Hey guys, it’s Scott.

It is Wednesday, March 4th. It has been forever since I have done one of these and I am so sorry. I’m going to get back on track, but I’ve been traveling for the last three weeks pretty much and I am old. I have forgotten how much jet lag takes its toll on my body at this age. So I have just been trying to sleep off the trip. But really quick housekeeping. Today is a huge day for us at DC. We have, of course, DC K.O. #5.

I’m so proud of the team on this one. Josh and Javi and Xermanico and Wes Craig and Alejandro and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou and Paul Kaminski obviously editing it. And it just has been such a blast. It’s such a personal one to us, as bombastic and epic widescreen fisticuffs as it’s been. And I’ll get into that in a minute, but it’s out today. We’re really, really excited about it. I hope you like it. It launches a bunch of stuff for Next Level, it sets up those books. And it’s a sort of thesis statement on where we are right now as a company. So anyway, there’s that. Also, all of the Absolute books have been reprinted. That’s out today. So you should be able to go to your shop and dig into the Absolute universe really easily. Really, really grateful for the support on that, obviously.

And check out Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez’s Batman #7, man. It was great. I loved it. What they have planned for the Joker is like nothing I’ve seen, which is the biggest compliment I can give. But it’s also like a new direction that I think people are going to really be blown away by. Check that out.

So going back, it’s been a crazy few weeks. First, my kids had spring break. So we went to Hawaii with our neighbors and rented a house for a few days. My grandfather used to live in Hawaii. So we go there a lot to the big island in an area that we really love. And it was fantastic.

And then after that, we came to LA, me and Jeanie and the two younger boys, Emmett and Quinn. And we went to Disneyland and we went to a Lakers game and got to see LeBron play, which was awesome. My 14-year-old Emmett is just a huge basketball fan. So he was over the moon.

And they went home after getting stuck there for a few days because of the snow. but I went to DC and met with a bunch of amazing creators and editorial over a few days and it was just fantastic.

But it was funny, my family couldn’t get home so they were staying in the hotel room next to me while I was at this work thing. And I felt tremendous cognitive dissonance of being in total work mode and then coming back and having Quinn be like “will you read me Dog Man?” And I was like “yes, of course I will.” But a lot of whiplash psychologically. They did a lot of the Warner Brothers studio lot tour. But they made it home safe. The summit was great. And then I stayed around to sign comic books for retailers on the West Coast and also to meet with Amazon about Wytches, which is getting closer and closer. I can’t tell you how excited I am about that show. We should have some kind of announcement in the near future about the actual release date. It’s really right upon us. I can’t wait for you guys to see what we’ve made. And that was it.

But the whole thing, if there was a theme to the trip, it was really interesting to me. It kind of tied back to what we were trying to say with K.O. For me, that series was like an out of control, unhinged fight comic. It was meant to celebrate the Saturday morning cartoon joy of comics and the lunacy that we can bring to it sometimes. It was meant to be fun in really difficult times, but it also beneath all of that candy coating was a message that we really felt strongly about. It was really simple and chaotic. I think we often want somebody to just take the reins and take the reins in the way that we think will be the best. Because it’s been so hard to get any sense of traction collectively to fix these huge problems. And I think you see that right now. There’s a real desire to be like, “well, we just need one leader. We just need one person who will do everything.” And Superman could be that person.

There’s a real criticism to be leveled at Superman for not fixing everything. Why doesn’t he just fix the world? And he’s given the opportunity here and really tempted by it. But ultimately, what I love about Superman is that he knows that that wouldn’t be fixing things. That wouldn’t be heroism. That would be authoritarianism. Even if it was benevolent, it’s not who he is and it’s not what these characters exist to do. They don’t exist to save us. They save us, but it’s always by example, trying to teach us how to save ourselves, how to be better. To me, I’ve said it before, but Superman, the power of that character is that he is this godlike figure who is inspired by us, who sees the best in us, and acts out of inspiration from the goodness of Lois and his parents. And so that’s the myth of him. That’s the power of him. Wonder Woman is different. I feel like Wonder Woman tries to lead us towards our better angels by example. And I feel like Batman doesn’t really give a s**t. I’m about what he’s teaching us, I think. He’s more about like, “this is my code.” Batman is about trauma to me. Batman is like a lesson for us to say there’s nothing you can’t overcome personally to be the hero you want to be and make the world better. But I don’t think he necessarily thinks as much about his impact on other people following in his footsteps as the other two.

But anyway, the point is, K.O. is largely about the idea that any one hand that tries to steer things is the wrong hand. It has to be all of our hands, as frustrating and difficult as that is. Josh and I are consultants at DC as well, and we’ve had a really great time being able to be a part of these conversations about the direction for the company based on this big meta story we’re telling with Darkseid. And this was part two and part three is coming next year. But the beauty of the company right now, the beauty, I think, of what DC is doing, the mission statement really is to try and bring in creators and see what they’re excited about and see if we have a place for that book based on what we have so far. And there also are a lot more books coming or a real good handful of books that we’re very excited about that I think also will be additive in all kinds of cool ways to the line. Either way, the point is that the feeling right now is that it’s collective. It’s a constellation.

At the summit. we were all just talking to each other, creators and editors, about things that we would tell ourselves 10 years ago about comics, things that we felt we wish we knew back then that we’ve learned. And there’s a sense of sharing and openness that’s exciting to me because some of the stuff I heard from some of the people like Denys Cowan and Matt Fraction and Greg Rucka and new people like Che Grayson, it was just inspiring. There’s a spirit of we’re in it together. We’re trying together to make the things that we put out more exciting to you, more resonant, and that we’re trying to have a better approach to all of it. And I’m really grateful to be a small part of that, or just somebody among a lot of people trying to do that at DC right now. K.O. is definitely a celebration of that. And I think that spirit really spoke to my experience out there on the West Coast and Burbank. Also, Next Level titles like Deathstroke, Batwoman, characters that historically have not been our highest sellers, sold like highest sellers. The goal is to create a really healthy and robust line with a real variety of characters and creators. Again, I know we have work to do there, but we’re proud of the stuff that we have coming out. Again, it seems like you guys are excited. So really, really thrilled. I really can’t wait for you to see what we have.

On another personal note, we’re going to do a class. I got to get back to the teaching. So I’m going to try and do one next week with Joshua Williamson. I am going up to get my older son this week for his spring break from Boston. So this week’s a little rough and I’m still recovering. But next week, probably Thursday if that works for people, say in the comments if that’s a good night. We usually do them then like 9:30pm EST. We’ll do one, me and Josh, if that’s OK. I think it’ll be really good. But anyway, I hope you guys are doing really well in these insane times. Thank you so much for the support on everything. We can’t tell you how happy it makes us to see you enjoying the stuff that we’re putting out. Again, we’re always here for it. If there are things you think we could be doing better, if there are things you’re excited about, let us know. Thanks, guys!

S

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