Scott Snyder’s phenomenal ‘Death of the Family’ story arc came to a satisfying end today with Batman #17… or at least it did until I read DC’s new ‘Channel 52’ recap.
This isn’t about the actual content of ‘Channel 52.’ As a concept, I actually really like ‘Channel 52,’ and I love that it promises to include Ambush Bug and Calendar Man (weird as that may be).
I’m just blown away that DC completely failed to provide a digital counterpart.
If you missed the parade of lemmings announcing the coming of Channel 52, the general idea is a fun recap of the DC universe at the end of each comic book. Rather than the standard hodge podge of Editor’s notes and preview art that generally fill the back page of the floppies, DC is instituting a consistent Channel 52 feature.
Fine. That part’s fine.
As I read through my first episode of Channel 52 at the end of Batman #17, though, I was genuinely amazed that they didn’t include any reference to pursuing more Channel 52 online.
Not on their website. Not on their blog. Not on their Facebook.
No mention.
I actually read the thing twice (it’s not that interesting) to make sure I wasn’t just missing the call to join Channel 52 nation. I was not.
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It’s really kind of a bummer to see this kind of short-sighted behavior in 2013. Although I suppose it shouldn’t come as a shock from the same company that doesn’t even own www.dc.com
To be honest, I don’t know how much I actually would have engaged with this online content, but the fact that DC hasn’t even made an effort towards that end is just wrong.
I listened to the Warren Ellis Nerdist podcast recently (great one, I highly recommend it) and at one point Ellis point out that both Marvel and DC just got into digital way too late.
There’s such a world of opportunity from both a marketing and fan engagement perspective, that it’s incredible that big businesses like DC and Marvel continually miss the boat. More than anything, it’s disheartening. I love these comics! I really enjoyed Snyder’s take on the Joker and I want similarly awesome comics from these publishers to continue to succeed.
But when they ignore the impossibly inescapable reality of content marketing and a digital future?
Channel 52 might as well air on VHS.
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