Secret Six on the other hand, really surprised me. Villians United and the Secret Six mini were both fabulous. I’m not sure what to say really about this new launch — the first issue was so much fun, that if this doesn’t garner readers, I don’t see how any book with C-level characters is ever going to grab them. It was a great start to the series, imho.

I do think where Secret Six might be more successful than it appears is in grabbing readers that don’t do a lot of other DCU reading. But maybe I’m wrong on that.

It’s also nice to see Scalped numbers very solid, albeit low. I just bought the TPB (after getting the monthlies) and passed it off to non-comic book readers. I’ll be spreading that around as much as possible.

If the book is sold outside of North America, you are

I seriously expect him to be gone from the book after the opening arc or they’ll just make it bimonthly if that’s what it takes.

Kunkel’s never been on time with his own creator owned stuff either.

I know you’re doing your best with the information you have, no worries.

Best,

Gail

For what it’s worth, I did check whether SECRET SIX came out in the last week of the month, because when you have unexpectedly low numbers, that’s usually the first indication that a truck got stuck in a blizzard somewhere and a substantial amount of copies weren’t delivered in time to make the chart. (Really. It happens every now and then.)

However, the book actually came out in the first week of September, so that, at least, is unlikely to have happened in this case. Also, what it means is that any reorders shipped to stores in weeks 2, 3 and 4 of September should - theoretically, at least - be already included in the number.

It’s still entirely possible (and likely, if there’s an unusually large gap between the real numbers and the estimate) that something went horribly wrong on the accounting front at Diamond, mind you, so, as you say, hopefully we’ll get a clearer picture next month.

I understand balancing an “event” with a full line is diffucult; for example, Marvel’s Secret Invasion tie-ins are tedious and seemingly never-ending.

However, Final Crisis does indeed read weirdly in isolation; how can the resolution believably have lasting affects on the DCU when none of the issues to date have had any affect at all?

I understand the current Superman and Batman arcs can be explained to take place before FC; however, I’d argue that this is not the best marketing decision. For example, DC was able to build interest in Infinite Crisis by using books like Superman Batman to credibly build up to the main event. This built some reader interest and led to great word of mouth among fans.

Hopefully, DC will get a creative boost out of FC that will translate into sustainable sales for the line in 2009.

LL

Personally, I think that if your book is going to be materially affected by Final Crisis, then it’s a mistake to ignore it altogether, because then the series is going to read very weirdly in isolation; you should probably be setting up the changes that are coming for your own story.

But I can certainly see the other argument, which would be that you don’t want to clog up the whole line with months of crossover books and spread the story too thin.

“what does it say aobut FC that none of the other major books (e.g., Superman, Batman, Justice League) make reference to it at all?

It says that the other major books take place before Final Crisis.

Nice to see relatively good numbers on Billy Batson; hope Mike can keep up the schedule.

LL

A shame. A real f*&%ing shame.

On the other hand, Power Girl votes Republican because of national security. That’s just funny, if for the wrong reasons. (Also Rick Leonardi’s art was kinda fun on the first issue, though I didn’t stick around for the third.)

Anyway, thanks for the crunching, just pointing out, as you already know, that the full story sometimes takes an extra month.

Best,

Gail

I’m sure they’re considered part of the DC Universe and everything, but so far it seems they’re not affecting the week-to-week continuity of the major books, and I think that’s reflected in their sales.

Now, as Brian says, the October issue of REIGN IN HELL was labeled with one of their “Sightings” banners and advertized as being significant in some way or other, so maybe that’s going to change.

As far as Flash goes, DC has already sent letters to subscribers saying that December’s Flash #247 is the last issue of the series… so yeah, they’re pushing it off the table to focus on Rebirth…which won’t start until at least April.

I don’t get your “out-of-continuity” statements — REIGN IN HELL had a “Sightings” logo even, meant to indicate a “key” continuity issue.

-B

SUPERMAN’S REIGN, I get (sorta, I guess; that might change if the Tangent characters come back to the main DCU at the end, though), but how are the ADAM STRANGE SPECIAL and REIGN IN HELL ooc, exactly?

In any event, that RiH figure is ugly as… well, sin.

“The interesting thing about DC’s “Decisions” is the almost complete lack of press coverage.”

Well, with comics on Obama, McCain, Palin and Clinton out there from other publishers, I guess a hush, hush election tie-in with fake candidates in the DC Universe just didn’t seem to be very noteworthy to any mainstream news outlet.

Tom:

“Hey, regarding the introductory graph, was there any reason to suspect that the financial crisis would have an effect on comics sales figure given that these were from orders like two months old?”

The financial crisis began to pop up on people’s radars in early September, so through final order cut-uff dates and reorder activity (or lack thereof, in this case), it’s not inconceivable that there might have been some early effects on the periodical direct market.

But you’re entirely right that any major effects, if they do exist, are unlikely to reek their head until the numbers for October through January come in, with special attention on the December and January figures.