Comments on: Marvel Month-to-Month Sales August 2007

by: isitwednesday.com » Blog Archive » The Best Book I Read This Week - Ms. Marvel #22

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:15:05 +0000

[…] Ms. Marvel has seen a 49% drop in sales over the last year as of August according to ICv2 numbers cited over at The Beat. Let’s hope this book stays around long enough to see where Brian Reed ultimately wants to go with this character. […]

by: butch

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 09:32:01 +0000

You rock, Paul. Keep up the good work.

by: The Four Color Media Monitor

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:12:30 +0000

And now, regarding Marvel sales…

I took a look at this analysis for Marvel’s own sales. People are still buying into their time-wasting company wide crossovers, or worse, mindlessly into Brian Bendis’s stuff. However, I do see that Captain America, now being written minus its great …

by: Wraith

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:48:25 +0000

The sad truth of the matter, is that the current Marvel regime is only interested in heavily promoting and/or using gimmicks/stunts that last for 6 or more months on books that are written by creators who are either popular, critically acclaimed,and/or are celebrities. This is why Hudlin’s BP run had heavy promotion at the beginning,why Marvel allowed Hudlin to take Storm from the X-books and marry her and BP,and why the book has been saddled with crossovers and variant covers since the CW tie in issues. CABLE & DEADPOOL is NOT written by a writer who is either popular,critically acclaimed ,or a celebrity. This why C&D isn’t getting as much promotion or gimmicks to make the book sale.

by: Heinz Hochkoepper

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 11:54:59 +0000

Very interesting calculations you did on Amazing Spider-Man. Sounds like the new plan is pretty much guaranteed to be a success. I wonder if DC will follow suit with their Superman and Batman books (I know DC did something similar with Superman long ago, but if ASM is successful, they might still be inspired to try again).

by: Marc-Oliver Frisch

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:37:43 +0000

To be fair, CABLE & DEADPOOL has been part of quite a few crossovers - it tied in with HOUSE OF M, CIVIL WAR, it’s had guest appearances by the publisher’s major characters and did a prelude storyline to the “Blood of Apocalypse” arc in X-MEN.

You’re right that it’s puzzling why they didn’t bother to advertise the most recent crossover, though. In any case, it doesn’t seem like the X-books’ new group editor is very taken with the book - Alonso’s comments when he took over suggested that he wasn’t even aware Cable already HAD a series. It’s apparently going to be replaced with a new CABLE solo title soon.

While I don’t think you can accuse Marvel of not supporting CABLE & DEADPOOL, however, BLACK PANTHER certainly seems to be a pet project of the current regime.

by: Frodo-X

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 18:09:20 +0000

I find it sad that though Black Panther and Cable & Deadpool have similar numbers when they aren’t in a crossover, Marvel gives BP crossover after crossover to keep the numbers out of the gutter, and don’t do it for C&D. And then when they did recently cross it with X-men, they didn’t even promote it in the slightest.

by: Sanity or Madness

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:33:06 +0000

> 155. SPIDER-MAN FAMILY
> Disastrous numbers, but a sixth issue has been solicited for December. This is the lowest selling Marvel Universe title by a wide margin.

Well, it’s 108 on the dollar chart, so between She-Hulk and Mystic Arcana: Scarlet Witch in terms of money brought in…

> WHITE TIGER
> Finally shipped in September, after being rescheduled on at least six occasions. Again, there’s obviously a story here.

Writer firmly blamed the artists: http://forum.newsarama.com/showpost.php?p=4374977&postcount=18

by: Matt T.

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:35:39 +0000

“Which suggests that a fair number of stores really did cut their orders once Marvel stopped putting the Initiative banner on the cover. That’s quite bizarre behaviour, because they must have figured out long ago that the Initiative wasn’t a crossover, but it’s hard to see another obvious explanation.”

It makes sense, actually. My LCS has a number of subscribers who requested “All Initiative titles” or “All From The Pages of Civil War” titles. So they ordered anything noted as AI in the order forms and FOCs, and shoved them in to those people’s boxes no matter how tenuously the story actually tied in. Once the “official” crossover has ended, these books are no longer pulled — subscribers who still want them need to either add the titles individually or buy them off the racks, so the store’s orders are cut correspondingly.

I feel like I’m not articulating this well at all, but (assuming other stores behave similarly) the numbers make sense, even if the policy doesn’t.

by: Paul O'Brien

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:38:13 +0000

Smith: Don’t forget that SPIDER-GIRL reportedly does unusually well in digest format. It doesn’t need to sell as well in monthly form.

Wraith: I think there’s no denying that this was more of a factor than I’d previously given it credit for.

by: Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » Sept. 26, 2007: Daddy says nothing

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 08:17:31 +0000

[…] [Publishing] Paul O’Brien looks at Marvel Comics’ month-to-month sales to Direct-Market retailers, now updated for August. […]

by: Wraith

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 02:53:40 +0000

Looks like I was right about T-bolts having a huge sales drop once the variant covers stopped and INITIATIVE banner was removed from the cover. That being said, the drop was no where near as big as I thought it would be. I think the reason why the book is still selling a lot more then the pre-INITIATIVE issues by the previous creative team, is because dealers MIGHT be ordering extra copies just in case many of the people who bought the book because of the INITIATIVE tie in, will still want to buy the book because they like the series new direction.

by: V. Smith

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:39:29 +0000

If Ant Man got cancelled for its low performance, then I expect Spider-girl to be next, new “save Spider-girl” campain or not.

Sad that it might go, but it wasn’t really shaking things up the way it could.

by: Paul C

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:47:59 +0000

These charts are always enjoyable to read, thanks.

“Who’d have thought you could add 15K in sales just by running a back-up strip?”

That is pretty shocking when you think about it. But so far the Endangered Species story seems to have done the trick. What are the odds we come back here in a 12-18 months or so and see Cable, New Exiles & Excalibur doing the same numbers. Nearly all relaunches are usually just used for short term sales boosts.

by: Paul O'Brien

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:51:30 +0000

“I may have blinked, but where are the company wide comparisons of ongoing series to previous periods?”

I’ve never done those. You’re thinking of Marc.

by: Ian

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:41:26 +0000

If not the reprint certainly the corresponding cover price. I had never read the story, so it was worth it to me, but there was a bit of sticker shock.

I’d be interested to see a post-mortem on canceled books once they are done. Covering the whole run and looking for trends and shifts throughout its life. FNSM would be a good example. I’m not sure if there is any information that could be gleaned from this, but I think it could be interesting.

by: Jaime

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:08:07 +0000

Wolverine Origins also included a reprint of an entire issue of Uncanny X-Men that was heavily referenced throughout the new story. I don’t know if that was promoted at all, but it may well have had an effect on sales.

by: Torsten Adair

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 18:51:39 +0000

I may have blinked, but where are the company wide comparisons of ongoing series to previous periods? How is Marvel’s total circulation compared to previous months?

by: Paul O'Brien

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:43:10 +0000

Quite possibly. The full chart listing says “World War Hulk Finch Sketch Toronto Con Var #3 (of 5).”

by: Jamie Coville

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:06:36 +0000

On the World War Hulk you said: "But way, way down at number 252, there’s the David Finch sketch variant, produced for the Toronto Comicon, which adds another 5,003 sales." Did you mean the HobbyStar convention in late August? If so, that's called Toronto FanExpo. I'm assuming that's the convention because they had a major World War Hulk signing with Pak, JRJr, Finch and Paniccia. Toronto Comicon is run by a different company, Paradise Comics. HobbyStar also runs a smaller event under the name Toronto Comicon, but that took place last spring and don't believe the Finch variant was there.