There was a change in DC’s policies on when it will accept returns from retailers for content change recently, and I think some people read into that “Oh, Bob’s gone, they’re starting to change things!"
(Laughter)
Lee: I think we just matched our competitor’s policy.
You did. DC had been a leader and you moved to a situation that was more in line with what other people were doing which is maybe less favorable to the retailer. Can you respond to that concern?
Didio: I think we’re just putting ourselves in line with the rest of the industry honestly. I think that’s the correct answer.
Doesn’t that take it to the lowest common denominator?
Didio: No, not really. It’s actually working to how the business is being managed at this moment in time. FOC, Final Order Cutoff, was put in for a reason. It was put in so [retailers] could adjust their orders accordingly based upon the information that was provided to them. We’re seeing more and more cases where a lot of poeple just put in a number in that’s a placeholder for the initial order, and then by the time we get to FOC, you see some dramatic changes in the ordering.
It’s clear that they’re reacting to whatever information they had at that point and they’re able to make that change. Just like with every other publisher, they’re saying that’s the cut-off, that’s the moment that everybody’s locking in. They’re locking in their order to stay and at that point we’re locking in the talent and the information for it to stay as is, too. If anything changes after they’ve locked that order in, naturally that makes the material returnable. But if they’re locking in a number at a particular time then we need to have that same flexibility to be able to lock in our talent and team to that time, too.
One of my goals is to make sure that book is delivered on time. If we’re making a change just prior to FOC it’s because there might have been a problem with the work being delivered and those changes are being made for one simple reason, so that book can come out on time for them. So it’s in their interest as well.
What are you excited about for Fall? What do you think represents the greatest opportunities for the trade?
Lee: Several things. There’s a Vertigo launch this fall (see “Vertigo Announces 12 New Titles”). Over October, November, December, Shelly Bond, Executive Editor, has amassed a slate of 12 new books, roughly four new books a month. She’s put together a very eclectic and exciting roster of talent, a lot of voices that haven’t worked for Vertigo before, like Gilbert Hernandez working with Darwyn Cooke on Twilight Children. That’s a really cool new project. Rob Williams is working on a book, Unfollow.
A real mix of books that are tied to things like Lucifer, which is going to be a TV show on Fox this fall (see “First Trailer for Bruckheimer's 'Lucifer'”). So she’s basically put together these books so we can create the most amount of noise and attention to the line. I think it really represents her vision for Vertigo since she’s taken over as Executive Editor.
Ongoings, miniseries, both?
Lee: It’s a mix.
And then, DK3! [Frank Miller’s Dark Knight III (see “Frank Miller Returns to Batman”).]
Didio: I’m excited about DK3, he’s really excited about DK3.
Lee: It’s the book that inspired me to get into comics in 1986 when I graduated from college. We’ve read the outline for the third volume, and it is a tremendous synthesis of both Dark Knight Returns and Dark Knight Strikes Again. It’s Frank [Miller] working with Brian Azzarello, and we announced today that the lead artist on the book is going to be Andy Kubert, working with Klaus Janson (see “Andy Kubert & Klaus Janson on 'Dark Knight III'”).
It’ll be a nice kind of bookend with Klaus coming back onto the project. Andy Kubert is a great storyteller, has a dynamic style, and is a true professional in terms of meeting deadlines, so it really gives ballast to the project. And we’re also announcing that over the eight issues, every issue will have a special guest artist coming in to do a book that ties into the main story, but is essentially a solo book featuring one of the characters that Frank reimagined in the Dark Knight universe. So, The Atom’s been in the series, Wonder Woman, of course, so there’s a huge cast of characters that we can draw upon that he can spotlight and highlight in these sort of mini-comics that we’re going debut inside the regular issues.
Mini-comics in the regular issues? Can you explain that?
Lee: It’s a 32-page comic and then inside, we’re not exactly sure how we’re going to bind it in. There will be a 16-page comic inside which is going to have a 60# cover.
Didio: It’s basically a story set in the Dark Knight universe that ties into the main comic.
DK3, Vertigo,..?
Didio: We’ll be introducing to the end of this year some Convergence tie-ins. Why I’m excited about those is it shows you some of the story points that started in the Convergence miniseries now working their way into the DC universe. What this really does, like Convergence, is that it ties DC’s past history into the forward direction and the storytelling that we’ve established since the “New 52.”
I think what we’ll start to do and you’ll start to see now, is incorporation of a lot of the ideas and stories that existed prior to the launch of the “New 52,” starting to weave their way into [the DC universe] so you feel like all the storytelling matters again, that it’s all part of one ongoing continuity and hopefully get people excited about what we have planned for the future.
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