Maybe it’s just me, but I am not buying it for the authors. I would buy any “new interpretation of the New Universe”, based on my nostalgic interest in the New Universe.

I suppose that’s not the same as being interested in the characters - or is it?

http://ninthart.com/display.php?article=1158

If so, I’d take his predictions about sales trends for Black Panther-and other series-with a grain of salt. After all, this is what he said about how BP would fare last summer:

“Now, true enough, the book’s still doing an awful lot better than the previous BLACK PANTHER series by Christopher Priest. During its last couple of years, that title consistently sold around 19,000 copies. Hudlin is indisputably doing better. But the problem is that he’s still shedding around 2,000 readers with every issue. At that rate, he’ll be down at Priest’s sales levels by the summer.”

Yet, a quick look at the sales O’Brien posted above indicate that even the non-crossover issues of Hudlin’s BP never dropped to the 19,000 mark. So, it’s no shock that the crossover issues would sell even better with the Wedding Issue (No. 18) being the top selling installment of the series.

This leads me to wonder if there is a little bit of bitterness on O’Brien’s part. It’s well known that O’Brien would prefer Priest on the book, but the sad truth is the acclaimed writer’s run simply didn’t sell well. There are a number of theories for this, including that Priest’s run did not get enough promotion from Marvel via means like a long rumored crossover with the X-Men.

Suddenly, Hudlin’s Panther crossing over with the X-Men (”Wild Kingdom”) no longer seems so “gimmicky” or “crass.”

To further complicate things, we honestly have no idea how Black Panther’s sales will be affected by the character joining the cast of Fantastic Four. Sales could go back down, jump up the charts, or remain stable. The bottom line is that O’Brien doesn’t bring the possibility that Black Panther “crashing” is not a sure thing.

I understand that O’Brien is biased, but could he please acknowledge this upfront instead of pretending that he’s being totally object about Hudlin’s Black Panther?

Paul O’Brien writes CIVIL WAR is still going, but with the core title running late (because you demanded it), and many of the crossover arcs having finished, it’s started to relinquish its grip on Marvel’s line. But December still saw three CIVIL WA…

But yeah, sales on the comic do matter, Diana, because this is more like an Image book, and if the comic itself doesn’t sell, we can’t keep doing it to get to those future trades. As of right now, we’re moving enough to continue, but I’d be a lot more relaxed about it if we sold a few K more each issue. But I’m optimistic, because we’re already doing a lot better than I predicted we would.

I think in the UK it’s the phrase “one of the writers of Doctor Who” that has the appeal. Not especially which one. Maybe Gattis or Davies would have picked up more readers, but I doubt it. I don’t think people care about the specifics much either.

I was only curious as my local comic shop said they’d got an average number of copies in (for a miniseries) and sold out and were reordering, which would seem to suggest that maybe it’s selling better to Brits who “get it”.

And, of course, it’s always the case that some books will do an unusually large proportion of their sales in trade paperback format, especially non-superhero titles.

Returning to the topic of Paul Cornell: Yes, I realise that he’s written for the current TV show, but I honestly don’t think that’s increased awareness of him outside the Dr Who fandom. The public don’t pay much attention to the writer credits of individual episodes, and they’re unlikely to remember the name of anyone but the most high-profile and frequent writers. If you asked the average viewer to name a Dr Who writer, he’d probably only be able to come up with Russell T Davies - the head writer and the public face of the production team. At a push, he might remember Mark Gatiss, who’s already well known from League of Gentlemen. But Paul Cornell, I’d say, is somebody who’s only likely to be well known among Dr Who fandom.

I hope intelligent readers (i.e. Beat readers) understand that these numbers are consistently low by about this factor. As Paul points out the trends are accurate, and I think that’s why they are valuable to post..

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God I hope so, because Criminal is the best new book that’s coming out every month.

“Concerning the recent Max minis like Zombies and SoS as well as the Pete Wisdom mini I’d would like to mention the price of $3.99 for a single issue.

As they still stay at 32 pages I was suprised by the price increase when they were solicited.”

A few years ago, the Max line was priced at $2.99 while the regular books were still at $2.25 and $2.50. Thus there is precedent for pricing the Max books higher.

Unfortunately, the regular books soon followed to that price.

I’m not arguing the numbers you posted, but they just don’t show the true sales of the book. Those won’t be known until several months after the trade is available, because so many people these days want the collected editions.

The sales on #3 are 21,000 so far and, hopefully, they are but a drop in the bucket compared to the final sales.
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These charts are valuable in comparing month-to-month and year-to-year sales. Trends are important.

An interesting, compelling story; fantastic art; quirky characters that haven’t been beaten into cliche six ways from Sunday. What more could any reader ask?

Yeah - I’d be interested to find out if the “84% rule” applies to other books as well (i.e., UK/etc ordering patterns are consistant with the US), or if Criminal specifically is just selling peanuts outside the US, so the ratio’s pretty much consistant because that’s 95%+ of their sales…

As they still stay at 32 pages I was suprised by the price increase when they were solicited. And decided to wait for the trade, as they couldn’t possibly be priced at the multiple of the single issues. It had been a recent trend with Marvel anyways to sell the trade cheaper than the single issues. Which leads to two assumptions:

1. The recent price increase of the singles to $2.99 has hurt the the single issue to trade price ratio, especially since the singles contain ads.
2. Pricing a single 32-page issue at $3.99 obviously hurts sales.

Taken into account that Squadron Supreme was hurt so badly by dropping the MAX label htey pretty much managed to kill the imprint over the course of just 1/2 a year. (excluding the Punisher)

25,978 / 31,000 = 0.838
21,115 / 25,000 = 0.845
17,702 / 21,000 = 0.843

Good to know that the ratio is consistent. I think Criminal will do nicely when collected.