Batman Artist Graham Nolan Reacts To DC Comics’ Newly Listed Job Openings

JB Augustine |

Dec 7, 2020

All the media giants are cleaning house via mass layoffs, including WarnerMedia, but that isn’t stopping them from finding space for new hires.

Three open positions – Marketing Project Management Director, Business Development Director, and Editorial Strategy & Programming Vice President – are listed on the Warner Bros. career portal.

Warner Bros. & DC Films New Film Logo

Moreover, the news got the attention of veteran DC Comics artist and Bane co-creator Graham Nolan who wondered what his odds are of landing the editorial VP gig, being someone who freelanced there for decades.

“I loved DC Comics,” Nolan wrote in a Facebook post. “Spent most of my 37 years in the business there as a freelancer.”

But he doesn’t like his chances, believing he would be ousted within days.

Graham Nolan-Power of the Pen

“I almost feel like applying for the VP of Editorial Strategy but the pay probably stinks and they would fire me on the second day after they heard my ideas,” he continued.

The VP position requires 7-10 years of experience and there is an added preference for “Digital Media & Comic Editorial experience.” Nolan should fill the criteria but he would have to work with the Editor-In-Chief, Marie Javins. Undoubtedly, there would be a clash of creative differences.

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Whether or not he applies and gets the job, each of the openings could be filled by outgoing talent. Layoffs are hitting DC hard this year. The latest batch came a few weeks ago.

Although it might cut costs for Warner – whose sole focus is HBO Max winning the streaming war – the recurring purges aren’t actually doing anything regarding employee redundancies (noted by Bleeding Cool), especially when they’re trying to refill the void so soon.

Nolan’s collaborator on Bane and The Bat, Chuck Dixon, added his thoughts to the mix on a recent edition of his Ask Chuck Dixon YouTube series where he explains the problems at DC have been endemic in the culture there almost from the beginning.

Answering a question from a fan dubbing DC’s woes “Implosion II” – after the last historic “implosion” in the 70s – Dixon said, “Things don’t change very much. Companies tend to stay the way they were created for some reason. They develop a personality, a corporate culture, and a spirit that seems to live on no matter who is running the place.”

Continuing, Dixon detailed the way DC ignored the newsstands – a gateway for young readers – and the children who picked up comics there in the process by the 80s. They went headlong into comic shops and the direct market, courting mostly loyal longtime readers and the retailers themselves with event books, crossovers, and line re-launches with fresh number-one issues.

Chuck Dixon

DC, he added, has also been big on licensing their characters for toys and TV, as much then as now, and came to rely on how lucrative a venture merchandise and adaptations are. The trouble is Warner Bros. “a number of years ago…renegotiated…a new licensing deal that severely cut into” what DC is paid in revenue from licensing.

Warner makes all the money, says Dixon, and what DC makes is slashed from what it used to be. Freelancers get a cut from DC’s end and – true to Nolan’s comment of pay stinking – that is significantly less today.

Graham Nolan-Bane-Knightfall

Dixon lamented, as hopeful as he was at news of the firings, he could tell DC was making the same mistakes and doubling down on their politics. “When I first heard about the round of firings at DC I was hopeful, but then when I saw they were doing politically oriented comics – more of them, leaning into it – I thought ‘They haven’t changed’,” he observed.

In his estimation, things won’t change until they “bring in some new people with some new ideas” that will bring “the kids” and quality back into the books.

Dixon also wishes, like many do, the “hyper-politicization” would go away.

Nolan and Dixon are both staying busy. Nolan is currently funding both his upcoming graphic novel The Chenoo and Return to Monster Island on IndieGoGO through InDemand.

The artist is also working on The Expendables Go To Hell graphic novel, which is also available on IndieGoGo.

Dixon is working with Nolan and fellow comic book writer Richard Meyer for The Expendables Go To Hell graphic novel. He’s also working on Black Tide Rising: Volume 1, which is an adaptation of John Ringo’s zombie series. That book is currently still available through InDemand on IndieGoGo.

Dixon also has a Patreon in collaboration with Arkhaven Comics, where he’s producing comics likes Go Monster Go! as well as his Avalon series.