The future of comic fandom

Marie Javins of DC Comics and David Lee of WEBTOON discuss how comics are evolving, with more global audiences and new creators.

DC’s Batman has been around for a long time. The character debuted in 1939, making him 83 years old. Since then, Bruce Wayne has gone from the printed page to the big screen and video games.

Now, a new DC Comics partnership with WEBTOON sees another iteration: a slice-of-life webcomic with a POV character, meaning the reader sees the world through the eyes of the central character.

“What we’re doing, effectively, is reaching a brand new audience, and the comic stores love it too,” explained Marie Javins, DC Comics’ editor-in-chief.

Marie remarked that audiences had never really considered the side of Bruce Wayne depicted in the webcomic. “He’s a loner, right? But actually, Bruce Wayne has a habit of always mentoring other heroes. So in this story, they all just come to live with him,” she explained.

“It appeals to the audience who traditionally read WEBTOON. They’re on their phones and they’re scrolling. They don’t necessarily come from the same world that I come from, where you go to a comic shop and you buy a physical periodical, or a book,” added Marie.

In this episode of the Next Stage, Marie and David Lee, head of content at WEBTOON, discuss other new opportunities in this space, including building out new webcomic series such as Vixen: NYC.

The duo also talks about the audience appetite for more Dark Trinity content, the new Red Hood series on WEBTOON, and how collaborations like these are bringing new fans from digital over to traditional bricks-and-mortar comic book stores.

DC Comics editor-in-chief Marie Javins and WEBTOON head of content David Lee were in conversation with Den of Geek host, producer and writer Rosie Knight on the ContentMakers stage at Collision 2022.

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Main image of DC Comics editor-in-chief Marie Javins on ContentMakers stage during Day 3 of Collision 2022: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Web Summit (CC BY 2.0)