jim lee
With a wink, DC ‘won’t confirm’ Scott Snyder Man of Steel comic
DC Comics is certainly in no hurry to quash rumors that celebrated Batman writer Scott Snyder is working on a Superman series that would tie into Warner Bros.’ Man of Steel. In fact, company executives appear to be encouraging the whispers — even if they stop just short of confirming them.
Rumblings of a possible Superman comic teaming Snyder with artist Jim Lee arose late last month out of Fan Expo Canada, and followed the publisher over the weekend to Baltimore Comic-Con, where DC’s Senior Vice President of Sales Bob Wayne is said to have sidestepped questions on the subject. But in ICv2.com‘s monthly Q&A with Wayne and Vice President of Marketing John Cunningham, the duo was a little more forthcoming. A little.
Asked to confirm that Snyder will tackle a Superman: Man of Steel series in 2013, Wayne replied, “I certainly won’t confirm that, but I will say that it is reasonable to assume that given the release of Man of Steel next summer, we will come up with a publishing program that will both augment and take advantage of that opportunity.”
If that weren’t clear enough, Cunningham added, “I think that ]a Scott Snyder Superman series] would be great. I’d read that.”
Clearly, DC thinks a lot of people would. With Zack Snyder’s franchise reboot opening June 14, 2013, the publisher still has plenty of time to announce a new series — y’know, if there is one.
Quote of the Day | Happy birthday, DC’s New 52
“The New 52 is one year old today! We knew going in that it was a major risk and heard every concern, but we had faith in what we were doing and felt it was the right thing for our characters, company and industry. Needless to say, the relaunch achieved everything we hoped for and more! Thanks to everyone for taking the chance and joining us on this wild ride. We have a month long celebration with Zero Month in September and knowing what we have in store for 2013, its easy for me to say, the best is yet to come.”
– DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio, marking one year since the Aug. 31, 2011 debut of Justice League #1
by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, the flagship of the company’s linewide relaunch
MorrisonCon rolls out programming schedule
MorrisonCon organizers have released the programming schedule for the Sept. 28-30 event, which brings together a limited number of attendees and such creators as Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Robert Kirkman, Gerard Way, Jim Lee and J.H. Williams III for an “intimate gathering” in Las Vegas.
Highlights include a spoken-word performance by Morrison and My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way and James Dewees, a discussion of Morrison’s upcoming project (including Happy! with Darick Robertson, Multiversity, and Pax Americana with Quitely), separate panels with the event’s featured writers and artists, and spotlights on Kirkman, Williams, Jason Aaron and Jonathan Hickman.
Attendance is limited to 1,000. Ticket packages, which range in price from $699 to $1,099 (and include admission and a room at the Hard Rock Hotel), are still available at the MorrisonCon website. See the full schedule below.
Superman and Lois’ relationship? It’s complicated
Even as the debate still rages over last week’s revelation that Superman and Wonder Woman begin a romantic relationship in the new issue of Justice League, The Associated Press introduced a potential new wrinkle: that in DC Comics’ New 52, not only have the Man of Steel and Lois Lane never dated — something readers have known for more than a year — but that they “likely” never will.
However, a DC spokesman told Comic Book Resources the latter assertion “definitely” didn’t come from the publisher, which has characterized the story development as “the new status quo,” one made possible by the year-old relaunch that wiped clean much of the history of the DC Universe.
Comics A.M. | Cerebus: High Society negatives destroyed in fire
Cerebus: High Society
Comics | The negatives for Cerebus: High Society were destroyed last week in a fire that gutted a building in Waterloo, Ontario, that contained the apartment of Sandeep Atwal, communications director for Dave Sim’s Aardvark-Vanaheim Inc. According to Sim, Atwal, who had been scanning artwork for the Kickstarter-funded audio/visual digital edition of High Society, escaped with only his wallet and the clothes he was wearing. “So, I thought I’d better let everyone know that we’re definitely not on track for the September 12 launch at this point,” Sim wrote. “I don’t expect that I’ll hear from Sandeep for at least a few days — he’s staying with friends and obviously has a lot more important things to think about than HIGH SOCIETY DIGITAL.” Cerebus Fangirl has begun collecting donations to help Atwal. [A Moment of Cerebus, via The Beat]
Comics A.M. | DiDio and Lee on state of DC and industry
Jim Lee
Publishing | ICv2 sits down for a three-part interview with DC Comics Co-Publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio that takes the long view of the past year, covering the launch of the New 52, the effect of digital and the loss of Borders, and the recent discussions around creators’ rights. “It’s a cyclical thing. It’s an issue that constantly comes back,” DiDio said. “We hear about the great jobs and the great books that creators might participate in, but what we don’t hear about are all the books we’ve invested in over the years that never delivered, where we’ve invested in the talent and the time to make sure they had the opportunity to tell the stories they tell. It’s a very big picture, and it’s a very complex issue that can’t be boiled down. One thing I feel the most strongly is that I feel extraordinarily confident that we do everything we can to make this a very creator friendly company, to make sure they have an opportunity to tell the stories they want to tell with our characters and also in their creator owned stories too.” [ICv2]
DC reveals Before Watchmen variants by Steranko, Rude, Pope, more
Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1, by Jim Steranko
DC Comics this morning unveiled variant covers for Before Watchmen by Jim Steranko, Steve Rude, Paul Pope, Tim Bradstreet, Jim Lee, Cliff Chiang and David Finch.
The sprawling, and hotly debated, prequel to the seminal 1986 miniseries by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Before Watchmen debuted last month with the first issues of Minutemen, Comedian, Silk Spectre and Nite Owl, all of which landed on Diamond Comic Distributors’ Top 10 for June. According to sales estimates, all four titles broke the 100,000-copy mark. Before Watchmen: Minutemen #2 arrived in stores Wednesday.
Check out all seven variant covers below.
Watch DiDio and Lee talk Before Watchmen at LA Times Festival of Books
Moderator Geoff Boucher, left, and DC Comics Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee
Nerdist has posted video from the LA Times Festival of Books panel in April in which DC Comics Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee discussed Before Watchmen, the hotly debated sequel to the influential 1986 miniseries by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The conversation was widely reported on at the time, but now you can watch it for yourself.
Quote of the day | ‘Sometimes these things take on a life of their own’
“There was no master plan behind it all; we certainly had that character storyline in motion months ago before President Obama had come out with his statement, and the timing of the Marvel thing was coincidental because it was at Kapow that someone asked the question. You can’t necessarily manufacture that kind of attention in the mainstream press. Sometimes these things take on a life of their own, and this was a story that was literally picked up and went on its own. But that said, the point it raises is really good, it’s an interesting discussion. Dan’s answer came out of someone asking, ‘In the New 52, you’ve had a chance to change heroes ages and their origins and their race — why didn’t you change any sexual orientation?’ Basically Dan decided, you know what, maybe this was an opportunity to do some of that. The storyline comes out of that rethinking of what our standard policy was before.”
– DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee, talking with Comic Book Resources about the timing of Co-Publisher Dan DiDio’s weekend revelation
that a previously established character will be reintroduced as gay
Before Watchmen is ‘a love letter’ to Moore’s creation, Dan DiDio says
Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 variant cover by Jim Lee
Just as the initial reviews of Before Watchmen begin to trickle in, DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio takes to The Guardian to defend the sprawling prequel, which he calls “a love letter” to the seminal 1986 miniseries by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, and to respond to the writer’s scorching criticism of the project as “completely shameless.”
“Honestly I can understand why he might feel the way he does because this is a personal project to him,” DiDio tells the U.K. newspaper. “He has such a long and illustrious career and he’s been able to stand behind the body of work he’s created. But quite honestly the idea of something shameless is a little silly, primarily because I let the material speak for itself and the quality of the material speak for itself.”
He reiterates that DC won’t “shy away from the controversy on this – as a matter of fact we’re embracing it because we have belief in the strength of the product and stand behind it.”
DiDio also dismisses assertions by Moore that DC is “still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago,” saying that, “all the characters in all the universes and all that we do in comics, we’re constantly building on other people’s lores and legends. [...] Realistically some of Alan’s strongest works at DC outside of Watchmen were built off of characters like Swamp Thing which was created by Len Wein, Superman, Batman, so many of our great characters he’s worked on and they helped build his career.”
Jim Lee’s ginormous gatefold image from DC’s Free Comic Book Day comic
Courtesy of DC Comics, here’s a look at that gatefold image that you can find inside their Free Comic Book Day comic tomorrow. In total, Lee will be illustrating five pages for the comic book’s interior, including this four-page gatefold that accompanies a new story by Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns.
Check out the four-page image in all its glory below.
Dan DiDio and Jim Lee address Chris Roberson’s DC departure
Fairest #3
Spurred by DC Comics’ upcoming Watchmen prequels and its prolonged legal battle with the heirs of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, iZombie writer Chris Roberson announced last week he would end his relationship with the publisher following the release of his Fairest arc — only to have the company decide his “services were no longer required” for the Fables spinoff. The developments triggered substantial discussion, and debate, online, so it’s perhaps to be expected that Roberson would be brought up over the weekend to DC Comics Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee during the Before Watchmen panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
Asked by moderator Geoff Boucher how, as a creator, Lee reconciles Roberson’s comments about DC’s position on creators’ rights, the Image Comic co-founder replied, “I don’t know the writer, Chris [Roberson], and so — you know, it certainly would have helped if I could have talked to him or if he would’ve reached out to me. It seemed odd to me — as a creator, I would not publicly state I have a problem with the company that’s paying me to do work for them and I’m going to quit after I finish this one project. It would seem wise to me to wait until you finish that project to voice that complaint.”
DiDio was more terse in his response, saying, “As far as I’m concerned, he made a very public statement about not wanting to work for DC, and we honored that statement.”
“See,” Lee joked, “now that’s the line that’s going to run.”
Visit Comic Book Resources to read complete coverage of the Before Watchmen panel.
C2E2 | A round-up of news from Friday (and before)
C2E2
Publishers, creators, retailers and fans rolled into Chicago this weekend for the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo, or C2E2. While the convention officially kicked off Friday, the announcements started rolling out Thursday during the Diamond Retailer Summit. After going through Kiel Phegley’s lengthy report on CBR, I’ve pulled out a few tidbits that publishers shared with attending retailers:
• Dynamite Entertainment shared that the first issue of Garth Ennis and Aaron Campbell’s The Shadow, which comes out next week, will likely go to second print. Following their Vampirella and Pantha projects, they also plan to roll out more of the former Harris Publications characters they now own, and they said they plan to work again with Kevin Smith in the future, who they’ve worked with on Bionic Man and Green Hornet.
• Dark Horse Comics announced two Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff miniseries; one featuring Spike and one featuring Willow (Editor Scott Allie spoke more about them with CBR). In addition, legendary artist Russ Heath will draw some pages in an upcoming issue of Buffy. Dark Horse will launch a new Dragon Age series in August, following the online miniseries that’s been running on Dark Horse Digital. They also confirmed that Becky Cloonan will return to Conan after James Harren’s three issues, and they announced Ex Sanguine, a five-issue miniseries by Tim Seeley and Josh Emmons. Finally, The Goon will go monthly with issue #40.
And then there was that time a tuxedo-clad Jim Lee rode a camel
Jim Lee and friend, circa 1997
File under “Oh, Right, the ’90s”: Over the weekend Scott Dunbier, former executive editor of Wildstorm and current special projects editor of IDW Publishing, tweeted a photo from a late 1990s New Year’s Eve party of a sharp-dressed, if “a bit tipsy,” Jim Lee … riding a camel. Lee, the Wildstorm founder turned DC Comics co-publisher, added only, “Doing my Nixon.”
Chain Reactions | Justice League #7
DC Comics kicked off their New 52 reboot last August with Justice League #1, putting two superstar creators–who also happen to be members of the company’s management team–on their flagship team title.
Writer Geoff Johns and artist Jim Lee told a six-issue story about how this new version of the League came together to fight Darkseid and an invasion from Apokolips a few years back. That story ended a month ago, and this month brings a new chapter and a guest artist to the comic, as Johns teams with Gene Ha for a story that gives longtime Wonder Woman supporting character Steve Trevor a role with the League. Also of note in this issue is the beginning of a back-up tale featuring the New 52 debut of Shazam!
So what do folks think about the League’s jump to the present day? And what about the Billy Batson back-up? Here’s a round-up of what a few people thought …
“The Villain’s Journey, Prologue”:
Greg McElhatton, Comic Book Resources: “With Justice League #7, Geoff Johns and guest artist Gene Ha jump the series forward to the present day and I’m sure most readers will be saying, ‘It’s about time.’ Reading this comic, I can understand why and it makes me wish we’d started at this point all along. Thanks to a lack of ‘this is how they all met,’ we end up with a much zippier pace. A threat raises its head, the Justice League shows up and quickly defeats it. Each plot point is hit quickly and effectively and then the story moves forward. Johns also shows us how the different members are getting along with one another and longtime Wonder Woman supporting character Steve Trevor is given a larger role as well. As the new addition to the line-up, Cyborg’s position within the League is well-defined, in some ways taking the spot that Oracle had in Grant Morrison’s JLA. It makes more sense to have him on the team now, and it’s nice to see him working out without either dominating or fading into the background of the comic.”