While at MegaCon in Orlando, Dan DiDio, the Co-Publisher of DC Comics talked with Monkeys Fighting Robots about the evolution of his career and what DC Comics has done to combat nerd rage.
‘Listen, you’re always going to have nerd rage. The worst part of nerd rage for me is how it affects the talent. I don’t care about myself, my job is to run block. You know, and that’s your job. As a corporate executive, your job is to protect your talent. But my fear is always, is the talent too much affected by what people say? They’re hungry for that instantaneous feedback and it’s not really a clear representation of the market of what people really enjoy. It’s just the people who are the most aggravated speaking the loudest,’ said DiDio.
‘The goal is to find a way to get people to tune that out and be true to their storytelling, be true to who they are, and believe in your material. Don’t be afraid to tell your stories. Don’t be afraid of what people may say, trust yourself, trust your own instincts, believe in what you’re doing,’ said DiDio.
‘What we do is we plan things out, we plan it in advance, and so people might not like what we’re doing at that moment, but we know it’s on a long-term plan. So you can’t switch it or else the whole thing falls apart. You just got to believe in your stance and if it doesn’t work you gotta own up to it. You have to admit to your mistakes and there’s nothing wrong with that either. The fan base is also very forgiving. The get very outraged sometimes, but they’re also very forgiving and if you understand that, and know that we’re always trying that’s a key thing.,’ said DiDio.
‘I think people have to understand that nobody goes out of their way to make a bad book. That’s not the plan, it happens in the course of business. The goal is to try to make the best books possible and the great part about our business is it’s periodical. So you’re always constantly making more and you always have the next month to fix it and that’s what we do,’ said DiDio.
You may not like every move DiDio has made in his time at DC Comics, but you have to respect the man’s passion for the artform. He always brings excitement to the DC panels that’s intoxicating and gets you pumped. At MegaCon this past year, Marvel could have used some of that spirit as the tone of its panels were vastly different.
Watch the complete Dan DiDio interview:
What do you think of DiDio’s remarks? Comment below.
