Spider-Man
10-29-2008, 09:49 PM
Newsarama (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/100829-Dan-Didio-20-Questions.html) recently did "20 Questions" sit down with Dan Didio about the current present ad future of DC Comics. Here's an excerpt:
1) Let’s start with possibly the most obvious, Dan – the January solicitations are out, and J.G. Jones is off of Final Crisis’ final issue. What happened there?
Dan DiDio: Honestly, this is something that we probably should’ve gotten out in front of, before the solicitations hit, and that was a mistake on my part. Also, when J.G. went out there and took the blame for lack of a better term for not being part of the book, that wasn’t really his call. It was my call, and my place to take the blame.
The choice was very simple – we saw how the book was running, and we saw what the schedule was ahead of us. The fact that at a point we were waiting for parts of the script from issues #6 and #7, the reality came to be that we were never going to be able to hit our dates. We know hw quickly JG works, and we knew that going in. I feel bad that JG went out there and took the blame like that, because he shouldn’t have. We all went in with our eyes open and knew how the schedule works. Quite honestly, the decision was made quite a while ago that I wanted to hold the schedule and have the book come out in January, but in doing so, I knew that JG would not be the artist.
The good side of it is that much of the story that takes place in issues #6 and #7 spins out from what’s in Superman Beyond, and Doug Mahnke, being the artist on Superman Beyond, seemed like the natural choice to take the elements that he had from Beyondand to bring them into the final issue of Crisis, and bring a level of consistency there as well.
I know there’s a lot of concern about this, but my answer is – to all of this – when you’re working with artists like JG Jones, Carlos Pacheco and Doug Mahnke, it’s really a no-lose proposition. If you like the purity of how the book works, then I understand the concern. But the reality is that It was more important for us to keep our schedule on this, and that was my decision. I wanted to keep the schedule, have the last issue come out in January, so that all of the changes that come out from the end of Final Crisis can be reflected in the books starting in March.
2) Let’s talk about the post Final Crisis DC Universe then...what’s it like?
DD: Here’s the way it works right now, and the reason why things will pick up from Final Crisis in March: where we stand right now in January, we’re addressing a common tonality in the DCU. That’s one of the reasons we created “Faces of Evil,” because we wanted to give a sense that the universe was coming back together again at the start of the New Year.
Those stories are all stand alone, but tonally, address what it’s like to live in the DCU as a villain in regards to what’s happening in those issues.
In February, again, we’re bringing the line back closer together and working to bring the continuity back in synch. In that month, we’ll have a series of books – I think we’re up to about 19 in all now – that will have six page stories as backups, and each book will be branded “Origins and Omens.” What you’re going to see in those stories is a little of the origin of each character, what’s essential to know about each character to date, and more importantly, a little foreshadowing of what’s to come with the character. Each one of the “Origins and Omens” installments will have a common narrator, and that narrator has direct ties to Blackest Night later in the year.
So that’s why I said that the DCU will reflect Final Crisis starting in March – not only because we wanted to reach a point where we could give the lay of the land of the DCU and the various titles, and allow for the books to all have great jumping on points. Readers can get caught up with the six page stories, and then follow through in March and the rest of the year.
Some good questions were asked although some were really lightweight. I wish Newsarama asked about the Chuck Dixon incident from earlier this year and what exactly happened with Jim Shooter too.
1) Let’s start with possibly the most obvious, Dan – the January solicitations are out, and J.G. Jones is off of Final Crisis’ final issue. What happened there?
Dan DiDio: Honestly, this is something that we probably should’ve gotten out in front of, before the solicitations hit, and that was a mistake on my part. Also, when J.G. went out there and took the blame for lack of a better term for not being part of the book, that wasn’t really his call. It was my call, and my place to take the blame.
The choice was very simple – we saw how the book was running, and we saw what the schedule was ahead of us. The fact that at a point we were waiting for parts of the script from issues #6 and #7, the reality came to be that we were never going to be able to hit our dates. We know hw quickly JG works, and we knew that going in. I feel bad that JG went out there and took the blame like that, because he shouldn’t have. We all went in with our eyes open and knew how the schedule works. Quite honestly, the decision was made quite a while ago that I wanted to hold the schedule and have the book come out in January, but in doing so, I knew that JG would not be the artist.
The good side of it is that much of the story that takes place in issues #6 and #7 spins out from what’s in Superman Beyond, and Doug Mahnke, being the artist on Superman Beyond, seemed like the natural choice to take the elements that he had from Beyondand to bring them into the final issue of Crisis, and bring a level of consistency there as well.
I know there’s a lot of concern about this, but my answer is – to all of this – when you’re working with artists like JG Jones, Carlos Pacheco and Doug Mahnke, it’s really a no-lose proposition. If you like the purity of how the book works, then I understand the concern. But the reality is that It was more important for us to keep our schedule on this, and that was my decision. I wanted to keep the schedule, have the last issue come out in January, so that all of the changes that come out from the end of Final Crisis can be reflected in the books starting in March.
2) Let’s talk about the post Final Crisis DC Universe then...what’s it like?
DD: Here’s the way it works right now, and the reason why things will pick up from Final Crisis in March: where we stand right now in January, we’re addressing a common tonality in the DCU. That’s one of the reasons we created “Faces of Evil,” because we wanted to give a sense that the universe was coming back together again at the start of the New Year.
Those stories are all stand alone, but tonally, address what it’s like to live in the DCU as a villain in regards to what’s happening in those issues.
In February, again, we’re bringing the line back closer together and working to bring the continuity back in synch. In that month, we’ll have a series of books – I think we’re up to about 19 in all now – that will have six page stories as backups, and each book will be branded “Origins and Omens.” What you’re going to see in those stories is a little of the origin of each character, what’s essential to know about each character to date, and more importantly, a little foreshadowing of what’s to come with the character. Each one of the “Origins and Omens” installments will have a common narrator, and that narrator has direct ties to Blackest Night later in the year.
So that’s why I said that the DCU will reflect Final Crisis starting in March – not only because we wanted to reach a point where we could give the lay of the land of the DCU and the various titles, and allow for the books to all have great jumping on points. Readers can get caught up with the six page stories, and then follow through in March and the rest of the year.
Some good questions were asked although some were really lightweight. I wish Newsarama asked about the Chuck Dixon incident from earlier this year and what exactly happened with Jim Shooter too.