Behind DC Comics’ Next Level Artist Curation
Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you that DC is on a hot streak right now. The publisher has become an industry luminary over the latter half of 2025 into this year. Between the Absolute line driving mainstream interest in single-issue comics for the first time in a few years, and the gradual revamping of their mainline comics, industry insiders and outside commentators alike have noticed something special happening.
To outline the contours of DC’s current approach, their publishing strategy appears to be to put out an aesthetically diverse range of comics that draw on contemporary American culture, featuring experienced creators who developed their own audiences over the course of the 2010s. This is the ethos that unifies a reinvention of Batman who fights the ultra-wealthy with a slice of life Supergirl ongoing. This has been in the works for some time, per Scott Snyder, who has spoken about beginning the development of the Absolute line during his time creating Dark Spaces at IDW (likely the origin point for Hayden Sherman and Che Grayson being brought into the fold at DC). There are even books in DC’s last few years which feel distinctly “All-In” in their presentation. Poison Ivy is still ongoing right now, but it began in 2022 with a distinct “beauty and body-horror” aesthetic and a focus on contemporary environmental politics. The starting point for all of this, as has been commented on many times, was the succession of Dan Didio by Marie Javins as editor-in-chief. We’re seeing that 2020 pivot of the business bearing all of its fruits today.
The timing of that editorial turnover seems to have been quite fortuitous, because it coincided with comics entering a period of volatility. Pandemic lockdowns led to a lot of general hobby spending, which the comics industry benefited from, followed by a lull. For the past handful of years, indie and creator-owned comics have struggled to find a foothold in the market. The days of Image Comics titles like Saga and Sex Criminals driving casual interest in comics are behind us, and mid-sized-to-small direct-market publishers have largely pivoted from ongoing series to short runs that hope to recoup their costs via trade paperback sales. A handful of creators have spoken publicly about holding back original pitches, or needing to explore different methods of funding and distribution. Licensed comics abound now that it seems like Skybound found the golden ticket with their Energon Universe of nostalgic Hasbro properties. It would be hyperbolic to say that the Absolute line changed everything, because these circumstances remain largely true for creators attempting to sustain original series, but DC has certainly become a gravity well, drawing in a particular strata of creators.
DC has a very impressive creative roster right now. Nick Dragotta, Hayden Sherman, Sophie Campbell, James Harren, Stjipan Morian, Daniele Di Nicuolo, Erica Henderson… There are many more artists working with the publisher, of course, but I point out these names to illustrate that DC has been taking calls from people who were at places like Image, Boom Studios, and IDW, and particularly from creators who started to gain attention for doing eclectic work in the superhero space and beyond in the 2010s. Whether intentional, or merely the result of market forces, it seems that DC has become the beneficiary of a wave of talent coming from the tumultuous environment of creator-owned and smaller-licensed comics, now seeking stability and a built-in audience. The dynamic makes sense, and it’s been working if recent coverage like the Hollywood Reporter’s piece on the industry’s “Superstar Artists” is anything to go by. Creators get a fairly solid runway on which to introduce themselves to a new generation of readers (largely brought in by the Absolute universe), hopefully setting themselves up for future success. DC benefits from its newfound image: tastemakers tapped into the culture’s id. The difference in size of readership between DC and other publishers in the direct market, and the relative lack of overlap in those audiences, has even let DC passively receive credit for “discovering” people like Nick Dragotta and Hayden Sherman, creators who are by no means new to the industry.
For working artists looking at the economics of supporting themselves on comics, that kind of access to readers can be the critical factor in their career decisions. Creator-owned comics within and without the direct market require capital investment because producing a comic requires materials and, more importantly, time. Time during which an artist may not have other sources of income. The hope is that once issues begin flow from sales will repay the initial investment and fund future issues. That system only works if enough people are reading the book, of course, which means marketing and distribution are considerations that may cost a creator, to say nothing of additional costs incurred by printing, distribution, personal emergencies unrelated to the business, etc. Comic book creators essentially need to become small business owners to make an independent comic, reaching out to audiences, communicating with distributors, and managing their team if they’re hiring collaborators. The promise that DC can make right now is to take on some of that burden. The characters already have dedicated readers, and the corporate infrastructure handles payment, marketing, and logistics.
The archetypal comic book artist career in 2025 is a mix of interior pages, covers and variants, and commissions for private patrons. “Making it” often looks like settling into just covers and direct art sales, with occasional interior work to remind readers of what you can do. It’s not an ideal state of affairs for either artists or comics as an industry, and reflects contractions and increased pressure in all art fields: the pressure to market oneself, to produce appealing, unique-but-not-unapproachable work, and to exploit every avenue for making money that you can, just to keep your head above water. In an interview with Word Balloon for her recently concluded series FML, Kelly Sue DeConnick said that the logistical support was the reason she chose Dark Horse to publish the book. Comics can be incredibly demanding, and if a creator has obligations and occupations outside of it, then something has to give. Understanding this goes a long way to illuminating the shape of the comics industry, and the incentives of the people working within it.
I have observed some anxiety that DC is sucking up all the oxygen in the room, with the narrative of their “saving comics” forming yet another barrier to visibility for indie creators. It’s a concern I sympathize with. If DC is the industry’s great hope, recreate their success. Being considerate about art direction, and giving every comic book a distinct visual identity well-suited to the story and the skills of the artists is something everyone serious about making comics ought to be doing, but for DC that’s half the battle. They already won the other half by starting with a large core readership and valuable IP. For me, seeing their success is somewhat bittersweet, because I still remember being excited by the “Image Renaissance” of the 2010s. Mainstream interest in original, diverse comics is a very different beast to mainstream interest in classic characters getting refurbished. I believe Scott Snyder when he says DC is more creator-focused than ever, but it doesn’t change DC’s status in the culture as an institution much larger than any single creative who works within it.
This may all sound like I think DC’s success is illegitimate. I don’t think that, and I’m always happy when more good comics are being made. Rather, I see DC’s elevated stature as a dam about to burst. If the company is a tastemaker for a whole generation of new readers, that is only beneficial to the industry at large if they incubate diverse tastes. What I really want to see is a comics reading culture which is curious, interested in diverse creative voices, and open to unusual and boundary-pushing work. That isn’t something DC is necessarily incentivized to do, or even capable of doing on their own. It also requires better infrastructure for discoverability across the industry and readers willing to search a little for their next favorite work of art. I see so many incredible artists making strange and wonderful comics in the direct market, only to go under-read and unsupported. I see audiences bemoaning representation and genre diversity and a lack of daring, unrestrained creativity in that same space. It breaks my heart that those two groups of people aren’t finding each other. I don’t think I’m the only one who feels this way. On the InkPulp podcast, Rick Remender explained how he thinks the spread of talent across so many publishers is worse for discoverability than a single publisher like Image concentrating a ton of talent and acting as a beacon of original, creator-owned comics in pop culture. That speaks to the same core problem: a lot of different kinds of people want to read comics, but the systems for getting comics into those hands are clearly broken.
I was there to see Marvel readers in 2013 balk at the art of Javier Pulido, Filipe Andrade and Erica Henderson. I don’t think talents as tremendous as theirs should be reserved for niche “artsy” projects. It would be better for comics and for the people who read them if the widest possible range of styles, tones, and artistic traditions were embraced, even without large publishers like DC and Marvel “legitimizing them” with a coat of IP paint. I have hope though, because people with far more experience in this space than I have are talking about diverse groups of readers not stopping at the Absolute line, but embracing every corner of comics as they discover them. David Harper of SKTCHD.com graciously shared his own perspective on this with me:
DC may not want to drive its readers into the arms of its competitors, but frankly, that cat is already out of the bag. The readers who might enjoy a Sophie Campbell Supergirl comic or a Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez Martian Manhunter comic need convincing, because they’ve already decided they have everything they need in manga, webcomics, and book-market graphic novels. Conversely, readers who are obsessed with Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man need convincing that more is out there, because they often genuinely don’t know how broad the direct market already is! The small size of the direct market means that while these businesses are all competitors, they are also deeply symbiotic. Every direct-market publisher shares the same creators, and they could share audiences if those readers were encouraged to explore beyond their comfort zones. They could be collectively building an image of a comics market which is every bit as creative and vital as manga or webcomics or film or TV or videogames. Many people are talking about DC being a rising tide which will soon lift all ships. I would sincerely like to see that.
