DC Comics Heads West

In an era where more and more of the comic industry's creators are dispersed around the country, DC Comics Editorial moving from New York to Burbank doesn't seem like that big a deal.

Two red flags it raises, though. First, it reduces the editorial cross-germination between DC and Marvel (and the other houses still in NYC), both in terms of casual contacts and in terms of people actually moving from one company to the other.  That's not only unfortunate for the creative impulses of the industry in general, but it makes it easier, in a sense, for DC's editorial staff to be "held hostage" (or, rather, be less likely to jump ship if it requires a cross-country move).

More important, there's the "corporate office" syndrome. For many years my company had an operations unit that worked out of the corporate HQ.  It was never successful until it moved out — because being that close to the corporate execs, who couldn't help but keep a close eye on what was going on.

Given the increasing growth of the corporate ownership layer in DC (a subsidiary of Warner Brothers), being that close to the corporate suits is not what I consider conducive to creativity.  Instead, it brings DC closer to being a featureless cog in the WB entertainment machine.  That might make the WB suits happy, but it wouldn't make me happy if I were in DC.

Of course, my feelings about DC have been jaundiced for a couple of years now, so I'm not sure moving to Burbank can make things any worse.

(h/t +Curt Thompson)

Reshared post from +Paul Wilcox

Wow, the announcement of the end of a comics era: DC Comics will be closing their office in New York City and relocating to Southern California.

I hope Marvel Comics never does the same. Even more so than DC, Marvel is even more intrinsically linked to New York City. The first time I visited Manhattan it felt to me like walking around in a real-life comic book.