It'd be funny

>>148977905 (OP)
I wouldn't

>>148977938
They already have good writers but /co/ still bitched and whines and rants about everything being bad because the writers aren’t just pandering them with stupid superficial good feels shit they want.

>>148978527
>Story ideas should come from the writers, not editors. Editors are there to shut down truly bad ideas

And what happens when you find yourself written in a corner where the writers have completely changed everything?
>But I said editors veto truly bad ideas!
That doesn’t prevent years of incremental change until you suddenly realise things have changed so much the character/IP is barely recognisable due to writer(s) coming up with “great ideas”. Like what happened with tons of character between CoIE and Infinite Crisis.

>>148978606
Letting major fanboys write their favourite characters just turns into fanwank more often than not.

>>148991189
Young men don't wear bow ties, they don't even wear suits
Girls don't wear dresses
Nobody goes to fortune tellers, and even if they did they wouldn't be $1
Nobody is called Peggy
Those hair styles are outdated
Young people don't give a shit about marriage, infact they're horrified by it

This is not funny

>>148991644
>what do you do when the employee has fucked up at their job
Well you fire them obviously
Any sane writer would know that they can't write themselves into a hole if they want to stay employed

>>148991717
Why would a writer care if you’re left at a dead end when they got to do the story they wanted to tell.
>Well, well, uh, you fire the writer, duh!
That doesn’t change anything about the fact that your moronic durrrr let writers write what they want without editorial mandates doesn’t fix anything. It just creates different problems.

>>148991653
>Letting major fanboys write their favourite characters just turns into fanwank more often than not.

I think a much more real problem than that is writers turning in bad work when they're forced to write characters they don't give a shit about.

Make the superheroes a force of chaos than a overy perfect soilder of divine destiny, they cuss more, aren't ashamed to do the occasional immature and fun loving thing and add sexual and violent versatility that make them seem more relatable than most. Somehow superhero that act like r rated protagonists while remaining strong willed people that remain entertaining from beginning and thr end are popular in a main stream way because being free to make your story as unfiltered and unpredictable as you want goes over very well with everyone who doesnt want a story for kids or a complete edge fest for adults..

It's the reason why Deadpool, Most anime, and invincible are popular.

>>148977905 (OP)
Take the Shonen Jump approach. Host fan competitions and extract the most talented artists. Have them write their own issues with a 50/50 ownership split like Manga. Character “accuracy” be damned, we’re going into the future. Doesn’t have to be mainline Superman, Batman, JL stuff. Can be about whatever they want in their own universes. Use that as source material for animation, games, and movies. All of it under the DC label. Heavy on animation. The last good stuff we got was early Young Justice. Anime is where the cake is right now.