Well, I caved. The decorations are put away and the furniture is back in place. But its still cold outside, so its time for soup, Dark Shadows complete series dvd disc 15 (Barnabas doesnt show up till 20) and a few more musings. Always tough to do these things from memory and get the exact order of things (a recurring problem of mine thats led to some amusing exchanges on convention panels I attended), but will give it a try. First up is how Jim Lee and Batman covered for a series of rookie mistakes. After my first year at DC, things reached the point where I was ready to leave, I wasnt making the impact I hoped, and I wasnt sure I ever could. So before moving on, I presented Paul with a list of recommendations on how to approach the line, and imagine my surprise that, in return, Paul offered me the Executive Editor position. I was caught completely off guard but as a kid I always wanted to be Stan Lee, so this was as close as I would ever get. So, we started shaking things up, to no avail, and launched several new series that were greeted with resounding thuds. Not that anyone noticed. Jim Lee and Jeph Loebs Batman launched so strong, DC was the hot ticket. And it was Jims desire to be on the monthly book, and not in a mini or prestige that made working on DC monthlies vogue again. Around the same time, Geoff Johns and I were bonding over Flash and working up ideas to strengthen the series (this led to Geoffs Ignition storyline and the series never looked back), and it was during a convention in 2002 that Geoff laid out his ideas for Teen Titans and Green Lantern. I couldnt be more excited and yet both were met with skepticism inside the company. At that time, it was common practice to rest a character for an extended period before returning with a new series (and with the weaker characters it made sense), but we didnt want to wait. We convinced Paul to roll the dice and immediately follow the cancellations of Young Justice and Titans with two new series (Teen Titans and Outsiders followed the bi-weekly Graduation Day), it was an all in bet and it paid off, both books were big hits and went back for several printings. You could feel the confidence building, and it was time to take even bolder steps. Also around the same time, we started offering contracts to our talent as a way to insure all their focus was solely on DC (sparking the great Exclusive Wars of 2004/5). This was slow going at first, with Judd Winick to be the first to sign on board (for which I will always be eternally grateful), and then, several other extraordinarily talented folks followed his lead. Things were falling in place, but it wasnt until Judds old roommate, Brad Meltzer, decided to pitch his Justice League story, that we began to raise the stakes.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 19:47:14 +0000
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