DC Co-Publishers Announce End of Wild Storm and Zuda Imprint

[NightBeetle]

Link

After 18 years of existence, DC's WildStorm imprint is ending in December.
DC Comics Co-Publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio announced the news in a joint statement on official DC Universe blog The Source Tuesday afternoon, writing, "After taking the comics scene by storm nearly 20 years ago, the WildStorm Universe titles will end this December."

Lee and DiDio went on to clarify that while this is the end of WildStorm as a separate publishing division, it's not the end of the WildStorm Universe's characters, continuing, "In this soft marketplace, these characters need a break to regroup and redefine what made them once unique and cutting edge. While these will be the final issues published under the WildStorm imprint, it will not be the last we will see of many of these heroes. We, along with Geoff Johns, have a lot of exciting plans for these amazing characters, so stay tuned."
According to the statement, "WildStorm's editorial team will undergo a restructuring and be folded into the overall DC Comics Digital team, based in Burbank, which will be led by Jim Lee and John Rood." WildStorm's licensed comics — which currently includes several video game adaptations such as Ratchet and Clank and Resident Evil — and kids comics will be published under the DC banner.

The post on The Source also confirmed the official end of digital publishing initiative Zuda, which was shuttered as a separate Web site in July.
"The material that was to have been published as part of ZUDA this year will now be published under the DC banner," read the statement. "The official closing of ZUDA ends one chapter of DC’s digital history, but we will continue to find new ways to innovate with digital, incorporating much of the experience and knowledge that ZUDA brought into DC."

WildStorm was founded by Lee in 1992 as one of the original divisions of Image Comics. In 1999, the imprint was sold to DC Comics, with Lee remaining as editorial director. Notable WildStorm Universe titles included flagship title WildC.A.T.S., Gen 13, Ed Brubaker's critically acclaimed Sleeper, and highly influential runs on Stormwatch and The Authority by Warren Ellis. Wanted and Kick-Ass writer Mark Millar helped cement his reputation with a run on The Authority.

WildStorm also housed Alan Moore's America's Best Comics imprint, which published Top 10, Tom Strong and Promethea. The company's Homage Studios divison published Kurt Busiek's Astro City, and, at times, celebrated independent titles Strangers in Paradise, Leave It to Chance and The Maxx. The imprint also published the award-winning, recently wrapped Ex Machina, by Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris.

 

[WompuM]

DC is such a cluster**** right now. I hope they get their **** together soon.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

What made Wildstorm great? Wildcats as a corporate espionage book, Welcome to Tranquility as a quirky, fun, Eureka for superheroes, Majestic as a simultaneously grittier and more outlandish Superman series, the Authority as one of the more intelligent superhero deconstruction comics, and the Wildstorm universe in general as a harsher counterpoint to the DC universe (as shown in Captain Atom: Armageddon). Notice how the entire line went to s*** after all that stuff fell away? World's End indeed.

 

[Watchman]

Shame, Wildstorm used to make some great books- The Authority (Both Ellis and Millar years which has some amazing art), Planetary, Joe Casey's books (Wildcats, Mr. Majestic, The Intimates, and one of my personally all time favorite- Automatic Kafka), Sleeper, and Moore's ABC line. Now, they're generic crowd of superheroes #34345

 

[hippie_hunter]

Not a surprise at all. WildStorm has sold like crap for the longest time and DC attempted to revamp it over and over and over again with nothing but failure.

 

[hippie_hunter]

What made Wildstorm great? Wildcats as a corporate espionage book, Welcome to Tranquility as a quirky, fun, Eureka for superheroes, Majestic as a simultaneously grittier and more outlandish Superman series, the Authority as one of the more intelligent superhero deconstruction comics, and the Wildstorm universe in general as a harsher counterpoint to the DC universe (as shown in Captain Atom: Armageddon). Notice how the entire line went to s*** after all that stuff fell away? World's End indeed.

The collapse of the WildStorm line lies more with Paul Levitz than changing the direction of the universe. Levitz pushed away top talent like Garth Ennis, Alan Moore, and Mark Millar away from titles that were selling quite well like the Boys and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

 

[Watchman]

The collapse of the WildStorm line lies more with Paul Levitz than changing the direction of the universe. Levitz pushed away top talent like Garth Ennis, Alan Moore, and Mark Millar away from titles that were selling quite well like the Boys and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

And this is why Vertigo fans get scared when they hear DC is mucking about. All you have to do is compare pre and post DC Wildstorm.

 

[Drz]

The collapse of the WildStorm line lies more with Paul Levitz than changing the direction of the universe. Levitz pushed away top talent like Garth Ennis, Alan Moore, and Mark Millar away from titles that were selling quite well like the Boys and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

So Paul Levitz doesn't like anti-hero comics with murders and other touchy subjects? <_<

 

[Watchman]

So Paul Levitz doesn't like anti-hero comics with murders and other touchy subjects? <_<

Levitz didn't like that Wildstorm made Batman and Superman gay.

 

[hippie_hunter]

And this is why Vertigo fans get scared when they hear DC is mucking about. All you have to do is compare pre and post DC Wildstorm.

I think that Vertigo is safe. It still has decent sales, still has top notch talent working for it, and sells quite well in the trade department. And some creator owned titles like Astro City and Welcome to Tranquility would probably benefit being published under the Vertigo or DC banner.

I think that as long as Vertigo continues to draw in strong talent like Grant Morrison, Bill Willingham, Mike Carrey, Scott Snyder, Jeff Lemire, Jason Aaron, etc., that it will be fine. In the end WildStorm had Tom Taylor, Adam Beechen, and Peter Hogan writing titles based on WildStorm owned properties and ended up publishing mostly licensed titles based on video games and TV shows.

 

[hippie_hunter]

So Paul Levitz doesn't like anti-hero comics with murders and other touchy subjects? <_<

Levitz is the reason why Millar left the Authority, why Ennis sent the Boys to Dynamite, and Moore left WildStorm taking the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with him.

 

[Drz]

And here i thought Paul Levitz was purely awesome guy.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Meh, whatever, Moore'll leave anything at the big publishers for whatever reason he can find. The Boys was a f***-up but nothing I couldn't get over. If Levitz drove Casey away from Wildcats v3.0 and Majestic or in any way contributed to Welcome to Tranquility's absence for the past few years, however, then he sucks and I hate him.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Meh, whatever, Moore'll leave anything at the big publishers for whatever reason he can find. The Boys was a f***-up but nothing I couldn't get over. If Levitz drove Casey away from Wildcats v3.0 and Majestic or in any way contributed to Welcome to Tranquility's absence for the past few years, however, then he sucks and I hate him.

Low sales were the reason why WildC.A.T.S. 3.0 and Majestic were cancelled. And Welcome to Tranqulity had a long hiatus due to Gail Simone being busy.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Oh, so they're more casualties of the comic-buying masses sucking in general. Shame.

 

[Sawyer]

Vertigo is still standing, so......

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I guess Casey's work at Wildstorm didn't look high-brow enough to attract the uppity snobs who only read Vertigo.

 

[Watchman]

I guess Casey's work at Wildstorm didn't look high-brow enough to attract the uppity snobs who only read Vertigo.

In the final issues of Automatic Kafka and The Intimates Casey's frustration/anger with the industry, comic readers, everything in general pretty much filled every page.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I haven't read those. Given how much of Casey's other work I love, though, I should probably do that sometime...

 

[yenaled]

The real pitty is because of this downsizing about 20-25% of DC employees are looking at loosing their jobs.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Not surprising by any means. The sales were relatively low, I've not heard anything significantly positive about their original properties, and most of their creator owned stuff they've had recently (Ex Machina, Sparta USA, Red Herring, etc.)would probably have been more suited for Vertigo since that be their thing.

I'll admit, too, that Vertigo did cross my mind as well. I know Lee and Johns said they wanted to be more direct with that imprint under their editorial tenor, and we've already had that ill-conceived character recall and them basically looking at Vertigo as a talent farm. I don't know, I can't say I like the looks of it from here on out. I hope Vertigo will be left relatively alone, but I'm already getting some bad vibes going on here.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Not surprising by any means. The sales were relatively low, I've not heard anything significantly positive about their original properties, and most of their creator owned stuff they've had recently (Ex Machina, Sparta USA, Red Herring, etc.)would probably have been more suited for Vertigo since that be their thing.

I'll admit, too, that Vertigo did cross my mind as well. I know Lee and Johns said they wanted to be more direct with that imprint under their editorial tenor, and we've already had that ill-conceived character recall and them basically looking at Vertigo as a talent farm. I don't know, I can't say I like the looks of it from here on out. I hope Vertigo will be left relatively alone, but I'm already getting some bad vibes going on here.

I think it's for the best that they recalled DC characters like Swamp Thing from Vertigo that weren't even being used.

And using Vertigo as a talent farm is a good idea as well, that way we'll get more Scott Snyders and Jeff Lemires and less Felicia Hendersons and Adam Beechens. And besides along with Detective Comics, Snyder is still going to be doing American Vampire and along with Superboy and the Atom Co-Feature, Lemire is still going to be doing Sweet Tooth. It's the best of both worlds, Snyder and Lemire are moving on up in the comics industry ladder while still working on what got them noticed which allows Vertigo to continue to thrive.

 

[Johnny Drama]

Wildstorm hasn't been relevant in years. Good riddance.

 

[Tron Bonne]

I think it's for the best that they recalled DC characters like Swamp Thing from Vertigo that weren't even being used.

Uh, why? So they can sit in DC's main publishing office not being used instead? They've already said there's no plans for any of the characters they brought back. And not to mention they canceled Madame Xanadu and, I suspect, maybe even Unknown Solider because of that. So, yeah, now even those characters that weren't being used by DC, and probably won't ever be used to any real significant extent there, and were being used by Vertigo can now not be used just as much as the other characters they recalled. And, of course, then there's the whole contradiction of not taking Constantine, a character that started in the DCU as well, and shows how dumb the whole thing really is. There's a reason Vertigo had these characters, and that's because DC didn't give two ****s about them and would never use them outside some occasion guest spot or one-shot that went nowhere. It's the perfect example of mucking around with something just for the sake of doing so, and that kind of stuff leads to bad places.

And if DC wanted individual characters, they could have just done that. If they wanted Swamp Thing to not use in their office instead of not being used in Vertigo's, they could have just taken him. They've done it before with stuff like Doom Patrol, Animal Man and Kid Eternity before, and this proves recalling characters isn't hard for them.

And using Vertigo as a talent farm is a good idea as well, that way we'll get more Scott Snyders and Jeff Lemires and less Felicia Hendersons and Adam Beechens. And besides along with Detective Comics, Snyder is still going to be doing American Vampire and along with Superboy and the Atom Co-Feature, Lemire is still going to be doing Sweet Tooth. It's the best of both worlds, Snyder and Lemire are moving on up in the comics industry ladder while still working on what got them noticed which allows Vertigo to continue to thrive.

I find nothing wrong with them looking at Vertigo writers and offering them work and so-and-so, but I'm not fond of the idea of DC editorial directly going through Vertigo editorial specifically to farm their talent. I prefer Vertigo to stay the more art-inclined, indie like imprint

 

[Watchman]

I think it's for the best that they recalled DC characters like Swamp Thing from Vertigo that weren't even being used.QUOTE]

But according to some he was going to be used by Vertigo.

I know it's Bleeding Cool but no one has come out to refute it. Swamp Thing has also existed, besides the one-off meeting with the Justice League, Alexander Luthor, and teaming up with Etrigan but every Vertigo/DC character does that, he has always existed on the fringes of the DC universe. I would rather see what someone at Vertigo can do with the character rather than him show up in Green Arrow.

And if DC wanted individual characters, they could have just done that. If they wanted Swamp Thing to not use in their office instead of not being used in Vertigo's, they could have just taken him. They've done it before with stuff like Doom Patrol, Animal Man and Kid Eternity before, and this proves recalling characters isn't hard for them.

Other than Doom Patrol the remaining two have kind of been forgotten. Kid Eternity was killed in Titans and Animal Man seems to pop up when Beechen wants to write something for DC.