DC Zoom and DC Ink: DC Launching Two New Lines Aimed At Younger Readers
David_D
Posts: 3,884
I am a little late on this news (busy week!) but a major announcement from DC this week, addressing a question that I know gets talked about on here a lot, which is how to get more, and younger, people to read comics (and sometimes the specific subset of the question, as it applies to the Big Two, as there are plenty of middle grade and young adults reading comics as a medium, especially world wide. But it is an area that DC and Marvel have had trouble competing in).
DC is doing a significant push in these areas with DC Zoom and DC Ink, including bringing in some very successful middle grade and young adult series authors.
Here is the Times article about it
DC is doing a significant push in these areas with DC Zoom and DC Ink, including bringing in some very successful middle grade and young adult series authors.
Here is the Times article about it
Comments
That Mera cover is beautiful and I'll still check them out. Just not with the same enthusiasm.
I heard they broke a window once.
I didn't. I based my comments on the brief mention in the linked story at the top of the page. Thanks for posting the additional link. However, at the end of the day today's klan has been marginalized to the point that their more a punchline than a threat. There are other threats that need the same courage that Timely, Simon and Kirby showed when they published the "punching hitler in the face" cover.
Just my opinion.
Just kidding. I never shut up. :) I do agree with Eric's point that these characters still need to have some amount of "super" to them if this is to work. The fun of being a kid reading these stories (for me at least) was that these were characters who did things I couldn't do and never could...but man did I *wish* I could. These books need to capture that, otherwise the same effect could be achieved if it were "Amanda Jones, 4th grader" instead of "Mera".
I don’t read YA - so their notion of a protagonist could be WAY different than what we think it should be. I’d leave it up to these new creators to have a better idea of what a younger generation is reading.
To put it in perspective, what’s that commercial where the young kid says ‘What’s a computer?’ It could be exactly that when thinking about an entry point to creating these books: ‘What is a superhero?’
If you think Marvel used to flood the market when a genre became popular—and, man, did they—you should look into the YA/middle grade book marketplaces. When you compare what sticks around—Harry Potter, Renee Telgemeier, et al.—to what doesn’t, the differences are pretty clear. And that is what DC is going up against here. DC isn't in competition with Marvel in this case. They’re in competition with Harry Potter and the Wimpy Kid and the Hunger Games. And there’s a lot more competition here than on the comic racks of your LCS. Occasionally imitators catch fire—see Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson books (which I think are pretty awful by the way)—but for the most part they fall by the wayside in the long run because kids can usually smell out BS. DC needs to play to their strengths if they want to carve out a steady foothold.
They’ve got a great choice of talent in Gene Yang, a guy who knows superheroes (Shadow Hero is great) and the YA market (American Born Chinese is even better). Even though his best work is the stuff he created himself, not the stuff featuring someone else’s properties and editorial dictates, I trust him to turn in a good story. I've read a few of Mariko Tamaki’s stories, and she’s a decent writer who knows how to handle licensed properties. Laurie Halse Anderson is a good writer (though she’s done her share of shlock which you couldn’t pay me to read), but I don't think she's ever done anything like this, so she might need an adjustment period (as did Ta-Nehisi Coates). The others mentioned in the article I'm not sold on.
I'm all for these books not appealing to us old heads and for finding different ways to be about heroes. Find something new and let the kids sort it out.
No older person can dictate what kids are going to gravitate to as a whole. Do you see what's popular these days? Makes me shrug and watch something else. And I'm okay with that!
They announced they'll be doing a YA Green Lantern in this line! Awesome! Do I like the idea of another earth lantern? No. Do I honestly thing it'll start crossing over into the main DC continuity? No. So I've got no issues with it! It'll be cool to see how they develop the GL concept and translate it for a YA audience and how, if at all, it differs.
SOURCE:
Writer Minh Lê Shares A Sneak Peek of YA-Focused Green Lantern: Legacy
If people dig it I'm okay with that. Those aren't the kind of thing I want to get, but I wasn't in the Scooby-Doo comics market until I was (and I read those things all the time).
The only part of this that really interests me Gene Yang. ABC is one of my favorite comics, and he can write amazing stories for the YA audience (also see Boxers and Saints). I'll read his book digitally and if I like it get a copy for the kids shelves.
Granted that was learning to read about Starfire (the first one, not the Teen Titans one) fighting these ugly-ass aliens, and Supergirl, who I'm told had a cousin, but that wasn't what my sisters collected. :D
What...IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN!!! Get your heads out of the sewers, people! >:^)