Monday, November 7, 2011

The New King of Comic Sales

What a difference a few days makes. Last Monday, I was talking about Marvel's Day and Date Digital announcement. I thought that news would keep Marvel in the spotlight of the comics blogoverse for a while, but Friday DC stole Marvel's thunder when Bleeding Cool revealed  DC outsold Marvel for October.



And for the most part, the comments (over a hundred so far) are very positive and congratulatory to DC. It seems that most readers are glad to see DC succeeding with the relaunch.

Some naysayers are talking about how things will return to normal (ie: Marvel going back to the top sales spot) in a few months, but I wouldn't count on that.

For one thing there are quite a number of new DC projects coming up in the 2nd wave of the relaunch including these titles:
  • A new JSA book
  • A new Captain Marvel book (spinning out of the Justice League back up series)
  • Watchmen 2
  • Grant Morrison's Multiversity
  • Batman Inc. (Which I was really enjoying until the hiatus)
  • World's Finest (or some Batman/Superman team up book)
With those titles on the horizon and the current line doing so well, I think Marvel will have a hard time dethroning the new king of the charts. Marvel's usual strategy of countering with new versions of Avengers, Spider-man and X-men have all been played out. This current overturning actually takes place in a month when Marvel released their new Wolverine and the X-men 1, which came in behind Incredible Hulk 1 (which just goes to show how much clout that franchise has lost due to overexposure.)

Here is a chart of the top ten for October. Looking at it, the number of $3.99 comics is a little dismaying. Also, if you know someone who paid $4.99 for Fear Itself 7, please give them my sympathy. :D I've heard nothing but disappointment about that series. It appears to have been a Toy Pitch gone bad.

1 JUSTICE LEAGUE #2 $3.99 DC
2 BATMAN #2 $2.99 DC
3 ACTION COMICS #2 $3.99 DC
4 GREEN LANTERN #2 $2.99 DC
5 FLASH #2 $2.99 DC
6 DETECTIVE COMICS #2 [*] $2.99 DC
7 INCREDIBLE HULK #1 $3.99 MAR
8 WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN #1 $3.99 MAR
9 FEAR ITSELF #7 $4.99 MAR
10 SUPERMAN #2 [*] $2.99 DC


With that, I present today's Free Comic, featuring another sort of King. The Boy King! from Clue Comics 5



- Enjoy!

7 comments:

Trey said...

Interesting the Hulk up there. I guess it was a number one effect.

Jim Shelley said...

@Trey - actually, I think the Hulk's position is due in part to the superstar status that Jason Aaron seems to have risen up to. His Wolverine and Scalp stuff has catapulted him into a marquee name apparently. (From what I can gather from the Podcast chatter.)

MattComix said...

Frankly I'm disgusted by this. DC could have done this (the character focus, advertising, etc.) without hacking the characters up into these pop-collar and pseudo-porn versions of themselves. So really all these numbers prove is that Didio Comics can always score high by aiming low.

cash_gorman said...

That issue of Clue Comics is the first real Golden Age Comic that I owned. A real blast with a bunch of interesting superheroes and a super-Nazi as well. Considering I had never heard of these characters before and the book had decent artwork for the time from beginning to end, I was surprised as I would come across other comics by more well known publishers that would be far more disappointing.

Jim Shelley said...

@MattComix - Matt, please don't sugar coat it. Tell me how you really feel! ;)

Jim Shelley said...

@cash_gorman - Oh man, I can so sympathize with that feeling of find other comics by more well known publishers that were not as good as some other comic by an unknown. One of the things that makes the Golden Age stuff exciting to me is that diamonds in the rough surprise of finding some new series(like Clue Comics Boy King) that exceeds your expectations. On the flipside is finding some better known comic that fails to meet expectations. (Robotman from Detective Comics is another one I think exceeded my expectations)

cash_gorman said...

And never in a million years did I think a publisher would bring back Boy King and his Giant without me winning a lottery. Yet he plays a pretty big role in the second series arc of Dynamite's SUPERPOWERS.

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