Tag: Jim Lee

DC Comics Announced Marie Javins Promoted to Editor-in-Chief 

DC Comics Announced Marie Javins Promoted to Editor-in-Chief 

Variety has reported that DC Comics has promoted Marie Javins to editor-in-chief.

The move was announced Monday by Daniel Cherry III, senior vice president and general manager of DC Comics, to whom Javins will report.

Javins will be tasked overseeing the execution of the company’s annual publishing schedule and growing all DC imprints.

This is a major public announcement regarding the restructuring fallout of the massive administrative and editorial layoff from earlier this summer.

According to the article, Javins will work closely with Jim Lee, DC Publisher and Chief Creative Officer, as well as Cherry to define and cultivate the character development and creative talent decisions for all DC Comics properties in the publishing area.

From the Variety announcement, Javins had this to say regarding her appointment:

“I’m incredibly honored by this responsibility, and will dedicate myself to supporting and challenging DC’s extended family of staff, talent, retailers, and partners around the world in our quest to tell innovative visual stories that both reflect and expand our world—and in some cases, our galaxy and multiverse.”

Source: DC Comics Promotes Marie Javins to Editor-in-Chief – Variety

Spotlight SquadCast Interview with Comics Colorist Chris Sotomayor

Spotlight SquadCast Interview with Comics Colorist Chris Sotomayor

Welcome back to another spotlight interview. In this session, we spoke with comics colorist, artist, and teacher Christopher Sotomayor.

Chris has been part of the comic industry for twenty-five years. He has done a lot of work for Marvel and DC, including long runs on Captain Marvel, Nightwing, The Hulk, and more. You can find him currently doing colors for Deadpool, Batman Beyond, and The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage.

Chris teaches the online comic coloring classes with Comics Experience and has a new session coming up next month.

While we have interviewed Chris before, we reached out to him again to get his perspective on how the pandemic is affecting his work and the current state of the comics industry.

You can find the audio recording of our discussion below, and we transcribed a big portion of it for you as well.

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

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Pop Culture Squad: Let’s get started with talking about the books you working on these days.

Chris Sotomayor: I am working on whole range of different things, and I am excited about most of them. I want to say all of them, but if I am being honest, I am excited about most of them.

PCS: That is fine. We had talked about that Batman Beyond is coming to an end. Are you finished with it? Continue reading “Spotlight SquadCast Interview with Comics Colorist Chris Sotomayor”

Creators are Caring for Comic Shops

With the mass chaos and uncertainty that the physical comic book industry is in as a result of the COVID-19 health crisis, comic book writers and artists are finding unique ways to try to help comic shops. As we have detailed earlier, comic professionals are also affected by this pandemic in real financial terms. As their income streams dry up and “pencils down” orders are given, the community searches for ways to survive.

We are confident that the medium of sequential art will not go away, but it may emerge from this crisis altered. Will it be for the better? It is impossible to tell. In the meantime, the community is trying to support each other.

Today, we want to highlight some of the innovative efforts to support both creative talent and comic shops.

Love and Capes Returns

We told you in an interview earlier that cartoonist Thom Zahler has been working on the new Love and Capes: The Family Way series, and selling small print run single-issues at conventions. IDW will be collecting and printing a Trade Paperback this summer, but with all conventions on hold, Thom came up with an inventive way to get the story and get new inventory into the hands of comic shops that are still open in whatever form.

He is offering a way for comic shops to order the individual issues directly from him, and is, even, offering a way for the issue covers to be customized. Comic Shops can get all the details and links to the order forms on Zahler’s website. Orders are being taken until Friday 4/17 at Noon!!

Fans can reach out to their Local Comic Shops and encourage them to order the new content.

#Creators4Comics

An event is going over in the Twitterverse. Over a hundred comic creatives are auctioning off artwork, books, and experiences through the #Creators4Comics. The auctions will end on Monday 4/20. The funds raised will be donated to The Book Industry Charitable Foundation, an organization that supports independent booksellers, including comic shops. Continue reading “Creators are Caring for Comic Shops”

On the Changes in DC Comics Management – Dan DiDio No Longer at DC

The news of major changes in the upper management of DC Comics began to break on the afternoon of Friday February 21st. “Dan DiDio is no longer employed at the company.” All of the standard straight comics news outlets have covered it.  We are not here to do that.

The basics details are this. Dan DiDio has been at DC for eighteen years and has served as co-publisher, with Jim Lee, since 2010. As of yesterday he is no longer with DC.

This news was a surprise to everyone I have reached out to. “Comics Twitter” exploded at the news, and many people who worked with him expressed their thanks for his support over the years. A common thread that you will find is that Dan was fiercely supportive of creators and loves comics like nobody’s business. He is also responsible for recruiting and empowering some of the best new voices in comics.


Continue reading “On the Changes in DC Comics Management – Dan DiDio No Longer at DC”

NEWS: DC to Eliminate Vertigo Imprint and Consolidate Under Three Age-Specific Labels

NEWS: DC to Eliminate Vertigo Imprint and Consolidate Under Three Age-Specific Labels

DC Comics announced today that they are eliminating the Vertigo imprint and reorganizing how they are labeling their books.  This news is not unexpected, but still is somewhat of an important event. Beginning in 2020, DC Comics books will be identified in one of three categories.

There will be the main DC label for standard DC super-hero books. The newly launched DC Ink and DC Zoom will be folded under a single DC Kids banner. The DC Black Label banner will remain and include all mature readers books aimed at readers 17 years old or older. This is a departure from the initial intent of the line that would be out-of-continuity boutique type books.

“We’re returning to a singular presentation of the DC brand that was present throughout most of our history until 1993 when we launched Vertigo to provide an outlet for edgier material,” said DC Publisher Dan DiDio. Continue reading “NEWS: DC to Eliminate Vertigo Imprint and Consolidate Under Three Age-Specific Labels”

Brainiac On Banjo #008: Fake Covers

Brainiac On Banjo #008: Fake Covers

Every several years I find a brand-new way to enunciate my firm belief that in order to sell more comic books, publishers should seek to produce better comic book stories and take their feet off of the stunt pedal. Well, it’s time once again to play that great all-American game, To Sell The Truth!

If you are in the habit of memorizing every word I have ever written (please stop that; you’ll hurt yourself!), doubtlessly you recall my ragging on and on about the stunt covers of the mid-1990s. Foil covers, bagged comics, holographic covers, 3D leather embossed covers… a whole lotta gimmicks were in vogue, each for nanoseconds. At least lenticular covers did some good – they taught a lot of people the meaning of the word “lenticular.”  Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo #008: Fake Covers”