I make my own books, and I when I catch a typo (rare but it happens) I've nowhere to point the finger but at myself (and let me tell you, I chew Me out ROYALLY when it happens! :) ). The balls on the Big 2 to send books out like this drives me up the wall.
The thing we forget is that, though their job title is Editor, actual editing is among the last of their jobs. More of their time is spent acquiring talent, and then scheduling them, and making sure deadlines are hit. With the increased emphasis placed on the latter, other things end up falling by the wayside, copy editing being one of them. It's a problem in all areas of publishing. Acquisition and time to market become the paramount activity, and so quality control falls victim. A late book doesn't much bother me, but a stupid typo drives me absolutely nuts!
At DC, you also need to add plotting the book, rewriting the script, demanding last minute art changes....
So no wonder they don't have time to actually PROOF the script changes they made.
I wonder with the growing number of cancellations and negative attitudes (assuming this board isn't an aberration), if DC will consider wiping out the New 52-verse and going back to the original Universe. Kind of like getting rid of New Coke.
e L nny
I think for them its a success so far. I think sales are still up.
Only for a handful of titles, notably Batman, Green Lantern and Justice League. There are a number of titles that are doing okay to middling (meaning only slightly better than, or about the same as, sales before the New52), and several more skirting the whirlpool of cancellation. And remember that only a third or less of the original 52 are still around.
Remember, though, in the lead up to the New 52, a lot of titles were trending sharply downward. And the line wide market share was dropping. So even if, line wide, the New 52 is still only somewhat above where the line was before the New 52 launched (and I think, share-wise, it is more than slightly above) you also have to consider how much further down the line wide DC share would have dropped to had they not made a big move to reverse that trend.
Which is, of course, not to say that it is not as successful as it might have been. Because hypothetically anything could be more successful. But DC certainly has a healthier bottom line than where things were, as well as where things were continuing to head, ahead of the New 52.
And that is just for the numbers we see. The Comixology numbers are gravy on top of that.
So I don't see them reversing or doing away with the New 52 anytime soon. Not when it is succeeding in the only way that likely matters to them: it sells.
I wonder with the growing number of cancellations and negative attitudes (assuming this board isn't an aberration), if DC will consider wiping out the New 52-verse and going back to the original Universe. Kind of like getting rid of New Coke.
e L nny
I think for them its a success so far. I think sales are still up.
Only for a handful of titles, notably Batman, Green Lantern and Justice League. There are a number of titles that are doing okay to middling (meaning only slightly better than, or about the same as, sales before the New52), and several more skirting the whirlpool of cancellation. And remember that only a third or less of the original 52 are still around.
Overall, sales are up significantly in comparison to pre-N52, and that's taking a good several years into account. Though some titles are doing less business, they're up in both units and dollars. For every title that is hovering at around what it was before, there are another couple that are up significantly (All Star Western continues to sell at a rate that it took a few issues to get to in even its best Jonah Hex days, Swamp Thing is better than double its last Vertigo incarnation, Action is doing more, Superman is doing more, Suicide Squad is doing more than Secret Six, Batgirl is doing more, Nightwing is doing more etc etc.).
There will always be outliers and drain-circlers, and when you're trying a lot of "new" (read bringing back some old things that once worked) things, that's going to happen. Some will flourish, as All Star Western, and others will be Sword of Sorcery.
Well, that certainly used to be the case at any rate. Even the big publishers have made cut-backs to staff, and usually a designated proofreader is one of the first positions to go, with the work falling to an assistant editor or copy editor. With sales not what they once were, I was expecting that DC had an intern doing the proofreading these days.
I recall a few years ago hearing that much of the proofreading staff for the trade department was let go. That was around the time some DC Archives editions actually came out with missing pages, pages in the wrong order, etc. I want to say there was a big problem with a Hawkman Archive that had annoyed a lot of people, but this was several years ago, so I may be mis-remembering.
Well, that certainly used to be the case at any rate. Even the big publishers have made cut-backs to staff, and usually a designated proofreader is one of the first positions to go, with the work falling to an assistant editor or copy editor. With sales not what they once were, I was expecting that DC had an intern doing the proofreading these days.
I recall a few years ago hearing that much of the proofreading staff for the trade department was let go. That was around the time some DC Archives editions actually came out with missing pages, pages in the wrong order, etc. I want to say there was a big problem with a Hawkman Archive that had annoyed a lot of people, but this was several years ago, so I may be mis-remembering.
I don't know if it was the whole staff but it is why Robert Greenberger was fired (supposedly). The details are very murky on that one, and I heard there was more to the story, but I didn't ask because it wasn't any of my business. I DO know that their reprinting things before 1975 took a HUGE hit with him not being there, pitching projects.
Well, that certainly used to be the case at any rate. Even the big publishers have made cut-backs to staff, and usually a designated proofreader is one of the first positions to go, with the work falling to an assistant editor or copy editor. With sales not what they once were, I was expecting that DC had an intern doing the proofreading these days.
I recall a few years ago hearing that much of the proofreading staff for the trade department was let go. That was around the time some DC Archives editions actually came out with missing pages, pages in the wrong order, etc. I want to say there was a big problem with a Hawkman Archive that had annoyed a lot of people, but this was several years ago, so I may be mis-remembering.
Exactly. And, yes, that Hawkman Archive had several pages printed out of order. I don't remember if it was a problem with the files or if the printer was at fault. Either way, it was a lack of oversight.
So, I was definitely one of those readers that was really excited about the new 52 and I added a bunch of the DC titles to my pull list. In the past year and a half though, I have noticed that my pull list organically moved away from DC and has gone to a very heavy mix of indies and Marvel. I think for me, its been a slow move away from DC, but definitely a move away. Every month, I saw myself dropping DC titles and filling in with other publisher material. Usually, it was because of the story line or creator changes. Basically, now on my DC pull on what seems to be on everyone else's pull, Batman, Batgirl, All Star-Western, Animal Man, Swamp Thing. If I count Vertigo, Unwritten, American Vampire, Fables, Fairest. Looking at these titles, you can clearly see they are the ones with the most consistent creators telling a good story.
Most likely it's a typo. I can forgive that in most indie books with low budgets but DC can afford to hire a proofreader.
Cue Didio coming into say: "You see, in Amazon culture, there are no men, so they attribute masculine titles to their positions of . . . you're not buying this, are you?" :)
That kind of typo is just sloppiness on the part of the editorial staff. The recent Aquaman (#16) has two glaring typos: the past tense of a word where the present tense is called for ('agreed' instead of 'agree') and the common confusion of using 'your' for 'you're'. Writers and letterers may make mistakes, but I expect editors to catch and correct them.
I think they also spelled Arthur's name wrong
Yes!!!! I knew I saw another typo in there! It's misspelled as 'Aruthur' in one panel! That's three typos in one issue! That proofreader should be fired!
I normally just google it. It's pretty easy to find. BUT I've never seen sales figures for digital sales and I'm not sure that DC releases them. So if a title like Wonder Woman has settled down into the 30k-40k range there might be 5,000 sales we don't know about. Maybe less, maybe more. Who knows.
The number I've heard for digital is approx. 10% of print sales on average.
DC's New 52, in ten years, will be a big box of GRAY.
Oh but wait, there was the Maxx. That was actually a good book. And didn't Bone come out then as well? Then there was that Moore chap and his Strangers in Paradise. And Peter David did a helluva good Supergirl run during that period.
Having a harder time thinking of great 90s Marvel, but DC also had Hitman, Starman, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, The Ray, and early Vertigo
Sorry I popped in late and saw "The Maxx" (needs a 2 volume Absolute or an oversized omnibus DC)
Some weirdness this week. I was at my favorite used bookstore and they had the trade of the N52 Blackhawks. This was a series that deep down I'd "wanted" to see work, so I'll say that going in. That it didn't came as no surprise to me - no legacy characters outside someone using the name Lady Blackhawk (sans blond hair and short skirt), no real connection to the DCU proper (ie. no guest appearances), a bunch of new people nobody'd heard of - the odds were against it from issue #1. Even I felt it was going nowhere fast after issue 4 or 5.
Something possessed me to pick up the trade anyhow. Give it another day in court. And you know what? The damn thing worked. It was a great blend of action/espionage and sci-fi with just a hint of humor. It didn't work as a monthly, but the trade read great...it's staying on the bookshelf - maybe as DC's first and worst casualty of this N52 effort.
Of course it was an attempt to bring GI Joe to the DCU...but this was a faux-GI Joe story I didn't mind reading. I think the biggest strike against it was that it was part of the DCU - it would have probably done much better as an independent book where we didn't bring our expectations into it.
Some weirdness this week. I was at my favorite used bookstore and they had the trade of the N52 Blackhawks. This was a series that deep down I'd "wanted" to see work, so I'll say that going in. That it didn't came as no surprise to me - no legacy characters outside someone using the name Lady Blackhawk (sans blond hair and short skirt), no real connection to the DCU proper (ie. no guest appearances), a bunch of new people nobody'd heard of - the odds were against it from issue #1. Even I felt it was going nowhere fast after issue 4 or 5.
Something possessed me to pick up the trade anyhow. Give it another day in court. And you know what? The damn thing worked. It was a great blend of action/espionage and sci-fi with just a hint of humor. It didn't work as a monthly, but the trade read great...it's staying on the bookshelf - maybe as DC's first and worst casualty of this N52 effort.
Of course it was an attempt to bring GI Joe to the DCU...but this was a faux-GI Joe story I didn't mind reading. I think the biggest strike against it was that it was part of the DCU - it would have probably done much better as an independent book where we didn't bring our expectations into it.
I bought the entire run, but I was largely disappointed with it. For one thing, the GI Joe approach didn't interest me. (I was never a fan of GI Joe.) The other thing was that it was totally divorced from the original Blackhawks, and that was that I really wanted: an updating of the original Magnificent Seven. What I got was a bunch of impostors. If it had at least maintained the connection by using the original 'Hawks, I might have enjoyed it more.
Some weirdness this week. I was at my favorite used bookstore and they had the trade of the N52 Blackhawks. This was a series that deep down I'd "wanted" to see work, so I'll say that going in. That it didn't came as no surprise to me - no legacy characters outside someone using the name Lady Blackhawk (sans blond hair and short skirt), no real connection to the DCU proper (ie. no guest appearances), a bunch of new people nobody'd heard of - the odds were against it from issue #1. Even I felt it was going nowhere fast after issue 4 or 5.
Something possessed me to pick up the trade anyhow. Give it another day in court. And you know what? The damn thing worked. It was a great blend of action/espionage and sci-fi with just a hint of humor. It didn't work as a monthly, but the trade read great...it's staying on the bookshelf - maybe as DC's first and worst casualty of this N52 effort.
Of course it was an attempt to bring GI Joe to the DCU...but this was a faux-GI Joe story I didn't mind reading. I think the biggest strike against it was that it was part of the DCU - it would have probably done much better as an independent book where we didn't bring our expectations into it.
I bought the entire run, but I was largely disappointed with it. For one thing, the GI Joe approach didn't interest me. (I was never a fan of GI Joe.) The other thing was that it was totally divorced from the original Blackhawks, and that was that I really wanted: an updating of the original Magnificent Seven. What I got was a bunch of impostors. If it had at least maintained the connection by using the original 'Hawks, I might have enjoyed it more.
That's pretty much it. If they had called this anything other than Blackhawks, I think it might have worked better. Still would have been cancelled :) but might have been better received overall.
Some weirdness this week. I was at my favorite used bookstore and they had the trade of the N52 Blackhawks. This was a series that deep down I'd "wanted" to see work, so I'll say that going in. That it didn't came as no surprise to me - no legacy characters outside someone using the name Lady Blackhawk (sans blond hair and short skirt), no real connection to the DCU proper (ie. no guest appearances), a bunch of new people nobody'd heard of - the odds were against it from issue #1. Even I felt it was going nowhere fast after issue 4 or 5.
Something possessed me to pick up the trade anyhow. Give it another day in court. And you know what? The damn thing worked. It was a great blend of action/espionage and sci-fi with just a hint of humor. It didn't work as a monthly, but the trade read great...it's staying on the bookshelf - maybe as DC's first and worst casualty of this N52 effort.
Of course it was an attempt to bring GI Joe to the DCU...but this was a faux-GI Joe story I didn't mind reading. I think the biggest strike against it was that it was part of the DCU - it would have probably done much better as an independent book where we didn't bring our expectations into it.
I bought the entire run, but I was largely disappointed with it. For one thing, the GI Joe approach didn't interest me. (I was never a fan of GI Joe.) The other thing was that it was totally divorced from the original Blackhawks, and that was that I really wanted: an updating of the original Magnificent Seven. What I got was a bunch of impostors. If it had at least maintained the connection by using the original 'Hawks, I might have enjoyed it more.
That's pretty much it. If they had called this anything other than Blackhawks, I think it might have worked better. Still would have been cancelled :) but might have been better received overall.
I don't think anything was going to save that book.
I gave Blackhawks three months. Dropped it when I realized that every time I opened up a new issue, I couldn't remember who any of the characters were or what was going on. It did a terrible job of establishing everything from the start, especially since it was an entirely new take on the concept.
I gave Blackhawks three months. Dropped it when I realized that every time I opened up a new issue, I couldn't remember who any of the characters were or what was going on. It did a terrible job of establishing everything from the start, especially since it was an entirely new take on the concept.
Yeah, I was having the same difficulty. I was only just starting to get a handle on them by the last issue, and even then I wasn't certain.
They made the mistake of trying to do a "slow-build" on character development, and that doesn't always work in the funnybooks, where we tend to like our "Special Origin Issues" and stuff like that. It read much better in trade format for some reason...just something that had a lot of potential if it had been executed a wee bit better.
Comments
So no wonder they don't have time to actually PROOF the script changes they made.
I KEED, I KEED!
Which is, of course, not to say that it is not as successful as it might have been. Because hypothetically anything could be more successful. But DC certainly has a healthier bottom line than where things were, as well as where things were continuing to head, ahead of the New 52.
And that is just for the numbers we see. The Comixology numbers are gravy on top of that.
So I don't see them reversing or doing away with the New 52 anytime soon. Not when it is succeeding in the only way that likely matters to them: it sells.
There will always be outliers and drain-circlers, and when you're trying a lot of "new" (read bringing back some old things that once worked) things, that's going to happen. Some will flourish, as All Star Western, and others will be Sword of Sorcery.
@tankong on twitter
^:)^
Hitman, Starman, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, The Ray, and early Vertigo
Sorry I popped in late and saw "The Maxx" (needs a 2 volume Absolute or an oversized omnibus DC)
Something possessed me to pick up the trade anyhow. Give it another day in court. And you know what? The damn thing worked. It was a great blend of action/espionage and sci-fi with just a hint of humor. It didn't work as a monthly, but the trade read great...it's staying on the bookshelf - maybe as DC's first and worst casualty of this N52 effort.
Of course it was an attempt to bring GI Joe to the DCU...but this was a faux-GI Joe story I didn't mind reading. I think the biggest strike against it was that it was part of the DCU - it would have probably done much better as an independent book where we didn't bring our expectations into it.