posted October 24, 2002 05:52 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Greenberger:
Dale handles those pesky Archives and makes intro choices based on a vareity of criteria. DC makes an effort to involve living participants where practical.

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So does that mean that Jim Shooter will be writing the intro to the next Legion archives?

posted October 24, 2002 03:59 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Marty Raap:
...Of course, I do realize there are problems with commissioning introductions from the dead . . . ironically, they are REALLY bad about meeting their deadlines . . . . but they work cheap!

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posted October 24, 2002 11:04 PM               

Remember all the new TV series that Gene Roddenberry created, well into the next decade after he died.

Even Jacquelin Susann (sp) pumped out at least three books post-mortem.

My personal hero was Kenneth Robeson, who penned a Doc Savage novel about 10 or 15 years ago, and he's been beyond the veil for decades.

Nope they don't make 'em like they used to. I mean, has Mark Gruenwald written anything since they mixed his ashes in with the Squadron Supreme TPB?

posted October 24, 2002 11:04 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by NecessaryImpurity:
My own father is a Necro-American, and since this fact became obvious, no one will invite him to family gatherings anymore. Shameful!

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I bet he still gets junk mail. America's mass mailers have never been known to discriminate against the life-impaired.

posted October 25, 2002 04:12 AM               

Can you address that?

posted October 25, 2002 06:59 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Marty Raap:
So "DC makes an effort to involve living participants where practicable"? This smacks of discrimination against the life-impaired (i.e., "life-ism"). When will we as a society finally include dead people fully in our activities instead of just shoving them into the ground like second-class citizens? When will we realize that they, too, had feelings once? Of course, I do realize there are problems with commissioning introductions from the dead . . . ironically, they are REALLY bad about meeting their deadlines . . . . but they work cheap!

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They could always write their introductions via a medium.

posted October 27, 2002 12:18 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by NecessaryImpurity:
It's about time people woke up to the issues facing Necro-Americans! We all treat them shabbily, and it's shameful. My own father is a Necro-American, and since this fact became obvious, no one will invite him to family gatherings anymore. Shameful!

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At least in Illinois and Missouri, he can still vote.

posted October 28, 2002 08:06 AM            

Seriously, I know we all appreciate Bob's recent participation. Let's not make him regret it by constantly asking him direct questions.

I think Bob is more likely to answer broad questions like

quote:

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Originally posted by James Friel:
So, Bob:
In our endless nattering here, we've seemingly begun to simply assume that DC is going to expand DCU Archive production from the current level of about 12 per year to something between 16 and 18 per year over the next few years, not counting the other lines such as Spirit and THUNDER Agents.
It seems to be the only way of reconciling the existence of ever larger numbers of archive series with continuing existing ones on anything like a regular schedule.

Can you address that?

I guess the question comes in two parts:
Does DC think it's a good idea in market terms?
Does the producrion capacity exist?

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The answer to these questions enable us to assess the likelihood of, for example, a complete Shazam! Family Archives or expansion into other genres.

If we bombard Bob with questions about specific Archives, he will probably stop answering all of our questions.

Obviously, I cannot speak for Bob or DC, but I'd like to address the other questions that Bob has yet to answer. I'm sure that Bob will correct me if I'm really off base.

quote:

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Originally posted by Owen Cardiff Darcy:
Bob, when may we expect to see the Superboy Archive?

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I suspect that Superboy is still unscheduled, which means Bob can't answer this question. Perhaps, Bob will be kind enough to post here as soon as it is scheduled.

quote:

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Originally posted by kid colt:
Bob,

A couple of weeks ago, I started a thread asking for a Blackhawk 80-page Giant collecting Reed Crandell stories from Blackhawk #41-65. Any chance of anything like that happening, since it would be a long time before DC got to this material in the Archives?

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I suspect that Bob's answer would be the same as a common response in Bob Rozakis' Ask the Answer Man column: anything's possible. James and I have suggested doing this for the later issues of the GA Green Lantern and GA Flash Archives. It seems to me that DC won't jump to Crandall until after they see the sales for Blackhawk Vol 2 (which I don't think is on the schedule).

I'm sorry to say that I think Peter Svensson's answer to Frank Balkin's question about paperbacks is correct. Perhaps DC could include this in a small TPB (like the Kirby Green Arrow) with more Toth material from the same time period.

posted October 29, 2002 04:48 PM               

Second, a big hello to Frank Balkin, one of my steadiest Star trek letter writers from years gone by. Nice to see he made it in the entertainment world.

Adding in the non-DC archives such as The Spirit and T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents has certainly increased our total number in any given year. Additionally, we've found some printing economies and some new outlets that has enabled us to produce a steady stream of books with solid sales. So yes, we have increased output and will again in 2003. I won't give you a final number becuase things change.

DC does not expect any but a few to actually want them ALL and are producing different lines for different readers. There are those Golden Age fans who could care less about the Legion or JLA readers who can't get enough of the Silver Age. And non-hero fans who rejoice at any war offering.

Reaching those disparate audiences are factors we weigh when planning each year's output. And yes, we look at the sales and make choices. We'll take a hard look at the Blackhawk or Doom Patrol numbers before commissioning second volumes. We do that with every number one.

We've been lucky that the number of suppliers for digital restoration and color reconstruction have grown allowing us to increase the output.

We've also been fortunate to be able to hold the price down over the years.

And yes, we've often debated whether or not to release softcover editions of the Archives and each year the argument to remain hardcover only wins. Since the reasons alter year to year, I won't get into them here.

Back to the arguing...

posted October 29, 2002 10:17 PM            

I'm also glad to hear that the Archives apparently constitute a steady stream of good-selling books. Hopefully DC will continue to subsidize less successful Archives with more successful Archives; or perhaps even the lowest sellers could still be deemed successful (he types optimistically)?

posted October 30, 2002 02:25 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by James Friel:
I find it interesting that Bob speaks of looking at the Doom Patrol and (especially) Blackhawk numbers carefully before proceding further in the future tense.
I'd have expected the time elapsed since Blackhawk and the excellent numbers scored by Doom Patrol to have dictated those decisions one way or the other by now, even if further volumes aren't actually scheduled yet.

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The Blackhawk reference might be because they hadn't had all the sales reports from non-Diamond sources by the time of their meeting last summer, but now they do. Now they have to stack Blackhawk up with everything else.

I imagine there is a great cluster of moderately successful Archives that makes their job even tougher. If the most recent volume of the #5 best selling line has sold 5000 copies and the number #15 selling line has sold 4900, they pretty much have their pick of 10 books that warrant another volume. On top of the new #1s and continuations to the top sellers.

posted October 30, 2002 09:08 AM               

There's been a fair amount of talk here on this board about humor Archives and I'm proud to say that Shelly Mayer's work usually is in the forefront of the requests. Your thoughts on the possibility of a SCRIBBLY & THE RED TORNADO Archive and/or SUGAR & SPIKE.

I don't envy you and your part in the decision-making. All of the requests, all of the choices...yikes.

posted October 30, 2002 10:49 AM               

I would say that means an S+S is not imminent.

posted October 30, 2002 11:20 AM               

For instance, I would likely never want to publish a Scribbly Archive if I were in Bob or other decision makers' shoes (sorry Jim- I would actually buy it though). But I may be very misinformed at the cult following for such a book. It could be huge and my bias or lack of knowledge would the program missing out on a potential big seller.

I have a feeling there would be alot of research with available data and more checking on the process and updates on currently planned archive material.Imagine the updates and stress over Superboy.