DC To Reissue Watchmen, DKR, New Frontier, others, through Black Label imprint

David_D

As reported in The Hollywood Reporter.

Their lede:

DC Black Label, the comic book imprint focusing on continuity-light evergreen comics featuring DC’s core characters, is more than a boutique line of new material from creators including Brian Azzarello, Frank Miller and Kelly Sue DeConnick. It’s also the new home for some of the most iconic titles in DC’s back catalog.

The line, which launched last month, will be responsible for new editions of classic titles, such as Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and All-Star Superman, creating a library of titles immediately recognizable and accessible to newcomers to the medium as well as longtime fans. More than 20 new editions will be released in 2019 alone — including a new “Modern Classics” edition of Watchmen, featuring new slipcase art from co-creator Dave Gibbons.

My first impression was that this was a way of not only highlighting and selling yet another version of their classics, but also a way to try to firewall mature readers content away from the main line without needing to make them Vertigo books. But then when I saw the full list, it really is a kind of evergreen greatest hits of DC work. (The majority of which were never mature readers branded, and don't have naughty words or any winkies, Blue or Bat or otherwise, in them.)

Here is the list of announced new Black Label editions so far, as per the HR's article:

All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (Trade Paperback, Dec. 4, 2018)
DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke (Trade Paperback, Feb. 19 2019)
Watchmen (DC Modern Classics Edition) by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (Hardcover, March 26, 2019)
Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross (Trade Paperback, Apr. 23, 2019)
Frank Miller’s Ronin by Frank Miller (Trade Paperback, May 6, 2019)
Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli (Trade Paperback, June 11, 2019)
All-Star Batman & Robin, The Boy Wonder Vol. 1 by Frank Miller and Jim Lee (Trade Paperback, June 11, 2019)
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson (Trade Paperback, June 18, 2019)
Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again by Frank Miller (Trade Paperback, June 18, 2019)
Batman: The Dark Knight — The Master Race by Brian Azzarello, Frank Miller and Andy Kubert (Trade Paperback, June 25, 2019)
Luthor: 10th Anniversary Edition by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo (Hardcover, July 9, 2019)
The Joker: 10th Anniversary Edition by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo (Hardcover, July 9, 2019)
Batman: Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean (Trade Paperback, Aug. 13, 2019)
The Joker by Brian Azzarello: The Deluxe Edition by Brain Azzarello and Lee Bermejo (Hardcover, Sept. 10, 2019)
Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland (Trade Paperback, Sept. 17, 2019)
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (Trade Paperback, Sept. 24, 2019)
Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope (Trade Paperback, Oct. 8, 2019)
Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar, Dave Johnson, Andrew Robinson, Killian Plunkett and Walden Wong (Trade Paperback, Oct. 22, 2019)
Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (Trade Paperback, Nov. 5, 2019)
Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (Trade Paperback, Nov. 12, 2019)
Batman: Dark Victory by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (Trade Paperback, Nov. 26, 2019)
Batman: Haunted Night by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (Trade Paperback, Dec. 17, 2019)
Catwoman: When in Rome by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (Trade Paperback, Dec. 31, 2019)

Vertighost

Perhaps I'm being too cynical or perhaps it's how terribly unmemorable and sophomoric I found the writing in that first issue of Batman the Damned, but to me this just reeks of the honchos at DC realizing that The Damned and whatever else they have coming up under the Black Label imprimatur isn't likely to go down in history as a classic story and so rather than having the new line develop its own reputation for the best in writing by coming out with great new stories (like Vertigo did way back when), they're going to have the label become a sign of quality by simply lumping all the best work under it. As of now the label isn't a sign of quality to come but of quality that was.

When the main thing the flagship issue of your new label is going to be remembered for is showing Batman's penis I think that pretty much sums it up. Oh, and lest I forget, there was also the complete desecration of Christian symbols which seems to have gone unnoticed whereas if the same thing had been done using Islamic or Judaic symbols, the protests - backed and overtly supported by mainstream media outlets- and allegations that the comic was "perpetuating hate" would've been swift indeed. I'm a non-religious liberal but if anyone continues to wonder why so many Christians and Evangelicals feel like they are treated like second class citizens (compared to other religions) by the mainstream in modern society, it's because they are. Defacing the Star of David would be considered a hate crime, but DC will be removing the Bat-penis from all future printings - not the Christian defacement.

David_D

@Vertighost

Not to argue quality one way or the other on Batman:Damned. But regarding the idea that it was meant to be the flagship and now DC is backpedaling post-Bat-winkie, it is fair to point out that in their press release introducing Black Label back in March, Damned was just one of a first wave of titles. Superman: Year One from Miller and Romita Jr. was supposed to be the first of the imprint, but got delayed. Heck, the paragraph describing the rollout (below) doesn't even mention Damned, so I wonder if they hoped/wanted several of these to hit before it:

DC Black Label makes its publishing debut with the previously announced SUPERMAN: YEAR ONE saga from legendary author Frank Miller and artist John Romita Jr. The three-part prestige series will hit shelves August 2018. John Ridley’s THE OTHER HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE, announced in January, will be published under the new imprint as well. And Kelly Sue DeConnick (Bitch Planet) joins DC Black Label for her first major work with the company, alongside artist Phil Jimenez, with WONDER WOMAN HISTORIA: THE AMAZONS.

And that's not to say that DC didn't think Damned was good or that they didn't want to publish it. As they did, and they did. But just a point of fact that the plan was not to have it be the thing that introduced the imprint. It looks like it was the one that ended up getting finished first, by a margin of many months. (Sometimes prestige takes time... maybe especially if it involved Frank Miller these days).

More importantly, regarding the idea that pushing old titles onto Black Label was an act of damage control, I didn't realize they actually announced some plans to do this in the early summer, months before Damned came out and there was any reaction to it one way or the other.

And I missed this back then, so all of this reissuing seemed like news to me (and to be fair, that Hollywood Reporter talks about this like it was a scoop) so I shared it that way. But it turns out that DC was talking about collecting previous, non-Black Label work as Black Label collected editions, as well as doing reissues of classics as Black Label, all the way back in June. They first talked about the collected edition of Batman: White Knight, and then added:

In addition, fans can look forward to several of DC’s most acclaimed and influential comics getting a DC Black Label release as well. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, Darwyn Cooke’s DC: THE NEW FRONTIER and Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ KINGDOM COME will all soon be released under the imprint. They’ll also be joined by some historic work from legendary artist and writer Frank Miller, whose BATMAN: YEAR ONE and BATMAN: DARK KNIGHT: MASTER RACE will become part of the line as well, timed to the release of his new Superman: Year One series with John Romita, Jr.

That much bigger list of titles that the HR reported on, and that it includes Watchmen, I guess is the news. But I didn't realize that DC had already been talking about reissues like the above.

So, again, this is not to convince you to like Damned, or the start of the Black Label line when you didn't. But the idea of including reissues seems like it was always part of the plan.

Vertighost

@David_D,

Thanks. I appreciate the clarification. I'm happy to see my cynicism was uncalled for.

I will be extremely curious to see what Miller has up his sleeve for Superman since he's held the character in such contempt in the past. In addition to his completely-out-of-character portrayal as government lapdog in Dark Knight, I saw him speak at a con about a decade ago and he said he thought Superman's only purpose in a team-up with Batman would be to follow Batman's instructions. He literally pretended to be Batman and pointed around the room saying, "Go knock down that wall.... Now, go pick that up." Presumably his viewpoint has changed considerably, although given what DC allowed him to do with Bats and other characters in his All Star Batman, God only knows.

PS: to be fair to it, I should mention that despite my obvious extreme dislike of the writing in The Damned, I did love Bermejo's art, which was one of the two reasons I bought it. The other being the surprisingly inexpensive cover price which I really have to give props to DC for. If something like that had come out from Marvel I expect they would've charged at least 10 bucks. I notice Marvel is coming out with more and more single issues for $4.99 which I wouldn't find so off-putting if they didn't try to justify the extra cost by padding out the extra pages with a shorter story I'm not interested in.

Brack

Also worth remembering that Vertigo was built on the back of existing comics - Shade, Sandman, Hellblazer, Animal Man, Doom Patrol - and the subsequent re-branding of their pre-Vertigo content in collections.

Even the initial "Vertigo" comics tended to be either spin-offs of earlier DC comics (Death, Kid Eternity, Sandman Mystery Theatre) or titles they'd rescued from Disney's Touchmark.

It's not until The Invisibles (and then Preacher) that Vertigo becomes what we remember it as.

And even then there's still an argument to be made that it was still both a dumping ground for comics worth saving (Helix's Transmetropolitan) and overly reliant on spin-offs from old DC comics (Lucifer, Books of Magic, The Dreaming etc).

And as Black Label is firmly the latter approach I don't see it finding the permanence of a Vertigo, as by design it's never going to have the break out comic with a buzz around it. All those comics are going to be published by Image Comics these days.

Vertighost

I agree that Vertigo was built on comics that already existed, but the Vertigo label wasn't placed on them to say "These are our most prestigious creators doing some of their best work" the way they are suggesting with Black Label. It was only meant to say "These are not like most of our other comics. If you like things that could be considered for more mature readers, these are those comics". They weren't rolled out in any deluxe or extra special packaging. One month Shade had no Vertigo imprint on its cover and the next month it did, but there was no special roll out.

When I picked up The Damned I was hoping for a great Batman story that lived up to the art and packaging. I didn't like it and felt it didn't deliver on all the care that had gone into its presentation. When I picked up my first issue of Morrison's Doom Patrol under the Vertigo imprint all those years ago I also didn't like it, but I didn't think the Vertigo imprint was misleading. It certainly was unlike all the other DC comics, too far out there for me at the time.

I realize my opinion to The Damned was solely my own and maybe others thought it was great writing and Black Label is a sign of quality for them. The fact that all I heard about was Batman's penis however (which I honestly failed to notice when I read it) was a sign to me that this was all sizzle and no steak and not a good start. (Unless the goal was simply attention and the penis click bait for the media, which it seems to have been) I was happy to know that it was not intended as the flagship issue and that lumping all the acclaimed books under its banner was always planned.

nweathington

The primary goal of Vertigo (at least in the eyes of the higher-ups) was to develop projects that had the potential of being optioned for film/TV. That's why those titles were given a longer leash in terms of sales. I'm not sure the same can be said of Black Label, given that WB is now set on following the Marvel model and having a strong sense of continuity throughout the DC film universe. I think Black Label is more about finding a way to keep top-end talent working for them (and I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of the BL books being adapted into animated films for the DCU streaming service).

Brack

nweathington said:

(and I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of the BL books being adapted into animated films for the DCU streaming service).

Probably shouldn't use the "BL" abbreviation as that is already in use as a comics related acronym. :)

And honestly that would be a much more interesting direction for DC Comics than adding a new label to comics they'd have printed anyway.

Time to make that World's Finest subtext into text!

mwhitt80

Brack said:

nweathington said:

(and I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of the BL books being adapted into animated films for the DCU streaming service).

Probably shouldn't use the "BL" abbreviation as that is already in use as a comics related acronym. :)

Let's be real here if you're going to deface an altar and crucifix and draw batwang might as well do a Bruce loves young dick story. It could be "gritty and mature".

If Batman the Damned is an indication of what Black Label is, then count me out because I don't need to read crappier versions of the bad Max books

edit: thanks @Brack for making me look that one up.

Vertighost

@nweathington, are you saying that the original purpose of Vertigo was to develop projects to be optioned for film/tv? I'll take your word for it, but except for The Books of Magic and Hellblazer I can't imagine any executive thinking any of the early series were more likely to make the cut as a series or film than the more mainstream superhero stuff especially in the early 90's. Swamp Thing was made into both but that was because - from my understanding- Michael Uslan had optioned the rights many years earlier and already had had success in Hollywood.

I can believe that Berger was able to convince execs who didn't know better that Animal Man and Sandman could potentially become the next Swamp Thing-like "horror" series/film but each series would've had to have been gutted and had all of its sharp edges removed the way the Vertigo Swamp Thing was in both film and tv. Again, I'll take your word for it, but I think the original Vertigo lineup wasn't just unusual and not particularly commercial for comics, but would've been unusual and not commercial in any format geared towards the mainstream. They would've also been less likely to be made into something animated or kid friendly because of the mature themes.

nweathington

It wasn’t the original editorial purpose of Vertigo, per se, but WB execs found it useful to have around. Karen Berger’s job was to develop great stories outside of the typical DCU purview. But one of the jobs of Jenette Kahn, and the publishers who came after her, was to let WB know when a series or graphic novel had further potential. Watchmen, which in large part set the tone for what would become Vertigo, was first optioned for film back in 1986.

The purpose of Vertigo’s predecessor Pirhana Press (launched in 1989) was to help DC get into bookstores. Then Kyle Baker came along with Why I Hate Saturn, Kahn said, “Hey, WB exec, look at this!” and WB decided to make a TV sitcom out of it (it was developed, but never made it to the pilot stage). So, yeah, WB’s hope for the Vertigo line was to get some properties they could develop as films or TV shows. And both Sandman and Death were optioned for film in the ’90s.