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DC Comics' Absolute bosses "touched live wires" during the 'New 52' — now they’re using those lessons to avoid old mistakes
DC’s Absolute imprint is soaring, and its editors credit hard-won experience during 'The New 52' for shaping a smarter relaunch.
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DC’s Absolute line isn’t Chris Conroy’s first rodeo. The executive editor has been working with the publisher since 2005, so he’s seen plenty of imprints and publishing initiatives. However, the runaway success (both in sales and reader reception) of the Absolute line is unlike anything Conroy has seen before. The closest the editor can think of is the 'New 52,' DC’s 2011 relaunch. However, Conroy wants to make sure the Absolute line avoids the pitfalls the 2011 relaunch had.
“Myself and Katie Kubert, who are the lead editors on the Absolute line, we’re sort of the last two people standing who worked on the development of the original 'New 52,'” DC Comics executive editor Chris Conroy tells Popverse’s Chris Arrant. “That was the last time that DC kind of caught that real lightning in a bottle kind of attention. And certainly, when we were putting the 'New 52' together, we knew we were touching live wires, but we were also up against it on time. There was a lot of improvising happening.”
“Katie and I really internalized the things that you can do that are going to work and the things that you would try that are going to send you into a hole. I think that experience was invaluable. And we’ve kind of taken a lot of lessons from that and applied it to this.”
For more on DC’s Absolute line, check out Chris Conroy’s full interview below:
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