About the Changes at DC Comics

Hot on the heels of the big Disney buys Marvel news was this week’s announcement of the restructuring of DC Comics into DC Entertainment Inc. which was quickly followed by DC publisher Paul Levitz stepping down from the head job and “transitioning” to a full time writer, editor and consultant. No word on who will be “transitioning” in. Diane Nelson, who handled the Harry Potter marketing for Warner Bros. was named the head of the new DC Entertainment Inc. I have gotten a number of e-mails asking me “how does this affect MAD“?

My answer: I have no idea.

I have no idea what is going on with MAD these days. Freelancers are hardly privy to the inner workings of management, corporate parent involvement, budgeting, etc. We get assigned to do jobs, we do them, we get paid, they get published. That last sentence is still accurate even though it is taken place considerably less frequently than it used to.

This restructuring move might be good, bad or indifferent. I suppose the only thing that could be worse for MAD than it’s present predicament (having had it’s other titles discontinued and being cut down to quarterly publication), would be the complete cancellation of the magazine. On the other hand, maybe the new DC Entertainment Inc. management will want to try and revitalize the brand and move it into other media somehow, which could revive the magazine or at least increase it’s budget and the marketing muscle behind it. On still another hand it might be that MAD will be largely ignored to either continue on as is or solve it’s own issues internally somehow.

Your guess is as good as mine. Mark Evanier has some wonderful insights into the departure of Paul Levitz as publisher and the impact he had on the print side of things in the last eight years or so. Recommended reading, as always.