The DC Implosion Part One: Again?

The news last week was devastating for 800 people employed in some capacity with Warner Media. The sword of Damocles had been dangling over the heads of the entire Warner operation after it's acquisition by AT&T. 

Chief Executive Jason Kilar dropped that sword last week. 

Among the media platforms under Warner Media is DC Comics. 

Kilar's cuts did not ignore Warner's comic book division. 

Among those laid off include editor-in-chief Bob Harras; editors Mark Doyle, Brian Cunningham and Andy Khouri; and VP's Jonah Weiland, Hank Kanalz and Bobbie Chase.

Jim Lee remains with the company as DC's Chief Creative Officer, a liaison between DC and other brands of Warner Media. 

Programming for the DC Universe streaming service will be folded into HBO Max.  

Meanwhile, in the face of all this upheaval and change, what about the comics themselves?  Jim Lee says DC is still in the business of making comics. 

"Absolutely. One hundred percent. It is still the cornerstone of everything we do. The need for storytelling, updating the mythology, is vital to what we do."

But the slate of titles published by DC will reduced, by approximately 20 to 25 percent.  

Making comic books is an industry that either is at best doing "well enough" or at worst is "doomed as doomed can be".  Even in the best of times, nobody in the business of making or selling comic books is thinking they're doing great. It never gets much more assured than "Eh, I'm making a little money, we can keep the doors open and I'm not starving to death so I've got that going for me." 

This is not the best of times.

Comic  books are a niche industry, a small sliver of the multi-media pie. Despite the successes of various comic book properties on TV (DC on the CW) or in movies (Marvel's Cinematic Universe), the comics themselves still struggle for attention and relevance.  

Then the pandemic hit and made a barely tenable situation less sustainable. Printing plants shut down and distribution chains ceased operation. Lockdowns forced comic shops to close their doors. 

But even as restrictions began to ease with printers, distributors and shops slowly getting back to business, the overall economy is taking a hit. A lot more people are unemployed now which means a lot less discretionary 
income for things like comic books.  

It is a perfect storm to fundamentally shift the comic book industry landscape. Or lay complete waste to that landscape entirely.  

A number of long time fans of comics in general and of DC in particular might be looking at all this with concern and no small amount of anxiety?

Is this the DC Implosion again? 

If you're looking at this from outside comics, you might ask, "What do you mean by 'again'?"  

In part two posting later today, I will take a moment to relate my experience as a reader of DC comics and what it was like to live through the DC implosion the first time. 

But DC did come through that downturn before. 

But what about now? 

I think there is still money on the table for DC, Marvel and others to make "a little money and keep the doors open" through comic books.  But given the fragile state of both the industry and the economy, there will have to be some significant contraction of the market and the number of titles published. 

In a few hours, I will post The DC Implosion Part Two:  The First Time. What happened in 1978 may give us some idea of what might happen now.