How to use this Page

WHAT THE HELL, PEOPLE. Sigh.

12/15 Weirdworld #1 – 30,288
01/16 Weirdworld #2 – 17,759 (-41.4%)

This book is so excellent. It’s honestly better than a zillion tons of the other crap Marvel is putting out right now, but alas, that never seems to matter. It isn’t an event title (wait, aren’t fans tired of those?! Until there isn’t one, then they whine they need one!) and no one dies (only to return six months later) so I guess there are no reason to buy it. Great art, wow story? Eh, I’ll wait for Civil War 3, please.

Fans are a fickle lot. They complain about event books, but hate when they don’t have one to complain about. They hate cheesy death announcements, and then help sell the book into the six figures! And do we need to at least give Marvel some props for attempting to put out niche books and see what would stick? Apparently, nothing. For that, again, I blame the fanboys (and girls.) I mean, how many times does everyone also complain about all the Spider/Bat/Super/Wonder books out there in comics land? But whenever the big two attempt something new, no one buys them. I’ve heard this complaint so many times it makes my ears bleed. It’s like we all literally ignore the complaining we aim towards comics on a daily basis. It’s maddening! I want something diverse, unique, cool! But when I’m given it, I’m gonna whine and want the same tried and true I’ve gotten the last umpteen years! No one wins, no one wins…

Spidey/Deadpool is ongoing? Okay. Looking forward to seeing what the sales drop to when Kelly and McGuiness leave the book within six issues.

@Nathan Aaron – one thing to bear in mind is that the people who say they want things probably really do want them and buy them – it’s just that there are a whole lot more people who aren’t saying anything at all but they are buying the opposite of what the first group wants.

Nathan Aaron, what did you think of G0dland, and Bitch Planet? Have you read Shark-Man? What about Bendis/Gaydos’s Alias? Have heard of Joe Sacco? Or that run by Lutes, Unstable Molecules? What do you think SLAM!-c’mere, do you want to see me make this pencil disappear….? Just only spend on the stuff that counts; stop buying the repetitive crap, unless you are at a used book store, or a flea market, or at a serious discount.

‘Comic Books’ are too small, and flimsy, and look like they are strictly for kids any way -it would be cool if there were more ‘Rollingstone’ sized magazine like sequential anthologies. People would spend on that as much as they wait in lines for a cheap Tshirt from China that has a trendy brand name on it. Americans love to be pretentious, spending, bigots that would love to show off their Punisher *magbook* if it was done right, if it looked cool, and functioned sequentially in a way that was bad ass… for example.

Hey Nathan Aaron, FYI:

It Will Never Love You Back: Marvel Entertainment, Ike Perlmutter, and Why the Corporation Cannot Be Your Friend
by Charlotte Finn February 1, 2016 12:00 PM
http://comicsalliance.com/ike-perlmutter-marvel-entertainment-consumers-and-corporations/

Read More: Marvel, Perlmutter, And Why Corporations Aren’t Your Friend | http://comicsalliance.com/ike-perlmutter-marvel-entertainment-consumers-and-corporations/?trackback=tsmclip

Why I’m Boycotting Marvel Comics
by J.A. Micheline August 4, 2015 2:00 PM
http://comicsalliance.com/marvel-boycott-axel-alonso/

Read More: “Why I’m Boycotting Marvel Comics” | http://comicsalliance.com/marvel-boycott-axel-alonso/?trackback=tsmclip

Nathan, perhaps start a petition to boycott -what do you want to boycott today, NAy? NAy?

Hey Nathan Aaron, FYI:

It Will Never Love You Back: Marvel Entertainment, Ike Perlmutter, and Why the Corporation Cannot Be Your Friend
by Charlotte Finn February 1, 2016 12:00 PM

Why I’m Boycotting Marvel Comics
by J.A. Micheline August 4, 2015 2:00 PM

Nathan, perhaps start a petition to boycott -what do you want to boycott today, NAy? NAy?

Marvel makes comics starring Marvel characters. People who read Marvel Comics usually want to read about Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, etc… A lot of what they are publishing nowadays is chasing away the loyal fan who just wants to read about their favorite characters. Yeah there’s room for Weirdworld but if fan’s aren’t buying the A-List books (excluding Star Wars) you can’t expect sales for B and C level titles to be great. Marvel, for the last decade, have invested more on the names under the title than the title itself. That makes for creator loyalty, not brand loyalty. Why read a Marvel book trying to be an Image book when you can just read an Image book?

FWIW, with DC and Marvel both putting out so many new series all the time (including renumbered ones), I’m not sure it’s possible for any series to “stabilize” for long.

About Star Wars sales, maybe we should also consider that the book started with John Cassaday on art and covers, and now it’s Deoadato or Leinil Yu. All of them are A list artists sure, but well, some are more A than others. I personally stopped after Immonen’s arc, maybe some other readers did. Looking forward to know who will be the next artist. Maybe they’ll be back on major ones, or slightly slipping on the B list ones.

Also, the fact the comics didn’t gain any new buyers (and worse, lost buyers) since the movie is out is not a good sign. Maybe the star wars mania is a already a bit passé, Marvel was definitely wise to launch the book nearly two years before the movie, but they’ve got to find another big hit now. It won’t be Star Wars for a while, at least not before the next movie – so a long while – and even then, it will never come back to those first issues sales.

@Nathan
The way I see it, Events and big names are creating a lot of static through which even very good titles have a hard time emerging. Maybe Marvel ought to create a Vertigo-like imprint for all the odd ones out to find a nest.

“That’s a nice improvement over the previous floppy sales level of this TPB juggernaut, and better than its previous volume #2 sales level ! I will not wait any longer and make it a win !”

Well, I guess you’ll change your mind with the sales of number 3 in january that seems to have fallen to the 32.000 mark. If the fall don’t stop quickly, it’ll end with really lower numbers than the previous volume.

Indeed, that was one of the biggest shock of January top300! And I indeed changed my mind and took back my W vote, you are absolutly right – I wrote it yesterday :p

Hey, another excessively negative piece. Must be another month.

Proably something I ate. It’s still struck. Wait for January, it’s even worse.
Eh, 4 win, 15 Fail, that’s probably better than what DC did or will do :p

I think the issue here is the premise that books that had < 1 years runs, ended just a few months ago,and relaunched with the same creative team, should magically do better or deemed failures if they fall back to their previous numbers.

Marvel could also be perfectly happy with that :: they just sold more comics, period, of everyone (and I mean all of them) of there books at least for a month or two.

@Brian – seems like a pretty reasonable barometer for determining failure.

@David – I don’t know why Marvel would be perfectly happy with that. They sold a a few copies of a lot of books. That’s a rather resource-intensive way to “win” the sales charts. Takes burning through a lot of talent, promoting a ton of low-selling books, pissing off retail partners, etc.

In before Dan Slott shows up to argue how Spider-man’s sales are actually a success by means of copious amounts of spin.

@Zach “Pissing off retail partners” (and fans too I should add), is probably the baddest part of it, true.
But as long as the same fans and retail partners are still buying number ones like crazy, they just have (we just have) what they (we) deserve.

Like Xavier said – most of those new books are back the way they were before the relaunch, but in the meantime they sold X times more comics with a new number one, and still some more with a new number two, and even a bit left on a new number three. And that means a lot lot lot more money and comics sold at the end, much much more than if they would have kept the numbering going on.
It’s still the same book, the same heroes, sometimes the same artists than before, but for at least for three months, it sold like pancakes.

I know you will say “in the long term”. But honestly, let’s stop fooling ourselves : in the long term there will be still Spider-Man, Avengers and Deadpool comics, whereas a number 334 or a new number 1. It’s just that the new number 1 sells way better than 334. For how long will it work ? That is the question, but for now it’s still working, and working really well.

Crossovers and variants seems more of a problem, really.

(oh, and like Xavier, I’m french too, so I hope my english is ok !)

It’s pretty obvious to me from reading these columns that most fans, in spite of what the world thinks, generally want the characters they’ve been used to for years. Sam Wilson as Cap is bombing badly. It’s actually a pretty decent read, but you’d never know it by the sales numbers. Cue the return of Steve Rogers to the role just in time for the movie in May.

If you take away what makes a character popular, it takes away readers who were drawn to what made the character popular in the first place. Superior Iron Man didn’t sell very well. I really think part of the reason was the altered outfit and Tony’s even more arrogant and overbearing than usual personality. I’d say that’s one reason that the all new, all PC Avengers crashed between the first and second issue. To most people, the Avengers are Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, etc., not Jane Foster Thor, Kid Nova and “Ms. Marvel”. Such a title might get critical acclaim, but that doesn’t always translate to sales. Same premise of movies and tv shows that don’t translate into box office and ratings. “Steve Jobs” is an example of a recent film that was almost universally acclaimed, but bombed at the box office.

Too bad really, that people don’t want to try new things. I think the Howling Commandos, Squadron Supreme and especially Red Wolf are all good reads. I don’t expect any of them to make it past issue 12 at this rate.

If Marvel and DC want to right their ships, they probably need to wise up and go back to the tried and true. It’s been worse at DC: when they did the reboot that gave us Emo Superman, Amazon rape culture Wonder Woman and the like, it looked like it would work at first, given the sales numbers. However, five years on it just doesn’t have the lasting appeal of the original versions. Perhaps Rebirth will start to fix that.

Fantastic news – I just love Ben Caldwell’s artwork!

[…] Beat – Marvel Switches the A-Force Talent Line-up: Thompson and Caldwell Enlist – […]

Kelley Thompson on writing duties is not a surprise. If memory serves, she’s been listed as co-writer with G. Willow Wilson in the solicits starting with ish 3 or so. She’s a good fit, though — She’s a proven writer of a killer ensemble book in Jem & the Holograms.

Ben Caldwell does come as a surprise. I guess this dims the prospects of a Prez follow-up to round out the proposed 12 issues, but sales figures seem to have done that job on their own, sadly. Still, if this keeps him drawing (and in a much higher-profile gig!), good on him! Nice to see Marvel recognizing his chops.

[…]   Crisis Management: A Look at the Troubled Present and Uncertain Future of DC Comics Marvel Switches the A-Force Talent Line-up: Thompson and Caldwell Enlist  10 Questions With Comics Brewmaster Josh Simmons Talking the Art and Violence of Deadly Class […]

It’d be interesting to learn of the reasons for his initial drop off 20 years ago, what brought him back and how.

Weird that there’s no lettered preview of Secret Wars #9 today.

I’m wondering if people have been buying ANAD comics and not reading them or if there’s gonna be a rush, as much as a comic store gets at least, on 3-4 months of issues.

Considering that the original Secret Wars debuted the same month as all of the epilogues in the regular series (Amazing Spider-Man #252, Fantastic Four #265), it doesn’t seem to be much of a concern.

Typically, in heroic fiction, you know the hero is going to win.
What you don’t know, is HOW the hero wins.

But is there room for such a basis in a series where the villains are the heroes, and whose entire basis is founded on a premise that this time the heroes can’t win and the best they can hope for is to minimize the losses.

Regardless of any win, the entire sum total of all life of all multiverses — sure, nameless, faceless nonhero also-rans — was reduced to two shipfuls of survivors. So, a non-win win?

Silly But True

Issue #1 was released in May, issue #9 is slated for January, and people are upset because they’re getting nine issues in… nine months? If anyone’s to blame here, it’s Marvel and their ever-ambitious shipping schedule.

If Events/Crossovers are such money makers, why the heck don’t the big two spend more time prepping them and making sure the main series will be on time?

“The last publisher who tried this, Crossgen”

It’s amazing how many of Crossgen’s weird ideas Marvel has since reused. Remember Comicsontheweb.com, the original Marvel Unlimited?

“Spider-Man Renew your wows ”

Best typo ever. (If it was there in previous months, I completely missed it.

“67- INFERNO LTD
Even if it holds onto its audience a little better than other titles like it, it’s disappointing that it’s not selling much more than Little Marvel or Squadron Sinister.”

I was very disappointed by this one. Still finished it because I’m an addict, but just saying.

I wonder how different all these drops would have been in Secret Wars had marched on at its originally-planned, thunderous pace. The main book is still great, but my enthusiasm for the tie-ins has definitely been hurt. Compare it to Age of Apocalypse–four months of wall to wall excitement and then gone before anyone could take a breath.

OMG, that’s one typo, good catch Niels! :p
I apologize to Joelle Jones because “-if we forget her participation to Ultimate Spider-Man 150 years ago.” could make you think she’s way older than she is :p

“Sure, there will be a lot of issue #1s launching, but with numbers like that, less than 250K for the relaunch of Amazing Spider-Man would be considered a disappointment.”

Xavier, can you please walk me through the math on this. How, in this market, would “less than 250K” be considered a “disappointment”? That seems like a weird and arbitrary metric.

Well, seing that less than 6 months ago, a mini-serie starring spider-man crack the 200K (Renew your wows), the relaunch of the historic main title can’t be expected to do less than that with it’s #1, if not slightly better.
If the market is hard to live on in the long term, it still welcomes #1 with tons of variant very well, especially for a relaunch of an historic Marvel titles. the last time it relaunched, in 2014 it did 570K. The spider-man franchise has been doing very well since then, so saying that it is expected to sell at least half of what it did with its previous relaunch doesn’t seem to me like a bold statement.

With the sales on the RYV, and the many variants offered , it would be surprising if Amazing SM #1 didn’t top 250,000 copies. While I’ll agree with the metric, perhaps “disappointing” isn’t the correct adjective. More than likely, it’ll be the other half dozen SM family titles that will face the challenge of longevity.

Star Wars Journey was a four issue mini not two.

I believe Groot ends with issue six.

I find Dan’s “in this market” note utterly perplexing — market conditions are a *direct result* of Marvel and DC’s actions over the last few years. ASM (2015) #1 shouldn’t sell appreciably worse than ASM (2014) #1 did! If it does, I would submit the problem is the publishing plan, not the market’s reaction to said plan.

Dan Slott said:

” How, in this market, would “less than 250K” be considered a “disappointment”? That seems like a weird and arbitrary metric.”

Mr. Slott,
A couple of questions:
1) What do you feel would be the best metric?
2) What were your expectations for the sale of the new #1, and were they met?
3) Do you think that there has been an appreciable change in “this market” since the last Spidey #1, and, if so, what is it?

Thanks in advance!
Phil

Everyone stay polite please! These are business questions!

Oh-oh. I thought I was being nice!

Phil

Poop–that was supposed to be “uh-oh”. grrr

Brevoort loves to tout that the ending is unspoilable, but by this point it’s uncarable. By issue 9 we’ll be 3 months into ANAD. I’d can whoever decided to keep Ribic on the book. The dude never drew 8 issues of anything in a row before, much less whatever the original 5 or 6 month schedule called for.

Ribic was at New York Comic Con, hanging out with Marvel people, so I’m not sure he was the main problem.

I love how Ross paints the Thing to look just like the mego dolls we had as kids.

Rocketing to its conclusion? Where’s Werner van Braun when you need him?

Um, FOC?? What?

Where is Luke SKywalker?!!!

Looks good to me.

How many pages of Amazing 1 and Avengers 1 are simply preview? Tha would really be disapointing if, in the end, those extra size made the reader pay extra for only preview pages.

They’re not preview pages, they’re all original stories. But he’s they’re just acting as preview pages with no real need to not read them and just wait to buy the actual books.

Hey what happened to Superior Iron-Man? Was there resolution to that idea, or is he still ‘as much of a jerk as usual as a result of whatever that crossover series decided’?

ANAD Point One #1 gives you Agents of SHIELD, Carnage, Contest of Champions, Rocket Racoon & Groot, Daredevil and All-New Inhumans.

Amazing Spider-Man #1 gives you separate stories of Web-Warriors (5 pgs), Spider-Man 2099 (5pgs), Silk (5pgs), Spider-Woman (5pgs), and Miles Morales Spider-Man (7 pgs).

Avengers #0 gives you Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, New Avengers, Ultimates, A-Force, and Squadron Supreme.

Out of about 20 titles previewed with this first wave, I was looking at 7 titles that were covered in some form or another by these books (even though I read all of them).

I’m walking away with 3.

“Pass, stopping here with all the Spider-verse books except Silk, Spider-Woman and Spider-Man 2099”

So by “all except” you mean half.

I had the same question about Iron Man’s shift from “Superior” to “Invincible;” and I’m really surprised by the thumbs down to Spidey – I thought that was a dynamite first issue, well-written and gorgeous to boot.

The solo titles were all pretty good. Never been a fan of paying for what are essentially previews.

[…] Follow this link: Comment on A Month Of Venturing Into the All-New, All-Different Marvel Universe: Recapping Week One … […]

Thanks Evan! Chris: well, it seems those are original short stories.

Kill me now.

Is someone forcing you to buy comics you don’t want to read, Dave?

Good.

Secret Wars turned out to be a bit of a dud in the end. Hopefully the next one will be better.

Secret Wars #7 is now back to November (http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/1/71/957). So the chance of this being finished before January at the earliest would seem to be zero.

“Secret Wars turned out to be a bit of a dud in the end.”

How many of these things have ever NOT turned out to be duds?

Mike

“How many of these things have ever NOT turned out to be duds?” – Right?! We’re pretty much the village idiots here. Drinking the water each and every time, even though we know it’s nasty. There are so many events each year now (I mean, what in the world happened to once a year?!) that I HAVE actually started getting picky about them. A Vs. X, no thank you. Fear Itself, ugh. Dropped half way through. Convergence. Holy crap. Literally, two issues in and I was out. So I’m learning… kinda.

And could EVERYONE stop complaining about the lateness of Secret Wars. We are getting nine complete issues of Esad Ribic gorgeousness. If it takes him til next spring, I’ll wait. What is your other choice? For them to “DC up” their event books, and have like eight artists an issue? Ugh, no thank you.

@Nathan – the other option would be for companies not to solicit books by slow artists until all the issues are in the can, especially when it’s a limited series.

“Good.
Secret Wars turned out to be a bit of a dud in the end. Hopefully the next one will be better.”

It’s not over and it’s still the best selling book every month it comes out. I’m betting retailers are pretty damn happy about it.

My favorite comics are those designed for people who have BlackBerrys.

I’ve enjoyed Secret Wars. To each their own.

Everything good about Secret Wars has been outside everything Hickman-written. The 24-issue build-up (or 100+ issue build-up, to be more accurate) was the biggest waste of time in the world, and the main series itself is more Hickman gibberish, but the miniseries have all largely been fun (except Guardians of Knowhere, which is typical Bendis meandering garbage).

Easily Marvel’s best event in . . . geez, I don’t know, since Infinity Gauntlet? Age of Apocalypse? And entirely in spite of anything Hickman has written.

Really? I would say that’s damning with faint praise. I’m finding the only SW books of any interest (apart from the main series — which I think is pretty decent) are the ones that have zero to do with any of the main MU characters (like the Hank Johnson book and maybe Weirdworld). The rest of these expensive “what if?” stories have been fairly dull reading and I regret purchasing most the ones I did and don’t feel I missed anything on the ones I didn’t.)

Marvel relaunching everything with shiny new, more expensive #1s next month will certainly keep them at the top, though.

Oh yeah, I’m not paying for them.

But so far I’ve enjoyed Starlord and Kitty Pryde, Secret Wars 2099, Master of Kungfu . . . Planet Hulk had no ending and barely any characterization, but it was a really fun premise. I’m thrilled that Marvel is encouraging its writers to be as imaginative and playful as they want during this event, given how stringently the main Marvel U. seems to be forced to line up with the films.

why do say ms marvel is a cash cow? i am very curious. i admit im not sure how the business end of comics works. ms marvel gets so much hype, someone at marvel called her the 21st century spider man.
all i see is low sales. 30k a month sure doesnt look like great numbers . its good enough to stay afloat. its good enough to be a cult hit but the book is treated like a hit. if someone can explain why i’d be grateful. thank you

Critical praise doesn’t translate to a cash cow. I, for one, am kind of tired of everyone fawning over the series.

Regarding the Secret Wars event, I’ve enjoyed quite a few of the minis. 1872 is excellent so far. I also have enjoyed Where Monsters Dwell, Marvel Zombies, Thors, Hail Hydra and Red Skull.

Because Ms. Marvel has sold like crazy in trade.

It’s funny that Sims doesn’t do interviews for this. Must not want to discuss his hatred of women or his antics against various women in comics.

When was Sims last ‘antic?’ From what I’ve read, it was over half a decade ago. Why would he want to talk about (outside of his extremely long apology on CA)? It seems that everybody actually involved has moved on, and a few whinging Internet commenters want to keep it alive. It’s pretty sad how that is. What with the people trying to keep it up having been totally uninvolved.

Kudos to them to find an actual niche in the X-book market. Marvel has forced out a number of series without a direction or concept, and this one seems to have both.

[…] This week, they announced an ongoing X-Men ’92 title written by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims with art by Alti Firmansyah, and we are SUPER FREAKING PUMPED ABOUT IT!!! Check it out here! […]

[…] Yesterday Edmondson was announced as the writer on Red Wolf, the revival of a Native American Marvel character, part of their diversity campaign. This […]

Or…readers of each book need to be encouraged to try other books, and a crossover can be a good way of doing that.

@Glenn –

Why do they need to be encouraged to try other books?

Or if we accept that premise, why does the way to encourage them need to be a solo title being roped into a crossover? There are plenty of other ways to promote another book without forcing crossover content into a solo book.

I NEVER NEVER buy crossover comics. I just can’t afford to get into a multi title series. I go for mini series floppies. I like the floppy format, and rarely buy trades.

@Zach – because Marvel is a business that needs to make money. One of the ways to do that is to get your current customers to buy more of your product.

And there are plenty of ways to do it. But including the character in a crossover is probably a very effective way.

@Glenn –
That’s a want, not a need. And the efficacy is questionable. Who knows how many readers you pick up vs how many you drive away?

The fact that sales reports show that sales go up on crossover issues, meaning you picked up more than you gained, at least for that issue.

I read Batgirl and Ms Marvel from Marvel and DC. To be honest, I didn’t understand a lot of what you wrote. I’m buying A-Force right now to keep up with Ms Marvel and it’s ok? I don’t understand a thing that’s going on with the wider series, but an all female Avengers is cool. It would be more fun if it was set in the normal universe.

@Glenn – But there’s no telling the sell through on those issues. Could be that the retailers that are programmed to think they need to up their orders and are now stuck sitting on unsold copies of those books, right? Just seems like a good way to make some readers feel obligated to buy a book, as opposed to being genuinely interested in a book. And if I were a new reader and thought that it was common for me to have to buy comics I wasn’t interested in to fill out a story that I AM interested in, then I might just say “F that noise” and not attempt to get into the comics that sound interesting.

No, retailers have a business to run, and they aren’t going to buy a bunch of books that won’t sell. It might happen sometimes, it’s not perfect, but it’s also not chaos. And it doesn’t matter WHY the consumer buys the book – obligated or otherwise – as long as they buy it.

As for your last example, sure that probably happens. But that doesn’t mean they also don’t have a bunch of readers who discover something new from the crossover either. There’s a reason they’ve been doing them for decades.

I love the Weirdworld comic. I was never a fan of the main character, nor am I too into the whole Secret Wars thing going on, but the art is fantastic and weird and I love it.

I really want to read it: Arkon has been such a jerk, I’m interested to see what was made of him. And of course, I wanna know the terrilbe fate of the Crystal warriors! I’m a huge fans of Saga of Crystar.

What happened in Ant-Man #5 that made it jump so far in sales?

It looks like a special crate/box offer, or a special variant program at the same time than the release of the movie (like “buy 50 of those to 1 special variant cover for this”) but it had clearly nothing to do with readers taking a sudden interest into reading it.

Hi Xavier! Great column, as usual. The phenominon that is Star Wars sales are outrageous. How would Marvel stack up against DC if they didn’t have the numbers from the Star Wrs titles?

Thanks for the response, Xavier.

I do think the Star Wars books are sort of proof that a stable creative team can do a lot for a book/line of books. Darth Vader’s had a stable team, and while Cassaday didn’t stick around on the main book, I’m confident Immonen can deliver on a monthly basis. Sorta like Snyder/Capullo on Batman.

Why in the world would someone pay $25 dollars for a trade that they could have bought for $18 in floppies?!

THOR HC VOL.2 – 2,562 | 136p, $25
Only two months after the release of volume 1, here is volume 2, at a not-very-friendly price, and collecting very few things (only issue 6-8 and Annual 1). Sales are ok but its less than the first volume. Apparently, reviewers were not really happy with the small amount of stories collected.

I mean, there is value in a trade that floppies don’t have (ease of display, ease of re-read, no ads), but also factor in that it’s easier to pay non-cover price for a trade. Amazon marks stuff down on the regular. But I agree, a bit lower a price would be preferable.

Remind yourself that it’s a HC: they are always way more expensive than their floppy counterpart.

Let’s not forget last year in July there was a Loot Crate for Rocket Raccoon #1. No Loot Crate this year in July. That probably accounts for a part of the decline.

Gotta be a rough day at the DC offices looking at these numbers. I mean, the Archie comic was good. It was also something readers wanted. But still, gettin dogged by Archie….

“Interestingly, I think we see a bit of a slowdown in periodical sales showing up here.”

Probably helped by the crap DC are producing that seems entirely aimed at the internet trolls like this site

109- MASTER OF KUNG-FU LTD
05/15 Master of Kung-Fu Ltd #1 – 23,407

Disappointing, because this is honestly one of the genuinely best (art and writing) Secret Wars minis right now! I was hoping post this mini, the same team would stay on for an on-going – but with these numbers…

The last Master Of Kung Fu mini series they did, I gave up on it after the second issue. Still gave the Master Of Kung Fu Secret Wars mini a shot and was I ever surprised!! Can’t wait to see how it ends. You can see bits and pieces of the original series in it but these concepts are presented in a different way that actually works. Would like to see a regular series but with these sales it’s not likely to happen.

I’ll try and read this article again later – it’s hurt by poor formatting and layout. :(

If you guys wanted to hold on to Courtney Love, we wouldn’t mind.

Wow, extremely negative on so many of these very good books. It’s disappointing that someone that doesn’t like Marvel is doing the sales chart. The other charts are much more even-handed, IMO.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: “Shops are probably too fed up to stock unsold issues of these mini-series from outside the MU.”

I think that comment is a little too brusque. The Disney Kingdoms titles (which IIRC BTMR is only the third one so far) are well outside the interest of the majority of comic shop customers. But it is pretty clear that shops underestimated demand for the Figment mini-series, so I’m not sure that “fed up” is really what’s going on here.

Storm: “Don’t expect new solo X-Men titles before a long time.” Sure, there is a general track record of solo X-Men titles not selling in huge numbers. However, I don’t see why Storm’s cancellation should be any more of a belwether event than the cancellation of other X-Men solo titles.
We already know that Old Man Logan and All New Wolverine are coming out. And maybe Wolverine-related titles are special exceptions, but Marvel has a history of trying solo X-Men titles on a fairly regular basis.

The Editor also inserted a note regarding the return of the Squirrel Girl title.

It’s stuff like this that make me wonder if maybe Lancel’s knowledge is too spotty to be effective for this column.

MJ: Sorry for the formating, something happened that indeed, made this chart look different than usual. I will use a completly new format beginnign in August.

Chris: negative? I don’t think i wrote many negative comments on the quality of the books produced but would be happy to argue about anything. I remind that this analysis shouldn’t be taken too seriously, there is some black humor here. To not like Marvel? I’m not sure what that means. I for sure don’t like at all their current pricing and relaunching policy but otherwise, I don’t have anything negative to say about the quality of the books produced.
You’re right when you say that perhaps the other charts are perhaps more even-handed. Good thing: different people are wirting each of them. :)

comicssatemybrain: yes, I repeat, you can find perhaps that some coments are too brusque (but did you spot the “probably”, how can that be brusque?), it’s part of the style in which this column is written. Seing how th shops are cutting theirs orders of those outside-of-the-MU people and reducing their orders drastically from one mini-serie to the other, I really think that they seem to give up on trying to guess how much they’re gonna sell and prefer to cut their orders.

Not Storm more than the other, this comment could have find its way also with the Cyclops serie. Wolverine is certainly not a fair example, he is a brand of his own, that’s pretty clear.

Yes, the editor (thanks to him) inserted a note regarding the Squirrel Girl title because, at the time I wrote this column, there was no confirmation of the return of the title. I corrected this in the June marvel sales charts, written some weeks after this one, if it can help erase one of your many doubts about my ability to write this column.

I can for sure make mistakes and thank god, many people can disagree with many of my comments and find them not fair – but I don’t see in any of your examples any fault on my part, only that we have slightly different opinions on some very specific matters-, that’s the spirit for me of this column.

Anyway, thank you all for your comments!

Is there this much cynicism and negativity in the Month-to-Month analysis for the other companies? Or just Marvel?

I plaid ghuilty with the cynicism (but frankly, currently, with Marvel renumbering its titles every 6 months and , despite being the leader, having the lowest production value of all the publishers, its hard for me not to play with that), but not with the negativity. The only really negative comment was on Old Man Logan. Reading the rest, I find many nice things said, and other mainly neutral/factual.
No, the others column have their own tone.
Again, this analysis shouldn’t be taken too seriously. I’m happy to take any comment and will be happy to try to improve this column, but frankly, don’t expect leaps of joys from me for relaunch/renumbering overused gimmicks. Content of those comics matter to me more than the gimmicks surrounding them. I’m trying not to hurt anyone feeling writing it, that’s why I’m almost never saying anything about their inner artistic value and when it happens, it’s mostly for saying how good one member of the artistic team is.

Xavier, you’re doing a great job with the numbers, and your insight is certainly welcome in this internet already filled with spaces devoted to the behemoth Marvel. Keep up the good work.

One quick thing. Since you’ve got a better handle on Marvel numbers, would it be safe to say that if you separated the Star Wars titles and made them their own company, they would be number four? With just FOUR books! And where does that leave Marvel numbers against DC and Image? Food for thought.

Thanks again!

Seriously? 5 issues and already getting a volume 2? I swear, Marvel. Honestly, what comic book companies should do today is do yearly seasons. Number a comic something like Spider-Gwen 2015.1 and 2015.2 and 2015.3 and so on. At 2015.12 that volume ends, and the next volume is 2016.1 in January. This way people can somehow attempt to keep up with all these volumes (because it seriously gets ridiculously hard to figure out what you’re looking for, etc.) And these companies get a brand new #1 for their books every year!

Each year we are getting closer and closer to Marvel comics getting 12 volumes in one year.

Boy, it’s going to be REAL tough for people to figure out what to buy…Spider-Gwen Vol 1 or….

Don’t assume buyers are so stupid. There is ONE VOLUME of Spider-Gwen that is going to be released, followed by a new #1 for them to then attach themselves to. This makes complete sense.

“This makes complete sense.”

No it doesn’t. Why bother to number the things at all?

Mike

And is there anyone who does not see this ending badly? Not Spider-Gwen, which may be a wonderful book, but this brand expansion that started with the Avengers and is now taking over Spider-Man. Is there any reason to think this won’t end exactly like it did for X-Men with the brand ultimately devalued?

Mike

When I question why I’m sometimes cynical about comics, stunts like this make remember why…

Night Nurse should be categorized as a comic book. Folded with staples. And it was in the comic part of the Previews, not in the Graphic Novel section, so it was ordered as a comic.

Colin,
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=29701562
It has an EAN barcode, not a UPC. Yes, the barcode is on the front cover, and it wasn’t distributed via bookstores, but Marvel has done that before. (For example, the Marvel Premier Classic collections have DM-only editions.)

There are many comics with EANs, most notably the Gemstone Disney titles. (Used so that those squarebound issues could be sold via bookstores.) DC has done the same for finite series, such as The Dark Knight Strikes Again (9781563898709, 9781563898716, 9781563898723).

Binding and length do not define where something is sold.
Even serials (usually defined by an ISSN) can be sold like books, such as societal annuals or guidebooks (like Fodor’s New York City ISSN: 2328-3106).

Saga v.1 continues to sell in trade! Over 150,000 copies sold to comics shops since October 2012!

I understand that. I’m just saying it was presented, ordered and sold as a comic book. That’s why it is so high on the chart. Most stores wouldn’t have ordered 5-10 copies of a Night Nurse GN, but as a comic, sure. The title of the article indicated it was a surprise top seller. Just explaining why. I guess at $7.99 its kind of in between collection. But I still go with, if it is folded and has staples, its a comic more than a GN.

It’s a comic, not a book, even with the EAN.

Diamond has a purely arbitrary line (either $6.99 or $7.99, I think?) which determines what chart an item places.

-B

[…] <b>Marvel</b> panel at NYCC Special Edition reveals no Secret Wars <b>…</… […]

I kinda wish they would reboot. Filling that 10-15 year span of time that all the stories take place in with more and more stuff is getting ridiculous. Can you imagine spending the last 15 years having everything that has happened to Peter Parker happen to you?

so in the end the rumors of a “new 52″ style reboot are just that……rumors. after months of stringing everyone along, the truth comes out. i read somewhere that EIC alonzo confirmed that the reboot rumors were rumors (tho’ i did not read a direct quote from alonzo himself). still, it looks like there will be some major changes here and there and some questions remain unanswered about the f.f. (tho’ it looks like ben grimm and johnny storm will still be around), and the majority of x-men characters. also, considering that there will be no reboot it’s pretty much a safe bet that somewhere down the line steve rogers will become captain america again (hopefully sam wilson will reprise his role as falcon and doesn’t end up getting killed off) and thor odinson will again become the one and only thor. both of these events will probably take place a few months before their movies hit the theaters, so there’s plenty of time to explore the stories of the replacement characters, but as usual, the originals eventually come back. so it would seem that the “all-new” , “all-different” marvel universe will consist of lots of character shuffling, minor changes to some of the character history, and that the bulk of continuity will remain intact. pretty much leaving the door open to bringing back the status quo of the marvel universe (and any of it’s characters) whenever marvel (or the fans) want that to happen.

abc,

I suspect you’ll have to wait a bit longer in Steve Rogers’ case. I have no spoilers, only the hope that Civil War follows its source.

I can see Captain American getting killed to have Falcon take his place. With the inevitable resurrection of Steve Rogers occurring in the Infinity Gauntlet.

Silly but True

silly but true,
not sure where the civil war story is going ’cause I haven’t been following it (just the main secret wars title, but I haven’t started reading those yet , I’m thinking i’ll probably start reading them later this week) but it seems that there are multiple steve rogers’ running around battleworld as there are multiple hulks, thors, spider-men, etc., as shown by all the different books that have different versions of the same characters in them, who knows which version will end in the main stream books once they start up again (my guess would be that some of the multiple versions will be squished into one new version of each character, tho’ I wouldn’t bet money on that, or maybe the “616” versions of the multi-verse will triumph over all the other versions and survive into the new marvel universe), and a lot of these “warzone” and “battleworld” books seem to be a whole slew of “what if’s” that will have no bearing on the marvel universe once the secret wars are over. don’t know if you’ve seen the promo sneak peak art that shows what some of the characters will look like once secret wars is over that’s been released over the past few days , but in one of the promos it shows steve rogers in his “commander rogers” uniform, still aged , but alive and well. while I don’t expect everything to be the same when the main stream marvel universe returns, I have a feeling that much of the marvel universe will pick up where it left off before secret wars. I guess we’ll see. hey, I’m just happy to see that it’s not a “new 52″ type reboot. if it was , I was gonna have to stop my almost fifty year span of collecting marvel comics, which would have left me more time to pursue my other hobbies, ballroom dancing, yodeling, and competitive toe clipping. :)

[…] The Beat – Old Man Logan #1 […]

I found “Secret Wars I” to be unreadable, although most people seemed to love it in 1984 (except for people who worked for the Comics Journal, of course).

Almost everyone hated “Secret Wars II” a year later, but I find it fascinating. It’s bizarre and surreal; Jim Shooter seems to have unleashed his id on this one. (Steve Gerber was one of his targets.) As Howe writes in his Marvel book, “SW II” mixes heavy-handed expository dialogue, which seems to have been written for young children, with references to drugs and prostitution. Who was this comic written for?

the band’s getting back together and going on tour? i used to go see these guys when they were the opening act for the stones. man, i hope they play all their hits. too bad, it looks like they ain’t gonna play the javits center. maybe i can catch them in baltimore.

the band’s getting back together and going on tour? i would see these guys when they would open for the stones. too bad tho’, it looks like they ain’t gonna play the javits center, maybe i can catch them in baltimore. man, i hope they play all their hits.

oops, sorry about the two similar comments , it seemed like the first one didn’t go through. apparently it did.