Era Ender: Farewell To DC At The Conclusion Of Its Long NYC Run; Congrats To Bob Wayne

I'm working on something slightly longer for Sunday that I hope will come together on DC's moving to Los Angeles and the conclusion of Bob Wayne's DC Comics career. My belief is that this is the final day in the New York offices, although I'm open to be corrected there. It's not been an emphasis of their PR, and if that was on purpose, it seems to have worked. Of course, to do justice to either subject would take days and days I simply don't have right now. But if I don't even get the 1500-word version done, let me wish DC Comics luck in its new home and thank them as a one-time kid fan for their window into one of the great cities in the history of the world.

As for the other story, I believe that Bob Wayne is the biggest name whose career with the company comes to close along with those offices. Wayne spent 28 years at the company, which is an amazing thing in and of itself given that all of mainstream comics has done four or five major culture and business shifts in the last three decades. Wayne is also the person of his generation that I believe industry observers agree most fundamentally shaped the current Direct Market. If you took a scraping of the space between someone's fingers and a comic book bought at a comic book shop, you'd probably be able to find Wayne's DNA. I've criticized that market and the industry entire over the years, but that doesn't mean I don't have an appreciation how special it is, and how much it's had a significant impact on the current state of the art form. I wish Wayne an equally satisfying and productive retirement.

I think it's good for DC to make a move like this, and to make this specific move. They'll have a different talent pool on which to draw, and I think Los Angeles is one of the best places for any media company particularly over the next couple of decades. It may be that three decades from now that move will be measured by someone whose very idea of Los Angeles is shaped by his interaction with that company's comics.
 
posted 5:59 pm PST | Permalink
 

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