From the Newsarama article on the Action Comics scheduling issues:



This is what I like to see. For the last few years the argument has been that late comics are better than fill-ins by other creative teams. What DC's doing here (and hopefully on other books soon) is turning that thinking on it's ear. There are tons of talented, creative writers and artists in the comic business, from relatively new talent like Powell, to veteran creators like Steve Englehart, Howard Chaykin, Walt Simonson, etc. In a business now driven by story arcs and trades, why not interrupt late arcs with side story arcs by some of these talented folks? Sure, you might have some folks skip out on these issues, but you might also pick up some readers who follow certain creators. And when the late arc is done and published, put those issues in one trade, and the fill-in arcs in another.

I'm really hoping this is successful, and that DC tries something similar on books like Wonder Woman and All Star Superman, and that Marvel follows suit on any ongoings that are late.

It's not a solution that works for every title, (miniseries, for instance) but it seems like a much better solution than having no issues on the stand.

Thoughts?

I think this is good for stalwarts like Action and Detective, but the All-Star line is built around the creative teams, so I don't imagine they'll do any fill-ins there.

The only title this is necessary for is Wonder Woman, though, because if they don't publish it, the rights revert to Marston's heirs or estate or whichever. I'm curious how often they have to publish it to prevent that from happening, though. Anyone know?

Personally, I wouldn't pick up fill-ins I didn't like, and I imagine similar thinking from others must really frustrate retailers trying to figure out how much of each title to order.

As far as I recall, the Marston thang doesn't apply anymore, so expect to hear the announcement of Kevin Smith and Art Adams being brought on board for issue 7, shipping date May 2039.

Edit: Good natured ribbing here, I'm all about the love, people.

All-Star is built around creative teams, but in a broad sense it's "Big Name Creators Do Definitive Stories". Drop in a Morrison/Kubert arc while Miller/Lee get caught up and you probably wouldn't have too many complaints. It might not be the ideal solution, but it seems like it would be better than 1 issue shipping in a year, for example.

And it might be difficult for retailers to properly order, but again, they'd end up with more revenue from the book than they're getting when it doesn't show up for months at a time.

True. But even with only one issue of ASBARTBW last year, there wasn't a lack of Batman product, so that character is still on everyone's radar. Although I guess technically it's a regular title, I still think of it as a Miller/Lee Batman miniseries. Like if Kevin Smith had been holding up Amazing Spider-Man instead of just his Black Cat mini, I would support putting a fill-in there. But since it was a book separate from the main titles, I support not having fill-in issues of The Evil That Men Do.

It just occurred to me that Daredevil had a fill-in (12 of the current series) that fit in between the Mack/Quesada story that was running very late at the time. Again, I think that's cool because that's Daredevil's main book, and there should be some product for him on the shelf. But auxiliary titles should be off-limits.

And I wish we had something definitive on that Wonder Woman thing. I don't know, but, uh....source!

I think it's wrong to interrupt one storyline with another story (regardless of who the creative teams are), although I see nothing wrong with following a six issue arc by a slower team with seven issues by other teams (although it will make me less likely to subscribe to that title.) I just hope that the fill-in creators can do as good a job although that's rarely true.

When the trade paperbacks come out I want one trade for the Johns/Donner/Kubert arc. I don't want to pay extra for stories by McDuffe/ Nicezia that I'm just not as interested in.

While the interuption may be frustrating for monthly readers, for me, a reader who generally shies away from the monthly grind, this is a pretty good approach. The storylines I want to read will have a consistent creative team in the collected edition, which is good for the long term when these things are sitting on the shelves. Yet in the short term you get a book on the shelf each month, and maybe even break in some new talent. It's imperfect, yes, and in most cases shouldn't even be necessary to consider, but I can't say I'd gripe about this. It's not as if big storylines have never before been put on hold for a month so a 'side story' could be told.

I think when they do the trades they'll do them by storyline rather than issue number. One for Johns/Donner/Kubert, one for Powell, etc.

Exactly my thought when I talked about long term stuff.

I hope so. I'm having flashbacks to the last two Millar Authority trades.

Rather than collecting eight issues of Millar's Authority in one trade, which DC had done in the previous two trades, they released one trade with a four issue Millar story/ assorted (and weaker) back up material, and another trade with Millar's final story and a far weaker four issue filler storyline, which focused on the replacement Authority (who were probably better developed in the few pages Millar focused on them).

I'd rather have a $15 issue TPB with Donner/ Johns/ Kubert's arc than a $25 issue trade with the other storylines.

But then, when it came time to do Absolute Authority 2, it was the complete Millar run. So at least they got things right half the time it was collected.