As I hinted at in my Comics In 2007: My Look Back at 2007, ADD’s 2007 Year in Review, and Other Musings post, DC Comics have screwed up the current All Star offerings beyond belief.

You might be asking, “How?”

I’ll explain after the jump…

You see, when DC announced the All Star line, there was serious excitement and hype about the two intial offerings, All Star Superman and All Star Batman & Robin.

The titles were being created by two superstar creative teams: Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely on All Star Superman and Frank Miller and Jim Lee on All Star Batman & Robin.

That’s a lot of creative power, especially the combination of  Morrison and Quitely. Miller and Lee did interest me on All Star Batman & Robin but not as much as Morrison and Quitely on All Star Superman.

Now, despite the name recognition and the creative power behind both of these creative teams, here’s where the screwup comes in: None of these creators can keep a monthly schedule.

How could DC editorial not know that? How could they think that they could start both of these series off half cocked?

All Star Batman & Robin suffered a 5-6 month delay between, what was it, issues #3 and #4? And All Star Superman still ships behind, though not to the same extent as All Star Batman & Robin did.

My question to DC is this: What was the rush? Why was there no planning for these series? Planning to avoid delays and keep a top notch product continually on the shelves each and every month?

How This Could Have Been Avoided

This is how all of the delays, fan frustration, and retailer loss of income could have been avoided:

1. Get the scripts written and approved first. Determine how many issues each creative team will commit to and get all of the scripts from the writer first. Read them. Edit them. Get them rewritten. Edit them again. Make sure full approval is complete for all of the scripts. Then…

2. Send the scripts to the artist. Have the artist complete 60-75% of the art for the issues that he or she is commited to doing. Folks, Frank Quitely delivers gorgeous art, but he’s no John Romita, Jr. or Mark Bagley when it comes to speed. Same for Jim Lee. How could DC editorial have not realized this?

3. As the artist is completing the pages and they are approved by editorial, send them to the rest of the creative team so they can start working on them.

4. Once you have 40-50% of the series completed, in its entirety (written, pencilled, inked, colored, and lettered), then solicit the series in Previews and collect the orders.

The most irritating, unprofessional aspect of all of this is that both of these series could have been handled this way. This could have happened and let me tell you why:

Neither of these series were ever on a time table.

These series were created as stand-alone recreations of the characters. They had no baggage to carry, there were no stupid crossovers they had to fall in line with, nor did they have to wait for any other series to complete before they could have launched.

The world was their oyster and DC editorial still screwed it up. These creators could have taken all of the time they needed to insure a strong launch and continuing monthly issues to keep the momentum going.

But I guess that was all too proper to do.

This really irritated me when I picked up the latest issue of All Star Superman (#9) and thought to myself, “Shouldn’t this run by Morrison and Quitely be done by now?” Checking DC’s site, All Star Superman #10 won’t ship until February 6. Folks, this was supposed to be a monthly series, remember?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve loved reading every issue of All Star Superman. Every one. I quit getting All Star Batman & Robin because the writing was horrible. It seemed like Miller was trying to channel Bendis and it just stunk on so many levels. I may give it another chance in the future…probably if I find it in the quarter bins or find the trades real cheap on eBay.

When it comes to issues like this from the major comic publishers, I don’t blame the creators. They’re simply trying to do the best they can. I blame editorial, plain and simple. Editorial have the power and control to fix these kinds of problems. By not doing all that is possible to get monthly series like these out in a timely manner, it’s just outright disrespect to the readers as far as I’m concerned.

Love to hear what you have to say about it. Tell me if I’m wrong. Tell me if I’m crazy. What do you think?