DC Comics Heads Jim Lee, Anne DePies on An Absolute Comeback Year

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The death of comic books has been foretold for many years, but just like the superheros and villains it chronicles, the medium always returns, sometimes bolder than before.

Sales from comic books and graphic novels tumbled 7 percent in 2023 (falling from $2.01 billion in 2022 to $1.87 billion) — according to an estimate from ICv2, a website that tracks industry sales. This year, however, the industry bounced back in a big way. Though final numbers aren’t yet available, sales are believed to be up.

No one had a bigger year, arguably, than DC, which launched several publishing initiatives, new product lines, and new distribution channels.

“DC lost market share and had multiple downsizings in recent years,” notes Milton Griepp of ICv2. “They had a long way to come back from and they’re showing signs of life. They definitely had a great year.”

The company doubled down on its evergreen stories with a new graphic novel format, Compact Comics. The 5.5” x 8.5” books launched with 10 titles, all of which went to a second printing. 1985’sWatchmen, a title that continues to be a perennial seller, went to a third printing. The graphic novels were not only a hit at the comic book shop but at bookstores, where superheroes don’t traditionally sell well. The line will put out 15 book in 2025.

DC also jumped into webcomics with DC GO!, which will feature new comics as well as reformatted classic stories, while DC Universe Infinite, the digital comic subscription serves, expanded to France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Brazil and Mexico joined the list this week.

There are other success, but none bigger than the launch of the “Absolute” universe, which reimagines DC characters in new ways. Absolute Batman No. 1,written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Nick Dragotta, has sold more than 400,000. It went into multiple printings and became the best selling comic of 2024. The other comics in the line had rocket sales as well. Absolute Superman No. 1, by Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval, and Absolute Wonder Woman No. 1, by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman, also went to numerous  printings, selling more than 500,000 combined.

DC was also making its presence felt in the real world, too, with Batman receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a seven-and-a-half foot tall bronze statue of Green Lantern hero John Stewart unveiled in downtown Burbank. And while Joker: Folie à Deux bombed, HBO’s The Penguin became a surprise hit that garnered critical acclaim. Next year promises to keep the momentum going with more initiatives (the return of the creator-owned Vertigo imprint) and the big-screen debut of DC Studios with James Gunn’s Superman, which launches its trailer Thursday.

Chronicling the adventures of these heroes and villains all begins with the publishing division, which underpins the many facets of Warner Bros. Discovery’s superhero stream. And it’s a job all the more important as the film, TV projects, video games, toys and apparel fuel legions of fans around the world.  

“People love the fact that they can explore endlessly to some degree in the publishing world of things,” says Jim Lee, DC’s president, publisher and chief creative officer. “Because we’re a 24/7 business, we publish 365 days a year. I don’t know if there’s any other entertainment media business that does something similar. There’s no off switch to what we do.”

Lee and DC general manager Anne DePies took to Zoom with The Hollywood Reporter to explain how a victorious 2024 was the culmination of years of planning, the publishing plan for Hush 2, and what the heck is the difference between Absolute, Black Label and Elseworlds lines?

Comic book sales seems to have rebounded in a very big way in 2024 from what I’m hearing. How was it on your end?

ANNE DEPIES We had a good year across the board in the direct market and the mass channel, not just on the new periodicals but also on the book side. We’re seeing a rebound across the board. We’re excited about how we’re ending the year and where we’re going in ’25. So there’s a lot of optimism on our side from where we’re sitting.

JIM LEE Sometimes you’re benefiting from bigger trends and it lifts your business and other times you’re making decisions which helps drive the business. And I think this year we made some really great creative and business decisions. It really elevated our revenue, drove sales, brought a lot of fans back in the stores with All In and the Absolute line.

DEPIES I don’t think it’s just a 2024 thing either, right? A lot of what you saw this year has been in the works for a couple of years. And what we’re building with all the new lines, like launching Compact Comics, DC Finest, is going to go on for years. Those are going to be our new evergreens.

LEE We’re working two, sometimes three years out in advance so a lot of this stuff takes a while to set up and implement and it just all came together in a great year for us.

In a previous heydays of comics, in the 1970s and 1960s for instance, comics seem to be very much a month by month business where you sit down and ask, “What are we doing next month?” And that seems almost like a quaint idea by today’s standards. How much is it necessary for a publisher like DC to have a multi-year plan that does take in all of this?

LEE I’ve been both, right? I was a small publisher before I was acquired by DC and I saw the resources in the deep bench that a company like DC offers. So when you’re smaller, you just don’t have the staff infrastructure to plan too far ahead. You’re really looking quarter by quarter. “What do we have coming out?” “What’s late?” But really, to run our business efficiently and effectively, we’ve had to start planning deeper and deeper into it, especially since the backlist, the book piece of our business, is bigger and bigger every year, and that requires a different sort of cadence of information that has to be sent to the distributors and shared with retailers and the fans.

DEPIES We think of our business globally. We have partners around the world. Our international partners, we develop publishing plans with them a year in advance. And so when we plan ahead, we’re able to activate all our partners around the world to make sure we can present DC in the same way to every territory.

Would you say that the quality of comics has improved this year?

LEE That’s a loaded of question, right? If I say yes, then I’m saying everything that was published before 2024 was not good. I’m not going to fall for your trap. (Laughs). I think we publish great comics every single year. If you take a comic book from now and compare it to something like you referenced before, like the Bronze Age … not that the Bronze Age wasn’t great, it’s a different business, different audience, different business goals and expectations. The level of writing in comics, it’s been elevated, and the art is too. Look at artists. They’re not able to maintain a monthly schedule month in, month out. It’s rare to have an artist do that because the amount of work and detail that you see in the art. … More time has to go into them than they did back in the day when comics were cheap and disposable for little kids.

The Absolute line obviously is a huge success. To me, it mirrors the success of the Marvel’s Ultimate line. What does that say about the state of the industry, that these mashup or remix versions resonate, whether it’s like this hardcore Batman or if it’s a married-with-kids Peter Parker?

LEE I think we live in an age where there’s probably more content than we could possibly consume. If you were to say, “Hey, if you’re into DC superheroes, here are all the projects, here’s how many hours it would take to read every comic, watch every cartoon movie.” It’s a lot. Andso people have near infinite choices available to them, but I think it’s great that they still choose their favorite characters and that in many ways they’re as interested in alternate takes on those characters as everything else. So I think it’s really just sort of meeting the fans where they want to be.

Can one of you set me straight about all the different lines?

LEE We had a lot of conversations with the writers because start the whole process of what does it mean to be an Absolute book versus a Back Label or an Elseworld. To me, in Elseworlds, you have to really break the original conceit and then you get something cool and different and creative out of that. But in the Absolute line, we want them to stay true to the essence of the character and change the details, contemporize the settings, change some of the secondary, tertiary relationships and see what that nets out. There is a difference. And Black Label is more true to the conceit, true to the canon, but out of continuity. We have to have north stars for each of these imprints and sub imprints so we know why we’re doing each of them and what purpose they serve.

Not much has been said about the origins of the Absolute line. Who came up with the idea for it?

LEE It gestated over many, many years. Even pre-Covid we talked about doing an alternate pipeline and it just never came together. I think Scott Snyder’s interest in coming back to DC and doing some work around Batman was a core driving reason why we put this together. But we knew we wanted to do something big. We typically do something every six, eight years. It’s been eight years since (2016’s publishing relaunch) Rebirth. Between (2011’s publishing reboot) New 52 and Rebirth was only five years. But between Scott Snyder and Josh Williamson, we had two creators that had this idea for a pocket universe, kind of different from a multiverse sort of situation. And that aligned with our business need to really kind of do something big and epic across the line.

Is there a brain trust or a group of architects who are sort of gatekeeping the absolute line?

LEE It’s primarily Josh and Scott, and obviously our editorial team behind that. So Paul Kaminski and Katie Kubert worked on the Absolute. It’s really is a mix of internal editor leads and external talent. And Marie Javins, our editor-in-chief.

Next year, 2025 could be a big year for DC with the Superman movie. Is there going to be a comic book movie adaptation or various tie-ins with that movie?

LEE I think the last time a comic book adaptation did well was Batman in 1989. What typically what happens is our back catalog of great Superman stories or Batman stories, depending on the movie, will lift up in sales. As fans want to know more about these characters, they’ll go to the stores and bookstores and buy our perennial evergreen favorites. The stuff that is the most critically acclaimed that was selling the best before a big media event happens are the books that lift up in sales the most when the media hits and does really well. So we’re calling it Summer of Superman and, while we don’t have a direct adaptation of the movie, we have a lot of great Superman content around the window of the movie in anticipation that people are going to really just want to re-look into the live the life of the world’s first superhero.

Jim, you’re returning next year to the drawing page of a monthly comic for the first time since 2016 with Batman: Hush 2. Can we talk about that?

LEE Fine. But can I say we have bigger news than Hush even for next year? Can I say that?

DEPIES Yes, I would say I agree, but I also I would say Jim’s being humble. We’re all feeling very, very over the top with (Batman No. 158)and beyond.

Where are you in the drawing process?

LEE I’m on the second issue of six. I don’t know if that’s been noted, but it’s a two-part story. There’s an initial six issues that are in the actual Batman continuity starting with Batman No.158, which comes out last week of March. And that runs six issues. It resolves that arc but it ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. And then Jeph and I are coming back for a final six to resolve the Hush saga, which would probably be in 2026.

It’s like breaking up book seven of Harry Potter in part one and part two.

Exactly. There you go.

“}]] The biggest comic of the year, a line of graphic novels that went to multiple printings, and the super power of planning all contributed to a banner year. Says Lee, “There’s no off switch to what we do.”  Read More