Jump to content

DC Direct Shut Down By Warner Bros.


JayC

Recommended Posts

On a slightly less negative note after talking to some of my colleagues and friends who were among the people let go from Warner it sounds like the layoffs and terminations aren’t immediate.  At least for the people I talked to (mostly people in the film and television divisions of Warner and two people in the entertainment/publishing division of DC) it sounds like they will be continuing to work in their positions for the next 3 or 4 months and then continue to receive pay and medical for several months after their last day. Can’t say if this is true for everyone and I have no idea if this is true for people at DC Direct but that is at least the case for those I spoke to in the entertainment divisions.  
 

The whole situation is still very unfortunate obviously, and as an independent creative and freelancer who has done a lot of work for Warner and has several options with them that will be coming up for payment renewal in the coming months I have no idea how this will affect me personally, but at least it sounds like there is still time for those who depended upon Warner for 100% of their income.  Regardless times will be tough.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, ghostbogey said:

I found a opinion piece from  SYFY

That I found interesting for DC publishing....

 

Very interesting read. In a way, It's a good thing in the sense that the amount of DC titles that has been saturating the shelves can be culled & just leave about 20-25 titles instead of 50+ with most of an being caca with bad writing & art. I can say the same for Marvel as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Gigantor said:

Very interesting read. In a way, It's a good thing in the sense that the amount of DC titles that has been saturating the shelves can be culled & just leave about 20-25 titles instead of 50+ with most of an being caca with bad writing & art. I can say the same for Marvel as well.

There can be a plus to cutting some titles slowly over time but historically having either a publishing explosion or publishing implosion has never benefited anyone from either the consumer side or the industry side outside of investors who don’t care about that industry and are just seeking short term gains. 
 

Less titles can certainly mean less for a consumer to have to keep up with which can be somewhat a plus but on the flip side less titles typically means less variety in the types of books published, less risk on the type of creative art and story telling invested in, and less investment on new characters, artists, and writers.  Obviously less titles being published means less employment opportunities for those creatives that work on the books or are trying to break into the industry.  And if the number of books being cut are truly significant that’s going to cripple local comic shops who are already struggling to survive in a more digital world and have already been crippled and are barely holding on due to the pandemic.  An industry implosion could be enough to push those surviving local shops over the edge and into bankruptcy and foreclosure particularly in higher overhead markets also hit hardest by COVID. 

Some of this was unfortunately inevitable from the time AT&T acquired Warner but had it rolled out more subtly then the damage might have been less significant, but this scale of an implosion has never proven to be good for the comics or entertainment industry and this stands to be the largest comics implosion since the 1950s (which the industry never fully recovered from). Long term that’s going to be bad for everyone unless you happen to be a top shareholder at AT&T who is only interested in making money and cares nothing about the health of the specific businesses and industries you acquire beyond them helping you achieve your one goal of profit at the expense of all else.  
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw on linkedin that Bryan Flynn from Super7 has put out a request for folks laid off at DC Direct to contact him about possible job opportunities, so hopefully folks in need of work will be able to find it elsewhere in the industry.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, JayC said:

I saw on linkedin that Bryan Flynn from Super7 has put out a request for folks laid off at DC Direct to contact him about possible job opportunities, so hopefully folks in need of work will be able to find it elsewhere in the industry.

Bravo for Super7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, JayC said:

I saw on linkedin that Bryan Flynn from Super7 has put out a request for folks laid off at DC Direct to contact him about possible job opportunities, so hopefully folks in need of work will be able to find it elsewhere in the industry.

That’s great to hear.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, InspectorZartan said:

There can be a plus to cutting some titles slowly over time but historically having either a publishing explosion or publishing implosion has never benefited anyone from either the consumer side or the industry side outside of investors who don’t care about that industry and are just seeking short term gains. 
 

Less titles can certainly mean less for a consumer to have to keep up with which can be somewhat a plus but on the flip side less titles typically means less variety in the types of books published, less risk on the type of creative art and story telling invested in, and less investment on new characters, artists, and writers.  Obviously less titles being published means less employment opportunities for those creatives that work on the books or are trying to break into the industry.  And if the number of books being cut are truly significant that’s going to cripple local comic shops who are already struggling to survive in a more digital world and have already been crippled and are barely holding on due to the pandemic.  An industry implosion could be enough to push those surviving local shops over the edge and into bankruptcy and foreclosure particularly in higher overhead markets also hit hardest by COVID. 

Some of this was unfortunately inevitable from the time AT&T acquired Warner but had it rolled out more subtly then the damage might have been less significant, but this scale of an implosion has never proven to be good for the comics or entertainment industry and this stands to be the largest comics implosion since the 1950s (which the industry never fully recovered from). Long term that’s going to be bad for everyone unless you happen to be a top shareholder at AT&T who is only interested in making money and cares nothing about the health of the specific businesses and industries you acquire beyond them helping you achieve your one goal of profit at the expense of all else.  
 

I wish I was a top shareholder in that company, but alas, I'm not a shareholder in anything. I understand your POV on the matter but I guess I'm more about quality over quantity. Way too many  comic titles on the shelves nowadays & imo, most suffered from bad art & story telling. Saw way too much "art" that looked like a 12yr old was penciling it. There's a glutton of Batman comics/ spinoffs & that to me is a problem. Same goes for Marvel & all the different X- titles wolverine to me is an X-man, nothing more. Not an Avenger. There should be just 1 main X-men comic & since he's the most popular member, give him a solo series again. Same goes for Avengers, just 1 title, not 3-4 different Avengers teams where you can't keep track of who's coming or going every month. And stop swapping genders of established male characters just to appease 5% of the comic buying population. Create a new fan character to appease them. Nothing made me drop a title or series faster than that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Gigantor said:

I wish I was a top shareholder in that company, but alas, I'm not a shareholder in anything. I understand your POV on the matter but I guess I'm more about quality over quantity. Way too many  comic titles on the shelves nowadays & imo, most suffered from bad art & story telling. Saw way too much "art" that looked like a 12yr old was penciling it. There's a glutton of Batman comics/ spinoffs & that to me is a problem. Same goes for Marvel & all the different X- titles wolverine to me is an X-man, nothing more. Not an Avenger. There should be just 1 main X-men comic & since he's the most popular member, give him a solo series again. Same goes for Avengers, just 1 title, not 3-4 different Avengers teams where you can't keep track of who's coming or going every month. And stop swapping genders of established male characters just to appease 5% of the comic buying population. Create a new fan character to appease them. Nothing made me drop a title or series faster than that.

I don’t disagree with your feelings and position.  The problem is that an industry implosion in addition to all the new problems I presented will also probably not fix the problems you want to see fixed.  This corporate repriortization won’t be to do less Batman books.  It will be to do less-non-Batman books. Nor will this change likely decrease gender swapping or any other editorial elements you don’t care for.  If anything you’re likely to see a higher percentage of that as the slimmed down number of titles are more likely to be told to connect to the other Entertainment media (Films, television, etc).  And as local comic shops suffer and publishing revenue suffers and giant conglomerate sucks away profits to pay dividends while not prioritizing reinvestment of profits back into the publishing arm you become more likely to see less financial investment in quality artists and story telling, not more.  
 

And all this is likely the best case scenario.  In the longer term once these negative effects have trickled down and the lack of profits trickle back up you’re likely to see even further negative changes across the entire industry (as shops close that will also hurt Marvel and other independent publishers which means eventually Disney might take a similar action).  What those further changes might mean is still very speculative but talking to several friends at DC that were laid off this week some of their theories of where this is leading is far worse if you happen to be a DC fan and like the comics medium.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very intresting interview with Jim Lee at THR:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/dcs-jim-lee-companys-future-we-are-still-business-publishing-comics-1307413
-Jim Fletcher is still at DC, even though DC Direct is done
-confirmation (of the obvious) that DC Universe original programming will migrate to HBO Max, and that the app will "transform" instead of being shut down.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Satam said:

Very intresting interview with Jim Lee at THR:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/dcs-jim-lee-companys-future-we-are-still-business-publishing-comics-1307413
-Jim Fletcher is still at DC, even though DC Direct is done
-confirmation (of the obvious) that DC Universe original programming will migrate to HBO Max, and that the app will "transform" instead of being shut down.

 

Good to hear about Jim. Sounds like and I think will be a good fit for him that they are moving him into a position very similar with what Marvel did with Jesse Falcon after Toy Biz was dissolved. Basically where they oversea all the various companies that make licensed product and that those licensed product meet a certain standard set by the licensor.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Satam said:

Very intresting interview with Jim Lee at THR:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/dcs-jim-lee-companys-future-we-are-still-business-publishing-comics-1307413
-Jim Fletcher is still at DC, even though DC Direct is done
-confirmation (of the obvious) that DC Universe original programming will migrate to HBO Max, and that the app will "transform" instead of being shut down.

 

Good for Jim Fletcher.  I don’t know him and have only interacted with him briefly at events like SDCC and Toy Fair but he always struck me as a good guy.  So I’m glad to hear his job is still safe.  Too bad that’s also not true for my dozens of friends, hundreds of employees, and thousands of freelancers and contractors that have all been let go by Warner Media this week.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting we're hearing this from Lee and NOT Fletcher. A good rule of thumb is never ask the guys who kept their jobs. They dodged the chopping block, and aren't going to risk rocking the boat.

Ask the guys who don't have their jobs anymore. They have nothing more to lose.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Find Action Figures on Ebay

×
×
  • Create New...
Sign Up For The TNI Newsletter And Have The News Delivered To You!


Entertainment News International (ENI) is the #1 popular culture network for adult fans all around the world.
Get the scoop on all the popular comics, games, movies, toys, and more every day!

Contact and Support

Advertising | Submit News | Contact ENI | Privacy Policy

©Entertainment News International - All images, trademarks, logos, video, brands and images used on this website are registered trademarks of their respective companies and owners. All Rights Reserved. Data has been shared for news reporting purposes only. All content sourced by fans, online websites, and or other fan community sources. Entertainment News International is not responsible for reporting errors, inaccuracies, omissions, and or other liablities related to news shared here. We do our best to keep tabs on infringements. If some of your content was shared by accident. Contact us about any infringements right away - CLICK HERE