[NOTE: This was recorded last week before the very public events in Utah occured]
Hey guys, it's Scott.
It is Wednesday, September 10th, new comic book day, and it's a really big one for us. We have Absolute Batman #12 out now. It's me and Nick Dragotta and Frank Martin and Clayton Cowles, the core team, and it's a huge one for us, this issue. It's a really brutal one.
It was easily the hardest to write so far. I won't give anything away, but I'll just say that I love these characters dearly and I love writing this friend group the most of pretty much anything I've ever gotten to write in superheroes. It's personal to me. I'm drawing a lot on my own experience growing up in New York City and still being close to a bunch of friends that I made when I was very young. So yeah, this one hurts. But that's the goal of this series is to really break Bruce down, to build him up to be even tougher than you can possibly imagine. It's what we did with Court of Owls. It's what we did with Death of the Family and Metal and everything in the main universe. So we're doing it over here.
And part of the conceit of the series is Bruce looks so big and intimidating at first. We want you to feel like nothing could really topple him. That first arc, The Zoo, is meant to make you feel that he's this triumphant, indomitable character, this force of nature, because the secret of that arc is that the main character really is Alfred. Alfred comes to town jaded, skeptical, weary. And he sees this kind of blazing young beast, essentially. He sees Bruce refusing to believe that one person can't change everything. And it sparked something in Alfred that he didn't know was still there, some kind of hope and optimism and determination and will. And so that's really the core of that first arc is to get you to believe in Batman too and to get excited about him and then to really delve into him in the second arc. To show all of the things that he's really going to struggle with that Alfred warned him saying, “look, if you keep going this way, they're going to come for you and you don't know what you're up against.” Because in this universe, the villains have a lot more than you'd expect.”
So anyway, yeah, this one's brutal, the next issue, issue #13, begins Bruce's revenge tour, which I'm really excited about. As you know, Catwoman is on the cover, so she plays a really big part in the issue, Selina Kyle. But there's also a really big surprise in the issue that we're not going to spoil, but we'll definitely get people talking.
It's the introduction of a character that I really don't think people see coming, hopefully, but that you'll all be really thrilled to see. It's our take, and we've thought a lot about it. So I can't wait for you to see. It'll be a big one as well and it's a big action issue. It's got our first romance scene, one of the first I've ever really written, I think. I wrote one in Superheavy for Bruce. with that arc when he wasn't really Batman. But when he's been Batman, I've had a hard time writing romance for him because he's so focused on the mission (my version of him at least). But here we really, we really go for it, so I'm very excited for you to get to see it. We had to get censored a little bit for it already. So yes, that's a big issue. And I wanted to really quickly also address some of the discussion online about the coloring of Selina Kyle.
First though, I just want to say thank you. We got the numbers on DC K.O. #1 and they're amazing. I really don't know what to say except thank you. I mean, you guys keep showing up and supporting the stuff we're doing at DC and it just makes us want to take bigger swings and really improve the line, make better books. And what I can tell you about DC K.O. is that it's made with a lot of love by the team for old school, big Saturday morning cartoon (but adult-rated) event. And it's got a big heart, but it's also got a lot of fists and it's going to be fun. It also has some stuff I'm really glad didn't get spoiled in issue #1. So expect there to be a lot of discussion when that issue comes out in October. One of the things about an event for me is its utility. It is a big, fun celebration of what we're all about at any given time. An event has to say, “this is what we stand for at this moment as a company and as creators and editors, as people in comics, and this is what we're trying to say and it's got to have a message.” But it also is about what it creates on the other side. And so this one creates a lot. We're going to announce in New York a lot of the stuff we're doing in the spring, when it ends, rolling out of it. It's going to create a lot of new books, a lot of excitement, bringing in some new talent, giving some talent that exists, bigger jobs, switching people around, all kinds of fun stuff. So expect a lot of announcing in New York. But the event is the conduit to that. So I hope you'll check it out.
But going back to the discussion about Selena. So just to be clear, Selena is a woman of color. Her background is explored in both Absolute Batman and coming up in some special stuff. So I don't want to get too deep into it here. But yes, she's not white. What happened was the way that Frank colors her, she's usually seen in the past in the book because she hasn't appeared as an adult in the present, which is the exciting stuff about the issues coming up. We've only seen her back when they were kids. And so back when they're kids, he uses a more muted color palette because if you look, it's kind of sepia tone just to distinguish this is the past.
We don't do a lot of ‘then’ and ‘now’ caps. We're trying to keep as many caps out of the book as possible when it comes to those kinds of location qualifiers and all that stuff. And so anyway, the point is when he gave the color that he uses generally to give Selena her skin tone to the other artists doing the covers, it was just DC handing over that skin tone, which is the right thing to do. But because of the muted palette in the past, it wound up looking very pale against sort of modern coloring or coloring that reflects present day.
So as you saw with Artgerm, he used the right coloring. It just against the black costume and with the background such as it is, it winds up looking quite pale. So it was just a miscommunication.
The artists are certainly not at fault. Nobody was trying to do anything to change anything in the book. It was just one of those things where this color that looks a certain way in the book here looks differently there. And she has been colored darker at times, like when you see her and Bruce as young adults. But that's because it was supposed to be sunset. It was supposed to be a certain kind of coloration in the room at that time, too. So that's why she looks, in some panels, very, very clear that she is non-white and then in other panels, I think it's still clear, but her skin tone doesn't look quite as dark. So anyway, bottom line, huge apologies. Totally put it on me, my fault. I should have taken a closer look, but I'm really glad DC moved really quickly to correct it. They caught it early before the discussion was even happening, approached the artist, and and just gave them her background so that they could color appropriately. And we're really, really proud of the covers coming out. We have some fantastic ones and I'm really thankful to all the artists involved. And I appreciate you guys calling it out. We want you to keep us honest. So thank you.
So a big issue today, and thank you for DC K.O., too. Really appreciate it. We're going to do a class soon as well. We're going to have somebody on that I really can't wait to talk to. I know you guys really like when you have guests, so we're going to do that. It'll be a publishing-specific conversation that has to do more with the business of comics. Again, we haven't done one of those in a while and you guys have been asking. One question also I've been getting asked because I wanted to just do a quick craft thing is if I could give any advice to somebody starting out, what would it be? This is for someone who's like, just putting out their first comics right now. If there's one thing I'd remember it, it sounds crass, but I would remember the price point. I know that sounds vague, but let me get more specific.
Comics are really expensive, right? If you do a 12-issue arc, which a lot of people do these days and it's just very, very long (over a year for one story) and it's a different market than it was 10 years ago, you're asking people to pay $60 for that series over the course of the year. That's half the price or almost the price of a Netflix subscription or a Prime subscription for one comic. That's just for one series. So with Netflix or whatever, if you're talking about $15 a month and you're asking somebody to pay a third of that for a 20 page comic, that's a huge amount. And so what I'd say is when things are tough, like right now, it should remind you how special this medium is in the way that you get to make them wait a month in between. So you've got to cliffhang it. You get to make them wait a month so you want to remind them every single issue why this character is awesome, and remind them who the character is, and remind them what's going on. And you want to do something that makes them go, “what the fuck?” and makes them run out and want to talk to their friends.
But I promise we're really, really trying to think of that in Absolute Batman. And it's stuff that I've forgotten at times over the years, too. So I'm not trying to throw shade or poke any one book or anything that you're reading right now. I just think that part of it is a cultural thing where we consume, like I've said, so much storytelling through streaming and streaming just has a completely different set of priorities. In fact, I'd argue that they're almost antithetical to comics where you get your subscription, you have access to like all of the episodes. So you don't have to buy each one for the most part, most streaming services and all that. And you don't have to wait. You can binge. And all of that goes against everything we need to do in comics.
So I would say if you're starting out, remember the price point. What that means is you give them more than they paid for every single issue. Whatever that is for you, that might mean more conversation, more emotion. It might mean more action. It might mean more violence. All of the stuff that your series is about, whatever it's about, whatever it means to you, more of those things in that series. And you can even imagine it first because you want people to be like, “God, I got more for my money, this issue. Wow, I can't wait to go back to that series. I have to go talk to my friends about that. And I can't wait to buy it again and spend way more money than I should have to on a comic.” So that's kind of what I'd say. I'm going to keep banging that drum because it's part of my job right now at DC is to ring that bell and be like, “hey, look, let's look at these series. Is this arc just too long? Is this stuff where the sales are starting to sag? Because you're not giving them like hooks. You're not reminding them who the character is. They don't have an awesome moment every issue.”
And again, it's not like a formula you need to follow and be like, “oh, it's paint by numbers” at all. You do it your way. And sometimes I break away from that stuff deliberately to make sure an issue feels different in texture. We’re always thinking of that stuff too. Like I said, this issue is brutal. It is not a fun issue. Next issue is a fun issue, and the issue after that, where he really fights Bane, is fucking nuts. You’re going to be cheering. And it’s a bloodthirsty, fun issue where he fights Bane for real. And then we got Joker after that, which is insane. I just saw the cover, the designs. You're going to see them really soon because those covers get released. I mean, that goes really, really hard. It's the most straight-up horror issue I've written for the series by far with Jock drawing it. And then we go the other way. #16 is the Wonder Woman crossover, which is great. We go to Gateway City.
And #17 through 19 is Scarecrow. I'm spoiling everything, but Joker is in town as the handsome, rich Bruce Wayne socialite-type and he is making a campaign against Batman. And in doing so, we break Bruce down again after he's triumphant in the one before. So that's the fun is, how do you keep them on their toes? How do you keep making this series something they can't turn away from? Never get cozy, never get comfortable as a creator. How do you make them come back for more and make them want to wait and make them want to go to the store and tell their friends and make them want to be part of the culture too?
Like, I'm like a big Yankees fan, right? I got into it through our 14 year-old. Back when he was nine or eight, he just started to fall in love with baseball cards. And that led to going to Cooperstown and that led to starting to go to baseball games and that led to falling in love with the whole thing. And now we're huge baseball fans. Now he's into basketball and football and we love all this stuff. And I was a total arts and crafts nerd, I didn't know anything about sports. But I love it, and part of the fun of the culture is the community. I go to the bar here where there's most Yankee fans and we talk about “God damn it, Boone. Why are you keeping Volpe in there when you should have Caballero?” “Why are you benching Stanton when Stanton is hot as fire right now?” “Why can't Judge be a little more fiery about it?” It's the community, the neighborhood, all that stuff. And so you want to get people excited to go out there and talk about the comics with each other and that means delivering an issue that gives you more than you could possibly hope for each one.
Anyway, a couple other housekeeping things. Like I said, keep your eye out for a class coming soon. We'll do that. We got New York Comic Con coming up in a month, almost exactly, from right now. We'll have issue #13 out right there. We'll have DC K.O. #1 out there. I will be there in a big way. We're going to announce a lot of stuff. I'm going to be on a lot of DC panels. It'll be a lot of fun. If you're in the Black Jackett club, we're going to do a breakfast on Sunday. I'm sorry, a lot of people are asking if we can open that up again, but we still can't. It's just too full, but maybe sometime soon, hopefully.
We also have Absolute Evil coming, which I can't wait for you guys to see. It’s out that NYCC week as well by Al Ewing and Cammo. It's great, with all the villains getting together for the first time in the Absolute Universe.
Then we're going to be announcing soon, so I guess I'm spoiling it, but we have an Ark M Special, Absolute Arkham. It's me and Frank Tieri writing it. And it's Josh Hixson of The Deviant and just an unbelievable artist. And it's straight up horror, but it gives like a real surprise about Ark M. A couple of big surprises. So I can't wait for you to see that. Anyway, hope you're doing great. Hope all's
going well. Back to school, back to the grind. And yeah, thanks again, guys!
