A couple of things to point out.

1) This title came out more than 1 1/2 years late. It was originally announced for a fall of 2006 release (when it may actually have been able to capitlize on TT’s then popularity), but due to “artistic delays”, it didn’t come out until this spring. This delay along with the title’s horrible art (clearly not worth the extra time spent getting it out) have meant that this mini series was practically scuttled before the first issue was even released.

2) Nevertheless, sales on Teen Titans, while not what they once were, still place it toward the top of DC’s roster. And sales on Teen Titans Year One are still much better than most mini series. (Still too early to know what sales are for Titans, but anecdotal evidence suggests the first issue didn’t too badly at the stores). Therefore, I wouldn’t say its completely without merit that DC thinks that there is a demand for Titans related spinoffs. While the Raven mini’s numbers are pretty bad, there are reasons why it may not be a good indicator of demand (or lack thereof) for Titans-related books. It’ll be more interesting to see how Cyborg and Terror Titans do; I suspect they’ll be much better received than Raven.

On mass-market sales, I happened to be in a couple of different grocery stores this week, and curiosity led me to check out their comics. Between the three stores I was at, you could get Superman Confidential, Superman, and Action Comics, as well as a smattering of Star Wars and Spider-Man titles. On the DC side, I saw nothing but Superman. I just wonder if anyone else has seen what’s for sale in their areas. I know Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc. have better selections than that.
And I should note I’m not in the Southwest; maybe Blue Beetle is on sale in every 7-11 and Winn-Dixie from Fort Worth to Phoenix. I have heard people say Blue Beetle’s getting its sales from the mass market.

This is the second time that DC has cancelled it with it being SO CLOSE.

And yet stuff below it keeps going.

Did Batman Begins have the effect on comic sales you’re expecting from The Dark Knight? I’d bet not. DC just needs to make sure Final Crisis and its tie-ins keep them on a high through the summer. If it disappoints the way Countdown did, although I doubt that will be the case, they could face some tough months.

I wouldn’t catergorize it as “dismal failure” just yet, but it certainly would fit in the failure category in that it was one of many horses that got backed last year which didn’t finish where it should have. The aimlessness of April’s issue will likely further impact sales next month.

While none of that was surprising, I was surprised to see Wonder Woman decline with a Green Lantern tie-in plot point, and coming off a really nice preceeding arc. Reviews of Nightwing have also been very positive of late, it was also interesting to see a small decline there.

I’m looking for the new movie and the RIP storyline to be a real shot in the arm for DC this summer.

Well, I suppose those particular issues would have sold a few copies less. I don’t think the book would have ended up anywhere else than it is right now, though.

With that “In response” you are implying a connection that Karen Berger explicitly denied here

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=154470

“One concerned fan wondered if Vertigo’s focus on original graphic novels meant they will be moving away from publishing monthly titles. “Not at all,” Berger said. Comparing it to television and feature films, she explained that some stories are best told episodically, month to month, and then collected. Other stories work as a great big graphic novel. Vertigo is still “very committed to the monthly form,” and will continue to publish collected editions that reach audiences in bookstores and comic shops.”

At an earlier panel, she said this
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=154243

“The final question was if the panelists see the audience for Vertigo comics, or comics in general, growing. Berger replied that Vertigo’s “backlist has become our frontlist,” as collections generate most of their sales. “Some monthlies sell well, some don’t,” but she confirmed that Vertigo is committed to monthly comics.”

I found this quite interesting, as it pretty much confirms what has been suggested to you by me and others in the last months: The fact that “the average periodical sales of [Vertigo] display massive losses in the neighborhood of 30 percent over the past five years” is made up for by growing collection sales and thus no reason to assume Vertigo sales as a whole are diminishing. Sure, a lot of books are getting cancelled right now, but that’s just because many of these books lasted much longer than expected, as there actually were very few cancellations in the last two years. Besides, many new monthlies have already been announced, so that commitment to monthly comics is certainly evident.

Please stop misrepresenting the truth so that it better fits this weird idea you so stubbornly cling to.

John Jackson Miller—The Goddamn Statsmaster.

http://icv2.com/articles/news/1850.html

For all your sales-chart researching needs~ (Well, I mean, not ALL of them, but a lot of them at least.)

I have 2,110. 100 more than in February, and 750 or so more than last March.

That last bit notes something hidden in the numbers — the extent to which the same month last year was top-heavy with the big events. This month, the sales curve fell off much more gradually.

That makes sense. I was just curious because Dynamo 5 has some decent buzz. I was hoping to see some sort of Invincible like climb (rather then standard attrition) and am even more curious if Noble Causes relaunch has worked in bringing some Dynamo 5 readers over.

So I am glad I did the research, even if it apparently won’t represent re-orders at all (which I didn’t even look for).

And just so nobody gets the wrong idea: I was referring to my double-post, not to the message directly above.

There were no DC titles among them.

“Or why you stopped the “other publishers” listing at #94?”

Well, unless something in particular catches my eye, that section is usually limited to the Top 100.

Mark: “Didn’t the first Shooter LSH issue have two covers? Would that partially explain the jump in orders?”

Partially, sure. Compared to other books supported through that gimmick, I’d be surprised if it accounted for more than 25% of those extra 20,000 units for Shooter’s debut issue, though.

I’m not asking for commentary on each and every title, but historical listings would be nice.

(And thank you for the analysis you do supply! Fascinating reading!)

The next issue will be interesting to see if the 5 years later relaunch, with a focus on similar Dynamo 5 storyline styles, and cheap phonebook style collections to allow one to cheaply read all the backstory.

Noble Causes
———–
Date #
———–
9/2006 23 3365
10/2006 24 3752 (11.50%)
11/2006 25 3982 (6.13%)
12/2006
1/2007 26 3596 (-9.69%)
2/2007 27 3443 (-4.25%)
3/2007 28 3405 (-1.10%)
4/2007
5/2007 29 3365 (-1.17%)
6/2007 30 3371 (0.18%)
7/2007
8/2007
9/2007 31 3365 (-0.18%)

Here is Dynamo 5 - which is mostly intersting due to the price change. I wonder if the quick cheap trade helped the sales bump for issue 8, or if it was due to the price change. I want to see more growth on this book.

Dynamo 5
———–
Date #
———–
3/2007 1 6842
4/2007 2 4947 (-27.70%)
5/2007 3 6185 (25.03%)
6/2007 4 6146 (-0.63%)
7/2007 5 5957 (-3.08%)
8/2007 6 5818 (-2.33%)
9/2007 7 5679 (-2.39%)
10/2007
11/2007 8 5709 (0.53%) price drops to 2.99
12/2007 9 5816 (1.87%)
1/2008 10 5684 (-2.27%)
2/2008
3/2008 11 5625 (-1.04%) price back up to 3.50