Hey guys, it's Scott.
It is Monday, March 10th, and I hope you had a great weekend. I'm really excited for this week. We're going to be doing a Comic Writing 101 class this Wednesday night at 9:30pm EST. It'll be live and then if you're a paid subscriber, you have access to that. Or if you can't make it for the actual class on time, you have access to it in our vast archives by the next day when we post it alongside the like 30+ other classes we've done.
The subject this week is telling a personal story in comics. It's one that I've been working on for a while. It's a subject that I've really been hoping to do the right way. So I've given it a lot of thought. Ultimately, what the class is about is how the crucial thing in comics, and this goes back to sort of the core tenets of the class, the main rule of the class, which is, again, you always have to write the comic that you'd like to find on the shelf most that day, whatever it is, whether it's a space opera, whether it's a memoir, whether it's political, anything. And you have to remember that it's possible to write to the same themes, ideas, emotions, regardless of what corner of the comics world you're writing in. You can address these same hopes and fears that you're thinking about, whether you're writing superhero comics or creator-owned. And so what we're going to do is we're going to look at cross sections of time in my career and other creators' careers and show the ways in which they're exploring the same themes, the same hopes, the same fears, the same ideas, even though they're writing in very different areas of the medium, whether they're writing big superhero events or they're writing creator-owned. So I think it'll be a lot of fun. I can't wait to have you guys there. It'll be a crucial class. It's an essential lesson, in my opinion, like when we did three-act structure. It's one of these ones that's really core to my approach to writing comics and one of the things I believe very deeply in for aspiring writers. So I hope you'll make it.
Also, today is the final order cutoff for Absolute Green Lantern #1 by the amazing Al Ewing and Jahnoy Lindsay.
It's a complete reimagining of the mythos. It's big and grand and inspired and I really hope you'll order it. Please, please go order it from your local store. Every single issue #1 of the Absolute line has sold out when it comes out and I don't want you to miss out. So reserve your copy today from your great LCS.
And Resurrection Man, another really good book, has its final orders today. I hope you'll check that out as well.
So I wanted to do a quick post. I'm getting asked a lot in interviews and at cons what I think the secret to the success of the Absolute line at DC and the Ultimate line at Marvel, what the secret of the success of these two lines is. And for me, I think there's kind of a misconception about it. People take it to mean that the readership right now wants reinvention. They want radically new versions of these characters, even if those versions do speak to the same core values as the classic versions. And I do think there's always a lot of that. People always want something new and I'm always excited for reinvention. I think the one thing I never want, for example, from like, a new Batman movie is that it's derivative of something that came before, even if I love what came before. I always want to see a big swing. So I think there's an inherent excitement when you see these characters reinvented. And certainly that's part of the success.
But I think the real secret of the success and the bigger thing that's driving the sales of these two lines is that they are jumping on points across the board. They are moments in comics where you can come in and you can read a bunch of books and that stand for something that have the same ethos, even if they're very different books. You can get in on the ground floor of something that you can actually wrap your head around and read all of. You feel like you're getting in as something is beginning. And there's an excitement to being able to access that kind of energy across multiple books, as long as it doesn't get too unwieldy, right? So with the Ultimate Universe, I feel like it's like, oh, I can read Ultimate Spider-Man. And then if I choose, I can read Ultimates and get a bigger picture of this world. And if I want something that's existing in a really different space, I can read Ultimate X-Men. Oh, and here's Ultimate Wolverine, which is filling in this whole corner over here about the international politics of the villains and how they use Logan as the Winter Soldier.
Over here in the Absolute Universe, here you have Absolute Batman, Absolute Wonder Woman, and Absolute Superman all occupying the same world at the same time, beginning at the same time, starting to become aware of each other. So it's not just that the characters are reinvented. It's that you are there at the ground level floor of something that spans multiple comic books this to me is the same reason that the Energon Universe is doing so well. Of course like, it all comes from quality, right? So in no way do I think that you can create a new universe or jumping on point for a line of books and if the quality isn't there it's still going to do well. I'm not saying that at all, like, the Energon books are some of the best books in a while and I love what Skybound is doing with them.
But G.I. Joe you can read all of and it feels like it's both has an ideology and it's accessible. Like you can read all of it if you want. Similarly, it feels like Transformers and even, you know, Turtles, again, like all these new books with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it still feels like you're getting it on the ground floor of something seismic. And Ghost Machine, right? Being able to go over there and see all these books are in a connected universe and being able to explore that whole thing.
So here's the challenge. People say over and over again, “that's why the main lines at Marvel and DC can't do that. That's why the main lines can't be as exciting because they can't create that same kind of feeling.” And I vehemently disagree with that. And I think, and this is maybe where people will really disagree with me and you can like, put your comments at the bottom of this post. I'll try and respond. I want to hear if you think I'm completely right or completely wrong. But in today's day and age where the lines themselves do have a lot of books and there’s tremendous amount of distractions. Other things vying for our attention even more so than there were five, 10 years ago between the real world, the internet…
There are all these kind of prohibitive things too. The cost of books these days, the lack of a cross company digital platform where you can subscribe, there being no big subscriptions. All of these things that kind of hold you back from looking at the main line of DC or Marvel as a place that you can freely explore because they're all connected, to me, make it a lot harder. In addition, it feels like in the last few years in particular, the big companies sometimes can't be as nimble and do things like “we're going to do a big initiative where everything is a jumping on point.” But to my mind, that's what's really needed. What's needed is almost an annual or year and a half initiative that allows for new stories to begin, some creative changes, but ultimately for readers to feel like there is a unified jumping on point for at least a good portion of that main line. I don't think it's enough anymore to launch one or two books within a quarter because it feels like you'll go into the store and read something awesome like
's new Captain America. I can't wait for that book.
But does that mean you're going to go in and buy two other Marvel books, right? We launch Matt Fraction's Batman with Jorge. Amazing, right?
But are you going to go in and try more Bat books? I don't know if you will. That's why we created an initiative around that book. We're doing almost a mini moment of jumping on points for all those books where everybody has the new costume. Everyone is sort of beginning stories. There's some cool new books coming out. So that group of books as a moment where you can explore all of them at once, the way you can explore the Energon Universe. So to my mind, what this is saying structurally, the success of the Absolute and Ultimate Universes and the Energon Universe and Ghost Machine and a lot of these things happening right now, the Massive-Verse that
and his co-creators are doing so well, is that people want to feel like they're getting in on something that is kind of a moment. It feels tectonic. It feels seismic. It feels inviting. It feels like you can lose yourself in it. And it's a bunch of books that are all speaking the same language. And you have all of a sudden this whole thing to explore, this whole landscape to explore.
So my strong feeling being a part of DC is that that's a really big, important priority for us to hold in the front of our brains, right? It doesn't mean that we're rebooting. It doesn't mean renumbering. It doesn't mean relaunching. It doesn't mean any of that stuff. But what it means is inviting readers in to see the great work being done every year or so, every year and a half, in a way that makes the whole line feel inviting, the main line, that all of it feels accessible and you can browse across it and not feel left out. Of course, there'll be some books that are outliers in different ways, but providing at least neighborhoods of books every year that say, “hey, you can explore all of these because they're all beginning something right now. Or they're all addressing a moment or a story that's happening or something so that you're providing people not just with one story, but an ecosystem of story to explore.” That to me is like, one of the keys of making these main lines feel fresh, feel exciting. And it's one of the things that me and Joshua Williamson and other people at DC really believe in right now and are trying to do.
So for us, again, it's not about any kind of gimmicks where we're putting number ones or we're changing the teams or we're relaunching or rebooting, none of that. But it's about trying to look a year from now or so, like, at the end of a year from All In or whatever, and somewhere in that window of a year to a year and a half, say, “OK, what's really working? What isn't working? What areas do we not have books that we could use books in? What genres do we not have? What characters have been rested and now feel like they could, you know, really come back swinging? What characters, you know, maybe could be elevated?” Go through all of that stuff and say, “let's create not just a book or another book a month later, but create a moment for DC every year, a year and a half where you're invited in and we try and give you a lot of these things.” So again, if a book is working and you're loving it, it's not going to change, but it might have a moment in a year to a year and a half that invites new readers in addition to you. it might begin a big story or have a new arc begin in such a way that people that haven't been reading the book can join in with you and enjoy it.
So to me, yes, I'm not trying to belittle or downplay the excitement readers have for new takes and all that stuff. And I love that they do. I'm one of those. I've always loved alternate and new versions of characters across the medium and across the entire entertainment landscape. I love, like I said, in animated and TV and movies when there's a new version of Batman or any character I love. That said, I don't think that that makes the main lines at Marvel and DC impossible to generate the same excitement around that's been generated around the Absolute and Ultimate lines. Because I don't think that the actual secret or the actual key to success is the reinvention or the newness of the characters. I genuinely think you see that success reflected in other areas of comics, they provide a single moment immersive ecosystem of story that's accessible, that feels like it's not overwhelming, it's understandable. And again, you see it across all kinds of stuff, creator-owned like Ghost Machine, licensed like Energon. And that's what I think we should be trying to do at both companies, honestly. Not just one new book here or one creative change there, but trying to create moments that invite whole bands of new readers in to experience the great stuff happening.
So I'm really curious to hear what you guys think too, especially retailers, but anyone else that's reading this, tell me if I'm wrong. I want to hear it. If we're right, I want to hear it. But luckily, like one of the things I wanted to say is thank you guys again so much for the support that you've shown All In and the Absolute books. I mean, the fact that these books have sold the way they've sold, just I can't tell you what a validation it is for the incredible work that all these creators around me have done. But also to the retailers who told us like people will show up if you try to create a universe where they can feel like they're there on the ground floor of it. And you take a big swing with each one. And so now we're really going to try and apply that same energy, not reinventive energy, but that same energy of like, okay, with the Absolute Universe, we tried to give people excitement, big story, big swings. How do we do that now in the main universe over the course of this year that makes it feel exciting to people and accessible to people the way these two new universes have at Marvel and DC? All right, thanks, you guys. Have a great week. And please come by Wednesday night, we'll have a blast!
S
Share this post