DC Month-to-Month Sales May 2008
In May, DC Comics finally awoke from their year-long beauty sleep. Unfortunately, they seem to be getting up on the wrong side of the bed. The good news, now, is that the first two chapters of the much-hyped “Batman RIP” storyline made the Top 10. The bad news, as you may have heard, is that Final Crisis, the big blockbuster title they’d been building towards for the past two years, didn’t quite debut in the top slot. See below for an explanation. Apart from the two major projects, DC also launched another bunch of miniseries in May, none of which registered very high on the charts. May was also th first month in two years in which there was no weekly title from the company, so, perhaps not surprisingly, sales of the average DC periodical were slightly down from April, Final Crisis and “Batman RIP” notwithstanding.
With its remake of the old House of Mystery title, Vertigo saw its highest-selling ongoing series launch in almost four years. Due to a long tail of books selling below the 10,000 mark, though, this didn’t have much of an effect on the imprint’s average periodical sales. Over at the WildStorm sublabel, meanwhile, May was a disastrous month for periodicals. Because the WildStorm Universe line of superhero series kept tanking badly and only one of three new limited series based on licensed or creator-owned properties debuted with sales above 10,000 units, average WildStorm periodical numbers declined by almost twenty percent in May, dropping to a terrifying 9,812 copies - a new all-time low for the imprint.
See below for the details, and please mind the disclaimers at the end of the column. Thanks to Milton Griepp and ICv2.com for the permission to use their figures. An overview of ICv2.com’s estimates can be found here.
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2 - FINAL CRISIS 05/2008: Final Crisis #1 of 7 — 144,826
Final Crisis, by writer Grant Morrison and artist J.G. Jones, is, of course, DC’s big monster-whopper blockbuster juggernaut of the year. They’ve been building towards the book for quite some time, and it’s been widely expected to be the final litmus test for the current direction of the DC Universe line. Would Final Crisis validate DC’s year-long commitment and turn around the recent negative sales trends, or be final proof that DC were wrong to put all their eggs in one basket and have dropped the ball like a Dutch forward in the penalty box? That was the question. Looking at the May chart, and presuming that half the book’s print run didn’t fall off a truck somewhere, it seems we’re a little closer to the answer now. And for DC, it’s not a pleasant answer.
But first, some context: The second issue of Final Crisis‘ Marvel counterpart, Secret Invasion, took the top spot of the Diamond chart in May, with an estimated 182,443 units. Secret Invasion #1, on sale in April, shifted an estimated 250,263 copies in first-month sales. Checking the numbers from the previous blockbuster season doesn’t turn out to be much of a consolation, either. Back in October 2005, estimated first-month sales of DC’s Infinite Crisis started out at 249,265 units and never dropped below 180,000 for the rest of the seven-issue series. And Marvel’s seven-issue Civil War launched with estimated first-month sales of 260,804 in May 2006, peaked at 290,709 with issue #3 and never dropped below 253,856. Even World War Hulk, which was downplayed by Marvel as a way of cleansing the palate after Civil War at the time, debuted in June 2007 with an estimated 178,408 units and kept selling above 145,000 during its five-issue run.
Consequently, it’s no exaggeration to say that Final Crisis, with debut sales of barely 145,000, seems to be massively underperforming. What we’re seeing here, plainly, is a supposed tent-pole book shifting 100,000 units below what it should have sold to justify the lead-up, the hype and the expectations that went into it. That’s not peanuts.
Now, there are a couple of things to consider, of course. First up, Final Crisis #1 came out on the last Wednesday in May, which means that the bulk of reorders slipped into June and aren’t included in the number we see. Secret Invasion #1 and #2, by contrast, came out in the first or second week of the month, which means they had three or four more weeks to accumulate reorders. Second, Final Crisis #1 came in two different, equally distributed cover editions, while Secret Invasion has had four per issue. Let’s be charitable and assume that those factors are worth 20,000 units. At least as far as reorders are concerned, we’re going to see those on next month’s chart, if they indeed occur in significant quantities. Bearing all this in mind, however, it’s still quite safe to say that the book’s disappointing performance is not owed to release dates or variant cover editions.
But as you know, what we’re seeing here are sales to retailers, with no indication yet whether demand for the book was gauged accurately. After all, retailers had to place their initial orders about three months before the book came out. Those orders are based to a significant degree on customer orders, granted. But they also include a fair bit of guessing, because not every potential reader puts in an order three months in advance, and there’s always the possibility of people rushing to buy copies after the fact thanks to positive word of mouth. So, in theory, it’s entirely possible that we’re simply seeing a massive misjudgment on the retailers’ part that will be corrected in the months to come.
Be that as it may, though, what the low initial sales do show - always presuming there’s no shipping or calculating error involved in the figure, which I guess is always a possibility, particularly for a book shipping in the final week of a given month; although I’d rather think we’d heard about by now if there had been any shipping problems - is that retailers didn’t have a much faith in Final Crisis at all. In how far they were right, we’re going to find out in a couple of months. But this fact alone should give the people in charge of DC’s superhero line pause. If it became apparent that DC were heading for the cliff when Countdown was launched to lukewarm reactions a year ago, Final Crisis #1 would seem to be the moment where they realize they’ve passed the edge and are hovering in mid-air, in terms of retailer perception.
One reason that may have led to this loss of faith in DC’s product is the publisher’s recent string of high-level failures. In the aftermath of Infinite Crisis, the line-wide “One Year Later” reboot, the subsequent wave of new titles and relaunches were all greeted by retailers with much enthusiasm early on, but mostly proceeded to enter a terrible sales free-fall that resulted in the cancellation of quite a few titles, and that still hasn’t ended for others, despite multiple attempts at fixing things. And once supposed event titles like Countdown, Amazons Attack or Salvation Run came around last year, there wasn’t much enthusiasm to begin with. Retailers had learned their lessons, and I suppose there was no reason to presume that they were going to forget them when it came to ordering Final Crisis. DC would have to put out all the stops to convince them that this was going to be different.
Which they emphatically did not do. Crucially, DC never bothered to tell anyone what Final Crisis was going to be about. Marvel, by contrast, did a much better job of building excitement with Secret Invasion in that respect. It’s not very hard to get the book’s premise, and at the same time, it leaves enough room for the potential audience’s imagination to engage the subject. It’s about an unprecedented, large-scale secret invasion of alien shape-shifters, and the appeal is to see the Marvel heroes and their world react to it. It’s all right there in the title: Secret Invasion - a simple, straightforward high concept for a blockbuster book.
In the case of Final Crisis, it’s not quite that simple. For starters, what does the title mean? Why, it’s a reference to Crisis on Infinite Earths, of course, a book that came out twenty years ago. What was that one about? Well, I haven’t read it, but I’ve been following superhero comics for a while, and my understanding is that it was a deck-clearing exercise to straighten out the continuity of the publisher’s fictional universe. Imagine my suspense. The slogan with which DC chose to advertise the content of Final Crisis when pressed for it, “The Day Evil Won,” doesn’t really address the problem. I mean, congratulations, so you’ve got a second act in there somewhere, at the end of which the bad guys temporarily win, which they always do. Good structure. But that still doesn’t tell me what the story is about, or why I should care.
In short, there is no hook. Final Crisis has been promoted as a self-referential monster of a story, reliant on the vague promise that Grant Morrison will be doing something or other with the DC Universe. That’s probably enough for the hardcore Morrison fans and the DC Universe completists, but for everybody else, there’s nothing to engage. It’s a marketing disaster, and retailers have become much less forgiving about that than they were a couple of years ago.
Now, if it’s indeed just the retailers who misjudged the situation here, then that shouldn’t pose much of a problem for DC: Orders will be adjusted, sales will go up, there will be reprints and positive buzz, and the recent negative sales trends for DC’s mainstream line may even be reversed. If retailers’s vote of no confidence is an accurate reflection of the market, however, and if there’s as massive a disconnect between DC and the market as the May numbers suggest, however, it’s going to be quite an uphill struggle for the DC Universe line, which will require some fundamental changes in direction.
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7/9 - BATMAN 05/2001: Batman #591 — 40,508* 05/2002: Batman #603 — 51,898* 05/2003: Batman #615 — 144,090 [158,350] 05/2004: Batman #627 — 76,885 05/2004: Batman #628 — 74,348 [ 75,832] 05/2005: Batman #640 — 66,640 [ 71,120] 05/2006: Batman #653 — 77,257 [ 78,435] ——————————- 05/2007: Batman #665 — 80,122 (- 0.5%) 06/2007: – 07/2007: Batman #666 — 83,781 (+ 4.6%) 08/2007: Batman #667 — 78,578 (- 6.2%) [82,418] 08/2007: Batman #668 — 76,962 (- 2.1%) 09/2007: Batman #669 — 73,471 (- 4.5%) 10/2007: Batman #670 — 76,890 (+ 4.7%) [86,049] 11/2007: Batman #671 — 76,764 (- 0.2%) [80,440] 12/2007: Batman #672 — 71,189 (- 7.3%) 01/2008: Batman #673 — 69,234 (- 2.8%) 02/2008: Batman #674 — 68,208 (- 1.5%) 03/2008: – 04/2008: Batman #675 — 71,138 (+ 4.3%) 05/2008: Batman #676 — 105,039 (+47.9%) 05/2008: Batman #677 — 96,116 (- 8.5%) —————- 6 months: +31.0% 1 year : +25.5% 2 years : +30.2% 5 years : -30.2%
The two May issues launched the widely publicized “Batman RIP” storyline, which will branch out into the secondary Batman titles in the shape of spin-off storylines later on.
Both issues were promoted with Alex Ross covers and rarer-than-usual 1-for-25 variant-cover editions, which means that retailers had to buy 25 units of the regular edition to be able to buy one variant-cover edition. Nonetheless, this is a decent increase. Retailers seem to have some faith in the story, encouraged, perhaps, by the success of the recent “Sinestro Corps War” and “Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul” crossovers.
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11 - JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 05/2001: JLA #54 — 69,390* 05/2002: JLA #66 — 60,581* 05/2003: JLA #81 — 60,316 05/2004: JLA #96 — 70,377 [ 71,546] 05/2004: JLA #97 — 68,170 [ 70,446] 05/2005: JLA #114 — 63,934 ————————————– 05/2007: Justice League #9 — 129,285 (- 0.8%) 06/2007: Justice League #10 — 129,265 (- 0.0%) 07/2007: Justice League #11 — 122,823 (- 5.0%) 08/2007: Justice League #12 — 131,420 (+ 7.0%) [137,181] 09/2007: Justice League #13 — 119,471 (- 9.1%) [124,006] 10/2007: Justice League #14 — 101,763 (-14.8%) 11/2007: – 12/2007: Justice League #15 — 100,234 (- 1.5%) 12/2007: Justice League #16 — 95,557 (- 4.7%) 01/2008: Justice League #17 — 94,712 (- 0.9%) 02/2008: Justice League #18 — 89,803 (- 5.2%) 03/2008: Justice League #19 — 87,482 (- 2.6%) 04/2008: Justice League #20 — 85,807 (- 1.9%) 05/2008: Justice League #21 — 90,035 (+ 4.9%) —————- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : -30.4% 2 years : n.a. 5 years : +49.3%
Justice League of America #21 was touted as a major Final Crisis tie-in in the advertising copy, so a five-percent increase seems rather modest. Then again, New Avengers didn’t see much of an increase from tying in with Secret Invasion either, over at Marvel. Maybe there’s just too much of an existing overlap between the books’ audiences to generate significant increases on top of their already high sales.
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19 - JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA 05/2001: JSA #24 — 38,669* 05/2002: JSA #36 — 41,928* 05/2003: JSA #48 — 44,019 05/2004: JSA #60 — 42,824 05/2005: JSA #73 — 51,326 05/2006: JSA #85 — 52,620 ————————————— 05/2007: Justice Society #6 — 96,900 (- 1.2%) [ 99,784] 06/2007: – 07/2007: Justice Society #7 — 88,883 (- 8.3%) 08/2007: Justice Society #8 — 87,606 (- 1.4%) 09/2007: Justice Society #9 — 84,117 (- 4.0%) 10/2007: Justice Society #10 — 99,424 (+ 18.2%) 11/2007: – 12/2007: Justice Society #11 — 89,613 (- 9.9%) 01/2008: – 02/2008: Justice Society #12 — 84,162 (- 6.1%) 02/2008: Justice Society #13 — 82,702 (- 1.7%) 03/2008: – 04/2008: Justice Society #14 — 80,507 (- 2.7%) 05/2008: Justice Society #15 — 78,311 (- 2.7%) —————- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : -19.2% 2 years : +48.8% 5 years : +77.9%
Sales remain in a not-so-gentle downslide, while still being boosted through 1-for-10 variant-cover editions. Justice Society can probably afford it for the time being, because it’s still selling a a much higher level than prior to the revamp. If it continues to shed 2,000 units for another couple of months, though, that’s a sign that something’s going wrong here - not to mention that the decline is bound to get much uglier once there are no more gimmick-cover promotions.
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24 - ALL STAR SUPERMAN 05/2006: – —————————————– 05/2007: – 06/2007: – 07/2007: All Star Superman #8 — 83,329 (- 9.7%) 08/2007: – 09/2007: – 10/2007: – 11/2007: All Star Superman #9 — 78,706 (- 5.6%) 12/2007: – 01/2008: – 02/2008: – 03/2008: All Star Superman #10 — 73,574 (- 6.5%) 04/2008: – 05/2008: All Star Superman #11 — 70,355 (- 4.4%) —————- 6 months: -10.6% 1 year : n.a. 2 years : n.a.
All Star Superman still hasn’t found its level. That’s moot now, though - there’s one issue to go for writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely, and the book seems destined for a long life on the graphic-novel shelf once it’s completed.
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25 - GREEN LANTERN 05/2001: Green Lantern #138 — 33,488* 05/2002: Green Lantern #150 — 42,141* 05/2003: Green Lantern #164 — 44,351 05/2003: Green Lantern #165 — 37,997 05/2004: Green Lantern #177 — 33,391 05/2005: GL: Rebirth #6 — 114,354 05/2005: Green Lantern #1 — 168,353 [180,483] 05/2006: Green Lantern #11 — 78,926 ————————————– 05/2007: Green Lantern #19 — 62,439 (+ 1.3%) 05/2007: Green Lantern #20 — 60,556 (- 3.0%) 06/2007: – 07/2007: Green Lantern #21 — 81,929 (+35.3%) [93,052] 08/2007: Green Lantern #22 — 77,916 (- 4.9%) [82,980] 09/2007: Green Lantern #23 — 79,084 (+ 1.5%) [82,168] 10/2007: Green Lantern #24 — 78,650 (- 0.6%) 11/2007: – 12/2007: Green Lantern #25 — 90,545 (+15.1%) 12/2007: Green Lantern #26 — 69,986 (-22.7%) 01/2008: Green Lantern #27 — 67,600 (- 3.4%) 02/2008: – 03/2008: Green Lantern #28 — 68,073 (+ 0.7%) 03/2008: Green Lantern #29 — 66,536 (- 2.3%) 04/2008: Green Lantern #30 — 65,347 (- 1.9%) 05/2008: Green Lantern #31 — 65,874 (+ 0.8%) —————- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : + 7.1% 2 years : -16.5% 5 years : +60.0%
Green Lantern sales are bottoming out around 66K in the middle of a storyline. The audience seems to like the book’s direction in the aftermath of the “Sinestro Corps War” crossover.
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30 - TITANS 05/2001: Titans #29 — 28,501* 05/2002: Titans #41 — 23,152* ——————————— 11/2007: TTE Special #1 — 49,735 12/2007: – 01/2008: – 02/2008: – 03/2008: – 04/2008: Titans #1 — 75,584 (+52.0%) 05/2008: Titans #2 — 57,358 (-24.1%) —————- 6 months: +15.3%
That’s an average second-issue drop, despite the fact that - unlike for issue #1 - there was no 1-for-10 variant-cover edition this time around. That’s an encouraging sign, for now, although audience feedback will only begin to play a role in the sales for issue #3.
The surprisingly good numbers notwithstanding, DC seem to have decided that the book needs a change of direction; or that’s what I infer from their delay and resolicitation of issue #5, whose description, creative team and cover image have been changed. Issue #4 has also been pushed back a month, meanwhile.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that they’re changing their minds in this fashion recently. Since last month alone, a new round of impending creative changes on Titans, The Flash, Batman and the Outsiders, Robin, Supergirl and Green Arrow/Black Canary have been confirmed, and there are rumors that Legion of Super-Heroes is in for a new writer as well - all titles which had been manned with new creative personnel only recently.
Now, for all I know, there may be a good reason for this type of management. But surely, they’re aware that things look beyond ridiculous at this stage, right? For that matter, this doesn’t seem like a particularly comfortable environment for creators to work in, either.
Whatever’s going on at DC right now, it doesn’t inspire much confidence that they know what they’re doing.
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37 - ACTION COMICS ANNUAL 10/2006: Action Comics #844 — 78,869 [88,290] 11/2006: Action Comics #845 — 66,742 (-15.4%) [71,135] 02/2007: Action Comics #846 — 64,554 (- 3.3%) [66,349] 07/2007: Action Comics #851 — 76,500 (+18.5%) 05/2008: Annual #11 — 54,322 (-29.0%)
The conclusion to the “Last Son” arc by writers Geoff Johns and Richard Donner and artist Adam Kubert finally stumbled into stores in May, more than a year after its original due date and three months late according to even the most recent solicitation. As the previous chapters in the storyline, it was promoted with a 1-for-10 variant cover edition.
The sales comparison is with those earlier chapters, so the book is proof positive that yes, delays can hurt the numbers. To be fair, though, it’s grown into a 64-page book, and it still outsells the mother title.
Quite what sent this book so spectacularly off the rails, we’re left to guess.
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40 - SUPERMAN/BATMAN 05/2004: Superman/Batman #10 — 178,865 [197,704] 05/2005: – 05/2006: Superman/Batman #25 — 103,702 [110,845] 05/2006: Superman/Batman #26 — 118,821 [130,077] ————————————— 05/2007: Superman/Batman #35 — 68,160 (- 4.4%) 06/2007: Superman/Batman #36 — 65,866 (- 3.4%) 06/2007: Superman/Batman #37 — 72,635 (+10.3%) 07/2007: Superman/Batman #38 — 67,695 (- 6.8%) 08/2007: Superman/Batman #39 — 59,622 (-11.9%) 09/2007: Superman/Batman #40 — 57,410 (- 3.7%) 10/2007: Superman/Batman #41 — 54,928 (- 4.3%) 11/2007: Superman/Batman #42 — 54,341 (- 1.1%) 11/2007: Superman/Batman #43 — 53,489 (- 1.6%) 12/2007: Superman/Batman #44 — 53,057 (- 0.8%) 01/2008: Superman/Batman #45 — 52,119 (- 1.8%) 02/2008: Superman/Batman #46 — 52,009 (- 0.2%) 03/2008: – 04/2008: Superman/Batman #47 — 52,557 (+ 1.1%) 05/2008: Superman/Batman #48 — 52,845 (+ 0.6%) —————- 6 months: - 2.0% 1 year : -22.5% 2 years : -52.5%
Things are starting to look better for Superman/Batman after its two-year free-fall: Over the last six months, sales have stabilized in the 52/53K area, and the latest storyline by writers Michael Green and Mike Johnson and artist Shane Davis is even seeing a paper-thin sales increase. They must be doing something right.
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44 - DETECTIVE COMICS 05/2001: Detective Comics #758 — 38,373* 05/2002: Detective Comics #770 — 49,339* 05/2003: Detective Comics #782 — 38,443 05/2004: Detective Comics #794 — 34,875 05/2005: Detective Comics #806 — 38,838 05/2006: Detective Comics #819 — 65,800 —————————————- 05/2007: Detective Comics #832 — 51,727 (- 8.1%) 06/2007: Detective Comics #833 — 54,104 (+ 4.6%) 07/2007: Detective Comics #834 — 53,461 (- 1.2%) 08/2007: Detective Comics #835 — 50,479 (- 5.6%) 09/2007: Detective Comics #836 — 49,475 (- 2.0%) 10/2007: Detective Comics #837 — 51,363 (+ 3.8%) 11/2007: Detective Comics #838 — 60,267 (+17.3%) [65,293] 12/2007: Detective Comics #839 — 62,297 (+ 3.4%) [65,773] 01/2008: Detective Comics #840 — 51,579 (-17.2%) 02/2008: Detective Comics #841 — 50,535 (- 2.0%) 03/2008: Detective Comics #842 — 49,425 (- 2.2%) 04/2008: Detective Comics #843 — 48,431 (- 2.0%) 05/2008: Detective Comics #844 — 48,394 (- 0.1%) —————- 6 months: -19.7% 1 year : - 6.4% 2 years : -26.5% 5 years : +25.9%
The numbers appear to be levelling out again at 48,000. A “Batman RIP” spin-off arc is around the corner.
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46 - GREEN LANTERN CORPS 05/2007: Green Lantern Corps #12 — 33,267 (- 0.7%) 06/2007: Green Lantern Corps #13 — 32,792 (- 1.4%) 07/2007: Green Lantern Corps #14 — 45,393 (+38.4%) [61,493] 08/2007: Green Lantern Corps #15 — 51,572 (+13.2%) [57,751] 09/2007: – 10/2007: Green Lantern Corps #16 — 60,862 (+18.0%) 10/2007: Green Lantern Corps #17 — 59,223 (- 2.7%) 11/2007: Green Lantern Corps #18 — 55,838 (- 5.7%) [59,049] 12/2007: Green Lantern Corps #19 — 50,516 (- 9.5%) 01/2008: Green Lantern Corps #20 — 44,607 (-11.7%) [48,577] 02/2008: Green Lantern Corps #21 — 47,582 (+ 6.7%) 03/2008: Green Lantern Corps #22 — 46,736 (- 1.8%) 04/2008: Green Lantern Corps #23 — 46,780 (+ 0.1%) 05/2008: Green Lantern Corps #24 — 46,948 (+ 0.4%) —————- 6 months: -15.9% 1 year : +41.1%
Sales remain rock-solid at 47K, and the next crossover with the mother title is appearing on the horizon, so there should be good vibrations all around this title.
The extent to which both Green Lantern books are still profiting from last year’s “Sinestro Corps War” story, once again, is remarkable. Usually, sales tend to drop right back to their previous level once a crossover is done, but in the case of Green Lantern Corps, they remain a whopping 14,000 units ahead of it.
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47 - ACTION COMICS 05/2001: Action Comics #779 — 35,380* 05/2002: Action Comics #791 — 32,836* 05/2003: Action Comics #803 — 32,118 05/2004: Action Comics #815 — 49,483 05/2005: Action Comics #827 — 44,009 05/2006: Action Comics #838 — 62,702 05/2006: Action Comics #839 — 61,898 [64,278] ————————————- 05/2007: Action Comics #849 — 53,610 (-13.8%) 05/2007: Action Comics #850 — 56,166 (+ 4.8%) 06/2007: – 07/2007: Action Comics #851 — 76,500 (+36.2%) 07/2007: Action Comics #852 — 50,294 (-34.3%) 08/2007: Action Comics #853 — 49,694 (- 1.2%) 08/2007: Action Comics #854 — 48,455 (- 2.5%) 08/2007: Action Comics #855 — 55,536 (+14.6%) 09/2007: – 10/2007: Action Comics #856 — 53,815 (- 3.1%) 10/2007: Action Comics #857 — 51,401 (- 4.5%) 10/2007: Action Comics #858 — 54,596 (+ 6.2%) [59,031] 11/2007: Action Comics #859 — 54,572 (- 0.0%) 12/2007: Action Comics #860 — 56,254 (+ 3.1%) 01/2008: Action Comics #861 — 56,093 (- 0.3%) 02/2008: Action Comics #862 — 55,658 (- 0.8%) 03/2008: – 04/2008: Action Comics #863 — 56,882 (+ 2.2%) 04/2008: Action Comics #864 — 48,438 (-14.9%) 05/2008: Action Comics #865 — 46,764 (- 3.5%) —————- 6 months: -14.3% 1 year : -14.8% 2 years : -24.9% 5 years : +45.6%
Now that there are no more variant-cover editions, the book is still looking for a new sales level.
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48 - TEEN TITANS 05/2001: Young Justice #33 — 24,580* 05/2002: Young Justice #45 — 25,176* 05/2004: Teen Titans #11 — 67,813 05/2005: Teen Titans #24 — 69,046 05/2006: Teen Titans #35 — 72,954 05/2006: Teen Titans #36 — 71,486 ———————————— 05/2007: Teen Titans #46 — 61,478 (+ 0.7%) 05/2007: Teen Titans #47 — 63,673 (+ 3.6%) 06/2007: Teen Titans #48 — 60,786 (- 4.5%) 07/2007: Teen Titans #49 — 59,258 (- 2.5%) 08/2007: Teen Titans #50 — 69,620 (+17.5%) 09/2007: Teen Titans #51 — 57,851 (-16.9%) 10/2007: Teen Titans #52 — 55,176 (- 4.6%) 11/2007: Teen Titans #53 — 54,387 (- 1.4%) 12/2007: Teen Titans #54 — 53,790 (- 1.1%) 01/2008: Teen Titans #55 — 52,376 (- 2.6%) 02/2008: Teen Titans #56 — 50,283 (- 4.0%) 03/2008: Teen Titans #57 — 49,109 (- 2.3%) 04/2008: Teen Titans #58 — 47,357 (- 3.6%) 05/2008: Teen Titans #59 — 46,306 (- 2.2%) —————- 6 months: -14.9% 1 year : -26.0% 2 years : -35.9%
The numbers continue their downward slide. The Terror Titans spin-off that was announced for September is absent from the publisher’s preview adverts for that month, meanwhile.
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49 - SUPERMAN 05/2001: Superman #170 — 41,302* 05/2002: Superman #182 — 38,327* 05/2003: Superman #193 — 34,927 [ 36,599] 05/2004: Superman #205 — 208,105 [213,514] 05/2005: Superman #216 — 70,205 05/2005: Superman #217 — 65,321 05/2006: Superman #652 — 70,458 ——————————— 05/2007: Superman #662 — 55,236 (- 0.9%) 06/2007: Superman #663 — 53,384 (- 3.4%) 07/2007: Superman #664 — 52,313 (- 2.0%) 07/2007: Superman #665 — 51,936 (- 0.7%) 08/2007: Superman #666 — 53,566 (+ 3.1%) 09/2007: Superman #667 — 48,608 (- 9.3%) 10/2007: Superman #668 — 47,948 (- 1.4%) 10/2007: Superman #669 — 47,271 (- 1.4%) 11/2007: Superman #670 — 48,407 (+ 2.4%) 12/2007: Superman #671 — 45,290 (- 6.4%) 01/2008: Superman #672 — 44,656 (- 1.4%) 02/2008: Superman #673 — 41,580 (- 6.9%) 03/2008: Superman #674 — 41,715 (+ 0.3%) 04/2008: Superman #675 — 54,855 (+31.5%) 05/2008: Superman #676 — 45,644 (-16.8%) —————- 6 months: - 5.7% 1 year : -17.4% 2 years : -35.2% 5 years : +30.7%
Superman sales remain puzzlingly erratic after writer Kurt Busiek’s departure. The May issue was by a fill-in creative team (a different one than initially solicited, by the way), so it’s not surprising that sales went down from April’s “anniversary” number. What’s odd is that it still outsells the last bunch of Busiek issues leading up to #675 quite noticeably.
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55 - WONDER WOMAN 05/2001: Wonder Woman #170 — 28,032* 05/2002: Wonder Woman #181 — 26,048* 05/2003: Wonder Woman #192 — 25,994 05/2004: Wonder Woman #204 — 30,377 05/2005: Wonder Woman #216 — 31,601 ————————————- 05/2007: Wonder Woman #9 — 58,561 (- 0.4%) 06/2007: Wonder Woman #10 — 54,472 (- 7.0%) 07/2007: Wonder Woman #11 — 52,983 (- 2.7%) 08/2007: Wonder Woman #12 — 50,880 (- 4.0%) 09/2007: – 10/2007: Wonder Woman #13 — 48,385 (- 4.9%) 11/2007: Wonder Woman #14 — 53,090 (+ 9.7%) 12/2007: Wonder Woman #15 — 44,628 (-15.9%) 01/2008: Wonder Woman #16 — 42,897 (- 3.9%) 02/2008: Wonder Woman #17 — 41,948 (- 2.2%) 03/2008: Wonder Woman #18 — 40,771 (- 2.8%) 04/2008: Wonder Woman #19 — 39,489 (- 3.1%) 05/2008: Wonder Woman #20 — 38,116 (- 3.5%) —————- 6 months: -28.2% 1 year : -34.9% 2 years : n.a. 5 years : +46.6%
Apparently there’s a major storyline coming up in the book that’s meant to raise its profile again, but it’s still several months off. In the meantime, Wonder Woman keeps shedding more than 1,000 units per month. Obviously, this isn’t an ideal situation.
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57 - RANN/THANAGAR: HOLY WAR 05/2008: Holy War #1 of 8 — 37,179
This is the latest superheroes-in-space vehicle for writer Jim Starlin and artist Ron Lim. The first issue is promoted with a 1-for-10 variant-cover edition, and sales are about as good as you could expect for this sort of thing.
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63 - THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD 05/2007: – 06/2007: The Brave and the Bold #4 — 55,597 (- 6.1%) 07/2007: The Brave and the Bold #5 — 54,047 (- 2.8%) 08/2007: The Brave and the Bold #6 — 52,011 (- 3.8%) 09/2007: – 10/2007: The Brave and the Bold #7 — 48,693 (- 6.4%) 11/2007: The Brave and the Bold #8 — 45,629 (- 6.3%) 12/2007: The Brave and the Bold #9 — 43,475 (- 4.7%) 01/2008: – 02/2008: The Brave and the Bold #10 — 39,124 (-10.0%) 03/2008: The Brave and the Bold #11 — 37,751 (- 3.5%) 04/2008: The Brave and the Bold #12 — 37,739 (- 0.0%) 05/2008: The Brave and the Bold #13 — 35,814 (- 5.1%) —————- 6 months: -21.5% 1 year : n.a.
Back in decline.
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65 - BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS 05/2004: Outsiders #12 — 43,432 05/2005: Outsiders #23 — 40,617 05/2005: Outsiders #24 — 51,313 [54,734] 05/2006: Outsiders #36 — 45,705 ———————————— 05/2007: Outsiders #47 — 33,267 (+ 2.1%) 06/2007: Outsiders #48 — 32,966 (- 0.9%) 07/2007: Outsiders #49 — 33,110 (+ 0.4%) 08/2007: FoaK #1 of 5 — 36,565 (+10.4%) 08/2007: FoaK #2 of 5 — 35,087 (- 4.0%) 08/2007: FoaK #3 of 5 — 34,702 (- 1.1%) 08/2007: FoaK #4 of 5 — 34,125 (- 1.7%) 08/2007: FoaK #5 of 5 — 33,694 (- 1.3%) 09/2007: Outsiders #50 — 38,212 (+13.4%) 10/2007: – 11/2007: Bat Outsiders #1 — 60,690 (+58.8%) 11/2007: Bat Outsiders #2 — 42,827 (-29.4%) 12/2007: Bat Outsiders #3 — 40,371 (- 5.7%) 01/2008: – 02/2008: Bat Outsiders #4 — 37,903 (- 6.1%) 03/2008: Bat Outsiders #5 — 36,797 (- 2.9%) 04/2008: Bat Outsiders #6 — 36,551 (- 0.7%) 05/2008: Bat Outsiders #7 — 35,071 (- 4.1%) —————- 6 months: -32.2% 1 year : + 5.4% 2 years : -23.3%
This drop is a little harsher than it should be, at this stage.
But it’s all moot, of course, because DC just sacked the book’s creative team again. It’s the very same team, we recall, that started over from scratch when the first two issues of the book had already been solicited and were meant to be produced by yet another creative team, which had ended up being sacked at the last minute.
What on Earth are they thinking?
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66 - BOOSTER GOLD 08/2007: Booster Gold #1 — 53,689 [57,811] 09/2007: Booster Gold #2 — 47,102 (-12.3%) 10/2007: Booster Gold #3 — 39,374 (-16.4%) 11/2007: Booster Gold #4 — 37,683 (- 4.3%) 12/2007: Booster Gold #5 — 38,228 (+ 1.5%) 01/2008: Booster Gold #6 — 36,292 (- 5.1%) 02/2008: Booster Gold #0 — 37,808 (+ 4.2%) 03/2008: Booster Gold #7 — 36,140 (- 4.4%) 04/2008: Booster Gold #8 — 35,982 (- 0.4%) 05/2008: Booster Gold #9 — 35,030 (- 2.7%) —————- 6 months: - 7.0%
That’s an uncharacteristically large drop, but as the six-month comparison shows, Booster Gold is still holding up nicely, overall.
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69 - THE FLASH 05/2001: Flash #174 — 26,841* 05/2002: Flash #186 — 27,952* 05/2003: Flash #198 — 31,210 [ 33,152] 05/2004: Flash #210 — 45,354 [ 47,723] 05/2005: Flash #222 — 47,528 ———————————- 05/2007: Flash: FMA #12 — 47,809 (+ 1.8%) 06/2007: Flash: FMA #13 — 76,860 (+ 60.8%) [82,767] 07/2007: All Flash #1 — 78,955 (+ 2.7%) 08/2007: Flash #231 — 72,898 (- 7.7%) 09/2007: Flash #232 — 56,969 (- 21.9%) 10/2007: Flash #233 — 51,152 (- 10.2%) 11/2007: Flash #234 — 46,435 (- 9.2%) 12/2007: Flash #235 — 43,788 (- 5.7%) 01/2008: Flash #236 — 41,464 (- 5.3%) 02/2008: Flash #237 — 37,719 (- 9.0%) 03/2008: Flash #238 — 35,606 (- 5.6%) 04/2008: Flash #239 — 33,741 (- 5.2%) 05/2008: Flash #240 — 31,944 (- 5.3%) —————- 6 months: -31.2% 1 year : -33.2% 2 years : n.a. 5 years : + 2.4%
Down it goes, as usual. The current creative team’s final issue will be #243, so apparently DC have given up on the notion of a regular writer and artist on The Flash. If the book’s sales decline continues at this rate, it will be in cancellation territory six months from now.
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70 - GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY 05/2001: Green Arrow #4 — 79,756* 05/2002: Green Arrow #15 — 69,356* 05/2003: Green Arrow #25 — 52,535 05/2003: Green Arrow #26 — 50,475 05/2004: Green Arrow #38 — 34,037 05/2005: Green Arrow #50 — 34,886 05/2006: Green Arrow #62 — 39,185 ———————————– 05/2007: Green Arrow #74 — 30,751 (+ 0.3%) 06/2007: Green Arrow #75 — 35,022 (+13.9%) 07/2007: Year One #1 of 6 — 37,090 (+ 5.9%) 07/2007: Year One #2 of 6 — 32,222 (-13.1%) [34,962] 08/2007: Year One #3 of 6 — 32,971 (+ 2.3%) 08/2007: Year One #4 of 6 — 31,885 (- 3.3%) 09/2007: Year One #5 of 6 — 31,504 (- 1.2%) 10/2007: Year One #6 of 6 — 30,943 (- 1.8%) 10/2007: Arrow/Canary #1 — 52,183 (+68.6%) 11/2007: Arrow/Canary #2 — 42,827 (-17.9%) 12/2007: Arrow/Canary #3 — 40,321 (- 5.9%) 01/2008: Arrow/Canary #4 — 35,039 (-13.1%) 02/2008: Arrow/Canary #5 — 36,662 (+ 4.6%) 03/2008: Arrow/Canary #6 — 32,621 (-11.0%) 04/2008: Arrow/Canary #7 — 32,033 (- 1.8%) 05/2008: Arrow/Canary #8 — 30,864 (- 3.7%) —————- 6 months: -27.9% 1 year : + 0.4% 2 years : -21.2% 5 years : -38.9%
The numbers are right back where they were a year ago, so the relaunch can’t be rated as much of a success. Apparently, Green Arrow/Black Canary is another book headed for a creative change.
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74 - SUPERGIRL 05/2001: Supergirl #58 — 20,376* 05/2002: Supergirl #70 — 19,156* 05/2006: Supergirl #6 — 102,860 ——————————— 05/2007: Supergirl #17 — 50,429 (- 2.4%) 06/2007: Supergirl #18 — 50,279 (- 0.3%) 07/2007: Supergirl #19 — 48,576 (- 3.4%) 08/2007: Supergirl #20 — 46,862 (- 3.5%) 09/2007: Supergirl #21 — 44,656 (- 4.7%) 10/2007: Supergirl #22 — 41,758 (- 6.5%) 11/2007: Supergirl #23 — 45,460 (+ 8.9%) 12/2007: Supergirl #24 — 37,922 (-16.6%) 01/2008: Supergirl #25 — 36,459 (- 3.9%) 02/2008: Supergirl #26 — 34,186 (- 6.2%) 03/2008: Supergirl #27 — 32,596 (- 4.7%) 04/2008: Supergirl #28 — 31,379 (- 3.7%) 05/2008: Supergirl #29 — 30,192 (- 3.8%) —————- 6 months: -33.6% 1 year : -40.1% 2 years : -70.7%
Supergirl sales keep dropping at an alarming rate. Yet another “regular” new creative team (the sixth one to date, if you’re keeping count) has been announced, meanwhile.
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78 - BATMAN: GOTHAM AFTER MIDNIGHT 05/2008: Gotham After Midnight #1 of 12 — 29,570
The new maxiseries by writer Steve Niles and artist Kelley Jones debuts with the usual level for this type of book. Which means retailers expect this to be one for the completists.
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79 - NIGHTWING 05/2001: Nightwing #57 — 35,400* 05/2002: Nightwing #69 — 43,916* 05/2003: Nightwing #81 — 29,942 05/2004: Nightwing #93 — 30,816 05/2005: Nightwing #108 — 37,019 05/2006: Nightwing #120 — 46,076 ——————————— 05/2007: Nightwing #132 — 30,807 (- 2.3%) 06/2007: Nightwing #133 — 30,623 (- 0.6%) 07/2007: Nightwing #134 — 30,228 (- 1.3%) 08/2007: Nightwing #135 — 29,923 (- 1.0%) 09/2007: Nightwing #136 — 29,256 (- 2.2%) 10/2007: Nightwing #137 — 28,363 (- 3.1%) 11/2007: Nightwing #138 — 46,757 (+64.9%) [52,282] 12/2007: Nightwing #139 — 49,291 (+ 5.4%) [52,607] 01/2008: Nightwing #140 — 32,305 (-34.5%) 02/2008: Nightwing #141 — 30,980 (- 4.1%) 03/2008: Nightwing #142 — 30,253 (- 2.4%) 04/2008: Nightwing #143 — 29,914 (- 1.1%) 05/2008: Nightwing #144 — 29,367 (- 1.8%) —————- 6 months: -37.2% 1 year : - 4.7% 2 years : -36.3% 5 years : - 1.9%
The book is back in an average decline and keeps selling within its usual range.
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84 - THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 05/2001: Legion Worlds #2 — 20,570* 05/2002: Legion #8 — 24,771* 05/2003: Legion #20 — 23,184 05/2004: Legion #33 — 24,865 05/2005: Legion of SH #6 — 40,970 05/2006: Supergirl & LoSH #18 — 45,520 ————————————— 05/2007: Supergirl & LoSH #30 — 30,767 (- 0.5%) 06/2007: Supergirl & LoSH #31 — 30,385 (- 1.2%) 07/2007: Supergirl & LoSH #32 — 29,826 (- 1.8%) 08/2007: Supergirl & LoSH #33 — 29,315 (- 1.7%) 09/2007: Supergirl & LoSH #34 — 28,294 (- 3.5%) 10/2007: Supergirl & LoSH #35 — 27,370 (- 3.3%) 11/2007: Supergirl & LoSH #36 — 26,814 (- 2.0%) 12/2007: Legion of SH #37 — 45,803 (+70.8%) 01/2008: Legion of SH #38 — 33,045 (-27.9%) 02/2008: Legion of SH #39 — 31,123 (- 5.8%) 03/2008: Legion of SH #40 — 30,377 (- 2.4%) 04/2008: Legion of SH #41 — 28,939 (- 4.7%) 05/2008: Legion of SH #42 — 27,940 (- 3.5%) —————- 6 months: + 4.2% 1 year : - 9.2% 2 years : -38.6% 5 years : +20.5%
Sales keep declining briskly. Wherever the initial vote for confidence in the book’s new creative team came from back in December, it didn’t last long. On the other hand, Legion of Super-Heroes numbers are still well within their historically established spectrum, of course.
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87 - HOUSE OF MYSTERY (Vertigo) 05/2008: House of Mystery #1 — 27,492
Look! It’s a Vertigo book debuting with sales above 20K!
As expected, a more traditional title and subject matter, coupled with cowriter Bill Willingham’s name and a 1-for-10 variant-cover edition, result in Vertigo’s bestselling launch of an ongoing series in quite some time - since July 2004, in fact, when Books of Magick: Life During Wartime debuted with estimated first-month sales of 27,748.
Of course, that’s no guarantee of long-term success, as the aforementioned Books of Magick serves to instruct. Like House of Mystery, it was a new take on an existing concept. And like House of Mystery, it had a co-writer with an established name for the first few issues (Neil Gaiman, in this case). However, it still didn’t last past issue #15.
The trick, therefore, is not to decline too steeply when Willingham’s name and variant-cover editions (which Books of Magick didn’t have) are no longer a factor.
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90 - ROBIN 05/2001: Robin #90 — 26,889* 05/2002: Robin #102 — 27,620* 05/2003: Robin #114 — 22,593 05/2004: Robin #126 — 49,083 [53,750] 05/2005: Robin #138 — 29,935 05/2006: Robin #150 — 41,417 —————————– 05/2007: Robin #162 — 26,801 (- 1.4%) 06/2007: Robin #163 — 26,284 (- 1.9%) 07/2007: Robin #164 — 25,955 (- 1.3%) 08/2007: Robin #165 — 25,397 (- 2.2%) 09/2007: Robin #166 — 24,877 (- 2.1%) 10/2007: Robin #167 — 24,625 (- 1.0%) 11/2007: Robin #168 — 50,672 (+105.8%) [57,442] 12/2007: Robin #169 — 48,665 (- 4.0%) [51,441] 01/2008: Robin #170 — 30,048 (- 38.3%) 02/2008: Robin #171 — 27,781 (- 7.6%) 03/2008: Robin #172 — 26,912 (- 3.1%) 04/2008: Robin #173 — 26,357 (- 2.1%) 05/2008: Robin #174 — 26,209 (- 0.6%) —————- 6 months: -48.3% 1 year : - 2.2% 2 years : -36.7% 5 years : +16.0%
Sales are bottoming out. New writer Chuck Dixon, who took over four months ago, is off the book again, meanwhile.
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93 - BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL 05/2007: – 06/2007: Batman Confidential #6 — 33,480 (- 7.6%) 07/2007: Batman Confidential #7 — 32,272 (- 3.6%) 08/2007: Batman Confidential #8 — 30,077 (- 6.8%) 09/2007: Batman Confidential #9 — 28,845 (- 4.1%) 10/2007: Batman Confidential #10 — 28,724 (- 0.5%) 11/2007: Batman Confidential #11 — 27,397 (- 4.6%) 12/2007: – 01/2008: – 02/2008: Batman Confidential #12 — 27,208 (- 0.7%) 02/2008: Batman Confidential #13 — 25,735 (- 5.4%) 03/2008: Batman Confidential #14 — 25,330 (- 1.6%) 03/2008: Batman Confidential #15 — 24,283 (- 4.1%) 04/2008: Batman Confidential #16 — 24,038 (- 1.0%) 05/2008: Batman Confidential #17 — 25,017 (+ 4.1%) —————- 6 months: - 8.7% 1 year : n.a.
A new Batgirl/Catwoman five-parter by Fabian Nicieza and Kevin Maguire brings a slight increase.
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94 - DC/WILDSTORM: DREAMWAR 04/2008: Dreamwar #1 of 6 — 34,794 05/2008: Dreamwar #2 of 6 — 24,732 (-28.9%)
There was no 1-for-10 variant-cover edition for issue #2, hence the sharp drop.
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95 - WORLD OF WARCRAFT (WildStorm) 11/2007: World of WarCraft #1 — 44,508 [49,271] 12/2007: World of WarCraft #2 — 32,740 (-34.9%) [36,340] 01/2008: World of WarCraft #3 — 31,183 (- 4.8%) 02/2008: World of WarCraft #4 — 28,982 (- 7.1%) 03/2008: World of WarCraft #5 — 27,159 (- 9.4%) 04/2008: World of WarCraft #6 — 26,271 (- 3.3%) 05/2008: World of WarCraft #7 — 24,589 (- 6.4%) —————- 6 months: -44.8%
Despite the stiff decline, a spin-off title is set to debut in September. As usual, there was a 50/50 variant-cover edition to boost the numbers.
Of course, World of WarCraft is still WildStorm’s bestselling title by 12,000 units, which may explain why there are more licensed books on the way.
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97 - FINAL CRISIS SKETCHBOOK 05/2008: Final Crisis Sketchbook — 23,805
Given that this seems to be the type of material audiences have been trained to expect for free recently, that’s an astonishingly good number.
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98 - FABLES (Vertigo) 05/2002: Fables #1 — 22,026* 05/2003: Fables #13 — 25,158 05/2004: Fables #25 — 25,526 05/2005: Fables #37 — 24,477 05/2006: Fables #49 — 24,444 —————————– 05/2007: Fables #61 — 26,056 (+0.0%) 06/2007: Fables #62 — 25,726 (-1.3%) 07/2007: Fables #63 — 25,603 (-0.5%) 08/2007: Fables #64 — 25,498 (-0.4%) 09/2007: Fables #65 — 25,311 (-0.7%) 10/2007: Fables #66 — 25,016 (-1.2%) 11/2007: Fables #67 — 24,841 (-0.7%) 12/2007: Fables #68 — 24,574 (-1.1%) 01/2008: – 02/2008: Fables #69 — 24,337 (-1.0%) 02/2008: Fables #70 — 23,975 (-1.5%) 03/2008: Fables #71 — 24,006 (+0.1%) 04/2008: Fables #72 — 23,853 (-0.6%) 05/2008: Fables #73 — 23,785 (-0.3%) —————- 6 months: - 4.3% 1 year : - 8.7% 2 years : - 2.7% 5 years : - 5.5%
Holding level at 24K.
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102 - GOTHAM UNDERGROUND 10/2007: Gotham Underground #1 of 9 — 31,003 11/2007: Gotham Underground #2 of 9 — 26,537 (-14.4%) 12/2007: Gotham Underground #3 of 9 — 25,386 (- 4.3%) 01/2008: Gotham Underground #4 of 9 — 24,737 (- 2.6%) 02/2008: Gotham Underground #5 of 9 — 24,098 (- 2.6%) 03/2008: Gotham Underground #6 of 9 — 23,773 (- 1.4%) 04/2008: Gotham Underground #7 of 9 — 23,525 (- 1.0%) 05/2008: Gotham Underground #8 of 9 — 22,959 (- 2.4%) —————- 6 months: -13.5%
This one keeps doing alright, considering that being a Countdown spin-off doesn’t seem to have helped it.
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103 - TANGENT: SUPERMAN’S REIGN 03/2008: Tangent #1 of 12 — 32,378 04/2008: Tangent #2 of 12 — 25,652 (-20.8%) 05/2008: Tangent #3 of 12 — 22,858 (-14.2%)
That’s a large drop for a third issue. I suppose people aren’t easy to win over for projects with no effect on the status quo.
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108 - BIRDS OF PREY 05/2001: Birds of Prey #31 — 23,977* 05/2002: Birds of Prey #43 — 38,882* 05/2003: Birds of Prey #55 — 23,227 05/2004: Birds of Prey #67 — 31,846 05/2005: Birds of Prey #82 — 29,855 05/2006: Birds of Prey #94 — 34,905 ————————————- 05/2007: Birds of Prey #106 — 28,363 (+ 0.1%) 06/2007: Birds of Prey #107 — 28,632 (+ 1.0%) 07/2007: Birds of Prey #108 — 28,025 (- 2.1%) 08/2007: Birds of Prey #109 — 28,268 (+ 0.9%) 09/2007: Birds of Prey #110 — 27,148 (- 4.0%) 10/2007: Birds of Prey #111 — 26,400 (- 2.8%) 11/2007: Birds of Prey #112 — 25,117 (- 4.9%) 12/2007: Birds of Prey #113 — 24,717 (- 1.6%) 01/2008: Birds of Prey #114 — 24,211 (- 2.1%) 02/2008: Birds of Prey #115 — 23,157 (- 4.4%) 03/2008: Birds of Prey #116 — 22,627 (- 2.3%) 04/2008: Birds of Prey #117 — 22,181 (- 2.0%) 05/2008: Birds of Prey #118 — 21,941 (- 1.1%) —————- 6 months: -12.7% 1 year : -22.6% 2 years : -37.1% 5 years : - 5.5%
Former fill-in writer Tony Bedard took over as the regular writer in May, when supposedly regular writer Sean McKeever left after five issues. Predictably, the effects of the latest creative change are minimal.
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110/117 - HUNTRESS: YEAR ONE 05/2008: Huntress: Year One #1 of 6 — 21,279 05/2008: Huntress: Year One #2 of 6 — 19,089 (-10.3%)
These numbers are about as expected for a limited series starring a third-stringer character thrown out there without promotion. Usually, shipping the first two issues in the same month just postpones the typical second-issue drop until #3, so the book’s future prospects aren’t great, either.
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113/115 - COUNTDOWN TO MYSTERY 09/2007: Countdown to Mystery #1 of 8 — 37,235 10/2007: Countdown to Mystery #2 of 8 — 29,664 (-20.3%) 11/2007: Countdown to Mystery #3 of 8 — 27,428 (- 7.5%) 12/2007: – 01/2008: Countdown to Mystery #4 of 8 — 25,782 (- 6.0%) 01/2008: Countdown to Mystery #5 of 8 — 22,979 (-10.9%) 02/2008: – 03/2008: Countdown to Mystery #6 of 8 — 21,648 (- 5.8%) 04/2008: – 05/2008: Countdown to Mystery #7 of 8 — 20,637 (- 4.7%) 05/2008: Countdown to Mystery #8 of 8 — 20,199 (- 2.1%) —————- 6 months: -25.6%
Well, at least it finishes above 20,000.
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118 - DC SPECIAL: CYBORG 05/2008: Cyborg #1 of 5 — 18,783
DC Special: Cyborg #1 is about 6,000 units down from DC Special: Raven #1. To the surprise of absolutely no one, the popularity of Teen Titans spin-off limited series doesn’t seem to be increasing along with their number.
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120 - THE WAR THAT TIME FORGOT 05/2008: The War That Time Forgot #1 of 8 — 18,243
Another limited series demanded by nobody in particular, judging from the numbers. According to the description, it seems to be a fantasy/science fiction book, so it’s an odd fit for the DC Universe line.
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121 - CATWOMAN 05/2001: Catwoman #94 — 24,094* 05/2002: Catwoman #7 — 31,357* 05/2003: Catwoman #19 — 23,732 05/2004: Catwoman #31 — 24,250 05/2005: Catwoman #43 — 20,818 05/2006: Catwoman #55 — 30,184 ——————————- 05/2007: Catwoman #67 — 19,926 (+ 0.2%) 06/2007: Catwoman #68 — 20,132 (+ 1.0%) 07/2007: Catwoman #69 — 19,387 (- 3.7%) 08/2007: Catwoman #70 — 20,518 (+ 5.8%) 09/2007: Catwoman #71 — 19,492 (- 5.0%) 10/2007: Catwoman #72 — 19,473 (- 0.1%) 11/2007: Catwoman #73 — 18,815 (- 3.4%) 12/2007: Catwoman #74 — 18,623 (- 1.0%) 01/2008: Catwoman #75 — 21,580 (+15.9%) 02/2008: Catwoman #76 — 18,798 (-12.9%) 03/2008: Catwoman #77 — 18,609 (- 1.0%) 04/2008: Catwoman #78 — 18,553 (- 0.3%) 05/2008: Catwoman #79 — 17,999 (- 3.0%) —————- 6 months: - 4.3% 1 year : - 9.7% 2 years : -40.4% 5 years : -24.2%
Cancelled with issue #82.
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127 - BATMAN: DEATH MASK 04/2008: Batman: Death Mask #1 of 4 — 20,217 05/2008: Batman: Death Mask #2 of 4 — 15,901 (-21.4%)
That’s a terrible drop for a four-issue series, but there’s probably more mileage to be had in the book market with this sort of thing.
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130 - JSA: CLASSIFIED 05/2006: JSA: Classified #12 — 37,446 ————————————– 05/2007: JSA: Classified #26 — 21,569 (- 2.2%) 06/2007: JSA: Classified #27 — 21,295 (- 1.3%) 07/2007: JSA: Classified #28 — 20,736 (- 2.6%) 08/2007: JSA: Classified #29 — 20,195 (- 2.6%) 09/2007: JSA: Classified #30 — 19,382 (- 4.0%) 10/2007: JSA: Classified #31 — 18,585 (- 4.1%) 11/2007: JSA: Classified #32 — 17,756 (- 4.5%) 12/2007: JSA: Classified #33 — 17,413 (- 1.9%) 01/2008: JSA: Classified #34 — 16,852 (- 3.2%) 02/2008: JSA: Classified #35 — 16,561 (- 1.7%) 03/2008: JSA: Classified #36 — 16,132 (- 2.6%) 04/2008: JSA: Classified #37 — 15,736 (- 2.5%) 05/2008: JSA: Classified #38 — 15,340 (- 2.5%) —————- 6 months: -13.6% 1 year : -28.9% 2 years : -59.0%
Cancelled with issue #39.
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132 - CHECKMATE 05/2006: Checkmate #2 — 41,773 ——————————– 05/2007: Checkmate #13 — 22,554 (+12.1%) 05/2007: Checkmate #14 — 22,074 (- 2.1%) 06/2007: Checkmate #15 — 22,015 (- 0.3%) 07/2007: Checkmate #16 — 20,225 (- 8.1%) 08/2007: Checkmate #17 — 19,841 (- 1.9%) 09/2007: Checkmate #18 — 18,742 (- 5.5%) 10/2007: Checkmate #19 — 18,096 (- 3.5%) 11/2007: Checkmate #20 — 17,663 (- 2.4%) 12/2007: Checkmate #21 — 17,363 (- 1.7%) 01/2008: Checkmate #22 — 17,087 (- 1.6%) 02/2008: Checkmate #23 — 16,595 (- 2.9%) 03/2008: Checkmate #24 — 16,147 (- 2.7%) 04/2008: Checkmate #25 — 15,857 (- 1.8%) 05/2008: Checkmate #26 — 15,167 (- 4.4%) —————- 6 months: -14.1% 1 year : -32.8% 2 years : -63.7%
The new creative team is welcomed with a bigger-than-usual drop.
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133 - TOR 05/2008: Tor #1 of 6 — 15,147
Joe Kubert revisits one of his signature properties. This one’s aimed at the bookstores, so the low periodical numbers are tolerable for a limited series.
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136 - DC SPECIAL: RAVEN 03/2008: Raven #1 of 5 — 24,535 04/2008: Raven #2 of 5 — 17,962 (-26.8%) 05/2008: Raven #3 of 5 — 14,403 (-19.8%)
Completely off the radar.
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139 - SHADOWPACT 05/2006: Shadowpact #1 — 50,279 ——————————— 05/2007: Shadowpact #13 — 20,335 (- 2.0%) 06/2007: Shadowpact #14 — 19,899 (- 2.1%) 07/2007: Shadowpact #15 — 19,689 (- 1.2%) 08/2007: Shadowpact #16 — 19,410 (- 1.4%) 09/2007: Shadowpact #17 — 18,382 (- 5.3%) 10/2007: Shadowpact #18 — 17,818 (- 3.1%) 11/2007: Shadowpact #19 — 17,103 (- 4.0%) 12/2007: Shadowpact #20 — 16,459 (- 3.8%) 01/2008: Shadowpact #21 — 16,014 (- 2.7%) 02/2008: Shadowpact #22 — 15,292 (- 4.5%) 03/2008: Shadowpact #23 — 14,971 (- 2.1%) 04/2008: Shadowpact #24 — 14,512 (- 3.1%) 05/2008: Shadowpact #25 — 14,118 (- 2.7%) —————- 6 months: -17.5% 1 year : -30.6% 2 years : -71.9%
Axed.
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140 - THE SPIRIT 05/2007: The Spirit #6 — 23,708 (- 0.8%) 06/2007: The Spirit #7 — 22,621 (- 4.6%) 07/2007: The Spirit #8 — 21,984 (- 2.8%) 08/2007: The Spirit #9 — 20,841 (- 5.2%) 09/2007: The Spirit #10 — 19,962 (- 4.2%) 10/2007: – 11/2007: The Spirit #11 — 18,892 (- 5.4%) 12/2007: – 01/2008: The Spirit #12 — 18,894 (+ 0.0%) 01/2008: The Spirit #13 — 17,475 (- 7.5%) 02/2008: The Spirit #14 — 17,277 (- 1.1%) 03/2008: The Spirit #15 — 16,038 (- 7.2%) 04/2008: The Spirit #16 — 14,697 (- 8.4%) 05/2008: The Spirit #17 — 14,057 (- 4.4%) —————- 6 months: -25.6% 1 year : -40.7%
Usual DC Universe standards don’t apply to The Spirit’s performance, since it’s an unofficial WildStorm title. Obviously, though, the numbers aren’t very encouraging at all.
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142 - METAL MEN 08/2007: Metal Men #1 of 8 — 30,454 09/2007: Metal Men #2 of 8 — 23,658 (-22.3%) 10/2007: Metal Men #3 of 8 — 20,571 (-13.1%) 11/2007: Metal Men #4 of 8 — 18,707 (- 9.1%) 12/2007: – 01/2008: Metal Men #5 of 8 — 16,152 (-13.7%) 02/2008: Metal Men #6 of 8 — 15,374 (- 4.8%) 03/2008: – 04/2008: Metal Men #7 of 8 — 14,370 (- 6.5%) 05/2008: Metal Men #8 of 8 — 13,863 (- 3.5%) —————- 6 months: -25.9%
These numbers speak for themselves. On the other hand, Metal Men has gained some attention by virtue of being one of the quirkier projects to come out of DC of late, which has apparently awarded it one of those quick hardcover collections that are usually reserved for projects that are much more popular.
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143 - BLUE BEETLE 05/2006: Blue Beetle #3 — 41,711 ———————————- 05/2007: Blue Beetle #15 — 16,906 (- 1.5%) 06/2007: Blue Beetle #16 — 17,016 (+ 0.7%) 07/2007: Blue Beetle #17 — 16,128 (- 5.2%) 08/2007: Blue Beetle #18 — 19,140 (+18.7%) 09/2007: Blue Beetle #19 — 15,737 (-17.8%) 10/2007: Blue Beetle #20 — 27,611 (+75.5%) 11/2007: Blue Beetle #21 — 15,645 (-43.3%) 12/2007: Blue Beetle #22 — 15,256 (- 2.5%) 01/2008: Blue Beetle #23 — 14,961 (- 1.9%) 02/2008: Blue Beetle #24 — 14,378 (- 3.9%) 03/2008: Blue Beetle #25 — 14,304 (- 0.5%) 04/2008: Blue Beetle #26 — 14,285 (- 0.1%) 05/2008: Blue Beetle #27 — 13,802 (- 3.4%) —————- 6 months: -11.8% 1 year : -18.4% 2 years : -66.9%
After April’s Spanish-language issue was evidently enough of a curiosity to keep sales steady, they’re now back in decline. A new regular writer is set to take over with issue #29, but the numbers certainly give reason to wonder how much time he’s going to have.
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146 - SIMON DARK 10/2007: Simon Dark #1 — 24,256 11/2007: Simon Dark #2 — 18,492 (-23.8%) 12/2007: Simon Dark #3 — 17,391 (- 6.0%) 01/2008: Simon Dark #4 — 16,242 (- 6.6%) 02/2008: Simon Dark #5 — 15,360 (- 5.4%) 03/2008: Simon Dark #6 — 14,684 (- 4.4%) 04/2008: Simon Dark #7 — 13,936 (- 5.1%) 05/2008: Simon Dark #8 — 13,222 (- 5.1%) —————- 6 months: -28.5%
In fairness, Simon Dark seems to be one of those books that have a chance at doing reasonably well in the book market. But the first paperback collection won’t be out until August, and by then it might be too late.
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148 - JONAH HEX 05/2006: Jonah Hex #7 — 21,910 ——————————– 05/2007: Jonah Hex #19 — 16,473 (- 2.4%) 06/2007: Jonah Hex #20 — 16,150 (- 2.0%) 07/2007: Jonah Hex #21 — 15,734 (- 2.6%) 08/2007: Jonah Hex #22 — 15,362 (- 2.4%) 09/2007: Jonah Hex #23 — 15,157 (- 1.4%) 10/2007: Jonah Hex #24 — 14,749 (- 2.7%) 11/2007: Jonah Hex #25 — 14,577 (- 1.2%) 12/2007: Jonah Hex #26 — 14,088 (- 3.5%) 01/2008: Jonah Hex #27 — 13,881 (- 1.5%) 02/2008: Jonah Hex #28 — 13,614 (- 1.9%) 03/2008: Jonah Hex #29 — 13,439 (- 1.3%) 04/2008: Jonah Hex #30 — 13,253 (- 1.4%) 05/2008: Jonah Hex #31 — 13,140 (- 0.9%) —————- 6 months: - 9.9% 1 year : -20.2% 2 years : -40.0%
Sales continue a very slow, very steady decline. In the case of Jonah Hex, a few collections are out, and first-month paperback numbers in the direct market are comparatively okay.
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154 - THE ALL-NEW ATOM 05/2007: The All-New Atom #11 — 16,193 (- 3.3%) 06/2007: The All-New Atom #12 — 16,848 (+ 4.1%) 07/2007: The All-New Atom #13 — 16,982 (+ 0.8%) 08/2007: The All-New Atom #14 — 17,894 (+ 5.4%) 09/2007: The All-New Atom #15 — 17,266 (- 3.5%) 10/2007: The All-New Atom #16 — 16,013 (- 7.3%) 11/2007: The All-New Atom #17 — 15,529 (- 3.0%) 12/2007: The All-New Atom #18 — 14,701 (- 5.3%) 01/2008: The All-New Atom #19 — 13,861 (- 5.7%) 02/2008: The All-New Atom #20 — 13,560 (- 2.2%) 03/2008: The All-New Atom #21 — 13,048 (- 3.8%) 04/2008: The All-New Atom #22 — 12,577 (- 3.6%) 05/2008: The All-New Atom #23 — 12,071 (- 4.0%) —————- 6 months: -22.3% 1 year : -25.5%
Cancelled with issue #25.
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155 - NORTHLANDERS (Vertigo) 12/2007: Northlanders #1 — 19,805 01/2008: Northlanders #2 — 15,945 (-19.5%) 02/2008: Northlanders #3 — 14,699 (- 7.8%) 03/2008: Northlanders #4 — 12,851 (-12.6%) 04/2008: Northlanders #5 — 12,278 (- 4.5%) 05/2008: Northlanders #6 — 12,009 (- 2.2%)
The numbers keep levelling out.
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156 - LOST BOYS: REIGN OF FROGS (WildStorm) 05/2008: Reign of Frogs #1 of 4 — 11,999
Another adaptation of a cult horror film from WildStorm. Sales are better than I’d have expected, admittedly, but still very modest. The $ 3.50 cover price probably didn’t help.
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157 - SUPERNATURAL: RISING SON (WildStorm) 05/2007: Origins #1 — 21,128 06/2007: Origins #2 — 15,955 (-24.5%) 07/2007: Origins #3 — 14,812 (- 7.2%) 08/2007: Origins #4 — 13,915 (- 6.1%) 09/2007: Origins #5 — 13,034 (- 6.3%) 10/2007: Origins #6 — 12,350 (- 5.5%) 11/2007: – 12/2007: – 01/2008: – 02/2008: – 03/2008: – 04/2008: Rising Son #1 of 6 — 16,013 (+29.7%) 05/2008: Rising Son #2 of 6 — 11,846 (-26.0%) —————- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : -43.9%
There was no variant-cover edition for the second issue, so the harsh drop isn’t unexpected. The book seems to continue where it left off last year, as far as sales are concerned.
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158 - HELLBLAZER (Vertigo) 05/2001: Hellblazer #162 — 17,961* 05/2002: Hellblazer #174 — 18,611* 05/2003: Hellblazer #184 — 16,931 05/2004: Hellblazer #196 — 14,954 05/2005: Hellblazer #208 — 15,420 05/2006: Hellblazer #220 — 14,161 ———————————- 05/2007: Hellblazer #232 — 13,164 (+0.2%) 06/2007: Hellblazer #233 — 13,201 (+0.3%) 07/2007: Hellblazer #234 — 13,112 (-0.7%) 08/2007: Hellblazer #234 — 13,214 (+0.8%) 08/2007: Hellblazer #235 — 13,153 (-0.5%) 09/2007: Hellblazer #236 — 12,938 (-1.6%) 10/2007: Hellblazer #237 — 12,703 (-1.8%) 11/2007: Hellblazer #238 — 12,536 (-1.3%) 12/2007: Hellblazer #239 — 12,344 (-1.5%) 01/2008: Hellblazer #240 — 12,213 (-1.1%) 02/2008: Hellblazer #241 — 11,998 (-1.8%) 03/2008: Hellblazer #242 — 11,916 (-0.7%) 04/2008: Hellblazer #243 — 11,958 (+0.4%) 05/2008: Hellblazer #244 — 11,826 (-1.1%) —————- 6 months: - 5.7% 1 year : -10.2% 2 years : -16.5% 5 years : -30.2%
Standard attrition.
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159 - GEN13 (WildStorm) 05/2001: Gen13 #65 — 19,861* 05/2002: Gen13 #77 — 16,244* 05/2003: Gen13 #9 — 16,714 —————————- 05/2007: Gen13 #8 — 19,638 (- 4.5%) 06/2007: Gen13 #9 — 18,644 (- 5.1%) 07/2007: Gen13 #10 — 17,720 (- 5.0%) 08/2007: Gen13 #11 — 16,955 (- 4.3%) 09/2007: Gen13 #12 — 16,112 (- 5.0%) 10/2007: Gen13 #13 — 15,539 (- 3.6%) 11/2007: Gen13 #14 — 14,831 (- 4.6%) 12/2007: Gen13 #15 — 14,330 (- 3.4%) 01/2008: Gen13 #16 — 13,618 (- 5.0%) 02/2008: Gen13 #17 — 12,844 (- 5.7%) 03/2008: Gen13 #18 — 12,396 (- 3.5%) 04/2008: Gen13 #19 — 11,887 (- 4.1%) 05/2008: Gen13 #20 — 11,429 (- 3.9%) —————- 6 months: -22.9% 1 year : -41.8% 5 years : -31.6%
Gen13 is now on hiatus for a couple of months, waiting for the WildStorm Universe to be relaunched again. It’s back in August with a new creative team.
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161 - DC UNIVERSE SPECIAL 10/2007: The Flash — 16,381 11/2007: Jimmy Olsen — 12,106 (-26.1%) 12/2007: The Atom #1 of 2 — 9,404 (-22.3%) 12/2007: The Atom #2 of 2 — 9,005 (- 4.2%) 01/2008: The New Gods — 10,157 (+12.8%) 02/2008: OMAC — 9,447 (- 7.0%) 03/2008: Eclipso — 6,831 (-27.7%) 04/2008: Kamandi — 7,156 (+ 4.8%) 05/2008: Justice League — 11,215 (+56.7%) —————- 6 months: - 7.4%
The reprint series formerly known as Countdown Special continues with a new title. Breaking news: Justice League more popular than Kamandi.
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163 - 100 BULLETS (Vertigo) 05/2001: 100 Bullets #24 — 15,539* 05/2002: 100 Bullets #36 — 16,950* 05/2003: 100 Bullets #44 — 17,493 05/2004: – 05/2005: 100 Bullets #61 — 14,927 05/2006: 100 Bullets #72 — 13,489 ———————————- 05/2007: 100 Bullets #83 — 12,475 (+ 1.8%) 06/2007: 100 Bullets #84 — 12,148 (- 2.6%) 07/2007: – 08/2007: – 09/2007: 100 Bullets #85 — 11,888 (- 2.1%) 10/2007: – 11/2007: 100 Bullets #86 — 11,599 (- 2.4%) 12/2007: – 01/2008: 100 Bullets #87 — 11,244 (- 3.1%) 02/2008: 100 Bullets #88 — 11,077 (- 1.5%) 03/2008: 100 Bullets #89 — 10,878 (- 1.8%) 04/2008: 100 Bullets #90 — 10,856 (- 0.2%) 05/2008: 100 Bullets #91 — 10,736 (- 1.1%) —————- 6 months: - 7.4% 1 year : -13.9% 2 years : -20.4% 5 years : -38.6%
Maintaining a slow decline as it enters the home stretch.
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166 - TINY TITANS (Johnny DC) 02/2008: Tiny Titans #1 — 15,238 03/2008: Tiny Titans #2 — 11,432 (-25.0%) 04/2008: Tiny Titans #3 — 11,197 (- 2.1%) 05/2008: Tiny Titans #4 — 10,369 (- 7.4%)
A Johnny DC book. See disclaimers.
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168 - THE MIDNIGHTER (WildStorm) 05/2007: The Midnighter #7 — 19,910 (- 3.2%) 06/2007: The Midnighter #8 — 18,076 (- 9.2%) 07/2007: The Midnighter #9 — 16,656 (- 7.9%) 08/2007: The Midnighter #10 — 15,654 (- 6.0%) 09/2007: The Midnighter #11 — 14,349 (- 8.3%) 10/2007: The Midnighter #12 — 13,741 (- 4.2%) 11/2007: The Midnighter #13 — 12,996 (- 5.4%) 12/2007: The Midnighter #14 — 12,358 (- 4.9%) 01/2008: The Midnighter #15 — 11,929 (- 3.5%) 02/2008: The Midnighter #16 — 11,309 (- 5.2%) 03/2008: The Midnighter #17 — 10,854 (- 4.0%) 04/2008: The Midnighter #18 — 10,457 (- 3.7%) 05/2008: The Midnighter #19 — 10,125 (- 3.2%) —————- 6 months: -22.1% 1 year : -49.2%
Cancelled with issue #20.
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- INFINITY INC. 09/2007: Infinity Inc. #1 — 33,400 10/2007: Infinity Inc. #2 — 24,158 (-27.7%) 11/2007: Infinity Inc. #3 — 18,776 (-22.3%) 12/2007: Infinity Inc. #4 — 15,861 (-15.5%) 01/2008: Infinity Inc. #5 — 13,951 (-12.0%) 02/2008: Infinity Inc. #6 — 12,523 (-10.2%) 03/2008: Infinity Inc. #7 — 11,328 (- 9.5%) 04/2008: Infinity Inc. #8 — 10,649 (- 6.0%) 05/2008: Infinity Inc. #9 — 9,993 (- 6.2%) —————- 6 months: -46.8%
Cancelled at issue #12.
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173 - DMZ (Vertigo) 05/2006: DMZ #7 — 15,026 ————————– 05/2007: DMZ #19 — 13,116 (-0.0%) 06/2007: DMZ #20 — 12,704 (-3.1%) 07/2007: DMZ #21 — 12,433 (-2.1%) 08/2007: DMZ #22 — 12,175 (-2.1%) 09/2007: DMZ #23 — 11,858 (-2.6%) 10/2007: DMZ #24 — 11,583 (-2.3%) 11/2007: DMZ #25 — 11,277 (-2.6%) 12/2007: DMZ #26 — 11,027 (-2.2%) 01/2008: DMZ #27 — 10,662 (-3.3%) 02/2008: DMZ #28 — 10,463 (-1.9%) 03/2008: DMZ #29 — 10,266 (-1.9%) 04/2008: DMZ #30 — 10,038 (-2.2%) 05/2008: DMZ #31 — 9,911 (-1.3%) —————- 6 months: -12.1% 1 year : -24.4% 2 years : -34.0%
The book drops below the 10K mark for the first time. First-month collection sales in the direct market seem to have peaked with Vol. 3 back in September 2007, meanwhile, but remain comparatively high - among Vertigo’s ongoing titles, only Fables, 100 Bullets and Jack of Fables are doing better in that respect.
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183 - YOUNG LIARS (Vertigo) 03/2008: Young Liars #1 — 13,177 04/2008: Young Liars #2 — 9,917 (-24.7%) 05/2008: Young Liars #3 — 8,954 (- 9.7%)
Another average drop.
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194 - BAT LASH 12/2007: Bat Lash #1 of 6 — 18,324 01/2008: Bat Lash #2 of 6 — 12,428 (-32.2%) 02/2008: Bat Lash #3 of 6 — 10,102 (-18.7%) 03/2008: Bat Lash #4 of 6 — 9,065 (-10.3%) 04/2008: Bat Lash #5 of 6 — 8,586 (- 5.3%) 05/2008: Bat Lash #6 of 6 — 8,200 (- 4.5%)
The direct market isn’t much interested in western series.
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195 - JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (Johnny DC) 05/2002: JL Adventures #7 — 17,453* 05/2003: JL Adventures #19 — 14,265 05/2004: JL Adventures #31 — 12,348 05/2005: JL Unlimited #9 — 11,869 05/2006: JL Unlimited #21 — 10,430 ———————————— 05/2007: JL Unlimited #33 — 9,230 (- 1.0%) 06/2007: JL Unlimited #34 — 9,328 (+ 1.1%) 07/2007: JL Unlimited #35 — 8,998 (- 3.5%) 08/2007: JL Unlimited #36 — 9,043 (+ 0.5%) 09/2007: JL Unlimited #37 — 8,706 (- 3.7%) 10/2007: JL Unlimited #38 — 8,461 (- 2.8%) 11/2007: JL Unlimited #39 — 8,367 (- 1.1%) 12/2007: JL Unlimited #40 — 8,272 (- 1.1%) 01/2008: JL Unlimited #41 — 8,308 (+ 0.4%) 02/2008: JL Unlimited #42 — 8,144 (- 2.0%) 03/2008: JL Unlimited #43 — 8,659 (+ 6.3%) 04/2008: JL Unlimited #44 — 8,515 (- 1.7%) 05/2008: JL Unlimited #45 — 8,139 (- 4.4%) —————- 6 months: - 2.7% 1 year : -11.8% 2 years : -22.0% 5 years : -42.9%
A Johnny DC book.
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196 - SUPER FRIENDS (Johnny DC) 03/2008: Super Friends #1 — 12,554 04/2008: Super Friends #2 — 8,935 (-28.8%) 05/2008: Super Friends #3 — 8,037 (-10.1%)
Another Johnny DC title. See disclaimers.
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197 - THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AUTHORITY: JACK HAWKSMOOR (WildStorm) 03/2008: Jack Hawksmoor #1 of 6 — 10,967 04/2008: Jack Hawksmoor #2 of 6 — 8,771 (-20.0%) 05/2008: Jack Hawksmoor #3 of 6 — 7,996 (- 8.8%)
198/203 - THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST (WildStorm) 04/2008: The Number of the Beast #1 of 6 — 12,734 04/2008: The Number of the Beast #2 of 6 — 11,275 (-11.5%) 05/2008: The Number of the Beast #3 of 6 — 7,955 (-29.5%) 05/2008: The Number of the Beast #4 of 6 — 7,558 (- 5.0%)
The Number of the Beast (which is now an eight-issue series) sees its delayed second-issue drop, as expected. And since there were no more 1-for-10 variants for the May issues, it was bound to be ugly. Amazingly, retailers have more faith in a Jack Hawksmoor series now than in the latest big WildStorm Universe revamp.
Things don’t look very good at all for the upcoming relaunch.
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205 - TEEN TITANS GO (Johnny DC) 05/2004: Teen Titans Go #7 — 14,731 05/2005: Teen Titans Go #19 — 14,348 05/2006: Teen Titans Go #31 — 11,140 ————————————- 05/2007: Teen Titans Go #43 — 8,918 (- 1.5%) 06/2007: Teen Titans Go #44 — 8,738 (- 2.0%) 07/2007: Teen Titans Go #45 — 8,554 (- 2.1%) 08/2007: Teen Titans Go #46 — 8,427 (- 1.5%) 09/2007: Teen Titans Go #47 — 8,229 (- 2.4%) 10/2007: Teen Titans Go #48 — 7,927 (- 3.7%) 11/2007: Teen Titans Go #49 — 7,699 (- 2.9%) 12/2007: Teen Titans Go #50 — 7,966 (+ 3.5%) 01/2008: Teen Titans Go #51 — 7,602 (- 4.6%) 02/2008: Teen Titans Go #52 — 7,496 (- 1.4%) 03/2008: Teen Titans Go #53 — 7,325 (- 2.3%) 04/2008: Teen Titans Go #54 — 7,469 (+ 2.0%) 05/2008: Teen Titans Go #55 — 7,385 (- 1.1%) —————- 6 months: - 4.1% 1 year : -17.2% 2 years : -33.7%
Another Johnny DC book.
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207 - TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: RAISING CAIN (WildStorm) 05/2007: – 06/2007: TCM: Cut! — 6,920 (- 3.5%) 07/2007: TCM: About a Boy — 7,205 (+ 4.1%) 08/2007: TCM: By Himself #1 of 2 — 6,380 (-11.5%) 09/2007: – 10/2007: – 11/2007: – 12/2007: – 01/2008: – 02/2008: – 03/2008: – 04/2008: – 05/2008: TCM: Raising Cain #1 of 3 — 7,242 (+13.5%) —————- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : n.a.
If you’re wondering what happened to Texas Chainsaw Massacre: By Himself #2, well, it apparently doesn’t exist. The latest miniseries - another $ 3.50 book - sells right where you’d have expected, at any rate.
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210 - SCALPED (Vertigo) 05/2007: Scalped #5 — 9,022 (- 1.5%) 06/2007: Scalped #6 — 8,689 (- 3.7%) 07/2007: Scalped #7 — 8,303 (- 4.4%) 08/2007: Scalped #8 — 7,942 (- 4.4%) 09/2007: Scalped #9 — 7,678 (- 3.3%) 10/2007: Scalped #10 — 7,536 (- 1.9%) 11/2007: Scalped #11 — 7,323 (- 2.8%) 12/2007: Scalped #12 — 7,048 (- 3.8%) 01/2008: Scalped #13 — 6,993 (- 0.8%) 02/2008: Scalped #14 — 6,903 (- 1.3%) 03/2008: Scalped #15 — 7,004 (+ 1.5%) 04/2008: Scalped #16 — 7,071 (+ 1.0%) 05/2008: Scalped #17 — 6,927 (- 2.0%) —————- 6 months: - 5.4% 1 year : -23.2%
The numbers are back in decline, and Scalped is now the lowest-selling Vertigo title that hasn’t been cancelled yet. Its first-month collection sales in the direct market haven’t increased with Vol. 2 and are in the same league as those of the cancelled Loveless and The Exterminators, meanwhile.
But as I say, those are first-month sales, of course, and only for the direct market. It’s still entirely possible that, despite the low direct-market numbers, Scalped is selling well enough to be healthy in ways that don’t register in the charts. If it does, though, it would seem to be an anomaly among Vertigo’s current batch of periodicals.
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211 - LOVELESS (Vertigo) 05/2006: Loveless #7 — 15,961 ——————————- 05/2007: – 06/2007: Loveless #18 — 9,906 (- 4.1%) 07/2007: – 08/2007: Loveless #19 — 8,851 (-10.7%) 09/2007: – 10/2007: Loveless #20 — 8,243 (- 6.9%) 11/2007: – 12/2007: Loveless #21 — 7,809 (- 5.3%) 01/2008: – 02/2008: Loveless #22 — 7,210 (- 7.7%) 03/2008: Loveless #23 — 7,038 (- 2.4%) 04/2008: – 02/2008: Loveless #24 — 6,845 (- 2.7%) —————- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : n.a. 2 years : -57.1%
Cancelled. Loveless is a western, granted - that makes it a hard sell. But it’s also by Brian Azzarello, who’s arguably one of the most established and recognizable names at Vertigo. The fact that they can’t sell another book by the guy responsible for what’s supposedly one of their biggest hits of the last ten years doesn’t make them look very good.
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215 - BATMAN STRIKES! (Johnny DC) 05/2001: Gotham Adventures #38 — 12,655* 05/2002: Gotham Adventures #50 — 13,893* 05/2003: Batman Adventures #2 — 19,856 05/2004: Batman Adventures #14 — 12,194 05/2005: Batman Strikes! #9 — 10,376 05/2006: Batman Strikes! #21 — 8,467 —————————————- 05/2007: Batman Strikes! #33 — 7,235 (- 0.8%) 06/2007: Batman Strikes! #34 — 7,115 (- 1.7%) 07/2007: Batman Strikes! #35 — 7,222 (+ 1.5%) 08/2007: Batman Strikes! #36 — 7,511 (+ 4.0%) 09/2007: Batman Strikes! #37 — 6,833 (- 9.0%) 10/2007: Batman Strikes! #38 — 6,664 (- 2.5%) 11/2007: Batman Strikes! #39 — 6,464 (- 3.0%) 12/2007: Batman Strikes! #40 — 6,492 (+ 0.4%) 01/2008: Batman Strikes! #41 — 6,723 (+ 3.6%) 02/2008: Batman Strikes! #42 — 6,623 (- 1.5%) 03/2008: Batman Strikes! #43 — 6,544 (- 1.2%) 04/2008: Batman Strikes! #44 — 7,541 (+15.2%) 05/2008: Batman Strikes! #45 — 6,611 (-12.3%) —————- 6 months: + 2.3% 1 year : - 8.6% 2 years : -21.9% 5 years : -66.7%
A Johnny DC title.
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220 - THE EXTERMINATORS (Vertigo) 05/2006: The Exterminators #5 — 10,978 —————————————- 05/2007: The Exterminators #17 — 8,813 (+ 0.6%) 06/2007: The Exterminators #18 — 8,651 (- 1.8%) 07/2007: The Exterminators #19 — 8,454 (- 2.3%) 08/2007: The Exterminators #20 — 8,289 (- 2.0%) 09/2007: The Exterminators #21 — 7,950 (- 4.1%) 10/2007: The Exterminators #22 — 7,792 (- 2.0%) 11/2007: The Exterminators #23 — 7,461 (- 4.3%) 12/2007: The Exterminators #24 — 7,211 (- 3.4%) 01/2008: The Exterminators #25 — 7,096 (- 1.6%) 02/2008: The Exterminators #26 — 6,834 (- 3.7%) 03/2008: The Exterminators #27 — 6,717 (- 1.7%) 04/2008: The Exterminators #28 — 6,587 (- 1.9%) 05/2008: The Exterminators #29 — 6,397 (- 2.9%) —————- 6 months: -14.3% 1 year : -27.4% 2 years : -41.7%
Cancelled with issue #30.
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221 - CASEY BLUE: BEYOND TOMORROW (WildStorm) 05/2008: Beyond Tomorrow #1 of 6 — 6,264
WildStorm’s latest creator-owned book comes in several leagues below the radar. Which, to be honest, is pretty much as expected. In order to do better with this sort of thing, you need a strong, focused brand and a minimum of promotion. WildStorm has had neither in years.
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222 - THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES IN THE 31ST CENTURY (Johnny DC) 05/2007: The LoSH in the 31st Century #2 — 11,121 (-17.7%) 06/2007: The LoSH in the 31st Century #3 — 9,252 (-16.8%) 07/2007: The LoSH in the 31st Century #4 — 8,236 (-11.0%) 08/2007: The LoSH in the 31st Century #5 — 7,681 (- 6.7%) 09/2007: The LoSH in the 31st Century #6 — 7,362 (- 4.2%) 10/2007: The LoSH in the 31st Century #7 — 7,010 (- 4.8%) 11/2007: The LoSH in the 31st Century #8 — 6,886 (- 1.8%) 12/2007: The LoSH in the 31st Century #9 — 6,777 (- 1.6%) 01/2008: The LoSH in the 31st Century #10 — 6,674 (- 1.5%) 02/2008: The LoSH in the 31st Century #11 — 6,568 (- 1.6%) 03/2008: The LoSH in the 31st Century #12 — 6,331 (- 3.6%) 04/2008: The LoSH in the 31st Century #13 — 6,331 ( 0.0%) 05/2008: The LoSH in the 31st Century #14 — 6,203 (- 2.0%) —————- 6 months: - 9.9% 1 year : -44.2%
A Johnny DC title.
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223 - AMERICAN SPLENDOR: SEASON TWO (Vertigo) 09/2006: American Splendor #1 of 4 — 11,529 10/2006: American Splendor #2 of 4 — 9,202 (-20.2%) 11/2006: American Splendor #3 of 4 — 7,737 (-15.9%) 12/2006: American Splendor #4 of 4 — 7,104 (- 8.2%) ——————————————– 04/2008: Season Two #1 of 4 — 7,469 (+ 5.1%) 05/2008: Season Two #2 of 4 — 6,142 (-17.8%)
Sinking without a trace, but with the assurance that it’s going to earn its keep in the book market.
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234 - THE PROGRAMME (WildStorm) 07/2007: The Programme #1 of 12 — 14,293 08/2007: The Programme #2 of 12 — 9,412 (-34.2%) 09/2007: The Programme #3 of 12 — 8,545 (- 9.2%) 10/2007: The Programme #4 of 12 — 7,717 (- 9.7%) 11/2007: The Programme #5 of 12 — 7,262 (- 5.9%) 12/2007: The Programme #6 of 12 — 6,856 (- 5.6%) 01/2008: The Programme #7 of 12 — 6,640 (- 3.2%) 02/2008: The Programme #8 of 12 — 6,221 (- 6.3%) 03/2008: The Programme #9 of 12 — 6,020 (- 3.2%) 04/2008: The Programme #10 of 12 — 5,748 (- 4.5%) 05/2008: The Programme #11 of 12 — 5,582 (- 2.9%) —————- 6 months: -23.1%
235 - THE VINYL UNDERGROUND (Vertigo) 10/2007: The Vinyl Underground #1 — 10,823 11/2007: The Vinyl Underground #2 — 8,237 (-23.9%) 12/2007: The Vinyl Underground #3 — 7,432 (- 9.8%) 01/2008: The Vinyl Underground #4 — 6,854 (- 7.8%) 02/2008: The Vinyl Underground #5 — 6,384 (- 6.9%) 03/2008: The Vinyl Underground #6 — 6,035 (- 5.5%) 04/2008: The Vinyl Underground #7 — 5,862 (- 2.9%) 05/2008: The Vinyl Underground #8 — 5,572 (- 5.0%) —————- 6 months: -32.4%
246 - THE NEW DYNAMIX (WildStorm) 03/2008: The New Dynamix #1 of 5 — 11,081 04/2008: The New Dynamix #2 of 5 — 7,114 (-35.8%) 05/2008: The New Dynamix #3 of 5 — 5,164 (-27.4%)
251 - CROSSING MIDNIGHT (Vertigo) 05/2007: Crossing Midnight #7 — 6,866 (- 2.4%) 06/2007: Crossing Midnight #8 — 6,612 (- 3.7%) 07/2007: Crossing Midnight #9 — 6,351 (- 4.0%) 08/2007: Crossing Midnight #10 — 6,142 (- 3.3%) 09/2007: Crossing Midnight #11 — 5,870 (- 4.4%) 10/2007: Crossing Midnight #12 — 5,754 (- 2.0%) 11/2007: Crossing Midnight #13 — 5,519 (- 4.1%) 12/2007: Crossing Midnight #14 — 5,467 (- 0.9%) 01/2008: Crossing Midnight #15 — 5,255 (- 3.9%) 02/2008: Crossing Midnight #16 — 5,348 (+ 1.8%) 03/2008: Crossing Midnight #17 — 5,051 (- 5.6%) 04/2008: – 05/2008: Crossing Midnight #18 — 5,032 (- 0.4%) —————- 6 months: - 8.8% 1 year : -26.7%
Four more Vertigo and WildStorm books with terrible sales. Crossing Midnight and The Vinyl Underground are cancelled with issues #19 and #12, respectively. The New Dynamix #3 was the first without a variant-cover edition, hence the big drop.
—–
265 - SCOOBY DOO (Johnny DC) 05/2001: Scooby Doo #48 — 5,068* 05/2002: Scooby Doo #60 — 6,238* 05/2003: Scooby Doo #72 — 5,980 05/2004: Scooby Doo #84 — 5,490 05/2005: Scooby Doo #96 — 4,718 05/2006: Scooby Doo #108 — 4,496 ——————————— 05/2007: Scooby Doo #120 — 4,343 (- 0.7%) 06/2007: Scooby Doo #121 — 4,415 (+ 1.7%) 07/2007: Scooby Doo #122 — 4,424 (+ 0.2%) 08/2007: Scooby Doo #123 — 4,641 (+ 4.9%) 09/2007: Scooby Doo #124 — 4,401 (- 5.2%) 10/2007: Scooby Doo #125 — 4,407 (+ 0.1%) 11/2007: Scooby Doo #126 — 4,237 (- 3.9%) 12/2007: Scooby Doo #127 — 4,293 (+ 1.3%) 01/2008: Scooby Doo #128 — 4,147 (- 3.4%) 02/2008: Scooby Doo #129 — 4,161 (+ 0.4%) 03/2008: Scooby Doo #130 — 4,463 (+ 7.3%) 04/2008: Scooby Doo #131 — 4,403 (- 1.3%) 05/2008: Scooby Doo #132 — 4,309 (- 2.1%) —————- 6 months: + 1.7% 1 year : - 0.8% 2 years : - 4.2% 5 years : -27.9%
And another Johnny DC book.
—–
268 - THE UN-MEN (Vertigo) 08/2007: The Un-Men #1 — 11,868 09/2007: The Un-Men #2 — 8,758 (-26.2%) 10/2007: The Un-Men #3 — 7,566 (-13.6%) 11/2007: The Un-Men #4 — 6,678 (-11.7%) 12/2007: The Un-Men #5 — 6,094 (- 8.8%) 01/2008: The Un-Men #6 — 5,525 (- 9.3%) 02/2008: The Un-Men #7 — 4,925 (-10.9%) 03/2008: The Un-Men #8 — 4,760 (- 3.4%) 04/2008: The Un-Men #9 — 4,411 (- 7.3%) 05/2008: The Un-Men #10 — 4,227 (- 4.2%) —————- 6 months: -36.7%
Cancelled with issue #13.
—–
REORDERS: 182: 8,984 — DC Universe #0 (2nd)
—–
6-MONTH COMPARISONS + 31.0%: Batman + 15.3%: Titans + 4.2%: Legion + 2.3%: Batman Strikes + 1.7%: Scooby-Doo - 2.0%: Superman/Batman - 2.7%: JL Unlimited - 4.1%: TT Go - 4.3%: Catwoman - 4.3%: Fables - 5.4%: Scalped - 5.7%: Hellblazer - 5.7%: Superman - 7.0%: Booster Gold - 7.4%: DCU Special - 7.4%: 100 Bullets - 8.7%: Batman Confidential - 8.8%: Crossing Midnight - 9.9%: Jonah Hex - 9.9%: LoSH 31 - 10.6%: All Star Superman - 11.8%: Blue Beetle - 12.1%: DMZ - 12.7%: Birds of Prey - 13.5%: Gotham Underground - 13.6%: JSA: Classified - 14.1%: Checkmate - 14.3%: Action Comics - 14.3%: Exterminators - 14.9%: Teen Titans - 15.9%: GL Corps - 17.5%: Shadowpact - 19.7%: Detective Comics - 21.5%: Brave & Bold - 22.1%: Midnighter - 22.3%: Atom - 22.9%: Gen13 - 23.1%: Programme - 25.6%: Countdown to Mystery - 25.6%: Spirit - 25.9%: Metal Men - 27.9%: Green Arrow - 28.2%: Wonder Woman - 28.5%: Simon Dark - 31.2%: Flash - 32.2%: Outsiders - 32.4%: Vinyl Underground - 33.6%: Supergirl - 36.7%: Un-Men - 37.2%: Nightwing - 44.8%: World of WarCraft - 46.8%: Infinity Inc. - 48.3%: Robin
—–
1-YEAR COMPARISONS + 41.1%: GL Corps + 25.5%: Batman + 7.1%: Green Lantern + 5.4%: Outsiders + 0.4%: Green Arrow - 0.8%: Scooby-Doo - 2.2%: Robin - 4.7%: Nightwing - 6.4%: Detective Comics - 8.6%: Batman Strikes - 8.7%: Fables - 9.2%: Legion - 9.7%: Catwoman - 10.2%: Hellblazer - 11.8%: JL Unlimited - 13.9%: 100 Bullets - 14.8%: Action Comics - 17.2%: TT Go - 17.4%: Superman - 18.4%: Blue Beetle - 19.2%: JSA - 20.2%: Jonah Hex - 22.1%: Midnighter - 22.5%: Superman/Batman - 22.6%: Birds of Prey - 23.2%: Scalped - 24.4%: DMZ - 25.5%: Blue Beetle - 26.0%: Teen Titans - 26.7%: Crossing Midnight - 27.4%: Exterminators - 28.9%: JSA: Classified - 30.4%: JLA - 30.6%: Shadowpact - 32.8%: Checkmate - 33.2%: Flash - 34.9%: Wonder Woman - 40.1%: Supergirl - 40.7%: Spirit - 41.8%: Gen13 - 43.9%: Supernatural - 44.2%: LoSH 31
—–
2-YEAR COMPARISONS + 48.8%: JSA + 30.2%: Batman - 2.7%: Fables - 4.2%: Scooby-Doo - 16.5%: Green Lantern - 16.5%: Hellblazer - 20.4%: 100 Bullets - 21.2%: Green Arrow - 21.9%: Batman Strikes - 22.0%: JL Unlimited - 23.3%: Outsiders - 24.9%: Action Comics - 26.5%: Detective Comics - 33.7%: TT Go - 34.0%: DMZ - 35.9%: Superman - 35.9%: Teen Titans - 36.3%: Nightwing - 36.7%: Robin - 37.1%: Birds of Prey - 38.6%: Legion - 40.0%: Jonah Hex - 40.4%: Catwoman - 41.7%: Exterminators - 52.5%: Superman/Batman - 57.1%: Loveless - 59.0%: JSA: Classified - 63.7%: Checkmate - 66.9%: Blue Beetle - 70.7%: Supergirl - 71.9%: Shadowpact
—–
5-YEAR COMPARISONS + 77.9%: JSA + 60.0%: Green Lantern + 49.3%: JLA + 46.6%: Wonder Woman + 45.6%: Action Comics + 30.7%: Superman + 25.9%: Detective Comics + 20.5%: Legion + 16.0%: Robin + 2.4%: Flash - 1.9%: Nightwing - 5.5%: Birds of Prey - 5.5%: Fables - 24.2%: Catwoman - 27.9%: Scooby-Doo - 30.2%: Batman - 30.2%: Hellblazer - 31.6%: Gen13 - 38.6%: 100 Bullets - 38.9%: Green Arrow - 42.9%: JL Unlimited - 66.7%: Batman Strikes
—–
Average Sales per Title
(not counting reprints, reorders shipping after the initial month of release, Johnny DC titles and magazines)
DC COMICS 05/2003: 26,961 05/2004: 32,096 05/2005: 34,801 05/2006: 42,860 ————— 05/2007: 34,489 (-11.9%) 06/2007: 32,437 (- 6.0%) 07/2007: 34,330 (+ 5.8%) 08/2007: 34,885 (+ 1.6%) 09/2007: 32,332 (- 7.3%) 10/2007: 31,489 (- 2.6%) 11/2007: 29,427 (- 6.6%) 12/2007: 33,138 (+12.6%) 01/2008: 27,033 (-18.4%) 02/2008: 27,652 (+ 2.3%) 03/2008: 26,423 (- 4.5%) 04/2008: 28,051 (+ 6.1%) 05/2008: 27,075 (- 3.5%) —————- 6 months: - 8.0% 1 year : -21.5% 2 years : -36.8% 3 years : -22.2% 4 years : -15.6% 5 years : + 0.4%
DC UNIVERSE 05/2003: 32,055 05/2004: 38,502 05/2005: 43,505 05/2006: 56,982 ————— 05/2007: 47,294 (-10.4%) 06/2007: 45,380 (- 4.1%) 07/2007: 47,134 (+ 3.9%) 08/2007: 46,717 (- 0.9%) 09/2007: 42,894 (- 8.2%) 10/2007: 39,409 (- 8.1%) 11/2007: 37,257 (- 5.5%) 12/2007: 40,074 (+ 7.6%) 01/2008: 33,654 (-16.0%) 02/2008: 35,994 (+ 7.0%) 03/2008: 33,151 (- 7.9%) 04/2008: 35,452 (+ 6.9%) 05/2008: 35,230 (- 0.6%) —————- 6 months: - 5.4% 1 year : -25.5% 2 years : -38.2% 3 years : -19.0% 4 years : - 8.5% 5 years : + 9.9%
VERTIGO 05/2003: 14,798 05/2004: 17,376 05/2005: 14,520 05/2006: 15,266 ————— 05/2007: 12,256 (+ 1.3%) 06/2007: 12,732 (+ 3.9%) 07/2007: 12,193 (- 4.2%) 08/2007: 10,817 (-11.3%) 09/2007: 11,806 (+ 9.1%) 10/2007: 10,678 (- 9.6%) 11/2007: 10,946 (+ 2.5%) 12/2007: 11,035 (+ 0.8%) 01/2008: 10,115 (- 8.3%) 02/2008: 10,885 (+ 7.6%) 03/2008: 10,484 (- 3.7%) 04/2008: 10,550 (+ 0.6%) 05/2008: 10,418 (- 1.3%) —————- 6 months: - 4.8% 1 year : -15.0% 2 years : -31.8% 3 years : -28.3% 4 years : -40.0% 5 years : -29.6%
WILDSTORM 05/2003: 22,470 05/2004: 15,505 05/2005: 13,593 05/2006: 12,737 ————— 05/2007: 14,260 (+ 4.8%) 06/2007: 12,272 (-13.9%) 07/2007: 11,234 (- 8.5%) 08/2007: 10,744 (- 4.4%) 09/2007: 11,379 (+ 5.9%) 10/2007: 11,960 (+ 5.1%) 11/2007: 15,109 (+26.3%) 12/2007: 15,601 (+ 3.3%) 01/2008: 14,033 (-10.1%) 02/2008: 13,155 (- 6.3%) 03/2008: 12,842 (- 2.4%) 04/2008: 12,156 (- 5.3%) 05/2008: 9,812 (-19.3%) —————- 6 months: -35.1% 1 year : -31.2% 2 years : -23.0% 3 years : -27.8% 4 years : -36.7% 5 years : -56.3%
—–
OTHER PUBLISHERS
15 - BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (Dark Horse Comics) 05/2001: Buffy #33 — 16,823* 05/2002: Buffy #45 — 15,979* 05/2003: Buffy #57 — 14,928 —————————– 05/2007: Buffy #3 — 106,634 (+10.6%) [125,078] 06/2007: Buffy #4 — 102,430 (- 3.9%) [117,866] 07/2007: Buffy #5 — 100,830 (- 2.0%) [109,322] 08/2007: – 09/2007: Buffy #6 — 96,556 (- 4.2%) [107,551] 10/2007: Buffy #7 — 94,144 (- 2.4%) [101,979] 11/2007: Buffy #8 — 91,595 (- 2.7%) [ 96,975] 12/2007: Buffy #9 — 89,556 (- 2.2%) 01/2008: Buffy #10 — 88,474 (- 1.2%) 02/2008: Buffy #11 — 88,070 (- 0.5%) 03/2008: Buffy #12 — 88,930 (+ 1.0%) 04/2008: Buffy #13 — 83,580 (- 6.0%) 05/2008: Buffy #14 — 82,069 (- 1.8%) —————– 6 months: - 10.4% 1 year : - 23.0% 5 years : +450.0%
The numbers seem to be bottoming out again. As usual, there was a variant-cover edition.
As we’re still in the middle of a storyline written by Drew Goddard that started back in March, it seems that the drop in April was, in part, a compensation for the increased attention issue #12 received.
—–
41 - SERENITY: BETTER DAYS (Dark Horse Comics) 07/2005: Serenity #1 of 3 — 38,502 [91,594] 08/2005: Serenity #2 of 3 — 47,095 [57,290] 09/2005: Serenity #3 of 3 — 52,312 [57,189] ————————————– 03/2008: Better Days #1 of 3 — 62,300 [66,611] 04/2008: Better Days #2 of 3 — 56,128 (- 9.9%) 05/2008: Better Days #3 of 3 — 52,428
Sales end up at the same level as they did for the previous series, despite the lack of variant-cover editions this time around, and there haven’t been any reorders on the chart for issue #2.
This can mean a number of things. Maybe retailers overestimated demand this time around; or we didn’t see the reorders because their numbers were below the cut-off point of the Top 300; or no reorder copies were available from the publisher, although that would be unusual for Dark Horse; or maybe retailers simply guessed correctly this time. Be that as it may, these are great numbers.
—–
50 - ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL (IDW) 11/2007: After the Fall #1 — 47,563 (+648.9%) [74,342] 12/2007: After the Fall #2 — 44,792 (- 5.8%) [56,396] 01/2008: After the Fall #3 — 46,013 (+ 2.7%) [50,175] 02/2008: After the Fall #4 — 48,407 (+ 5.2%) [57,555] 03/2008: After the Fall #5 — 49,558 (+ 2.4%) 04/2008: After the Fall #6 — 46,645 (- 5.9%) [51,044] 05/2008: After the Fall #7 — 45,430 (- 2.6%) —————– 6 months: - 4.5%
Levelling out, and doing perfectly well overall. As usual, there were multiple variant-cover editions.
There also was “Director’s Cut” reprint of issue #1 in May, which sold an estimated 6,040 units.
—–
59 - PROJECT: SUPERPOWERS (Dynamite Entertainment) 02/2008: Project: Superpowers #1 of 6 — 53,755 03/2008: – 04/2008: Project: Superpowers #2 of 7 — 41,623 (-22.6%) 05/2008: Project: Superpowers #3 of 7 — 36,884 (-11.4%)
The book’s sales continue to drop stiffly for a limited series. As always, multiple variant-cover editions exist.
—–
72/77 - STAR WARS: LEGACY (Dark Horse Comics) 05/2007: Star Wars: Legacy #11 — 33,138 (+2.5%) 05/2007: Star Wars: Legacy #12 — 32,161 (-3.0%) 06/2007: Star Wars: Legacy #13 — 32,149 (-0.0%) 07/2007: Star Wars: Legacy #14 — 31,652 (-1.6%) 08/2007: Star Wars: Legacy #15 — 31,539 (-0.4%) 09/2007: Star Wars: Legacy #16 — 31,240 (-1.0%) 10/2007: — 11/2007: Star Wars: Legacy #17 — 31,197 (-0.1%) 12/2007: — 01/2008: Star Wars: Legacy #18 — 31,038 (-0.5%) 02/2008: Star Wars: Legacy #19 — 30,953 (-0.3%) 02/2008: Star Wars: Legacy #20 — 29,896 (-3.4%) 03/2008: Star Wars: Legacy #21 — 30,228 (+1.1%) 04/2008: Star Wars: Legacy #22 — 30,205 (-0.1%) 05/2008: Star Wars: Legacy #23 — 30,355 (+0.5%) 05/2008: Star Wars: Legacy #24 — 29,601 (-2.5%) —————- 6 months: - 3.9% 1 year : - 8.2%
Rock-solid numbers.
—–
83 - THE BOYS (Dynamite Entertainment) 05/2007: The Boys #7 — 31,616 (+16.9%) [37,255] 06/2007: The Boys #8 — 30,639 (- 3.1%) [32,868] 07/2007: – 08/2007: The Boys #9 — 32,570 (+ 6.3%) 09/2007: The Boys #10 — 32,077 (- 1.5%) 10/2007: The Boys #11 — 30,852 (- 3.8%) 11/2007: The Boys #12 — 29,754 (- 3.6%) 12/2007: The Boys #13 — 29,195 (- 1.9%) 01/2008: The Boys #14 — 28,559 (- 2.2%) 02/2008: The Boys #15 — 28,347 (- 0.7%) 03/2008: The Boys #16 — 27,886 (- 1.6%) 04/2008: The Boys #17 — 28,057 (+ 0.6%) 05/2008: The Boys #18 — 27,951 (- 0.4%) —————- 6 months: - 6.1% 1 year : -11.6%
The books keeps clinging to 28K.
—–
91/107 - STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC (Dark Horse Comics) 05/2006: Star Wars: KotOR #5 — 23,223 ————————————— 05/2007: Star Wars: KotOR #16 — 23,572 (+ 0.1%) 05/2007: Star Wars: KotOR #17 — 22,907 (- 2.8%) 06/2007: – 07/2007: Star Wars: KotOR #18 — 22,713 (- 0.9%) 08/2007: Star Wars: KotOR #19 — 22,396 (- 1.4%) 09/2007: Star Wars: KotOR #20 — 21,836 (- 2.5%) 10/2007: Star Wars: KotOR #21 — 21,879 (+ 0.2%) 11/2007: Star Wars: KotOR #22 — 21,694 (- 0.9%) 11/2007: Star Wars: KotOR #23 — 20,519 (- 5.4%) 12/2007: Star Wars: KotOR #24 — 20,396 (- 0.6%) 01/2008: Star Wars: KotOR #25 — 25,035 (+22.8%) [27,054] 02/2008: – 03/2008: Star Wars: KotOR #26 — 23,467 (- 6.3%) 04/2008: Star Wars: KotOR #27 — 24,287 (+ 3.5%) 05/2008: Star Wars: KotOR #28 — 25,109 (+ 3.4%) 05/2008: Star Wars: KotOR #29 — 22,043 (-12.2%) —————- 6 months: +11.7% 1 year : + 1.5% 2 years : + 1.5%
Issue #28 was the title’s final part in the “Vector” crossover, which moved on to Star Wars: Dark Times in May. The numbers remain slightly ahead of their previous level. Another very solid performer, overall.
—–
96 - STAR WARS: DARK TIMES (Dark Horse Comics) 05/2007: Star Wars: Dark Times #3 of 5 — 29,501 (- 3.3%) 06/2007: – 07/2007: Star Wars: Dark Times #4 of 5 — 27,514 (- 6.7%) 08/2007: – 09/2007: – 10/2007: Star Wars: Dark Times #5 of 5 — 26,573 (- 3.4%) 10/2007: Star Wars: Dark Times #6 — 25,121 (- 5.5%) 11/2007: – 12/2007: Star Wars: Dark Times #7 — ? 01/2008: Star Wars: Dark Times #8 — 23,353 02/2008: Star Wars: Dark Times #9 — 23,047 (- 1.3%) 03/2008: – 04/2008: Star Wars: Dark Times #10 — 21,989 (- 4.6%) 05/2008: Star Wars: Dark Times #11 — 24,487 (+11.4%) —————- 6 months: n.a. 1 year : -17.0%
“Vector” brings a modest increase.
—–
Disclaimers, et cetera
The numbers above are estimates for comic book sales in the North American direct market, as calculated by ICv2.com according to the chart and index information provided by Diamond Comic Distributors. ICv2.com’s estimates are traditionally known to be somewhat lower than the actual numbers, but they are consistent from month to month, so the trends they show are fairly accurate. Since it’s a “month-to-month” column, the comments, unless otherwise noted, are on the most recent month. The estimates from March 2001 to February 2003 (marked with an asterisk) were for initial orders rather than actual sales, so they’re only roughly compatible with the subsequent figures.
Bear in mind that the figures measure sales to retailers, not customers. Also, these numbers do not include sales to bookstores, newsstands, other mass market retail chains or the United Kingdom. Reorders are included, so long as they either reached stores in a book’s initial month of release or were strong enough to make the chart again in a subsequent month.
If additional copies of an issue did appear on the chart after the book’s initial month of release, you can see the total number of copies sold in parenthesis behind those issues (e.g. “[36,599]”). Should more than one issue have shipped in a month which is relevant for one of the long-term comparisons, the average will be used.
Titles released under the Johnny DC imprint and magazines, such as Mad, mostly sell through channels other than the direct market, so direct market sales don’t tell us much about their performance. For most Vertigo and some WildStorm titles, collection sales tend to be a significant factor, so the numbers for those books should be taken with a grain of salt as well. To learn (a little) more about Vertigo’s collection sales, go right here.
—–
Germany-based Marc-Oliver Frisch has a weblog and regularly contributes to German online magazine Comicgate.
07/2/08 at 9:51 am
Let me be FIRST to say that DC is dying, and that DiDio must be fired.
I don’t believe that, but I wanted to be the FIRST to say it—today.
07/2/08 at 10:15 am
This is from a comment that I wrote on Savage Critics back on May 2nd:
“[T]his is why Secret Invasion will outsell Final Crisis: we know what Secret Invasion is about, and we have no clue what Final Crisis is about (even though there was a year-long “Countdown” to it).
There is a reason that movies are promoted by trailers: they tell the potential audience what the movie will be about, so that the audience can get excited and look forward to it. For the same reason, the way that movies (and comics) are pitched to producers is by summing up the movie in one or two sentences - the “log line.” It’s a simple and easy way to get the plot across, so that people become interested.
Here, Marvel has given us the log line for Secret Invasion: Earth has been invaded by evil shapeshifting aliens that pretend to be our greatest superheroes!
DC has given us the following about Final Crisis: It’s a Final Crisis! (And probably not even really the final one.)
Which one sounds more appealing? Sure, Final Crisis has great creators working on it, which will help sales, but even there look at how the movies do it - they don’t just say “a Steven Spielberg movie.” They say, “a Steven Spielberg movie where dinosaurs are reborn in the modern world and go on a rampage!”
Anyway, sorry about the long comment, I just think it was a big mistake on DC’s part to be so secretive and not make public the log line for Final Crisis.”
(See: http://www.haloscan.com/comments/lazybastid/3747628921015121523/#240404)
I stand by this earlier comment.
07/2/08 at 10:58 am
“Final Crisis” isn’t just a reference to “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” There have been some 20 DC “Crisis” events with the first two-parter - Crisis on Earth One and Crisis on Earth Two - being 45 years ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_(DC_Comics)
So, while you can say that the “Final Crisis” title doesn’t speak to you, “Crisis” in general has a long and storied history at DC that goes back far beyond beyond COIE and runs up until the current day.
While I don’t disagree with everything you say, I believe there are instances in the last few columns where you’re going out of your way to find negatives about DC…
07/2/08 at 11:04 am
So, to recap: DC’s big huge event title is massively underperforming, sales across DC’s main line of titles are abysmal for any book not called “Green Lantern,” and WildStorm has become a joke no one cares about.
Gee, it’s almost like those unwashed proles who complain about DC Editorial (and get some folks worked up into such a lather for daring to do so) are right.
07/2/08 at 11:25 am
But Eric–
What does the history of the word “crisis” connote to readers who are not already DC fans?
I have nothing against invoking aspects of DC history; I find the continuity-game fascinating when it’s done well. But new readers do need to hear a little more than, “And DC Comics will never be the same again!”
07/2/08 at 12:19 pm
Gene,
I understand what you’re saying, but I think that it’s more a case of DC not having been very forthright with what the comic is about in solicitations rather than the title. I do think Mr. Frisch is correct there. I also think having the disappointing “Countdown” as a lead-in was a detriment.
However, I don’t think if you just read the title “Secret Invasion” that it automatically invokes an alien invasion. And it probably doesn’t resonate ore “mean anything” as an homage to “Secret Wars” to shorter-term or new Marvel fans. But Secret Invasion has had good interest because Marvel have done a good job promoting it - not because of it’s title per se.
On the other hand, I don’t buy the
“DC has too much continuity and I don’t know what’s going on”
reasoning that I see frequently. To me, that’s part of what (if done well) makes comics fun. When I started reading DC comics (and I’m an admitted DC fanboy, so no, that doesn’t make my opinions entirely unbiased, either) in 1976, I was amazed at the amount of history these characters had. I used to pore over the pages of the comics I got at 7-11 trying to figure out who all these characters I had never heard of that showed up in house ads were.
Back then, you couldn’t be guaranteed that you’d get the next issue of a title, or could find a title you saw advertised, so sometimes it would take a long time to figure out what was going on and who was who, but it was like an adventure of discovery. If DC can’t foster that kind of excitement in new readers, it’s either a failure in storytelling (and there have been some weak ones lately, but certainly not all of them), but there’s also some reader laziness. Today’s instant info world leads far too much, in my opinion, to:
“I’ve read one issue and I want to know what is happening right now. If I don’t understand by page 22, I’m dropping it!”
07/2/08 at 12:29 pm
I agree with Gene… if this is really a traditional “Crisis” in the old sense of the word, shouldn’t we see the JLA and JSA team up, or something like that?
07/2/08 at 12:40 pm
Eric:
I understand your history with DC (sweet lord, I don’t even want to guess the year that I started reading “World’s Finest”!), but if the instant info world demands some understanding in one issue ( and I really don’t think that’s unreasonable), then the company needs to change or whither on the vine.
07/2/08 at 12:51 pm
While I don’t know if I entirely agree that understanding in one issue is always reasonable (do you always know what’s going on by page 50 of a novel?) I have a pretty good understanding of what’s going on in Final Crisis from the two issues published so far. Do I know what it’s building up to? Nope. But I’m enjoying the story enough to keep reading.
07/2/08 at 1:01 pm
The problem with Final Crisis is not that readers were unsatisfied by page 22 - it’s that they were not interested in page 1.
07/2/08 at 1:14 pm
The sad thing is that the last two issues (#240 and #241) have been quite good, and I think Tom Peyer and Freddie Williams II, given enough time, could have halted the slide and turned things around. Instead DC is telling us not to get too attached to any direction, and it’s starting to look like another relaunch is on its way after Final Crisis — which, if correct, would be the third in as many years.
07/2/08 at 1:15 pm
Eric:
I get what you are trying to say, but the problem with comparing comics to a novel is that sales of a novel arent based on individual chapters.
A comic should hold an interest at the end so that someone will want to pick up the next and the next. A book you already paid for the whole thing regardless if you finish it.
07/2/08 at 1:38 pm
Eric:
I know that there have been other “Crisis” stories at DC, but CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS is the most well-known of them and - in terms of scope and function - the one they’re referencing with INFINITE CRISIS and FINAL CRISIS. I seem to recall they’ve gone out of their way to describe the three books as a “trilogy” in their promotion, for that matter.
Michael:
“The problem with Final Crisis is not that readers were unsatisfied by page 22 - it’s that they were not interested in page 1.”
Exactly. My points only refer to the company’s promotional efforts regarding FINAL CRISIS, as the actual comic is not yet a factor in the sales we’ve seen to date.
07/2/08 at 1:38 pm
Eric,
I know whereof you speak: outside of a couple of minor exposures to the Torch feature in MARVEL TALES reprints, my first FANTASTIC FOUR book was FF ANNUAL #5, which gave me not just the FF and their latest villains but the Inhumans and the Black Panther as well. And yet, the narrative force was such that I had no trouble figuring out who was what.
However, as many others have pointed out, it’s a lot harder to keep a narrative forceful when the storyline’s obliged to hopscotch across ten or twelve different titles.
Unfortunately, it seems that DC’s marketing people are pretty much wedded to the Hopscoth Theory of Comics. My experience indicates that the weaker-selling books never benefit much in the long run from tie-ins, but even a modest boost may be enough to satisfy DC these days.
07/2/08 at 1:39 pm
I think that there’s plenty in Final Crisis #1 to bring someone back for a second if they’re interested in finding out what’s going on. If they aren’t interested, as Michael says, I have nothing there.
07/2/08 at 1:42 pm
I think Michael Hoskin has got it. More than understandable, the story should be compelling.
07/2/08 at 2:10 pm
Looks like DMZ has fallen into the below 10K nether-regions. How low can the numbers go before DC decides the periodicals aren’t even worth it as loss leaders anymore? Maybe when it gets to a point where the initial paperback orders are higher than the periodical initial orders?
Two things to watch out for with Northlanders:
First, 9 and 11 will both be jumping on points to all-new storylines. (both of which will presumably be available as Northlanders vol. 2, containing 9-18) Will retailers treat them as brand new number 1’s, resulting in sales spikes, or will retailers treat them as just another couple of higher numbered issues, resulting in lower orders via standard attrition? If it’s lower orders, than perhaps the “ongoing” Northlanders route might not have been the best idea after all. Time will tell.
Second, Vertigo is publishing the first Northlanders graphic novel later this year for $10. This is a really great deal for the tradewaiters, as it would have cost to $24 to buy the exact same story as a serial. Will a significant number of people who bought the periodicals feel burned by the fact that they’re paying a lot more to “support” the book so that everyone else can get a better package for a lot less money? If they jump off and become tradewaiters themselves, then perhaps we’ll see much lower orders on the periodicals once the first paperback is released.
07/2/08 at 2:14 pm
Scalped is just a fascinating case. Some of the lowest “ongoing” periodical numbers see from Vertigo, but no sign of cancellation. What would happen if DC simply decided to cancel the periodical and release a twice-yearly series of Scalped paperbacks? Would the periodical buyers who presumably love the story refuse to buy them?
07/2/08 at 2:26 pm
“… Final Crisis, the big blockbuster title they’d been building towards for the past two years …”
Maybe THIS is the problem.
07/2/08 at 2:51 pm
To me, that’s part of what (if done well) makes comics fun.
Grant Morrison has stated outright that anyone who wants to enjoy Final Crisis needs to ignore everything that happened in Countdown. I don’t know or even care whose fault that is, but how on Earth does that represent “continuity done well”?
“I’ve read one issue and I want to know what is happening right now. If I don’t understand by page 22, I’m dropping it!”
How much did comics cost when you were engaged in that “adventure of discovery”? If they’d cost $3 and $4 per issue, would you have been as content to receive less information per issue?
And for that matter, how dare younger readers want stories that cater to their own reading styles! Every story should be told the way it was when *I* was a child! The only people that comics should cater to should be middle-aged men, who want to preserve all the genre conventions that they enjoyed most! Secret identities and marriage-retcons for everyone!
07/2/08 at 2:52 pm
VERY IMPORTANT.
I WOULD LIKE ALL POSTERS TO REFRAIN FROM SUCH STATEMENTS AS “SUCHANSUCH HAS FALLEN BELOW 20K.”
THESE NUMBERS ARE NOT EXACT. THEY ARE LOWER THAN ACTUAL FIGURES. TRENDS ARE ACCURATE BUT NUMBERS ARE NOT.
PROCEED ACCORDINGLY.
07/2/08 at 3:03 pm
“it’s starting to look like another [Flash] relaunch is on its way after Final Crisis — which, if correct, would be the third in as many years.”
The grueling irony there being that the first one wasn’t necessary in the first place. Was there any rat