Issue #4 was released in September, though. ”

Which was a stupid idea as the original art/direction was great. The change has in fact lead me to dropping the title now.

Having several months of fill-ins becomes evne more bizarre when you look at who the new writer is– series creator (and artist during Johns’s tenure and Dixon’s fill-in) Dan Jurgens. Why not just have Jurgens take over immediately? or maybe after the Dixon two-parter, if someone really wanted that published. I know I dropped for the issue(s) between Dixon and Jurgens getting the writing slot.

Right. I was perplexed by the lack of a Johnny DC logo, but apparently, none of the Johnny DC books have one. (For that matter, it also has a $ 2.25 cover price, like the rest of the JDC books.)

Uh, Awesome Dude:

TITANS skipped two months, because, apparently, someone decided a change of direction was required, three issues into the series.

Issue #4 was released in September, though.

Anyway=- I was thinking today about how much i don’t like that Titans books (i’m not reading it) and I wanted to check it’s sales.

Is it not included on this chart? If so why not?

Thanks!

Conan the Cimmerian perplexes me. It’s got the same creative team as the final arc of Conan, and yet I’m selling 3x the number of copies!

No, Family Dynamic was misclassified as a Johnny DC book by DC, not by you. It clearly doesn’t belong in the JDC “family”, but that’s where we ended up. And yet, somehow FD doesn’t get the benefits of being a JDC title: it’s not sold through channels other than the direct market, and it wasn’t advertised in other JDC books. What we did get, though, was the stigma associated with being a kids’ book — low orders and a spot on the kids’ comic rack at the local comic shop.

What, me bitter?

There’s no Johnny DC logo on the FAMILY DYNAMIC covers, as I recall, but the book was solicited in the Johnny DC section of DC’s previews.

I certainly agree that placement probably didn’t help the book’s sales. I’ll make a note to correct the book’s listing next month.

08/2008: Family Dynamic #1 of 6 — 5,086

A Johnny DC book. After the first issue had already been solicited, the title was downsized to a three-issue series.

—–

Y’know, considering that FD was misclassified as a Johnny DC title (and we didn’t even get the benefit of thr typical JDC extra newsstand sales mentioned in the disclaimers) and had absolutely no promotion from DC Comics whatsoever, 5, 086 doesn’t seem all that bad. #229 — woo-hoo!

Ugh. Don’t even joke — they might actually do it. Despite some quite good moments in the new Authority incarnation, I can’t get back into the line. It’s just trying too hard.

I think that the problem with numbers is the market. It’s obvious that the majority of fans love long story arcs concerning their favorite characters, and that is why monthlies are falling off, they want it in collected volumes to show the genius of great writing. That is why Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison are selling well above everyone else (and that’s not a harsh criticism of everyone else). Personally I buy whatever they put out in graphic novel form (not even knowing storylines, etc.) because I know I’m going to have a great 5-6 issue story that with leave me astounded at their brilliance! In individual issues I’ve always found it harder to become enraptured in a deep story….of course that may be due to my lack of intelligence (lol).

Regarding J. Byrne….his time is up, he was a genius in the 80’s, but times have changed and he hasn’t. I won’t touch anything with his name on it, unless I need sleep. Seriously though, He should consider doing children’s books where his single-minded storylines and artwork can still have a good audience…and He can influence the upcoming generations in a positive way while they will still appreciate his art and writing style. Of course, many parents (in the “know”) probably wouldn’t buy his stuff for their kids considering he is a whining has-been who can’t “move on”.

Ed, that’s exactly the way I read my Vertigo books. And there still is a difference to trade-waiting, as most books have the occasional two-parter or even stand-alone, so the gaps in reading aren’t quite as long as they would be if you only read the trades.

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

That pretty much settles it, so why speculate any further?

“DC already publishes a black-and-white magazine with a circulation of 200,000, costing only $4.99!”

What is this?

I think Army@Love will sink back down to previous levels. The story seems to jump right back in with no real introduction of the characters or storylines. I imagine new readers who picked it up will feel lost and old readers don’t even seem to get a refresher. I had hoped for a new start but it really felt like it just picked up where it left off.

Regarding Byrne, I feel like if he “slicked” up his style and dropped the small scratchy lines, going back to the more solid feel his art had in his Fantastic Four days his work would have a lot more appeal. I don’t know if the hatching was a reaction to the Image crowd or him trying to work faster and hacking it out but it loses any appeal his art might have to me.

Arch, I think some people started reading Walking Dead trades and switch to singles in order to more quickly find out what’s happening “now” in the series. Perhaps the continue to buy the trades but I’d been they drop them but that is offset by new readers jumping on.

TANGENT: SUPERMAN’S REIGN is actually a pretty good story of a different Earth.

WONDER WOMAN issue 24 is the start of a new story. Gail Simone wrote a story full of good ideas. I think this is her best issue so far. In the previous story, WW had some evil in her soul. Is it gone or not? We shall see. For those who haven’t been reading it, WW is also now engaged. In issue 24, she takes hubby-to-be home to meet Mother. Plus, it’s got huge, white apes. With briefcases.

BATSIDERS—cute way to shorten the title.

JACK OF FABLES—my favorite bit in this every month is the one-page Babe the Blue Ox fantasy.

SIMON DARK—I think this should have been a Vertigo book.

TINY TITANS—if you aren’t buying this for, or reading it to, your kids or nephews and nieces, you hate them. 10,000 issues sold is a tragedy. Much love to Jann Jones for this one.

TOR—simply waiting for the collection, something I seldom do.

YOUNG LIARS—there are a lot of odd things happening in this book, some horribly gory things, but it doesn’t come together for me. Sorry, but I am done with this one.

Huh. You’re right.

Sorry, and thanks for the correction.

Walking Dead is an unusual book in that its individual issue sales don’t fall, and seem to slightly increase over time. But more than that, many of the customers at my LCS buy BOTH the issues and the collected editions. They find the story so engaging they don’t want to wait for the trade.

One suggestion I made to DC was to issue the periodicals in black-and-white (or grey scale), perhaps in magazines similar to Shonen Jump. (The previews seen at conventions are in black-and-white.) Following the Japanese model, the popular story arcs can then be collected into full-color trades. DC already publishes a black-and-white magazine with a circulation of 200,000, costing only $4.99!

One more thing… go and read #36 Superman/Batman #51!

Yes, they did. Marc-Oliver doesn’t discuss EVERY non-DC/Marvel title, just “significant” ones.

Assignment: Earth, in Aug (#4) is item #188. The full chart is here: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/13296.html

-B

This is not a leap to make. In fact, this has been the status quo for at least two years. I would go so far as to say this is true of the vast majority of Vertigo books. The other bit about how soon monthlies will be no more than a useless appendage… well, not so much. I think they serve a variety of purposes, financial being only one of them.

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/13107.html

A truly sad state of affairs for Johnny Byrne..:(