My Advice for the DC Relaunch: Make it Easy for New and Returning Readers

We’re just about a month away from DC’s relaunch of all of their superhero titles. The publisher is, in an unprecedented way, attempting to garner new readers though new approaches to storytelling and offering all of their books digitally on the same day they are released in the comic shops.

I’ve been listening to John Siuntres discuss how he thinks DC should approach grabbing new readers on his Word Balloon podcast. One of his main concerns is that new readers might find the idea of a story arc jarring—and that more self-contained stories will be what people expect when they buy a book. I agree and have come up with a few more suggestions on making DC Comics more accessible to new and returning readers:

Chapter Numbers

Each book should include the chapter number of the story arc. I know that this limits a writer who might decide halfway through an arc that another issue or two might help to flesh out the story, but I don’t know that this is that common. If chapters are numbered, then it’s easy for a new reader to identify which parts of the series he or she is picking up. I can tell you that I have put down more than a couple DC Comics over the years because I was unable to identify where the story fell within an arc. This brings me to the next topic: the summary page.

Summary Page

Well, if you have talked to me or listened to my podcast, you’ll know this is something near and dear to me. I’m an avid comic book reader—I find it extremely frustrating to read a book with a complex storyline and then be expected to remember all of the important details of the story from month to month. Marvel accomplishes this wonderfully with a paragraph or two to catch readers up on the “need to know” information. Also, this allows readers to jump into the middle of a story arc without having to do any research.

The Bat-books can be a gateway
to read more DCnU titles.

Shorter Arcs/More One-Shots

If the idea is to sell more new readers on comics, one way to make them more accessible is to keep storylines shorter—I think six months to finish a story could be something new readers might not embrace. Not that all comic books should be two or three issues, but DC should consider some shorter arcs across its line. Look at what Scott Snyder has achieved on Detective Comics—he’s created a big, expansive storyline made up of short arcs which can stand on their own as wholly satisfying reads.

I think Paul Jenkins is perfect for Batman: The Dark Knight. First, Batman is going to be DC’s gateway drug for new readers. Jenkins is one of the industry’s masters of one-shot books (the one-and-done stories from his Spectacular Spider-Man run are some of the series best). Similarly, I suspect we’re going to get more wonderful short arcs from Snyder when he takes over Batman in September.

Suggested Reading/Reminders

“If you liked what you just read…” should follow “the end” or “to be continued next month” in all of DC’s digital books. DC has a sizable catalog of books and stories available digitally and should advertise these to their new readers. But they should also suggest some of their books that are only available in trade format. This is an excellent way to keep new readers interested while waiting for the next chapter of the story they just read.

Again, new readers who take the plunge into DC’s digital market should be sent reminders when the next chapter of the comic they purchased is available. While you and I might be savvy in terms of release dates, those who are less so will probably need to be reminded of publication dates.

I suppose what I am getting to is that this all has to be very easy for readers. Whether walking into a local comic shop or trying to figure it out online, getting into comics can be somewhat overwhelming because of the sheer number of books being published.