DC RRP 411
NEWSARAMA - DC NEWS FROM THE RRP MEETING
I'm a little slow on this. But then I've been a little slow on everything this past week, haven't I? Between dadding and getting Strangeways #2 lettered/prepped, it's been a week.
As for the info in the above link, let's take a little look.
Wildstorm will be starting up the "Storm and Sorcery" line of books, starting with Red Sonja crossing over with Claw (a DC character with whom I'm not familiar). I guess the success of Conan is getting enough attention that Wildstorm wants to give the genre a shot. If they're good stories, then I'll be excited. Otherwise, it'll be superhero comics (minus the spandex and plus some blood/guts/bodices). Hmm. That sounds suspiciously like superhero comics as they stand today...
The revived Wildstorm universe will get some talent. I'm moderately interested in Wildcats with Morrison and Jim Lee, but not jumping up and down about it. Gen13 might be interesting. Gail Simone has proven she's got what it takes to write up entertaining team books, so I may give it a shot. Couldn't care about the others, really.
I wonder, however, if Wildstorm will become the home of adult superheroics in DC again, as Infinite Crisis seems to want to bring back a more optimistic breed of superheroics. That would explain all the interest and talent being funneled into the line again.
Hmm. What's this LoEG project? The Black Dossier? Wonder if it's notes and ephemera, since I can't see Alan Moore giving much real content to DC at this point.
52 gets further outlined, but they gotta ditch the 2.99 price point if they want wide adoption. That'll be three bucks a week for a year. Ouch. Still holding my breath to see how all the writers will work with one another. I'm suspecting there will be roadbumps, but I'm always like that.
The team of Simonson and Chaykin on Hawkgirl has my interest. In theory. Let's see how the practice comes out, shall we?
Absolute Sandman gets announced and will start in 2006. Apparently it's going to supercede the current run of hardcovers. This will be an interesting experiment. At first I'd read that it was going to supercede all future pressings of the books, and I was going to point out the commercial folly of shuch a move, but I was a bit too hasty. I think that this will bring collectors out of the woodwork, but I suspect it'll cut into their long-term bookstore market for the hardcovers. These things are going to be pricey and that will likely scare a bunch of folks off of them. As long as they keep the softcovers in print, they should continue to bring new readers and keep their status as evergreen books.
As for me, I'd only be interested in an Absolute Dust Covers, as I've already got all the hardcovers in first printings (minus Dream Country-so if anyone has a line on that, lemme know, but only the original 1st ed hardcover, not the homogenized series that came after.)
Gotham Central comes to an end. We knew it was coming, but it had to happen. I actually feel that the book was treading water for awhile following the departure of Michael Lark (with a few exceptions-mostly due to Steve Lieber's art). I may or may not be interested in the follow-on series that's rumored to start next year, though I have to admit without Ed Brubaker's involvement, I'm a lot less enthusiastic about the prospect.
June and July will get deluged with "major" releases. One a week, for about eight weeks before and during the high news season of SDCC (though last year took a damper to that--we'll see if it continues.)
Darwyn Cooke's Spirit book starts in June. Yes, I'll be all over that, even though it's "sacrilege" that Eisner isn't directly involved. Oh, and apparently there's going to be toys based on Darwyn's designs from DC: the New Frontier, but what would make me happier is a single volume collection. Maybe even an Absolute edition.
And a bunch of other news about toys that I really can't get all that worked up about.
For the most part, it seems like a lot of business as usual, maybe even wagon-circling in terms of DC offerings. Yes, a reinvented Wildstorm could be a good thing, but the proof will be in the pudding. Absolute Sandman should sell a few copies, but may not have the staying power of Watchmen, mostly because with Watchmen, you get it all in one volume. Sandman will be at least four, perhaps five or even six volumes. That's a lotta simoleons.