DC Comics 2015 Wishlist: 10 Things That Must Happen
10. Become More Reader-Friendly...
How about this: a fan-vote on the next new series and/or creative team? It sounds mad, but with Twitter, Facebook and the Internet in general, the division between we fans and the creators we admire has never been thinner. DC takes a chance when it publishes books like Firestorm or Hawk and Dove, sometimes they sell and sometimes they dont. However, if the company put out a series of options, so that fans could vote on which series they wanted to see, it could completely change the game. If fans could also vote on possible creative teams, we may be talking a full-on sales boost. Hypothetically, the fans would be emotionally invested in their chosen title and thus would feel included in the success or failure of the venture (like a free Kickstarter, but not really). Of course, were not suggesting taking this approach for all the books, just the lower selling ones. Comic book history suggests that DCs readership are often highly engaged with the product (Jason Todd, anyone?) and an idea like this could really turn the tide in the companys favour. If the DC website ran regular fan-made content, blogs from creators, interviews with artists, merchandise sales and so on, to a greater extent than it does now, it could become a wonderful fan community, which would also serve as a way to disseminate new ideas and storylines. Imagine, if you will, funny memes and articles being shared across the web, alongside teaser posters and trailers for new comic book events, stories and creative teams. DCs website does some of this now, but the site is hard to use, even if all you want to do is find out what books theyre publishing this week. The DC site should (re)model itself on fan-led sites like the (sorely missed) iFanboy.com or Comic Book Resources and should relate to its fans in a manner reminiscent of Marvel Comics fan-led marketing blitz from the 60s and 70s...
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
