- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Flipboard
- Share this article on Email
- Show additional share options
- Share this article on Linkedin
- Share this article on Pinit
- Share this article on Reddit
- Share this article on Tumblr
- Share this article on Whatsapp
- Share this article on Print
- Share this article on Comment
DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson has broken her silence about the news that DC Comics, the publishing arm of the company, will break with more than 75 years of tradition and join the rest of DCE in Burbank in 2015. Despite fan suspicion about the move, Nelson said that it came because “it was never optimal to run any business, but certainly not a creative business, on two coasts.”
Talking to the Wall Street Journal, Nelson clarified that the move “is not about any kind of efficiency in terms of overhead or anything else.” The bi-coastal nature of the company was problematic, she explained: “We use all the best technology to make sure we’re remotely connected, but it still always falls apart. People feel disengaged. That’s not a good way to run a company.”
STORY: DC Comics to Join DC Entertainment in Burbank, CA
On a practical level, she argued, DC “will not be missing out on anything” by leaving New York. “I am 100 percent sure we can maintain the commitment to our business in the exact same way we have by having the whole operation here in Burbank,” she said. “There are talent and other resources in the New York area we have access to, but fewer and fewer are there. So it’s not a compelling reason.”
Indeed, more and more of the comic industry is being run from the West Coast. DC will join IDW and Boom! Studios in California, while neighbor state Oregon hosts indies Dark Horse and Oni Press (as well as the production office for Top Shelf Comix). Seattle is home to Fantagraphics Books.
Nelson described the “driving factor” behind the move as the chance to consolidate DC Entertainment as an entity. “Our ability to work more collaboratively with the whole [Warner Bros.] studio is certainly a benefit,” she said, but added that “it isn’t about more of our people talking to the film and TV people. This is not the corporatization of DC. It isn’t about folding DC into Warner Bros.”
Related Stories
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day