Broken Frontier

Walking in a few minutes late, Dan Dido apologized and explained that they don’t send him the newest toys yet. He then proceeded to show off his new DC Direct Metal Men action figure he just got off the con floor. Like an excited kid, he was so proud of the purchase.

Without warning, he left the dais and walked out into the crowd. Mere inches away from us and without a microphone, he started to work the room and explain the format of this panel. An informal discussion about DC’s content, practices and what we as readers want to see in the days coming. He genuinely made it a conversation with the packed room.

He went on to say how he loved coming to MegaCon because it‘s a show that skews younger, hitting every age range and not just the typical “comic book guy.” As he put it, it’s an audience the industry needs to constantly reach. This statement set the tone for the panel and became a main focus.

He proceeded to ask random members of the crowd what their favorite character, book or team was and how they were introduced to it. The answers varied wildly, proving his point even more.

With an infinite amount of avenues, how can the industry focus their efforts on a consistent basis? The questions lead his discussion into the choices behind recent staffing changes in DC Editorial (Jim Lee and him being Co-Publishers and Geoff Johns acting as the Chief Creative Officer).

Adding to that explanation, he stressed the importance of consistency in character, across every platform. When creators jump on a title, they sometimes want to close out the book or modify it drastically, but a new focus has been placed on keeping the characters consistent. This mandat,e while nurturing the creators’ artistic passions, is something DC is placing major importance on in the coming months and years.

Before closing out the discussion, a few questions lead to an explanation of how Vertigo is still a part of DC and a great source for female friendly comics. In response to what they’re doing to reach girls, Dan pointed to strong titles such as Fables that appeals to both sexes and has made consorted efforts to cultivate a lasting female audience. An audience beyond the one you might receive from a saturation of female superhero titles.

Lastly, a topic concerning age labels on comics was broached and Didio admitted that talks are on the table to implement them. A young reader with her even younger brother commented that without labels or ratings, comics have meandered in a PG-13 realm. She expressed the need for something other than Tiny Titans to give her younger brother without trepidation. Not a censoring of comics, but a quick reference to if it’s an appropriate story. Dan echoed her concerns and pointed to discussions like this that lead to reaching the larger audience that her brother represents.

At that point, we were being asked to wrap it up. We later discovered that there was outside pressure coming from the massive line of Trekkers waiting to get into the room for the next panel.

 With that, Mr. Didio thanked us for our time and just as like the panel started, it was suddenly over. No pomp and circumstance, just another fan saying see ya later to his fellow fanboy buddies.