Ah, the eternal question.

So DC’s going to be putting out original graphic novel material. Not exactly big news all by itself. They’ve done it before, recently even. But in truth, they’ve been doing it nearly as long as Marvel comics have been doing it, back since the early eighties (anyone have a copy of METALZOIC they want to part with, by the by?)

Perhaps more newsworthy is that they’re focusing on their biggest franchises in what amounts to a Hollywood-style reboot, shearing off all that flabby continuity and focusing on the essential components of the characters. Like both Batman and Superman need to wear identical scowls. I kid. Smiling Batman only seems to sell when Grant Morrison does it. Well, I guess Batman smiled all through THE DARK KNIGHT and its sequel, but a scary kind of smile. I seem to recall rumors of an Ultimate-style treatment for DC characters a few years back, though I imagine that got reshaped and turned into ALL-STAR, which wasn’t so much ultimization as neo-classicism gone all widescreen (and pretty dynamite reading overall, both literally and figuratively).

But ALL-STAR never quite delivered the numbers to match the hype, and was so much a superstar project that it was allowed to fall off of a monthly schedule (what, you’re gonna tell Frank Quitely to go faster?) More importantly, it never really took off outside of already-existing comics readers (though I did my part and gave my mom, a one-time science-fiction reader and novelist a copy). The Earth-1 books, as they’ve been dubbed, are clearly (as they say) aimed to hit on radio. And not only on radio, but in bookstores.

Okay, they’ve got JMS (newly-DC-exclusive, what you thought he was just going to write Red Circle comics this whole time?) and Geoff Johns on Superman and Batman, respectively. The artists, while strong, just aren’t the draws that these writers are. At least inside the comics world. I still bet that you could line up 100 people and maybe three of them would know JMS’ name from BABYLON 5 or anything else. I bet that even fewer would know who Geoff Johns was. This isn’t a slam. This is perspective. But I guarandamntee you that all one hundred people would know who Superman and Batman were. This is franchise exercise, get ‘em up and running the flag around the track for a couple of laps, chip away at that gut, get ‘em some fresh air. Get those valuable intellectual properties up at the front table in Barnes and Noble.

And oh yeah, comics retailers will be able to sell them too. Nobody’s debating that, though people will ask if the regular Wednesday crowd has any interest in OGNs featuring their favorite characters in a brand new continuity and universe. I’ve already seen complaints about Superman’s haircut, so I’m guessing that there won’t be widespread embracing of the form (but I’ve been wrong before.)

“But Matt,” you complain “haven’t you been saying forever and ever and ever until we’re all so damn sick of it that the Big Two should be putting out OGN material? Why the bitchfest now?”

One, this isn’t a bitchfest. You want that, go check into any number of comments threads about this subject. Two, yeah, I have been saying that this is the strategy to get increased readership. Strip out the continuity, keep the characters, and ditch the monthly format. I’ve banged the drum for all of those things since I started writing about comics in the first place. People don’t buy the serial magazines. They buy books. They might order serials if they could queue them up on their tablet computers, but I guarantee that they wouldn’t pre-order them months ahead of time.

One question I have about this whole endeavor is what form are these OGNs going to take? Will they be hardcover? Softcover? 7” by 10”? Digest size? Will they have “hand”, as Brian Hibbs has famously asked; will they feel like substantial packages? How about the price point? These questions need to be answered to prevent me from wildly speculating (but that’s never stopped me either, amirite?)

Let me ask those questions in a different way. Are these being aimed at adult readers of comics or are they being aimed at kids? I’m gonna take a wild guess and say teenagers plus, though these things will never be racked in the YA section (and therefore will be overlooked by a lot of teens.) Unless they’re manga sized, they won’t be able to draft on the popularity of the manga sections. So it’ll be back into the purgatory of the Graphic Novel section of the bookstore of your choice. Not unless DC is going to get bold and insist that they get shelved in the “fiction” section of the bookstore and not any of the genre ghettoes.

Aiming these books at adult readers will automaigcally put these at a certain size and price point. I’d guess $25 for the comic-sized version. Maybe more, depending on the number of pages.

If they want younger readers of these books (which you think they’d want or you’re going to constantly have to rebuild your audience every ten years or so), then you probably want to go for the digest presentation, since that’s what non-comics readers are used to in their reading (and by non-comics, I mean not habitual Wednesday crowd superhero readers, apologies if that’s overly broad).

But if I was a betting man, it’d be that they’re going for the hardcover 7” by 10” format.

The big question for the comics industry, and I mean the comic stores, but also the other publishers, is “why do this as a series of OGNs? Why not do it like it’s always been done as singles and then a compilation?” It’s not like the person who buys the books at a bookstore cares whether or not they’ve gotten this story in single issues or not. So why pass up the chance to double-dip on the monthly AND the trade buyer? Give the people what they want, right?

Well for one, I know a number of writers who don’t like writing in chapter-sized chunks. They do, and do it quite well, even though it takes the traditional three-act story and chunkifies it out to six-mini-acts. But that’s probably a secondary consideration at best.

As an independent publisher, I don’t do singles because I don’t have the muscle to make sure that Diamond will carry all, say, six issues of a miniseries before it gets released as a collection. Given minimums and the like, that’s not a guaranteed sort of thing. The market’s gotten small enough that this is a consideration for even some of the bigger publishers, though. Okay, maybe they won’t have a problem making the benchmarks, but having singles make economic sense through their duration, not just on the first issue, isn’t a sure thing. Take a book like MYSTERIUS THE UNFATHOMABLE, which is witty, sharp, smart and filled with great art. It also withered on the vine after the #1. Why? A likely explanation is that people read the first issue and said “Cool. But they’re just gonna collect this and I’ll just wait for the trade.”

This is not a knock on MYSTERIUS, or any of the fine books that I don’t buy in singles because I’d rather have them in the collected form. But I’m also not alone in this way of thinking, even though I’ve been assured that it’s selfish and bad for the industry, and that I, Matt Maxwell am personally killing comics.

None of which explains why DC’s chosen to go this route. They don’t give one shake or two whether or not I buy trades versus singles. They might care about giving their writers and artists new formats, but I don’t think that’s a driving concern. DC is, however, interested in making money (not that that’s a bad thing, but perhaps when it becomes the only thing).

They are, however, interested in seeing which delivery device gets their franchises into the most hands. And maybe, just maybe, they want to see if the OGN is a better way to do it. They’ve already demonstrated that they’re willing to support titles that sell well in trade collections even if the single issues don’t do well (SCALPED comes to mind, as do more than a few of the current Vertigo titles).

Remember, these sorts of books aren’t being sold to the wider audience on the basis of the talent, but on the basis of them being new Superman and Batman material. Sure, lots of people in the world of regular comics readers will be excited about the writing and art talent, and that’s gravy. I’m not seeing these books and being primarily for the Direct Market, no more than THE DARK KNIGHT (the film) was aimed at just comics readers. The Direct Market isn’t big enough for these characters, not anymore.

Wonder if this will work out? If it get more people used to reading comics in book form, then that’s a good thing, right? It’s certainly not the end of the single issue comic, but it certainly could be a step closer to getting comics as books into the mainstream. That is, if readers beyond comic fans are ready to read full-length books about Batman and Superman when there isn’t a blockbuster film to back them up. If there’s indeed a market for these characters in the broader mainstream. Cue the superhero decadence and critics of the babymen stating that it’ll never happen and maybe people would be better off reading more LOVE AND ROCKETS. And maybe some people would.

Me, I’d like to think that any expansion of the comics market is a good thing. And maybe this will even be an expansive move. I’m not smart or precognitive enough to figure that out, but I suspect it’s got an even chance of paying off. Sure, DC’s littered the road behind them with an assortment of initiatives and new lines that ended prematurely, but I’d argue that some if not most of those never played to DC’s strengths. This one may.