Upfront and Personal

Bart Sears Comes to DC as an Exclusive!

2005-05-27T14:29:00.000-04:00

Remember how great Batman and Robin looked when Jim Aparo drew them? Working out together, two sweaty, manly men?

Bart Sears draws good, manly men too.

That’s what the new DC is all about.
Sexy little teenage girls like Supergirl, with her tight little body that makes you groan and shift in your seat.

And big manly men with muscles everywhere (see Rob Liefeld’s super-dooper work on Titans) to make you sweat with envy.

If you want to admire some muscles this week, check out Geoff Johns and Carlos Pancheo on Green Lantern. Hal Jordan sure does workout!

All-Stars, you and me

2005-05-26T21:49:00.000-04:00

Over at Millarworld, a few posters are disparaging the All-Star T-Shirt.

Let me be blunt.

If you don't wear an All-Star T-Shirt, you shouldn't be reading or buying DC Comics.

We're All-Stars. No one else.

Independent journalists at The Pulse have said it. I didn't even have to say it.

Marvel's "Ultimate" days are over.

The Salad Days have ended for you, Joey Q.
Boo Hoo for you.

With an "A"
Is no way
To spell
Miller.

No love.

2005-05-25T17:02:00.000-04:00

I was written up today at Fanboy Rampage. Reported, as it were by Ryan Higgins, who can no longer have sex with my sister. Turned it, I’ll bet he thought. Some people, obviously, don’t like DanDiComics. They like FrownComics or NegativeComics.

A lot of people--well, more than read an issue of Gambit or something--posted back, hurling accusations at me. Saying I wasn’t Dan Di Dio! Me! After my poem, they still said such hurtful things about me.

And I thought, how about another poem? I mean, I’m busy and all, but poetry is from the heart. It helps to have music, of course, and right now I’m listening to the Smallville soundtrack.

I’m going to write this one beat style. That means, I’ll just write it down and post it, not read it before I do. Okay? Here we go.

        You can say what you want,
        you can try to get me down.
        Sure, I’ll be your clown.

        But I will forget,
        and I will forgive.
        Because that’s what heroes do.
        Don’t you want to be a hero too?

Now, if you want to write your own beat style poems in the comment lines, that’s okay too. Sorry I can’t send you the Smallville soundtrack, because that’s against the l-a-w. We all remember John Williams excellent Supermantheme though, don’t we? Not the lame one released by Rhino Records, but the real one, distributed through Warner Records?

I find, humming that theme to myself, makes me feel like I can do anything!

Now, if you do write a poem, please e-mail me a form consenting to rights. Who knows? You may be the next New York Times bestseller Brad Meltzer--creator of Identity Crisis, soon to be available at your local bookseller!

The Comic Book "Press"

2005-05-24T10:47:00.000-04:00

Rich Johnston came back yesterday and through he says its an “investigative journalism column,” Lying in the Gutters is just that. Lying.

Now, I’ll agree, it’s important that comic book readers know about Marvel’s lack of reprinting defective collections--collections people spend their hard-earned money on--and that Joe Quesada blames us at DC for not having been a bankrupt company in the 1990s for being able to give comic book readers what we promised them, instead of defrauding them. Because that’s what misprinting really is, people, it’s fraud. Mark Millar, Brian Michael Bendis, whoever. They promise you something then they cheat you. That’s Marvel, that’s what they do. And look what Millar said about it? Can you imagine a DC writer using language like that? Comic books are for everyone, not just anti-American Scots.

But the part about Alan Moore, Paul Levitz, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen leaving. That’s lying. Rich Johnston didn’t talk to Alan Moore in anything but his head. Right now, as we speak, DC Comics’s best people are working on putting together Absolute Watchmen--with Alan Moore’s blessing. His blessing, people. Does that sound like someone who doesn’t want to work with us anymore? No, I don’t think so.

Obviously, I can’t speak for what happened here at DC before I got here or before Paul became publisher--I’ve only heard stories about that. But I want you to look not at the past, but at the future, like I do.
Look at the new logo:

What does it say?
It says strength, it says future, it says American. That’s what DC is all about. Maybe that wasn’t what DC used to be about, especially not when Jeanette Kahn let Mark Millar work here, but he doesn’t any more. We don’t want anything to do with his negativity, with his hate. Did you know, he doesn’t even leave England? Geoff Johns did research for his Green Lantern--he flew with USAF test pilots so he could see men without fear in action. He didn’t have to watch bad movies with Jennifer Lopez’s boyfriend. No, he was with real heroes. Just like Hal Jordan.

Stick with us, people, and you’ll never pick up anything but a DC Comic again. This summer, we have Batman Begins in the theater and I’ve already read some critics saying it’ll be Oscar-time for star Katie Holmes and writer David S. Goyer! Then in the fall, we have Infinite Crisis.

We have it all. I can’t say how happy I am that you’re all here to share it with me!

Before we get started, a poem.

2005-05-24T10:02:00.000-04:00

Yes, a poem. I had to take poetry too. I didn't like it very much then, but I really got into it while working on ReBoot.

We stand, you and I, next to each other, across our homeland, on the ground or high above.

Alone, we see only pedestals.

Together, we look up. Higher and higher until we see a red and yellow shield, a black bat, a golden eagle. Together, we see heroes.

No, not just heroes. We see icons.

No, more than that.

Together, we see All-Stars.