Comments on: Marvel Month-to-Month Sales: April 2009

by: Callum

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:40:19 +0000

The Wolverine Art Appreciation variants, for the most part, were pretty well done.

by: Samy Merchi

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:41:12 +0000

“From the look of this, people just weren’t particularly crying out for a revival of the 2099 imprint.”

I know I was, but this wasn’t the 2099 guys I know. These were some other guys. Maybe if this hadn’t been “Ultimate 2099″ with different characters, things might have been different.

Probably not by more than 2-3k though.

by: Faust

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:18:03 +0000

Thanks for that Brian.

by: Reboot

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:57:06 +0000

Fallen Son: Iron Man was Cap’s funeral, wasn’t it? Maybe they were counting on another slow news day.

by: Travis Herrick

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:05:33 +0000

Maybe Marvel added an extra zero on their initial order of that Iron Man comic.

by: Paul O'Brien

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:00:36 +0000

The “Wolverine Art Appreciation” covers are pictures of Wolverine in the style of famous painters (for the most part - there’s a Peanuts one and a cave painting one, off the top of my head, but you get the general idea).

by: Legitsquare

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:58:25 +0000

Spider-Girl was moved to Spider-Man family?
I used to read Spider-Girl and I had no idea that occurred. I thought she just vanished.

by: Jerry

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:25:03 +0000

I think what can be said with confidence about Ellis’s ability to sell comics is that while his name may sell books, it clearly doesn’t sell as many books as Whedon’s does.

by: Jason in Hollywood

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:55:25 +0000

Love looking at these sales numbers.

It’s amazing how X-Factor was really hit by shocking Larry Stroman art and poor PAD She-hulk SI crossover, but fingers crossed it’ll start to climb again with its strong storytelling.

Can’t believe that Captain Britain canceled with all these Wolverine one-shots out there. I wonder how well it may have done if the economy hadn’t gone down the pan?

by: Wraith

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:09:26 +0000

Paul, I’m talking specifically about the work for hire work. I also acknowledge that there are fans out there who will buy a book solely because Ellis is writing it (we have several file customers at our store who ask for everything written by Ellis). My point was/is that his fanbase isn’t large enough to be a major sales booster for his company own Marvel and DC work.

In regards to sales going up on THUNDERBOLTS when he took over that book, that had more to do with the book (a) being an INITIATIVE tie in for the first few issues of his run (b) having variant covers for the first 6 issues of his run and (c) dealers waiting to see how they should adjust their orders on the book after his first story arc and the gimmicks were over, which was made SLIGHTLY more difficult since the book was late several times (and yes, I know we have 3 weeks to adjust our orders before a book ships, but most dealers wait to the first issue of the 2nd arc after the “crossover” is over to make those adjustments).

by: faust

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:39:06 +0000

What exactly is a ‘Wolverine Art Appreciation’ variant? Is it basically just a cover of wolverine on every other title? Because the ‘Art Appreciation’ part makes it sound like something more.

by: Pierce

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:38:25 +0000

While the new Exiles may have launched with lesser numbers than “New Exiles” did, I will go out on a limb here and say it will not plummet in slaes like Claremonts crappy title did, and should be fine, for a longer periof of time.

by: Paul O'Brien

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:50:42 +0000

It depends what you mean by “sell books.” There are undoubtedly people who buy comics because Warren Ellis is writing them. He clearly brought new readers to THUNDERBOLTS, for example. And his creator-owned indie work evidently sells well enough to make it worth his while. (As he’s pointed out many times, it doesn’t NEED to sell in Marvel numbers to make him more money, because he gets a bigger cut from the indie books.)

He doesn’t have the drawing power to support a blockbuster, top-5 title on his name alone. But he does have the drawing power to turn a C- or D-list Marvel Universe title into a B-list title, which is more than can be said for most writers.

by: Kamandi

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:53:45 +0000

Amazing 591 is the issue of the “world memory erasing”’s explanation about Spiderman’s secret identity. There is the new unmasking too. The 3% increase is due to this events.

by: Highway 62 » Tracking up? Agents of Atlas? Wha?

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:07:57 +0000

[…] But there it is in black and white. […]

by: Wraith

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:58:20 +0000

You would be surprised how many fans and editors believe that any comic book will and can sell soley on the NAME of just about any popular and/or critically acclaimed writer.

And for the record I am not (I repeat “I AM NOT”) saying Ellis is a “crappy writer” or dissing his work on AXM (or anything else that he has written in the past). My point is/was that MOST (if not ALL) popular and/or critically acclaimed writers can cause a book to sell big numbers on their NAME alone.

by: jason

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:48:52 +0000

I thought it was kind of clear after Nextwave that Ellis’ name doesn’t sell a book at all.

by: Ken Raining

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:48:14 +0000

“With the plummeting sales on ASTONISHING X-MEN can people finally admit that Ellis name on a book is not enough alone to sell a book? ”

I thought that was astonishing myself (no pun… well, okay, pun intended).

by: Wraith

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:15:41 +0000

With the plummeting sales on ASTONISHING X-MEN can people finally admit that Ellis name on a book is not enough alone to sell a book?

by: yep

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:15:31 +0000

I thought they did.

by: Ken Raining

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:56:58 +0000

Jesus, why doesn’t Marvel just put variant covers on every damn book they publish?

by: Mark Coale

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:47:17 +0000

I think the Wizard of Oz book might be my favorite book from Marvel right now (with the critically acclaimed ATLAS and MI13 close behind). It’s such a pretty book and will be great as a collection. Glad there will be more after this one.

by: Alan Coil

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:13:35 +0000

“At number 163, it’s yet another batch of the dreaded FALLEN SON: DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA - IRON MAN, which Marvel continues to dump on the market at regular intervals. There’s 12,063 of them this month. Given Marvel’s normal caution about overprinting, you have to wonder why on earth Marvel printed so many of these things.”

Perhaps they were destined for Wizard’s 9.8 Slabbed Comics Program.

by: Alan Coil

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:10:14 +0000

“The boost is thanks to, you guessed it, a Wolverine Art Appreciation variant - Chris Eliopoulos doing Charles Schultz.”

You meant Charles Schulz, I’m sure.

by: Ken B.

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:20:31 +0000

Was Marvel really expecting us to believe that an inker was causing the FF delays when they’re still occurring?

by: Chris

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:37:01 +0000

Thanks for tracking these numbers every month!

by: Paul O'Brien

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:31:46 +0000

One for each claw, perhaps. AMAZING TALES OF CENTRE LEFT.

by: Alan Coil

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:25:31 +0000

I think we need more Wolverine titles. And Avengers. And X-Men. But not Spider-Man.