NYCC 2017: DC's Meet the Publishers Panel Live Blog

Jim Lee and Dan DiDio spoke with an audience of fans at New York Comic Con this afternoon, touching on a variety of upcoming projects.

"You're uncomfortably content at this moment with DC Comics," joked DiDio, saying that a year on from the launch of Rebirth, they are getting more questions about "missing" characters, imprints, and the like.

He cited examples like Conner Kent, the Justice Society of America, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and more, saying, "we're not going to talk about any of that."

"When we started with the Rebirth special last year, there was a lot of talk about that blue arm and how it affected the DCU, and what's that mean?" DiDio said. "There's a lot of questions that have been out there and I think we've answered some of them....Doomsday Clock is the culmination of everything that's been building for the last year and it's been great to have such great talents like Geoff Johns and Gary Frank on this book."

Lee said that Johns had worked with the Rebirth writers on building the DC Universe, but that Doomsday Clock is his return to writing periodicals.

"It all came from an idea, a story that he had, which is the best source for any creation of any comic book," Lee said. "He had an idea for this story, and it's not your classic misunderstanding between heroes, and they fight and they team up....It is a sequel to Watchmen, the Watchmen do meet the DC Universe characters, but beyond that, he has kept it secret because he wants you guys to experience this book in real time."

Lee acknowledged it has been a challenge to promote the book without spoiling anything.

"It is very surprising, and every panel really, probably much in the same way that the original Watchmen was created, was created with ultimate care and attention," Lee added. "There is an incredible amount of focus and attention paid to this book."

There will be a Doomsday Clock panel tomorrow at 6 p.m., which will be livestreamed on the Internet.

DiDio said that one of the big questions they have been getting is how they can have Dark Nights: Metal happening at the same time as Doomsday Clock.

"I think what's great about that, in that answering that question really helps define what we've got going on in the DC Universe," DiDio said. "It's about creating enough product and the diversity of product, to serve as many readers as possible."

DiDio said that the company wants to make sure as large a segment of their audience as possible thinks they are getting their money's worth.

"I think you said that Metal is an event that is a story, and Doomsday Clock is a story that is an event," Lee said to DiDio.

Did said that DC will launch "The New Age of DC Heroes," nee Dark Matter, and those would "build out from" DC's legacy and the Metal event.

"The New Age of Heroes is really what that's about, and the New Age of Heroes is being built on what makes comic books great," DiDio said. "We can't just be centric on what we're about at DC, you have to look back at the early days of Marvel and look back at when Image was created."

He said that in the New Age of Heroes, there is a similar sense of energy and enthusiasm from the creators. "It's a way to add new characters and new ideas to our world, without having to change the heroes you love at the same time," DiDio said.

Action Comics is hitting its 1,000th issue next year.

"We're looking at a spot where it's actually Superman's 80th birthday at the same time Action #1000 comes out," DiDio said. 'We're going to get behind this in a big way, we have some great projects planned. You're going to see some fun things happening in the main title that's coming out in March, and there's going to be a special that comes out in April."

He said that special will feature some of the greatest names who have ever worked on Superman.

"It all goes back to Rebirth bringing that stability to a line," DiDio said, noting that besides All-Star Batman, which ended due to Scott Snyder's schedule, they have not yet cancelled a title.

"I think that's one of the mistakes that was made during the New 52," DiDio admitted. "We had a number of books that we launched with. What I loved about The new 52 was the diversity of the line, and some of them didn't take hold right away, and we cancelled them rather than allowing them to find a hold with their new audience."

Grant Morrison joined the panel to talk about Wonder Woman Earth One, saying that he and Yanick Paquette are working on a trilogy, and that the second book is the series' The Empire Strikes Back.

When a member of the audience shouted "Seaguy" at Morrison, the writer said that artist Cameron Stewart has had the script for new Seaguy for three years.

"My book for the Age of New Heroes line is called Sideways, which I'm doing with Kenneth Rocafort and Justin Jordan," DiDio said, "but I reached out to Grant, and Grant is going to co-write some issues with me."

"We've talked about history before, and how we craft things," DiDio said. "We were talking about what we see in comics and the types of stories and the types of things that we need to see more of."

"One of the things Scott and I talked about was this incredible, rich history of DC, which should never be forgotten," Morrison said. "The DC Universe had been created over decades by lots of different craftsmen, and it's important to always acknowledge everyone's work, and to let peopel know that your favorite character has never gone away. I think a book Dan and I are doing is going to address that."

DiDio asked Lee to talk about his upcoming series, Immortal Men.

"When we started this project, we saw that there was a need in the industry or an opportunity to create new characters," Lee said. "Dan wanted to call this the WildCATS gambit... We had a list of character names that were inactive, and Immortal Man is the one that spoke to me."

"What we love about Grant is that he's so fearkess in his approach," Lee said. "Even when he did Batman, every Batman story that you read actually happened to the same guy... He went through different eras of Batman and how those stories reflected a different maturation point in the life of Bruce Wayne and Batman. That's what we started to think about when we were working on Immortal Men."

He said he and James Tynion IV came up with a concept where the Immortal Men work in the shadows, but tie into the larger DC Universe, Metal, and other stories old readers might recognize.

"It's a mix of Metamorpho, Plastic Man, Phantom Girl, and Mr. Terrific," Lee said, "and these are four characters who inhabited the DCU, they're out there with their own stories, but bringing them together, we're going to stay true to the stories that happened before with them, but it feels very new and very fresh to see this team forming before your very eyes but with characters you are already attached to."

DiDio said that part of the reason characters like Legion and Justice Society are being delayed is that they want to get it right.

"We don't want to keep constantly relaunching, it's got to stop," DiDio said.

At that point, Morrison left the panel.

Lee talked about The Wild Storm, which relaunched the universe Lee created 25 years ago.

"It's been a really fun and adventurous and surprising ride for long-term fans, myself included," Lee said.

The first spinoff, Michael Cray, launches on Wednesday, and centers on a man who has an alien life form growing inside of him that he believes is cancer.

"What's interesting about Michael Cray #1 is that it introduces a target he has to take out in his war against I/O," Lee said, saying that Cray will be tasked to take out Oliver Queen.

"It's a very different take than what we did with the DC characters when we put them in The New 52, but obviously what awe are doing with the WildStorm Universe is different from the DC Universe. You're going to see elements of the DC Universe, but weirdly warped in the way only Warren Ellis can do," Lee said.

He said that while he and DiDio are responsible for profits and losses, much of what they do is still driven by passion.

He said that Gerard Way had put together the Young Animal line by digging through a DC Comics Encyclopedia, and that "on top of it, [Way] had different ways of marketing it and reaching new audiences."

DiDio said that nobody could figure out where Cave Carson's cybernetic eye came from in the original comics, and that nobody could remember. Eventually they asked Dan Abnett, who wrote the original story that introduced the cybernetic eye, and he said that it was created as a way to differentiating a future version of Cave who had appeared in a previous story.

Lee said they will relaunch the Vertigo line for its 25th anniversary on August 8, 2018, under the stewardship of former Batman group editor Mark Doyle.

"[Doyle] wants to really reinvigorate the line, and we're going to tease it with three big name creators," Lee said, adding that they are approaching it with a pop-up imprint mentality and a very cohesive lineup.

DiDio said of Mad magazine, "Like with everything, we are in the position where we are trying to reinvigorate."

He introduced former Bongo executive Bill Morrison, the VP & Executive Editor for Mad.

Morrison asked who in the audience knew Alfred E. Neuman's birthday, saying that it was April 1st, and that's when they will relaunch Mad.

Morrison said that while his experience on The Simpsons is feeding into Mad, which comes full circle, since Mad has inspired the creators behind The Simpsons.

Morrison teased that Sergio Aragones, Paul Coker, and Al Jaffee are not going away.

"It's going to change, it's going to have new, exciting things, but you're also going to see" the things that readers most closely associate with the magazine.

"I kind of look at it like, my favorite version of Batman is the animated series," Morrison said. "They took the best of old Batman and they mixed it with new ideas and that's what I want to create with Mad."

Morrison said that they will also launch a weekly MAD podcast, which will feature comedians and people involved with comedy, who will talk about comedy but also their history with Mad, and they will expand the publisher's magazine presence.