DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio was at a comic-book store in New Jersey when he noticed something alarming. Over the course of an hour, only two customers came in. And, this was a Saturday — the busiest day of the week for most retailers.

“The walk-in, casual fans have gotten away from us,” DiDio observed. “We are down to just the die-hard buyers.”

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“Fan interest is huge — much of it positive, some negative, and some very cautious,” Gladston said.

But much-hyped events and reboots have boosted comic-book sales before without much long-term effect. Wolfman wrote one of the earliest in 1985 with “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” which was originally intended to result in every comic book restarting at No. 1, before editors decided against it. Since then, events, crossovers and reboots have become a near annual occurrence for DC and Marvel.

“The stunts have run their course,” Liefeld said. “This is the biggest one in the past 25 years, and nothing else can come close.” 

[ Read more at herocomplex.latimes.com ]

On Wednesday, August 31st, DC Comics will launch a historic renumbering of the entire DC Universe line of comic books with 52 first issues. Here’s your central starting point for all 52 of those issues.

Since I didn’t attend San Diego Comic Con last week, I did the next best thing and tried to enjoy it vicariously via Tweets, blogs and articles at GeekMom and elsewhere.

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The panel above shows the new status quo of her relationship with Clark. The setup is that they’ve been working together five years and never apparently connected, nor has Lois not figured out there’s something her fellow employee might be hiding, like a secret identity. Apparently, she’s too busy running things or hanging out with men who like pointing fingers when they meet someone. But worse than that, her appearance is merely a prop to make the reader feel bad for poor Clark because the girl he wants is having sex with someone else. This is not an accident, this is intended to be read that way.

Yes, Lois is a supporting character. But she’s also DC’s most recognizable female character next to Wonder Woman or, arguably, Batgirl. To see her reduced to a prop to make the reader feel bad for Clark is frustrating, especially since one of the things I asked for in my Open Letter to DC was three-dimensional characterization, even if the women were not the stars of the book. Add to that the report that DC Superman Group Editor Matt Idelson said Superman doesn’t need a “trophy wife” at the SDCC panel and I’m very pessimistic about getting a three-dimensional Lois.

During today’s Designing the New DCU 52 panel at SDCC, attendees were invited to see how characters are designed to how they end up looking in the final pages of a comic book. Below, take a look at the art we showed during this presentation for such titles as ALL-STAR WESTERN, ANIMAL MAN, BATGIRL, BIRDS OF PREY, THE FLASH, GREEN ARROW, THE SAVAGE HAWKMAN, I, VAMPIRE, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS, SUICIDE SQUAD, SUPERBOY, SUPERGIRL, SUPERMAN and TEEN TITANS.