DC Month to Month Sales January 08

[Heidi M.]

Corrected and revised, the DC Sales trends for January (http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/03/12/dc-mowoodnth-to-month-sales-january-2008/) are up at the Beat. Will controversy follow? Tune in next week!

[Ray G.]

Wow. Those Wildstorm numbers are atrocious.

[Shwicaz]

I said this over at Newsarama, and I will say it here as well:

With Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman's individual titles all shedding readers, it makes me wonder what will happen when TRINITY comes out.

Will people prefer to read the weekly book about these three as opposed to reading the books of these characters in their own title?

I mean, if comic fans are paying for TRINITY 4 X a month, are they also going to pick up Wonder Woman, Action Comics, Superman, Batman, Detective Comics, etc.?

Or will the sales of Trinity cannibilize the character's individual titles for the year?

This will be very interesting to watch.

[Dreg]

I said this over at Newsarama, and I will say it here as well:

With Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman's individual titles all shedding readers, it makes me wonder what will happen when TRINITY comes out.

Will people prefer to read the weekly book about these three as opposed to reading the books of these characters in their own title?

I mean, if comic fans are paying for TRINITY 4 X a month, are they also going to pick up Wonder Woman, Action Comics, Superman, Batman, Detective Comics, etc.?

Or will the sales of Trinity cannibilize the character's individual titles for the year?

This will be very interesting to watch.

I's also stupid for Geoff Johns to be writing a Rogues Revenge miniseries that will likewise cannibalize the Flash when having him on the main title would totally rejuvenate sales.

[Fake Pat]

I said this over at Newsarama, and I will say it here as well:

With Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman's individual titles all shedding readers, it makes me wonder what will happen when TRINITY comes out.

Will people prefer to read the weekly book about these three as opposed to reading the books of these characters in their own title?

I mean, if comic fans are paying for TRINITY 4 X a month, are they also going to pick up Wonder Woman, Action Comics, Superman, Batman, Detective Comics, etc.?

Or will the sales of Trinity cannibilize the character's individual titles for the year?

This will be very interesting to watch.


I's also stupid for Geoff Johns to be writing a Rogues Revenge miniseries that will likewise cannibalize the Flash when having him on the main title would totally rejuvenate sales.

Good calls by both of you.

I (and the people who run my LCS) are simply baffled by DC's entire direction right now. The sheer incompetence is staggering.

[Ashwin Pande]

Wow.

Horrible numbers all around.

Well I pretty much gave up on DC after Infinite Crisis and have only liked a few select titles since (almost everything Geoff Johns did and some other stuff in between) but man... I can't help but feel a little vindicated... somewhat... that what they're doing is not working. I don't want to see them fail and see some of my favorite characters have their titles cancelled but goddamn they have made some godawful (imo) decisions and I do feel somewhat vindicated that the market seems to have thought so too.

And as for Wildstorm....

can we please accept that the Grant Morrison stuff isn't happening and just let it go instead of promising to see it in 2009? Just move on and give the WildStrom universe back to Joe Casey and Warren Ellis please?

Please?

Btw... it is fucking criminal that Scalped sells so less.

[Fake Pat]

Wow.

Horrible numbers all around.

Well I pretty much gave up on DC after Infinite Crisis and have only liked a few select titles since (almost everything Geoff Johns did and some other stuff in between) but man... I can't help but feel a little vindicated... somewhat... that what they're doing is not working. I don't want to see them fail and see some of my favorite characters have their titles cancelled but goddamn they have made some godawful (imo) decisions and I do feel somewhat vindicated that the market seems to have thought so too.

And as for Wildstorm....

can we please accept that the Grant Morrison stuff isn't happening and just let it go instead of promising to see it in 2009? Just move on and give the WildStrom universe back to Joe Casey and Warren Ellis please?

Please?

Btw... it is fucking criminal that Scalped sells so less.

The only problem with that is that DC has already alienated Ellis, and (while I think Joe Casey is a pretty solid writer myself) without major talent WS books are a dead property. The entire line was launched off of name recognition.

And I'm totally with you on that first paragraph. I was all set to delve in DC big-time with IC, and they let me down. And I do feel a little vindicated as well.

[McAfee]

I'm not that surprised. Two-plus years of giant continuity crossovers has gotten me away from the core titles. I only read Vertigo (well, did until Y and American Virgin stopped), Ex Machina and ASS now. They're all clusterfuck-free.

EDIT: I do read 100 Bullets and Scalped in trades.

[Ashwin Pande]

The only problem with that is that DC has already alienated Ellis, and (while I think Joe Casey is a pretty solid writer myself) without major talent WS books are a dead property. The entire line was launched off of name recognition.

And I'm totally with you on that first paragraph. I was all set to delve in DC big-time with IC, and they let me down. And I do feel a little vindicated as well.

Yeah but that whole thing failed. Morrison failed to deliver (or whatever happened... what I read was Gene Ha saying that he never got the scripts and moved on to other things) and instead of going with something else they waited.

For two years. (It's been 2 years right?)

Wildstorm needs to ditch this. Say that Captain Atom thing never happened and just go back to where Joe Casey left off on WildCats and where Brubaker left off on the Authority. Get Casey back and get someone else to write Authority. From what I've heard Gage wasn't bad and actually did pick up where Brubaker left off... so that might work if it's given a good push.

It's just too bad. It was the most streamlined, most simple superhero universe and it's just fucked now. Not to mention the idiotic (imo) decision to make it one of the 52 earths. Horrible decision.

The thing about me and DC is that I've been a DC fan for about twenty years. I missed all the silver age stuff and grew up on the 80s and 90s stuff. So when they decided to throw out all that and replace it with the 60s and 70s stuff I felt betrayed and irritated. But even then in the beginning I wanted to see what they'd do and see if it'd work. It never did. It just seemed so bizarre to me. They wanted to have the silliness of the silver age and still have the more "real" aspect of the 80s and 90s and that just does not work.

You can't have "HA-HA! Weird Aliens thought we were the threat!" and in the next panel have someone going "He Raped Her!" It just doesn't work.

I'm not happy they're not selling. I want Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman to be top selling books but man the decisions they've made on the characters over the last two years... it's not surprising at all to me that they're not and I guess the numbers show others agree. I'm hoping this leads to a change... actual change and not just defiance from them and promises that this is all going to lead to some unknown thing looming on the horizon that is going to rock our balls off.

[Lord Jermaine Retail]

I said this over at Newsarama, and I will say it here as well:

With Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman's individual titles all shedding readers, it makes me wonder what will happen when TRINITY comes out.

Will people prefer to read the weekly book about these three as opposed to reading the books of these characters in their own title?

I mean, if comic fans are paying for TRINITY 4 X a month, are they also going to pick up Wonder Woman, Action Comics, Superman, Batman, Detective Comics, etc.?

Or will the sales of Trinity cannibilize the character's individual titles for the year?

This will be very interesting to watch.

Trinity will be cool, no doubt, but you cannot cannibalize your readership. It has got to be about the monthly titles, Action, Superman, Batman, Detective, and Wonder Woman. That is where the energy must go. That's basic to me. I think that DC has to stop putting all of its eggs into a weekly basket or a special event basket. By all means do a weekly, have that special event, but don't do it at the expense of the series that allowed you to be in business for decades. Weekly series end, in theory Action Comics and Detective Comics don't and have had loyal buyers who will support the series for as long as they are able to justify it. Unless it just gets to the point where the next sequential issue is on the shelf, but the action/ drama/ meat is elsewhere. That's competing with your own product within your own customer base. Does that make sense at all?

[Fake Pat]

Trinity will be cool, no doubt, but you cannot cannibalize your readership. It has got to be about the monthly titles, Action, Superman, Batman, Detective, and Wonder Woman. That is where the energy must go. That's basic to me. I think that DC has to stop putting all of its eggs into a weekly basket or a special event basket. By all means do a weekly, have that special event, but don't do it at the expense of the series that allowed you to be in business for decades. Weekly series end, in theory Action Comics and Detective Comics don't and have had loyal buyers who will support the series for as long as they are able to justify it. Unless it just gets to the point where the next sequential issue is on the shelf, but the action/ drama/ meat is elsewhere. That's competing with your own product within your own customer base. Does that make sense at all?

Absolutely.

[juampi]

I miss the 1985 to 1999 DC.

[Ashwin Pande]

hmm. that is a very good point about Trinity.

I'm sure they must have considered it. Unless they stopped at the idea of having the top three characters in one weekly book being comic book gold. I'm sure Trinity will be good... Busiek and Bagley.. awesome.. but that is a good point.

I think they'll probably tie it into the other monthly titles like Countdown.

Have they said that they wont be doing what they did with Countdown?

[Fake Pat]

hmm. that is a very good point about Trinity.

I'm sure they must have considered it. Unless they stopped at the idea of having the top three characters in one weekly book being comic book gold. I'm sure Trinity will be good... Busiek and Bagley.. awesome.. but that is a good point.

I think they'll probably tie it into the other monthly titles like Countdown.

Have they said that they wont be doing what they did with Countdown?

I'm pretty sure they have.

But I don't have any faith in what they say anymore.

[Shwicaz]

hmm. that is a very good point about Trinity.

I'm sure they must have considered it. Unless they stopped at the idea of having the top three characters in one weekly book being comic book gold. I'm sure Trinity will be good... Busiek and Bagley.. awesome.. but that is a good point.

I think they'll probably tie it into the other monthly titles like Countdown.

Have they said that they wont be doing what they did with Countdown?

They didn't say much, other than each issue of trinity will have a 12 page 'main' story each issue, and then a back up story that further explores characters/themes from the main story.

[juampi]

They didn't say much, other than each issue of trinity will have a 12 page 'main' story each issue, and then a back up story that further explores characters/themes from the main story.

It will be like a mini-anthology book, then.

[Steve Q]

when didio came along, and nabbed guys like Rucka and Morrison, I was really excited. Not because I have any great affinity for the DC line; I'm a Marvel guy through and through.

I genuinley thought that DC would become an interesting place with all these creative voices being let loose on the DCU. I was glad to see someone stepping up to the gauntlet that Joe Q threw down and glad to see someone willing t up the quality level in comics. I was hoping that Didio could not only make the DCU interesting, but also keep the hits coming from Wildstorm and Vertigo.

3 years later, the DCU is a mess. Vertigo and Wildstorm sales are in the shitter.

If Warner Bros has any sense, they'd be taking out want ads.

[Lord Jermaine Retail]

I miss the 1985 to 1999 DC.

Word. But they say you can never go home again or whatever so....