Marvel Legacy #1 - were there variants and were they incentive based (Get cover B for every 100 issues you order, cover C for every 1,000 etc)? Also, did Marvel over ship it?
Despite my lack of interest in Marvel these days I am glad to see a comic of theirs sell well. Although I am a little blown away that a $6 book sold nearly 300k.
Marvel Legacy #1 - were there variants and were they incentive based (Get cover B for every 100 issues you order, cover C for every 1,000 etc)? Also, did Marvel over ship it?
Despite my lack of interest in Marvel these days I am glad to see a comic of theirs sell well. Although I am a little blown away that a $6 book sold nearly 300k.
I’m wondering of those who bought Marvel Legacy, did they feel bamboozled too? I couldn’t finish the book quick enough to file it away.
I knew Marvel Legacy #1 was going to be multiple previews of upcoming storylines so I wasn’t surprised at the content. I think the cover price was high for what it was. Of course, if someone bought it because Cap and Iron Man were on the cover I can see you being disappointed.
Cover bait-n-switch aside, I liked Marvel Legacy. I was skeptical of this whole "Avengers 1,000,000 BC" thing, but found myself really enjoying it.
Seemed more like an overpriced Marvel Previews meets DC Rebirth wannabe that turned out to be a bunch of teases that weren't really connected for other titles and I'm not sure which ones. All of them?
And was anyone really wondering about all the things Axel Alonso was pitching in this? Meh.
Cover bait-n-switch aside, I liked Marvel Legacy. I was skeptical of this whole "Avengers 1,000,000 BC" thing, but found myself really enjoying it.
Seemed more like an overpriced Marvel Previews meets DC Rebirth wannabe that turned out to be a bunch of teases that weren't really connected for other titles and I'm not sure which ones. All of them?
And was anyone really wondering about all the things Axel Alonso was pitching in this? Meh.
I felt the same. I got it thinking it’d kick off something that would be relevant to the overall new ‘event’. I’m only giving one title a little leeway to collect; Moon Knight.
I could’ve skipped it and feel confident I wouldn’t miss a beat with Moon Knight #188. There was no indication of any MacGuffin that caused the “legacy” effect.
The October sales direct market sales numbers are here! Check out the top ten comics for the month. Dark Nights: Metal is still kicking-ass, but a few fancy lenticular Marvel Legacy titles managed to crack the top ten in spite of the Dark Knight dominance:
1 Dark Nights Metal #3 sold 158,698 copies 2 Mighty Thor #700 sold 115,662 copies 3 Amazing Spider-Man #789 sold 110,349 copies 4 Batman #32 sold 108,945 copies 5 Batman #33 sold 97,839 copies 6 Despicable Deadpool #287 sold 93,981 copies 7 Batman The Drowned #1 sold 89,861 copies 8 Batman The Dawnbreaker #1 sold 89,427 copies 9 Batman The Merciless #1 sold 87,920 copies 10 Batman White Knight #1 sold 86,791 copies
October brought the restoration of many Marvel titles' legacy numberings as part of its Legacy event. The promotion required retailers to meet certain thresholds to order special lenticular covers and helped Marvel and the Direct Market's orders increase 5% over September 2017, but these numbers paled in comparison to sales from October 2016, which was the DC's Rebirth-driven second-strongest month of 2016.
The Dark Multiverse event at DC — including the market-leading Dark Nights: Metal #3 (with North American shipments of 158,700 copies) and various Batman specials — dominated the top 10; orders continued to come in for Dark Nights: Metal #1, bringing it above 271,000 copies. Notably, Marvel Legacy's lenticular covers were priced identically with their non-lenticular counterparts and were combined in rankings by Diamond.
A brief explanation of the following data: the first number in parenthesis is the actual ranking on the month’s Top 300 sales charts; next is the first percentage quote which is the drop (or rise) in sales from the previous issue, and the second percentage quote is the movement over six months or six issues (or, if the book has been around for less that that time, since the first issue*).
Raw data for the Top Six Losers at DC for October:
1 Ruff & Reddy Show #1 - 8,777 (200), (n/a), (n/a) 2 Dastardly and Muttley #2 - 8,539 (204), (-37%), (n/a) 3 Teen Titans Go #24 - 8,403 (206), (-3%), (-12%) 4 Mother Panic #12 - 7,801 (218), (-3%), (-30%) 5 Scooby Doo Team Up #31 - 5,757 (257), (-0.001%), (-17%) 6 Scooby Doo Where Are You? #86 - 4,237 (299), (+.07%), (-4%)
All of these books are below the presumed DC cancellation point (10,000 copies). Scooby-Doo Team-Up's performance is directly tied to the members of the team-up. It goes up and down. The other Hanna-Barbera books are mini-series and DC probably doesn't expect much. As for DC superhero fare, Cyborg only sold 9,945 issues in October.
Meanwhile, over at Marvel, well, see for yourself:
According to the latest at Bleedingcool, local shops are reporting that sales for October 2017 were some of the worst in years and November is on its way to beating that. These poor sales has to be a wake up call for Marvel. Hopefully their new editor-in-chief can help shepherd things for the better.
For Image, Walking Dead, Saga, and Spawn continue to perform well, making Image the number one independent publisher. Top indie title best sellers by publisher:
+ Image's Walking Dead slipped to #22 in August with issue #172 selling 64,231 copies. + Dynamite Entertainment hit the #58 spot with Shadow/Batman #1 selling 38,949 copies. Big numbers for Dynamite! + IDW Publishing reached a height of #104 with Star Wars Adventures #3 selling 23,739 copies. + Dark Horse reached #122 with Neil Gaiman American Gods Shadows #8 selling 19,657 copies. + Archie Comics made it to the #143 spot with Jughead the Hunger #1 which sold 14,594 copies + BOOM! Studios reached the #155 slot with their Rugrats #1 selling 13,323 copies. + Valiant Entertainment reached #158 with Eternity #1 by selling 13,086 copies. + Benitez hit the #163 spot with Lady Mechanika Clockwork Assassin #3 which sold 12,508 + ONI Press clung to the #170 spot with Rick & Morty #31 which sold 11,393
+ Dynamite Entertainment hit the #58 spot with Shadow/Batman #1 selling 38,949 copies. Big numbers for Dynamite!
I'm sure Barrucci wishes he could have Batman in one of his books every month. That might have made it worth getting the Green Hornet license all by itself.
+ Dynamite Entertainment hit the #58 spot with Shadow/Batman #1 selling 38,949 copies. Big numbers for Dynamite!
I'm sure Barrucci wishes he could have Batman in one of his books every month. That might have made it worth getting the Green Hornet license all by itself.
+ Dynamite Entertainment hit the #58 spot with Shadow/Batman #1 selling 38,949 copies. Big numbers for Dynamite!
I'm sure Barrucci wishes he could have Batman in one of his books every month. That might have made it worth getting the Green Hornet license all by itself.
It’s better then the Batman/Shadow mini so far.
You mean Green Hornet? Is it just better, or is it actually good?
I was just wondering if there was an exchange of sorts. I'll let you (DC) use Green Hornet for the Batman '66 miniseries if you let me use Batman for a Shadow miniseries.
+ Dynamite Entertainment hit the #58 spot with Shadow/Batman #1 selling 38,949 copies. Big numbers for Dynamite!
I'm sure Barrucci wishes he could have Batman in one of his books every month. That might have made it worth getting the Green Hornet license all by itself.
It’s better then the Batman/Shadow mini so far.
You mean Green Hornet? Is it just better, or is it actually good?
I was just wondering if there was an exchange of sorts. I'll let you (DC) use Green Hornet for the Batman '66 miniseries if you let me use Batman for a Shadow miniseries.
I think @Matt was referring to the earlier Dynamite/DC crossover this year from Scott Snyder and Steve Orlando. If I recall, Matt thought it sucked. I took his comment that this crossover by Steve Orlando and Giovanni Timpano is better "so far."
+ Dynamite Entertainment hit the #58 spot with Shadow/Batman #1 selling 38,949 copies. Big numbers for Dynamite!
I'm sure Barrucci wishes he could have Batman in one of his books every month. That might have made it worth getting the Green Hornet license all by itself.
It’s better then the Batman/Shadow mini so far.
You mean Green Hornet? Is it just better, or is it actually good?
I was just wondering if there was an exchange of sorts. I'll let you (DC) use Green Hornet for the Batman '66 miniseries if you let me use Batman for a Shadow miniseries.
I think @Matt was referring to the earlier Dynamite/DC crossover this year from Scott Snyder and Steve Orlando. If I recall, Matt thought it sucked. I took his comment that this crossover by Steve Orlando and Giovanni Timpano is better "so far."
That’s correct. That crossover was horrendous...to put it nicely.
+ Dynamite Entertainment hit the #58 spot with Shadow/Batman #1 selling 38,949 copies. Big numbers for Dynamite!
I'm sure Barrucci wishes he could have Batman in one of his books every month. That might have made it worth getting the Green Hornet license all by itself.
It’s better then the Batman/Shadow mini so far.
You mean Green Hornet? Is it just better, or is it actually good?
I was just wondering if there was an exchange of sorts. I'll let you (DC) use Green Hornet for the Batman '66 miniseries if you let me use Batman for a Shadow miniseries.
I think @Matt was referring to the earlier Dynamite/DC crossover this year from Scott Snyder and Steve Orlando. If I recall, Matt thought it sucked. I took his comment that this crossover by Steve Orlando and Giovanni Timpano is better "so far."
That’s correct. That crossover was horrendous...to put it nicely.
Thought so. My guess is the way they are reversing the title characters in the name of these two series was a bit confusing. Batman/The Shadow from DC The Shadow/Batman from Dynamite
Lame.
Glad to see that our resident The Shadow fan is enjoying this latest offering, and I'm sure Dynamite is happy as well :)
DC did the same title switch with some other company crossover recently. I can't remember what it was, maybe Red Sonja?
I think you're referring to the 2015 crossovers from Dark Horse and Dynamite who first produced a Conan / Red Sonja series with Gail Simone put out by Dark Horse and then a Red Sonja / Conan miniseries was put out by Dynamite.
I have both series in the long boxes and still haven't read either. Shame on me.
edit: As for DC involved in a Red Sonja styled "sword & sorcery" crossover, Gail Simone is currently doing a Wonder Woman / Conan mini-series. I do not know if Dark Horse (who is publishing Conan) is doing a reverse titled follow-up series.
DC did the same title switch with some other company crossover recently. I can't remember what it was, maybe Red Sonja?
I think you're referring to the 2015 crossovers from Dark Horse and Dynamite who first produced a Conan / Red Sonja series with Gail Simone put out by Dark Horse and then a Red Sonja / Conan miniseries was put out by Dynamite.
I have both series in the long boxes and still haven't read either. Shame on me.
edit: As for DC involved in a Red Sonja styled "sword & sorcery" crossover, Gail Simone is currently doing a Wonder Woman / Conan mini-series. I do not know if Dark Horse (who is publishing Conan) is doing a reverse titled follow-up series.
The November direct market sales numbers are here! Check out the top ten comics for the month. Looks like DC is the big winner, still dominating with Batman, but Marvel (barely) managed to get a couple of titles into the top ten. They are clearly struggling and it shows:
1 Doomsday Clock #1 ($4.99 regular edition) sold 119,412 copies 2 Doomsday Clock #1 ($5.99 lenticular edition) sold 119,231 copies 3 Batman Who Laughs #1 sold 105,183 copies 4 Batman Lost #1 sold 101,267 copies 5 Batman #35 sold 97,459 copies 6 Batman #34 sold 96,676 copies 7 Batman The Devastator #1 sold 94,496 copies 8 Captain America #695 sold 87,101 copies 9 Batman Annual #2 sold 75,928 copies 10 Star Wars #38 sold 73,885 copies
Doomsday Clock and DC's continuing Batman-related event during the Justice League movie's release month combined to give DC its strongest month of 2017 by far in November, outstripping its previous November (which also had five shipping weeks) by 21%. That's a major deal, and a reversal after a long string of comparatives against Rebirth months since we're now able to make comparisons with the 2016 months where Rebirth issues were no longer returnable. This was enough to give the Direct Market (DM) its second-best month of 2017. However, overall comic book unit sales were down 13.28% compared to last year.
The regular and lenticular editions of Doomsday Clock were counted separately due to the price difference, however, if we combined those into one slot, that would simply bump up Justice League #32 (followed closely by Justice League #33), and wouldn't change the DC / Marvel top-ten ratio at all.
Notably at Marvel, Amazing Spider-Man is dropping fast. It didn't even crack the top 20 this month, coming in at rank #23 with 56,179 copies sold. It's seen worse in recent years, but that's nearly half the 110,349 copies it moved last month with issue #789 (Legacy numbering) and a 5% drop from issue #32 in September. Those variant sales gimmicks can't last forever. Even Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man Renew Your Vows outsold the main title. Is Dan Slott's seven-year tenure on Marvel's flagship title finally beginning to get stale for longtime readers? He isn't going anywhere anytime soon. We'll see how far he lasts beyond the milestone issue #800.
A brief explanation of the following data: the first number in parenthesis is the actual ranking on the month’s Top 300 sales charts; next is the first percentage quote which is the drop (or rise) in sales from the previous issue, and the second percentage quote is the movement over six months or six issues (or, if the book has been around for less that that time, since the first issue*).
Raw data for the Top Six Losers at DC for ONovember:
1 Imaginary Fiends #1 - 9,604 (206), (n/a), (n/a) 2 New Talent Showcase 2017 #1 - 9,415 (207), (n/a), (n/a) 3 Bug The Adventures of Forager #5 - 9,043 (213), (-10%), (-50%) 4 Astro City #49 - 8,938 (216), (-5%), (-4%) 5 Dastardly and Muttley #3 - 6,416 (255), (-25%), (-53%) 6 Scooby Doo Team Up #32 - 5,207 (283), (-10%), (-9%)
All of these books are below the ONCE-presumed DC cancellation point (10,000 copies). Scooby-Doo Team-Up's performance is directly tied to the members of the team-up. It goes up and down. It dropped 10% from last month, but with it going up and down like it does, it was only down 9% from issue #26 from 6 months ago. The other Hanna-Barbera books are mini-series and DC probably doesn't expect much. As for DC superhero fare, Blue Beetle only sold 9,667 issues in November. I expect it to be cancelled before any of those listed above, for various reasons. The first being that the next DC crossovers will combine DC and Young Animal titles in 2018. I would bet that DC wants to take a 'wait and see' attitude until they get those sales numbers.
Meanwhile, over at Marvel they still haven't stopped the bleeding:
These poor sales had better be a wake up call for Marvel, and soon. Entertainment Weekly is trying to help Marvel/Disney stop the bleeding on one of their biggest failures by calling America Chavez the "Superhero of the Year!" It'd be funny if it weren't so sad. If the drop off for America Chavez looks odd, that's because it is. The first issue back in March 2017 sold 43,592 copies in the DM. Issue #2 dropped expectedly to 23,987 copies. This month it's down to 8,360 copies, but last month, issue #8 sold an astounding 26,531 copies! That's nearly 10% more than its second issue. The previous month's issue (#7) only sold 9,137 copies. What kind of shenanigans was Marvel running on America Chavez in October you ask? Did lenticular Legacy cover gimmicks really push the book so high or did retailers have to order a certain number of them to get special variants? Either way, I still expect this book will end at issue #12.
I suspect a similar fate for Secret Warriors, and would guess that Monsters Unleashed is ending soon as well. When Cullen Bunn originally announced he was doing that series, Marvel PR told us it was only planned to go 5 issues. That obviously changed, but the sales weren't anything worth touting, so I don't know exactly why the original plan has changed. Writer Justin Jordan takes over the title this month with issue #9. I'm wondering if it will make it past issue #10.
All of these books mentioned are selling below 10K copies. That used to be the threshold that DC used to cancel books, and that was back then Marvel's threshold was more like 20K. However, even the critically acclaimed* Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #26 barely stayed above that level this month, selling only 10,003 copies in the DM, coming in at at slot #197 on the November sales chart. It's pretty much a crap-shoot these days to figure out what will trigger a cancellation. It appears that taking up shelf-space at the LCS is more important than putting a failing book out of our misery :)
On the indie side, Image's Walking Dead landed at the #14 slot in November with issue #173 selling 64,228 copies (only 3 copies less than it sold in October 2017). Since no one has been commenting on the indie charts/titles, I wasn't motivated to include them this time.
Thanks @bralinator - That is a long post and looks like a lot of work to pull together. I appreciate it, as this is always one of my favourites.
Out of the "Bottom 12" from the Big 2, I would normally have 5 on my pull list. However, I must be part of the problem, as I canceled 4 of those 5 bottom feeders the month before.
I'm going out on a limb in saying Scooby Doo books probably are not the Direct Market's market. I'm not going out on limb in saying team-up is good and where are you is not good, but my nearly 4 year old don't give a poop and only cares about where are you.
Of the six DC bottom feeders Bug and Muttley are ending at 6. Two are Vertigo (I'm not sure how they work) and one is a new comers showcase (which might be a one shot don't know).
Things I ponder, Young Animals ( which I adore) if it doesn't sell to anyone else why is keeping it around? I'm hoping it is DC trying to get it to be Vertigo for a newer generation.
HB line which I have also liked. Who is the market (other than me)? Flintstones was great, Scooby Doo is good ( from what I have read), Jetsons has promise. But where is the market?
I may have posted this a few hours early. Looks like Marvel is gutting several titles over the next couple of months based on creator announcements and vague or absent solicitations.
Out of the "Bottom 12" from the Big 2, I would normally have 5 on my pull list. However, I must be part of the problem, as I canceled 4 of those 5 bottom feeders the month before.
It isn’t just you @Hex! Most of these books are sucking wind. Curious, which one you still reading?
I'm going out on a limb in saying Scooby Doo books probably are not the Direct Market's market. I'm not going out on limb in saying team-up is good and where are you is not good, but my nearly 4 year old don't give a poop and only cares about where are you.
Of the six DC bottom feeders Bug and Muttley are ending at 6. Two are Vertigo (I'm not sure how they work) and one is a new comers showcase (which might be a one shot don't know).
Things I ponder, Young Animals ( which I adore) if it doesn't sell to anyone else why is keeping it around? I'm hoping it is DC trying to get it to be Vertigo for a newer generation.
HB line which I have also liked. Who is the market (other than me)? Flintstones was great, Scooby Doo is good ( from what I have read), Jetsons has promise. But where is the market?
I agree with you on the Scooby Doo team-up. I expect it gets a lot of play outside the DM, but anytime I’ve read it (I have the first two trades and a few floppies) it has never disappointed - not once.
As for the Young Animals line, as I mentioned, I think DC is going to wait to see how their Young Animal/DC crossovers go in early 2018 before deciding what to do with YA going forward. Frankly, I see the plug getting pulled and maybe doom Patrol getting absorbed into the main line.
I also think DC has done a poor job marketing the HB titles. What would you have done?
Hate to see Hawkeye get cancelled. It’s a fun book. Again, not as good as it was under Fraction and Aja, but still quite enjoyable. That takes me down to five Marvel books.
And, yes, the New Talent Showcase is a one-shot. Or maybe it should be considered an annual, as they did one last year too. It's tied to their talent development program, so as long as they keep that going, they'll probably keep putting out the one-shots.
Re: Young Animals, yeah, I think they are trying to recapture some of that original Vertigo magic. They haven't gotten anywhere close for my money. Bug! is the only one I'm still reading, and I’d drop it if it wasn’t a mini. I'm going to give the Eternity Girl series a shot because I love Liew’s art, but I probably won't pick up any of the crossover books (even though he's drawing back-ups). Vertigo seems to be strictly reserved for creator-owned (or co-owned) series these days. Used to be, DC considered Vertigo as a property development department, and I guess they still do. Of course, they haven't had much success selling those properties. iZombie is one of the few success stories—and that didn’t really happen until after the book was cancelled. I keep wondering when Kurt Busiek will take Astro City back to Image. Talk about lack of promotion.
As far as the HB books go, Scooby-Doo is one of the few comics I still see in grocery stores for whatever that’s worth. But the other books are squarely targeted on the direct market. They’re Vertigoed up, for lack of a better term, in an attempt to interest older readers who wouldn’t otherwise buy a “kiddie book”. It’s an interesting idea, interesting enough that I've tried some of them. Ironically, the only one I've stuck with, and the only one that’s scored a decent-sized audience, is the one that most closely resembles the source material: Future Quest. All the books have had pretty good writers, but I think Future Quest broke out because of the top-notch artwork, the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink cast, the fact that it’s superhero-ish, and probably most importantly that it’s just really fun. There’s no political statement, no social awareness message, etc., for people to get devisive/defensive over. There’s nothing wrong with doing a book with a message, but just from a marketing perspective, you know going in that your audience is going to be limited to some degree, and all the more so when you combine that with childhood iconic characters. I'm not sure that any amount of promotion will get you around that obstacle.
UPDATE: I’m also hearing that Slott is being taken off ASM!
At this point, I kind of wish Slott would just stay on ASM forever. Marvel has already spent the last decade irreparably damaging their flagship character. At least by keeping Slott contained in the pages of Spider-Man, he can't spread his embarrassingly bad fan fiction anywhere else.
The only safe way for Slott to exit ASM would be for him to throw in the towel as a comic writer and go work for CBR creating lame "Top 15" lists and telling us why Beast Boy should be gay.
I keep wondering when Kurt Busiek will take Astro City back to Image. Talk about lack of promotion.
As far as the HB books go, Scooby-Doo is one of the few comics I still see in grocery stores for whatever that’s worth. But the other books are squarely targeted on the direct market. They’re Vertigoed up, for lack of a better term, in an attempt to interest older readers who wouldn’t otherwise buy a “kiddie book”. It’s an interesting idea, interesting enough that I've tried some of them. Ironically, the only one I've stuck with, and the only one that’s scored a decent-sized audience, is the one that most closely resembles the source material: Future Quest. All the books have had pretty good writers, but I think Future Quest broke out because of the top-notch artwork, the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink cast, the fact that it’s superhero-ish, and probably most importantly that it’s just really fun. There’s no political statement, no social awareness message, etc., for people to get devisive/defensive over. There’s nothing wrong with doing a book with a message, but just from a marketing perspective, you know going in that your audience is going to be limited to some degree, and all the more so when you combine that with childhood iconic characters. I'm not sure that any amount of promotion will get you around that obstacle.
Agree with most all of this. I think Busiek May be locked in. And DC has made most of the HB titles completely inmarketable IMO.
At this point, I kind of wish Slott would just stay on ASM forever. Marvel has already spent the last decade irreparably damaging their flagship character. At least by keeping Slott contained in the pages of Spider-Man, he can't spread his embarrassingly bad fan fiction anywhere else.
The only safe way for Slott to exit ASM would be for him to throw in the towel as a comic writer and go work for CBR creating lame "Top 15" lists and telling us why Beast Boy should be gay.
I would welcome a Slott extended hiatus.
More wild/sad news. Jim Starlin has cut ties with Marvel Comics after clashing with Tom Brevoort and is saying he will not complete his final Thanos trilogy with Alan Davis.
Comments
Despite my lack of interest in Marvel these days I am glad to see a comic of theirs sell well. Although I am a little blown away that a $6 book sold nearly 300k.
Of course, if someone bought it because Cap and Iron Man were on the cover I can see you being disappointed.
And was anyone really wondering about all the things Axel Alonso was pitching in this? Meh.
I could’ve skipped it and feel confident I wouldn’t miss a beat with Moon Knight #188. There was no indication of any MacGuffin that caused the “legacy” effect.
1 Dark Nights Metal #3 sold 158,698 copies
2 Mighty Thor #700 sold 115,662 copies
3 Amazing Spider-Man #789 sold 110,349 copies
4 Batman #32 sold 108,945 copies
5 Batman #33 sold 97,839 copies
6 Despicable Deadpool #287 sold 93,981 copies
7 Batman The Drowned #1 sold 89,861 copies
8 Batman The Dawnbreaker #1 sold 89,427 copies
9 Batman The Merciless #1 sold 87,920 copies
10 Batman White Knight #1 sold 86,791 copies
October brought the restoration of many Marvel titles' legacy numberings as part of its Legacy event. The promotion required retailers to meet certain thresholds to order special lenticular covers and helped Marvel and the Direct Market's orders increase 5% over September 2017, but these numbers paled in comparison to sales from October 2016, which was the DC's Rebirth-driven second-strongest month of 2016.
The Dark Multiverse event at DC — including the market-leading Dark Nights: Metal #3 (with North American shipments of 158,700 copies) and various Batman specials — dominated the top 10; orders continued to come in for Dark Nights: Metal #1, bringing it above 271,000 copies. Notably, Marvel Legacy's lenticular covers were priced identically with their non-lenticular counterparts and were combined in rankings by Diamond.
A brief explanation of the following data: the first number in parenthesis is the actual ranking on the month’s Top 300 sales charts; next is the first percentage quote which is the drop (or rise) in sales from the previous issue, and the second percentage quote is the movement over six months or six issues (or, if the book has been around for less that that time, since the first issue*).
Raw data for the Top Six Losers at DC for October:
1 Ruff & Reddy Show #1 - 8,777 (200), (n/a), (n/a)
2 Dastardly and Muttley #2 - 8,539 (204), (-37%), (n/a)
3 Teen Titans Go #24 - 8,403 (206), (-3%), (-12%)
4 Mother Panic #12 - 7,801 (218), (-3%), (-30%)
5 Scooby Doo Team Up #31 - 5,757 (257), (-0.001%), (-17%)
6 Scooby Doo Where Are You? #86 - 4,237 (299), (+.07%), (-4%)
All of these books are below the presumed DC cancellation point (10,000 copies). Scooby-Doo Team-Up's performance is directly tied to the members of the team-up. It goes up and down. The other Hanna-Barbera books are mini-series and DC probably doesn't expect much. As for DC superhero fare, Cyborg only sold 9,945 issues in October.
Meanwhile, over at Marvel, well, see for yourself:
1 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #25 - 10,605 (176), (+.07%), (-4.2%)
2 Secret Warriors #7 - 9,947 (183), (-15%), (-52.4 %)
3 Black Panther Prelude #1 - 8,475 (205), (n/a), (n/a)
4 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #24 - 7,701 (223), (+.07%), (-46%)
5 Guardians of the Galaxy Telltale Series #4 - 6,967 (226), (-13.2%), (n/a)
6 Zombies Assemble 2 #3 - 5,352 (266), (-14.4%), (n/a)
According to the latest at Bleedingcool, local shops are reporting that sales for October 2017 were some of the worst in years and November is on its way to beating that. These poor sales has to be a wake up call for Marvel. Hopefully their new editor-in-chief can help shepherd things for the better.
For Image, Walking Dead, Saga, and Spawn continue to perform well, making Image the number one independent publisher. Top indie title best sellers by publisher:
+ Image's Walking Dead slipped to #22 in August with issue #172 selling 64,231 copies.
+ Dynamite Entertainment hit the #58 spot with Shadow/Batman #1 selling 38,949 copies. Big numbers for Dynamite!
+ IDW Publishing reached a height of #104 with Star Wars Adventures #3 selling 23,739 copies.
+ Dark Horse reached #122 with Neil Gaiman American Gods Shadows #8 selling 19,657 copies.
+ Archie Comics made it to the #143 spot with Jughead the Hunger #1 which sold 14,594 copies
+ BOOM! Studios reached the #155 slot with their Rugrats #1 selling 13,323 copies.
+ Valiant Entertainment reached #158 with Eternity #1 by selling 13,086 copies.
+ Benitez hit the #163 spot with Lady Mechanika Clockwork Assassin #3 which sold 12,508
+ ONI Press clung to the #170 spot with Rick & Morty #31 which sold 11,393
Thoughts?
Reference numbers provided by Comichron.com.
I was just wondering if there was an exchange of sorts. I'll let you (DC) use Green Hornet for the Batman '66 miniseries if you let me use Batman for a Shadow miniseries.
Batman/The Shadow from DC
The Shadow/Batman from Dynamite
Lame.
Glad to see that our resident The Shadow fan is enjoying this latest offering, and I'm sure Dynamite is happy as well :)
Then there was
Batman/Spawn
Spawn/Batman
I have both series in the long boxes and still haven't read either. Shame on me.
edit: As for DC involved in a Red Sonja styled "sword & sorcery" crossover, Gail Simone is currently doing a Wonder Woman / Conan mini-series. I do not know if Dark Horse (who is publishing Conan) is doing a reverse titled follow-up series.
1 Doomsday Clock #1 ($4.99 regular edition) sold 119,412 copies
2 Doomsday Clock #1 ($5.99 lenticular edition) sold 119,231 copies
3 Batman Who Laughs #1 sold 105,183 copies
4 Batman Lost #1 sold 101,267 copies
5 Batman #35 sold 97,459 copies
6 Batman #34 sold 96,676 copies
7 Batman The Devastator #1 sold 94,496 copies
8 Captain America #695 sold 87,101 copies
9 Batman Annual #2 sold 75,928 copies
10 Star Wars #38 sold 73,885 copies
Doomsday Clock and DC's continuing Batman-related event during the Justice League movie's release month combined to give DC its strongest month of 2017 by far in November, outstripping its previous November (which also had five shipping weeks) by 21%. That's a major deal, and a reversal after a long string of comparatives against Rebirth months since we're now able to make comparisons with the 2016 months where Rebirth issues were no longer returnable. This was enough to give the Direct Market (DM) its second-best month of 2017. However, overall comic book unit sales were down 13.28% compared to last year.
The regular and lenticular editions of Doomsday Clock were counted separately due to the price difference, however, if we combined those into one slot, that would simply bump up Justice League #32 (followed closely by Justice League #33), and wouldn't change the DC / Marvel top-ten ratio at all.
Notably at Marvel, Amazing Spider-Man is dropping fast. It didn't even crack the top 20 this month, coming in at rank #23 with 56,179 copies sold. It's seen worse in recent years, but that's nearly half the 110,349 copies it moved last month with issue #789 (Legacy numbering) and a 5% drop from issue #32 in September. Those variant sales gimmicks can't last forever. Even Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man Renew Your Vows outsold the main title. Is Dan Slott's seven-year tenure on Marvel's flagship title finally beginning to get stale for longtime readers? He isn't going anywhere anytime soon. We'll see how far he lasts beyond the milestone issue #800.
A brief explanation of the following data: the first number in parenthesis is the actual ranking on the month’s Top 300 sales charts; next is the first percentage quote which is the drop (or rise) in sales from the previous issue, and the second percentage quote is the movement over six months or six issues (or, if the book has been around for less that that time, since the first issue*).
Raw data for the Top Six Losers at DC for ONovember:
1 Imaginary Fiends #1 - 9,604 (206), (n/a), (n/a)
2 New Talent Showcase 2017 #1 - 9,415 (207), (n/a), (n/a)
3 Bug The Adventures of Forager #5 - 9,043 (213), (-10%), (-50%)
4 Astro City #49 - 8,938 (216), (-5%), (-4%)
5 Dastardly and Muttley #3 - 6,416 (255), (-25%), (-53%)
6 Scooby Doo Team Up #32 - 5,207 (283), (-10%), (-9%)
All of these books are below the ONCE-presumed DC cancellation point (10,000 copies). Scooby-Doo Team-Up's performance is directly tied to the members of the team-up. It goes up and down. It dropped 10% from last month, but with it going up and down like it does, it was only down 9% from issue #26 from 6 months ago. The other Hanna-Barbera books are mini-series and DC probably doesn't expect much. As for DC superhero fare, Blue Beetle only sold 9,667 issues in November. I expect it to be cancelled before any of those listed above, for various reasons. The first being that the next DC crossovers will combine DC and Young Animal titles in 2018. I would bet that DC wants to take a 'wait and see' attitude until they get those sales numbers.
Meanwhile, over at Marvel they still haven't stopped the bleeding:
1 Secret Warriors #9 - 9,323 (209), (-6%), (-54%)
2 America #9 - 8,360 (225), (-68%), (-48 %)
3 Monsters Unleashed #8 - 7,406 (239), (-73%), (-46%)
4 Black Panther Prelude #2 - 6,991 (244), (-18%), (-18%)
5 Guardians of the Galaxy Telltale Series #5 - 6,824 (246), (-2%), (-49%)
6 Zombies Assemble 2 #4 - 4,943 (277), (-8%), (-51%)
These poor sales had better be a wake up call for Marvel, and soon. Entertainment Weekly is trying to help Marvel/Disney stop the bleeding on one of their biggest failures by calling America Chavez the "Superhero of the Year!" It'd be funny if it weren't so sad. If the drop off for America Chavez looks odd, that's because it is. The first issue back in March 2017 sold 43,592 copies in the DM. Issue #2 dropped expectedly to 23,987 copies. This month it's down to 8,360 copies, but last month, issue #8 sold an astounding 26,531 copies! That's nearly 10% more than its second issue. The previous month's issue (#7) only sold 9,137 copies. What kind of shenanigans was Marvel running on America Chavez in October you ask? Did lenticular Legacy cover gimmicks really push the book so high or did retailers have to order a certain number of them to get special variants? Either way, I still expect this book will end at issue #12.
I suspect a similar fate for Secret Warriors, and would guess that Monsters Unleashed is ending soon as well. When Cullen Bunn originally announced he was doing that series, Marvel PR told us it was only planned to go 5 issues. That obviously changed, but the sales weren't anything worth touting, so I don't know exactly why the original plan has changed. Writer Justin Jordan takes over the title this month with issue #9. I'm wondering if it will make it past issue #10.
All of these books mentioned are selling below 10K copies. That used to be the threshold that DC used to cancel books, and that was back then Marvel's threshold was more like 20K. However, even the critically acclaimed* Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #26 barely stayed above that level this month, selling only 10,003 copies in the DM, coming in at at slot #197 on the November sales chart. It's pretty much a crap-shoot these days to figure out what will trigger a cancellation. It appears that taking up shelf-space at the LCS is more important than putting a failing book out of our misery :)
On the indie side, Image's Walking Dead landed at the #14 slot in November with issue #173 selling 64,228 copies (only 3 copies less than it sold in October 2017). Since no one has been commenting on the indie charts/titles, I wasn't motivated to include them this time.
Thoughts?
Reference numbers provided by Comichron.com.
Out of the "Bottom 12" from the Big 2, I would normally have 5 on my pull list. However, I must be part of the problem, as I canceled 4 of those 5 bottom feeders the month before.
Of the six DC bottom feeders Bug and Muttley are ending at 6. Two are Vertigo (I'm not sure how they work) and one is a new comers showcase (which might be a one shot don't know).
Things I ponder,
Young Animals ( which I adore) if it doesn't sell to anyone else why is keeping it around? I'm hoping it is DC trying to get it to be Vertigo for a newer generation.
HB line which I have also liked. Who is the market (other than me)? Flintstones was great, Scooby Doo is good ( from what I have read), Jetsons has promise. But where is the market?
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/marvel-seemingly-cancels-6-comic-book-series-1069475
Titles confirmed to be getting axed are Gwenpool, Champions, Hawkeye, America, Iceman, Secret Warriors, and more.
C.B. Cebulski isn’t fooling around...
UPDATE: I’m also hearing that Slott is being taken off ASM! Nick Spencer to take over the title? Stay tuned.
As for the Young Animals line, as I mentioned, I think DC is going to wait to see how their Young Animal/DC crossovers go in early 2018 before deciding what to do with YA going forward. Frankly, I see the plug getting pulled and maybe doom Patrol getting absorbed into the main line.
I also think DC has done a poor job marketing the HB titles. What would you have done?
And, yes, the New Talent Showcase is a one-shot. Or maybe it should be considered an annual, as they did one last year too. It's tied to their talent development program, so as long as they keep that going, they'll probably keep putting out the one-shots.
Re: Young Animals, yeah, I think they are trying to recapture some of that original Vertigo magic. They haven't gotten anywhere close for my money. Bug! is the only one I'm still reading, and I’d drop it if it wasn’t a mini. I'm going to give the Eternity Girl series a shot because I love Liew’s art, but I probably won't pick up any of the crossover books (even though he's drawing back-ups). Vertigo seems to be strictly reserved for creator-owned (or co-owned) series these days. Used to be, DC considered Vertigo as a property development department, and I guess they still do. Of course, they haven't had much success selling those properties. iZombie is one of the few success stories—and that didn’t really happen until after the book was cancelled. I keep wondering when Kurt Busiek will take Astro City back to Image. Talk about lack of promotion.
As far as the HB books go, Scooby-Doo is one of the few comics I still see in grocery stores for whatever that’s worth. But the other books are squarely targeted on the direct market. They’re Vertigoed up, for lack of a better term, in an attempt to interest older readers who wouldn’t otherwise buy a “kiddie book”. It’s an interesting idea, interesting enough that I've tried some of them. Ironically, the only one I've stuck with, and the only one that’s scored a decent-sized audience, is the one that most closely resembles the source material: Future Quest. All the books have had pretty good writers, but I think Future Quest broke out because of the top-notch artwork, the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink cast, the fact that it’s superhero-ish, and probably most importantly that it’s just really fun. There’s no political statement, no social awareness message, etc., for people to get devisive/defensive over. There’s nothing wrong with doing a book with a message, but just from a marketing perspective, you know going in that your audience is going to be limited to some degree, and all the more so when you combine that with childhood iconic characters. I'm not sure that any amount of promotion will get you around that obstacle.
The only safe way for Slott to exit ASM would be for him to throw in the towel as a comic writer and go work for CBR creating lame "Top 15" lists and telling us why Beast Boy should be gay.
More wild/sad news. Jim Starlin has cut ties with Marvel Comics after clashing with Tom Brevoort and is saying he will not complete his final Thanos trilogy with Alan Davis.
Story here: http://thr.cm/NMNQya