DC Co-Publisher, Dan DiDio, recently gave a New Year’s address and a Q&A session with Direct Market comic book retailers on the publisher’s DC Nation Facebook Forum.
One of the main topics discussed was the shipping track record as of late, regarding their Black Label line. In as such, DiDio gave some words of praise but also firm words of a pledge as it pertains to the future of the line:
“Extraordinarily successful for us,” DiDio said of the line. “The response and reaction have been better than we could imagine. Our plan is to make sure we’re consistent in the material we’re putting out, and that it’s strong, and that it comes out on time. We will not be soliciting anything until we are clear that this material will come out as scheduled.”
This all comes as many of the titles from within the line such as Frank Miller‘s Superman: Year One, Scott Snyder‘s Batman: Last Knight on Earth, Brian Azzarello‘s Birds of Prey, Kami Garcia‘s Joker/Harley Quinn: Criminal Sanity, for example, have all suffered or were seriously plagued with schedule delays. So far, Stjepan Seijic‘s Harleen has been the only title as of late that has shipped on time.
“We like the maturity, the sensibility, the quality,” he continued. “The talent is going to be driving this line. We will not overproduce here, because we want to make sure this is a long-term plan.”
Here’s hoping Didio’s pledge will eventually help right the course, so as the line doesn’t further get affected, retailers won’t get frustrated with pre-order delays and titles get delivered in a timely manner to appease fans.