Several problems here. DC and DD have chosen to go for the quick QUICK buck instead of focusing on quality series that can be picked up and enjoyed without having to buy countless crossovers and events to have any idea what might be happening. DD seems (finally!) to have at least grasped the concept by announcing that Superman and Batman will (paraphrasing) be embarking on adventures in THEIR OWN TITLES! Wow! Let us STOP going for the quick $$ by events and spin-offs (!!!) of events. Anyone remember the 90s? Anyone? Greed? Gluttony? Hello??

The DCU: As a long-time GA/BC fan, I’ve been waiting years for said book. And what to we get? Judd. The GA/BC “family” of endless confusion and… drek. Passed on the book, thanks. If ever we bring back Green Arrow and Black Canary, perhaps they’ll let us in on it and we’ll bite, yeah?

Flash: Jeezuz, where to start? We get over the Bart insanity (yeah, it was planned all along! uh huh), bring back Wally and we get… the Flash “family”. Does anyone wonder why sales on that book have plummeted? Do I want to read about second-rate Wonder Twins? Nada. Idea: DUMP THE WIFE AND KIDDIES! Better yet, BRING BACK BARRY ALLEN, say YES we made a mistake, have Patrick Duffy open the shower door and BRING BACK THE FLASH!!

On the up side, the Johns/ Robinson Superman team looks promising.

If anyone wants more ideas on how to save DC Comics, let me know!! yeah! : )

Well, that differs from book to book and from month to month, so in the current system of largely non-returnable distribution, there’s probably no workable way to find out.

Generally, the difference between what’s sold to retailers and what retailers sell to their customers tends to be the largest in the first month of a new launch, and gradually get smaller in subsequent months, as retailers adjust their orders to match the demand for a given title.

Ultimately, there’s always going to be a delayed effect, as far as these charts are concerned, of course. Still, I’d say that most of that is covered by the trends we see. If a retailer orders 15 copies of COUNTDOWN TO ADVENTURE and sells three, for instance, they’re probably going to order no more than five copies of the next issue - and hence we get to see an eight-percent drop on the chart.

Compare that to the Crime Bible series, which I have to keep asking my LCS to reorder for me because there aren’t enough. Point being, where does 20K really start equaling 20K? It’s one thing to get excited about a book doing 20k or down on a book for doing just 20k, but in reality, if LCS are filling up storage boxes with unsold books, that’s the real measure of success.

I understand that stores adjust their order quanties, but some of them will automatically order three or four or something no matter what, which is what was happening I think with Countdown to Adventure #6 and Crime Bible #4. The difference was that I as a consumer, had no trouble stuffing my bag with Countdown to Adventure several times over, but left the shop empty handed when it came to Crime Bible.

Sales does not equal quality. Never ever has. In any industry.

Most books these days, you don’t know ANYTHING — *ANYTHING* more than 1-2 months past solicitations. It strikes me that the thing that’s most different about GL is that we *do* know what’s coming up in Summer 2009, and I believe that affects the sales.

“I don’t know how to quit you.”

Marvel, meanwhile, has published Civil War, World War Hulk, Annihilation, Annihilation: Conquest, and their myriad spinoffs and crossovers since DC published Infinite Crisis, not to mention Messiah Complex and the buildup to Secret Invasion. Right or wrong, DC has more or less allowed their books to sink or swim on their own, yet no one complains that Marvel is just jumping from event to event to event. Why is the perception so inverted from reality?

Oh, I guess DC did also do Amazons Attack. Does it count as an event if no one notices?

I don’t think it’s fair to call anyone a mindless zombie for buying what they like at any rate. Some people really, really do like Bendis (I do, often), and some people really don’t like Geoff Johns (JSA makes me want to kill things), and these are their honest, true preferences and opinions. There was a time I bought more DC than Marvel… now it’s not the case. While both companies seem constantly embroiled in mega events, Marvel at least gives me some event free options so I don’t feel drowned with it all. Books like Runaways, Captain America and Daredevil often make reference to the big stories going on, but it’s not the main focus. At DC, I’m down to Blue Beetle and Brave and the Bold (and All Star Supes, whenever it manifests).

And by all that, I just mean to say, clearly Marvel is doing something to please the bulk of its audience that DC just isn’t at the moment. To assume people who like what we dislike are duped sheep is… well it’s something, but it’s probably not correct!

The problem with certain trends is that the “fan-boys” of the world get fed all this crap about how everything that a certain writer is doing is all they should buy…IMHO, Bendis is the biggest hack in all of comic-land, but, damn, Wizard thinks he is the “end-all-be-all” writer.

Storywise, Marvel isn’t that great, and the sad part is “Secret Invasion” will outsell “Final Crisis” by leaps and bounds…Why?!?! Because of BMB and the wonderful people at Wizard! That is why!

I think that the majority of the sales that we are seeing each month is caused by these mindless drones (Marvel Zombies, if you will) are being led like lambs to the slaughter…while World War Hulk might have sold more than it’s counterpart at DC (Sinestro War)…Sinestro was ten-times the story…Just the same, Infinite Crisis (for all the crap that it cause afterwords) was better (in terms of story) than Civil War (most anti-climatic ending…Captain America #25 was the true final issue of the mini), however, what Wizard tells these people to buy, they do…

Makes me wonder if Marvel signed Shamus to one of those exclusive contracts…

My ranting is over…

Well, on the one hand, I’d argue that retailers don’t place their orders in a vacuum - they have feedback from their customers, which I’d wager determines the bulk of their ordering habits, as far as periodicals are concerned. So, ultimately, the trends we see here should give us a pretty good idea of what readers want, I think.

Then again, I wonder how much of a factor the so-called “shelf copies” are. If books have to compete for shelf space with a thrice-monthly AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, a weekly COUNTDOWN and twenty-seven spin-off titles, then something eventually has to give. And if a book stops being on the shelf, its potential for attracting new readers is considerably diminished, obviously.

Thus every given month a retailer may think, hm, Blue Lantern isn’t selling very well, I’m only going to order 2 copies instead of 4. A few people do it and a few hundred copies less per month.

This has ALWAYS been the pattern, even when these charts were not as publicised at they are now. Look up Matt High’s original charts back on Usenet and you will see this is true.

Look at it this way: The vast majority of readers do stick around from month to month. However, there are countless reasons why a given reader may drop a given title from one month to the next. Consequently, every month, those books which didn’t manage to gain enough new readers to compensate for the lapsed ones will drop by a cerain percentage.

And the longer a serial narrative goes on, the harder it usually gets to convince people to jump on board. As a result, most books are trending downward by about two percent every month.