I believe that the margins for DC should be even higher. Due to the fact that DC's books are returnable Diamond knocked 10% off of their estimates. The fact that many DC books are going into 2nd, 3rd and 4th printings suggests that retailers are selling out.

http://www.icv2.com/artic...21222.html

[Edited 10/11/11 16:31pm]

It makes me sad to see so many mid tier books selling so much more than Uncanny X-Men. I'm not thrilled with the renumbering but I wonder if the new Uncanny X-Men #1 can crack 100,000 and if there will be any carryover to the second issue or will the numbers go right back to where they were before the renumbering?

Marvel has too many X-titles. I gave up on collecting the X-Men after the Messiah Complex storyline.

[Edited 10/11/11 17:05pm]

Identity said:

Marvel has too many X-titles. I gave up on collecting the X-Men after the Messiah Complex storyline.

[Edited 10/11/11 17:05pm]

Eh, kind of but you really do not need to buy all of them, for the most part they are fairly self-contained. I would argue that Marvel's x-books are more varied than DC's bat-books. The problem is that once a year there is a huge crossover that screws everything up for a few months.

Indeed, but I tired of the gimmicks and the yearly Big Event(s). Marvel seriously needs to streamline its books.

Identity said:

Indeed, but I tired of the gimmicks and the yearly Big Event(s). Marvel seriously needs to streamline its books.

Well, they are kind of in a bit of a pickle. They can churn out another X-Men/Spider-Man/Avengers book and be relatively sure that it will sell. Sadly any new title or b-list character will almost certainly fail within a year or less. I would love to see more obscure characters get more attention but currently the market does not appear to be in a place that will support anything other than the most popular characters.

It is a little crazy they way they flood the market with unnecessary/poor quality books. Who is buying all of the Thor and Captain America mini series' that have recently been released to take advantage of the attention the characters are receiving from the movies? I'm pretty sure that by releasing too many books featuring those characters Marvel are scaring away potential new readers that may be curious after watching the movies. If a non comic reader walks into a comic shop and sees five-ten brand new Thor and Captain America trades how are they supposed to decide which one to read?

On the topic of streamlining I was happy to hear Tom Brevoort say that they were planning on cutting down on the number of mini series' that they publish and they did, although not to the degree that I would have liked. However, now on any given month it seems like 1/3 of the line are double shipping, and a lot of those double shipping books are priced at $3.99. Marvel are not really publishing any fewer books they are just publishing fewer titles but the titles they are publishing are being released 14, 16, 18 times a year instead of 12.

Whew, sorry, went into a bit of a rant there.

DC Claims 5 Million NEW 52 Sales in 6 Weeks, 14 Titles 100k+!

10/13/2011

Press release:

DC Comics - the home of Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman - is experiencing its best comic books sales in more than 20 years, following a historic renumbering of all DC Comics titles with 52 all-new first issues.

With sales of more than 5 million copies in only six weeks, the first issues of DC COMICS – THE NEW 52 are generating international headlines and bringing fans back into comic book stores across the country.

"We are thrilled by the overwhelmingly positive response from retailers, fans and the creative community to DC Comics -- The New 52," said DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson. "This was a bold publishing initiative that is reinvigorating and growing the industry and medium we love."

"We did more than just change Superman's costume and renumber the entire line. We took a huge risk and it's paying off," saidJim Lee, DC Entertainment co-publisher and artist of JUSTICE LEAGUE. "Comic book retailers are seeing returning fans as well as new readers flock to their stores."

Earlier this year, and before DC COMICS – THE NEW 52 launched on August 31, the industry's bestselling comic book title typically sold about 100,000 copies. In contrast:

• JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 has sold more than 250,000 copies.
• ACTION COMICS #1 and BATMAN #1 have both sold more than 200,000 copies.
• DETECTIVE COMICS #1, THE FLASH #1, GREEN LANTERN #1 and SUPERMAN #1 have all sold more than 150,000 copies.
• AQUAMAN #1, BATGIRL #1, BATMAN AND ROBIN #1, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT #1, GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1, GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS #1 and WONDER WOMAN #1 have all sold more than 100,000 copies.

So, just how many comic books are we talking about? With New York Comic Con kicking off this week, let's look to some ofNew York's famous landmarks for some visual context. It takes (approximately):

• 2,090,880 comic books laid end to end to stretch from one end of New York State to the other. We've sold enough DC COMICS – THE NEW 52 first issues to span New York State in its entirety two times over.
• 174,480 comic books stacked on top of each other to reach the top of the Empire State Building. That's every copy of GREEN LANTERN #1—with issues to spare.
• 36,600 comic books stacked in a pile to reach the top of the Statue of Liberty. That means copies of WONDER WOMAN #1 could reach the top of Lady Liberty almost three times.

Oh, and 5 million copies sold? That's enough copies of DC COMICS – THE NEW 52 to lay out and span the distance from New York to Chicago – with some left over.

"People are buying, reading and talking about a line of comic books in a way they haven't in years," said Dan DiDio, DC Entertainment co-publisher. "We're thrilled to see the passionate response fans have had, but this is just Step One for us. Now our plan is to keep the momentum and enthusiasm going."

"When DC Entertainment was created almost two years ago, we committed to an environment of 'no fear' when it came to creative and business risks," said Nelson. "I couldn't be more proud of our Publishing team for embracing this mantra and delivering in a way that is growing the genre, our partners' businesses and our fan base, while helping to fuel the creative engine that drives so many Warner Bros.' content businesses."

In addition to debuting all-new first issues in comic shops, DC COMICS – THE NEW 52 launched same-day digital publishing, with DC Entertainment becoming the first major comic book publisher to release their entire line of ongoing titles same-day digital.

"Our digital sales have been better than we could have imagined and we are pleased that these sales are additive to traditional publishing sales in the comic book stores," said John Rood, executive vice president of Sales, Marketing and Business Development. "We're not migrating readers from print to digital. We're adding more new readers into the mix."

Hey since you all are in the know about this event can I please ask you this?

When buying these books digitally is it true there is actually NO file to download?

I've been reading this stuff for near on a thousand years at took this opportunity to switch to digital, buying a month later for the lower price.

BUT I'm not going to do it if we don't get anything except access to read a file.....

rialb said:

I would definitely not want to be a retailer and have to guess how many DC books to order for months two, three and four. There are almost certainly going to be huge drops on all of them but they also don't want to have customers looking for books they don't have in stock.

As an X-Men fan it is kind of a downer to see how poorly Schism is doing compared to the DC books. I believe that Schism #1 only sold around 58,000 copies which is barely more than that months issue of Uncanny X-Men sold (around 57,000 copies). Schism was hyped as a huge turning point for the X-Men and to see the first issue fall so short of 100,000 copies has to be a disappointment for Marvel. It should be interesting to see how well the relaunched Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine and the X-Men sell and how quickly they drop down to pre relaunch numbers.

It's Marvel's own fault. Because they don't have the licenses to the movie properties for X-Men and Spider-Man they've for too long let those properties die on the vine creatively, while pumping up the Avengers (and its members) for the last half decade because they do retain the movie rights for those characters.

I'm actually shocked that they've bothered at all to try to pump some new life into the X-books with "Schism" instead of just cranking out another pointless title ("Astonishing," "Adjectiveless") for the completist fanboys to buy. (Although they're doing that too, with the disappointingly titled "Wolverine And The X-Men" instead of giving the axe to one or both of the pointless titles I mentioned previously.) And why they're letting go of Mike Carey on "X-Men Legacy" when it's been the most consistently decent of the core X-books for years, is beyond me.

It's just too little too late with "Schism," I think. They'll probably get a huge bump for the first issues of "W&tX-Men" and the new "Uncanny" but then they'll lose interest again soon enough as they ramp up to the Avengers movie in 2012 and we get 8,000 pointless Avengers mini-series that no one wants or needs.

errant said:

rialb said:

I would definitely not want to be a retailer and have to guess how many DC books to order for months two, three and four. There are almost certainly going to be huge drops on all of them but they also don't want to have customers looking for books they don't have in stock.

As an X-Men fan it is kind of a downer to see how poorly Schism is doing compared to the DC books. I believe that Schism #1 only sold around 58,000 copies which is barely more than that months issue of Uncanny X-Men sold (around 57,000 copies). Schism was hyped as a huge turning point for the X-Men and to see the first issue fall so short of 100,000 copies has to be a disappointment for Marvel. It should be interesting to see how well the relaunched Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine and the X-Men sell and how quickly they drop down to pre relaunch numbers.

It's Marvel's own fault. Because they don't have the licenses to the movie properties for X-Men and Spider-Man they've for too long let those properties die on the vine creatively, while pumping up the Avengers (and its members) for the last half decade because they do retain the movie rights for those characters.

I'm actually shocked that they've bothered at all to try to pump some new life into the X-books with "Schism" instead of just cranking out another pointless title ("Astonishing," "Adjectiveless") for the completist fanboys to buy. (Although they're doing that too, with the disappointingly titled "Wolverine And The X-Men" instead of giving the axe to one or both of the pointless titles I mentioned previously.) And why they're letting go of Mike Carey on "X-Men Legacy" when it's been the most consistently decent of the core X-books for years, is beyond me.

It's just too little too late with "Schism," I think. They'll probably get a huge bump for the first issues of "W&tX-Men" and the new "Uncanny" but then they'll lose interest again soon enough as they ramp up to the Avengers movie in 2012 and we get 8,000 pointless Avengers mini-series that no one wants or needs.

I'm not sure that I agree with you. Bendis has been on the Avengers for a long time, especially by modern standards, and he is getting stale (for example, he featured The Hood as the lead villain for two years or more and now he's bringing Norman Osborne back? Didn't we get more than enough of him during Dark Reign/Siege?). Marvel also gave Spider-Man a big push with Brand New Day and Fantastic Four (another title they do not own the film rights too) is receiving a fairly big push. I think the reason they are pushing the Avengers is because people are buying it.

It is crazy that there are now five X-Men books all set in the same universe. With Uncanny, Wolverine and... and Legacy I believe there are going to be completely separate and distinct casts so I have no problem with those books, there are enough interesting characters to keep those books engaging, but Astonishing and X-Men are just product and at $3.99 overpriced product. Obviously there is no way to ever learn this but I do wonder how many readers they are scaring away by having such a big line. If there was just one x-book (Uncanny X-Men) what would it sell? 100,000? 150,000? If it was good I think it would be a massive seller.

[Edited 10/14/11 2:53am]

rialb said:

errant said:

It's Marvel's own fault. Because they don't have the licenses to the movie properties for X-Men and Spider-Man they've for too long let those properties die on the vine creatively, while pumping up the Avengers (and its members) for the last half decade because they do retain the movie rights for those characters.

I'm actually shocked that they've bothered at all to try to pump some new life into the X-books with "Schism" instead of just cranking out another pointless title ("Astonishing," "Adjectiveless") for the completist fanboys to buy. (Although they're doing that too, with the disappointingly titled "Wolverine And The X-Men" instead of giving the axe to one or both of the pointless titles I mentioned previously.) And why they're letting go of Mike Carey on "X-Men Legacy" when it's been the most consistently decent of the core X-books for years, is beyond me.

It's just too little too late with "Schism," I think. They'll probably get a huge bump for the first issues of "W&tX-Men" and the new "Uncanny" but then they'll lose interest again soon enough as they ramp up to the Avengers movie in 2012 and we get 8,000 pointless Avengers mini-series that no one wants or needs.

I'm not sure that I agree with you. Bendis has been on the Avengers for a long time, especially by modern standards, and he is getting stale (for example, he featured The Hood as the lead villain for two years or more and now he's bringing Norman Osborne back? Didn't we get more than enough of him during Dark Reign/Siege?). Marvel also gave Spider-Man a big push with Brand New Day and Fantastic Four (another title they do not own the film rights too) is receiving a fairly big push. I think the reason they are pushing the Avengers is because people are buying it.

It is crazy that there are now five X-Men books all set in the same universe. With Uncanny, Wolverine and... and Legacy I believe there are going to be completely separate and distinct casts so I have no problem with those books, there are enough interesting characters to keep those books engaging, but Astonishing and X-Men are just product and at $3.99 overpriced product. Obviously there is no way to ever learn this but I do wonder how many readers they are scaring away by having such a big line. If there was just one x-book (Uncanny X-Men) what would it sell? 100,000? 150,000? If it was good I think it would be a massive seller.

[Edited 10/14/11 2:53am]

Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men get the occasional event push in their own books and some satellite titles, but at least in the case of the X-books, they're never integral (or even involved) in any of the big linewide crossovers. People buy the Avengers because Marvel made a concerted effort in the middle of the last decade to remove the X-Men as their #1 franchise and put Avengers as their marquee property when they started producing their own movies. Every major event is centered on the Avengers, in the same way that back in the 80's and 90's (Inferno, Onslaught), every other book had to bow before the X-books editorial office when that was Marvel's biggest property.

As for who's writing... almost Marvel's entire stable is tired. Bendis? Fraction? Loeb? Marvel keeps pushing these guys constantly on projects, and big events, and I can't for the life of me figure out why they think these guys are awesome.

And the fact that Greg Land is staying on the relaunched Uncanny should tell you exactly where the X-books lie as far as Marvel's priority.

connorhawke said:

Hey since you all are in the know about this event can I please ask you this?

When buying these books digitally is it true there is actually NO file to download?

Right, there's no downloadable file. You pay to view comics through your browser.

Identity said:

connorhawke said:

Hey since you all are in the know about this event can I please ask you this?

When buying these books digitally is it true there is actually NO file to download?

Right, there's no downloadable file. You pay to view comics through your browser.

Thanks heaps for letting me know. I appreciate it.

Wow. No sale for me. This actually should be locked off for sale from my country then because it's effectively charging for a library service, which is against the law. What were they thinking?