DC's Rue Morgue and Death Metal record advertisements

So, we can all agree that DC is in a weird place right now, right? Who knows where the company will be a year from now, but for now, while monthly books are still a thing, I want to take a look at a curiosity for me in the form of DC's new inside cover ads for Rue Morgue magazine.

A few different versions of these ads have been running for several months now, with each promoting a magazine within another magazine. Each features the woman you see above, usually holding a copy of the publication. Heading over to their website, it seems that she is executive editor Andrea Subissati.

It seems odd to me that DC would advertise someone else's magazine in their own publication, and it leads me to believe that one of two things is true: one, that Rue Morgue magazine is owned, at some level, by the same companies that own DC, and this is another in-house ad, like if DC would advertise MAD Magazine. Or two, the Rue Morgue folks decided to pay a bunch of money for ads and DC said "okay", kind of like those "Beats For Reading Comic Books To" ads from around 10 years ago, which were also really weird.

I don't know. The ads don't feel like they were made in-house to me, and they've been so prevalent lately, that I can't help but wonder what the story is behind them. Rue Morgue's "about" page lists email addresses for the staff, so I guess I should follow up.

Near the back of many new DC books is another ad, and definitely an in-house one, but also another weird one. It's promoting a record store-exclusive version of Dark Nights Death Metal #1, which comes packaged with a square vinyl "flexidisc" record of a new single by the band Rise Against.

This, in itself, is kind of weird, but I like weird and unique versions of comics, and it's been a while since I saw a comic packaged with a record. I called a local record shop up to ask about it, and the owner of the store had no idea what I was talking about. She apparently followed up with distributors about it, and came up empty as well. She let me know later on that the book was probably something coming out through comic shops as opposed to record stores.

But the ad, as you see above, specifically says that it will be "available at Indie Record Stores".

So I tried to find out more information online and have found...almost nothing at all. There are a few others asking the same questions I am, but no solid information on when the book will be released and how you can get it. These both seem like important pieces of information if you are planning on selling any copies of this dang book!

The best I can figure right now is that the book/record combo has been delayed, and since the ads were placed months in advance, they're showing up before the actual product is ready. But it's still...really weird that DC isn't offering up an explanation despite running the ad in so many of their books.