Then again, colouring inside the lines is kinda boring…
So here’s my REAL New 52 Wish List!
***
1. Tarzan Quarterly, by Chris Ware, Joe Kubert, Matt Wagner, and Various Guests (“various guests” always includes Kate Beaton)
2. Me Am Bizarro!, by David Hine and Shaky Kane
3. The New Adventures Of Wonder Woman, by Mike Mignola
4. Batman & Robin, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
5. Seaguy, by Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart
6. Batman Inc. 80-Page Giant f. Grant Morrison & Various
7. SHAZAM! by Jeff Smith
8. SHAZAM! ANNUAL 80-Page Giant, by Jeff Smith, Kyle Baker, Jaime Hernandez, Darwyn Cooke, and Various Guests
9. Action Comics Weekly, by Kurt Busiek and Adam Kubert
10. Red Lanterns, by Peter Milligan and Ed Benes (and no, I’m not even joking, it’s clearly DC’s X-Statix)
11. Stelliferous, by Doeg Moench and Rich Buckler (no, I’ve never heard of it either, but it’s PAID FOR and it’s damn well going ahead)
12. Vimanarama, by Grant Morrison and Philip Bond
13. Whatever Happened to FORAGER? by James Stokoe
14. Supergirl, by Julie Doucet
15. JLA, by Adam Warren
16. Birds Of Prey, by Gail Simone and Marcos Martin
17. The World According To Dr. Occult, by Paul Pope
18. Batgirl: Year One, by the Original Cast
19. Challengers Of The Unknown, by Eric Powell
20. Frankenstein & Klarion The Witch-Boy, by Ben Caldwell
21. Bulleteer, by me
22. S.H.A.D.E., by Justin
23. Shining Knight, by Justin
24. The Brave And The Bold, f. Hawkman and Aquaman, by Kyle Baker and Darwyn Cooke
25. Strange Adventures, f. Adam Strange by William Messner-Loebs and J.H. Williams, Jr., and The Atom by William Messner-Loebs and Ulises Farinas
26. Kamandi, by Eric Powell
27. Suicide Squad, by Harvey Jerkwater
28. Batman, by Grant and Breyfogle
29. Dr. Fate, by Brendan McCarthy
30. Starman, by Joe Casey and Tom Scioli
31. Manhattan Guardian, by Cameron Stewart
32. Green Arrow by William Messner-Loebs (he’s the only one who can turn it around at this point, I swear to God)
33. Flash, by Kevin Huizenga and Gabriel Ba
34. Green Lantern, by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred
35. Legion Of Super-Heroes, by Kurt Busiek and Ryan Ottley
36. Superman, by Steve Rude
37. Northlanders, by the Original Cast
38. Weird War, by a bunch of talented people — David Aja, Chris Weston, Sean Phillips, name your poison, just scoop ‘em all up!
39. A Man Called Kev, by You-Know-Who
40. DC Universe Showcase, by Various. This is what it sounds like it should be: try-out space for new ideas.
41. All-Star Western Quarterly
42. All-Star Science Fiction & Fantasy Quarterly
43. Army@Love, by Rick Veitch
44. Adventure Comics, your Human Target and Manhunter and suchlike…more talented people, as Weird War.
45. Batwoman, by JHW3
46. The Question, by Greg Rucka and Cully Hamner
47. Omega Men, by Milligan and Bachalo
48. Wonder Woman Forever!, pretty much as previously outlined. Caldwell and Open-Source
49. Vertigo Quarterly, by Various
50. Sgt. Rock & The Losers, by the Kuberts and Darwyn Cooke
51. The Metal Men, by Palmiotti and Conner
52. Metamorpho, by Mike Allred
***
And as for editorial direction, well you’ve just seen all there is.
Now wouldn’t that be nicer? Mark Waid says audiences don’t know what they want, which is…you know, not really a true statement unless you append the words “ahead of time” to it. But most everybody does at least think about “what the audience wants” at some level — nobody operates in a vacuum, and I guess that even extends to the dubious art of making wish lists. So this is not all just stuff that would please me, although I would read every one of those books…
(Imagine that, I’d read every one…!)
…But it’s also got to do with things I think would be fit, or meet, or wanted by others, or needed for a sense of balance across the whole line, or useful as a corrective to some things in the past which I think haven’t worked well. There is also, I’m sure the astute reader will detect, a certain level of constraint in the exercise: not just that I’m still stuck with fifty-two titles, but that I don’t get to really have my dream wish-list (and in a few cases I know I’m kinda pushing the limits of reason anyway!) because of availability, not to mention implausibility, and also I have to leave out some things that might even be easier to swing than that, that I’d like to see. And some of it just doesn’t make sense anyway — I mean I imagine Rich Buckler wants to do a space-based DC comic that doesn’t even have anything more than a name behind it, that doesn’t actually exist! — and then other parts of it are more like “what comics bloggers would think is cool” and “what would pleasantly surprise my friends”, rather than anything that would truly knock doors down and blow walls out and maybe even succeed in the marketplace…where, it should be noted, your audience may not know what it wants, but it sure as hell knows what it likes!
Eh?
So as to constraints, I’ve had a few, though maybe the worst of all is that I actually don’t know many of the great artists out there who are not currently getting a whole lot of work! Or forget their names as I bash out lists and winnow possibilities. Colleen Coover? Eric Canete? The whole Internet lies undiscovered around me, while I merely toy with a well-known pebble or shell that already has reputation to spare, and even the people I forget are in the public eye to some degree, though admittedly not as much as they probably should be. So it’s a wish list, but it probably isn’t THE wish list…
…However I gotta admit, it was pretty fun to make! Even though I absolutely suck at list-making. Didja notice me cheating a bit by throwing something called “Vertigo Quarterly” in there? I don’t know how you even fill something like this out, without cheating like that!
Makes me wish DC would cheat a little more, I’ve gotta say. I mean, all kidding aside…do we really have to have a Teen Titans book?
Are marketing ideas, like Mickey Mouse, now eternal?
I can’t answer those questions, but a question I can answer is if I should go have myself a drink. So…
I guess that’ll have to do for now!
