"Did anybody get any sleep in this room?" asked Dan Didio at the start of DC Comics' "Meet The Co-Publishers" panel with Jim Lee at Comic-Con International 2015. And when the response was a groggy, hungover "Not really" he said, "Great. This will be kind of a fever dream, and we like that."

The two men behind the wheel of the now West Coast superhero powerhouse promised that despite the early hours on a Sunday required to make the panel happen, they would continue to give the fans an open forum in San Diego.

"It's been a crazy couple of years for us," DiDio said of the recent DC relocation to Los Angelese. Despite the sad reality of having some staffers stay behind, he said he was happy to work face-to-face with some people that they've been coordinating with for years at Warner Bros. "The transition has been spectacular."

Lee in particular credited editor Marie Jarvins for making "Convergence" a success before they were able to bring in new voices to DC with the publisher's soft reboot. DiDio said the rush to put out "Convergence" tie-ins across two months was so complicated that "It was like the end of 'Inception'" before they came in and gave the line over to creators who could make the line more diverse to match the changing audience for superhero comics.

Lee then took out a bundle and unwrapped the surprise of Frank Miller's Hall of Fame Eisner Award. "'Dark Knight' came out in 1986, and it was the book that got me wanting to work in comics. I was a pre-med student at the time," Lee said while prepping the crowd for the incoming "Dark Knight III: Master Race" project. "This is really the conclusion of the saga and brings all the themes to an end." News from the show is that artist Andy Kubert will be drawing the series.

DiDio explained that when asked if they were nervous about the subtitle "Master Race," he always said, "There's an edge to it, and that's what we expect from Frank Miller."

The other big news of the weekend was that DC was going back to the continuity wrinkles introduced in "Convergence" with several series, and DiDio said that using the full force of multiple reality theoretical science to inform how they play with the multiverse. The idea of a team of heroes and villains going back and stopping "Crisis On Infinite Earths" from ever streamlining the DCU would be a starting point for future comics. "By stopping it, it stops the reinventions. Everything you've seen is part of it all, and you'll see it have an impact on the DC Universe moving forward," he said, explaining that "Convergence" was never meant as a stopgap measure while they moved but a story with a purpose.

The co-publisher went on to talk about how Grant Morrison's new run of original graphic novels under the "Multiversity Too" banner will explore what is essentially the next phase of the Elseworlds idea. But while they push forward with new stories of alternate realities, they're trying not to lose sight of the mainline heroes in the form of the "Earth One" graphic novel line -- which is adding a "Flash Earth One" book written by J. Michael Straczynski and "Aquaman Earth One" from Francis Manapul. "If anybody was ever born to draw Aquaman, it is Francis," DiDio said, adding that it would be a defining take on the character.

One of the breaking news elements of the panel was talk of the return of the Milestone imprint and universe to DC. Lee said that the group of characters was coming back in order to correct the lack of diversity both in the creative community and on the page. At that point, he revealed that his next job as an artist would be drawing incoming Milestone books and invited Reggie Hundlin and Denys Cowan on stage to talk about the revival.

"When we first started, it was Dwayne McDuffie, Derek Dingle, myself...and Christopher Priest who was like the Fifth Beatle," Cowan said, noting that in 1992 they had worked hard to get Hudlin on board for the launch. At the time, the film producer said, "At the time, I had an obligation to Eddie Murphy" but he eventually got Cowan to work on his animation projects like "Bebe's Kids" and "The Boondocks." Now with him fully involved with Milestone alongside DC voices like Geoff Johns and (they're hoping to recruit) Grant Morrison, the creators of heroes like Icon and Static are hoping to complete the mission they started years ago.

Cowan and Hudlin also noted that work on the digital first, live action "Static Shock" show is continuing at an accelerated pace.

Asked by a fan how they create their standards for what is worth being put out by DC, Lee said that any publisher needs to have not just a vision for a line of books but a vision for what they think comics should be overall. Cowan added that becoming a publisher even at the smallest level had one rule: "If you start it, finish it."

The rolling series of 75th anniversary celebrations for characters ranging from Batman and Superman to Green Lantern and Robin came up, and Lee said the majority of their task on justifying the existence of the characters is keeping things daring and fresh. He cited the recent waves of change on DC's Batman books from "Batgirl" to "We Are...Robin" as an example of how they want to make decades old characters work for modern audiences.

DiDio joked that one of the best parts to living in LA was that he could observe Lee's actual work schedule. "I don't think you sleep," DiDio laughed about his partners late night drawing schedule for many years. Lee said he would occasionally do conference calls from his couch with his phone propped to fall and hit him in the face if he fell asleep while doing business.

Asked about the similarities between DC's "Convergence" and Marvel's "Secret Wars," Lee declined to speak ill of the competition saying, "I love everyone over there" to which DiDio replied, "He loves everyone, and I hate everyone, which is why we work so well together." DiDio went on to explain that any time he sees a Marvel book that uses a similar premise to a DC story to strong effect, it makes him angry only in the sense that he's very competetive. "I'm going to see where success is and follow that road. If we create the path to success, we'll follow it. And if someone else creates a path to success, we'll follow that too.If you're going to be second, you have to be better than everyone else. And if you're going to be first, you've got to make sure no one can catch you." Lee said that DiDio often conducts meetings like a coach in the locker room giving his team a motivational speech.

As an extension of that discussion, DiDio said that they considered the creator-owned revolution at Image Comics, the pair were very motivated to make Vertigo a dominant force in creator-owned comics again. He said that DC imprint built the model for great creator-owned books and that they wanted to retake the space with their new line of Vertigo books.

With so many crossovers brewing with IDW, a fan wanted to know if DiDio and Lee had any dream crossovers they wanted to do. At this point, DiDio revealed that next up would be "Batman '66" and "Steed & Peel" of the British "Avengers." "'Batman '66' is locked in a period of time, and who he meets is locked into that time period. I can't think of anyone more fun to use than those guys," he said.