Marvel Now Sales - One Year Later

Last year, when Marvel started its Marvel Now Initiative, there were some impressive sales numbers clocked in by many of the titles as they were all rolled out each month. For many fans watching the hoopla, there was a strong sense of Deja Vu from DC's  New 52 launch. However, as I showed in a follow up article, the sales of the DC 52 titles fell quite a bit within the year.

So today, let's do the same thing with the Marvel Now sales. First, here are the initial sales figures of the first batch of titles that came out within the first few months of Marvel Now.


First thing to notice is how much disparity there is between the Avengers and X-men titles from just about everything else. I would love to ask of retailers what was the reasoning here. Why would you order 3X the number of one title as the rest of the core (FF, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor) titles? Isn't the core the better barometer of how much you will actually sell?

I suppose some of the answer to that question can be found in the number of Variant covers which the Marvel Now launch had. I guess if as a retailer, you can make up the difference in cost of ordering extra issues by reselling a variant covers to hard core fans or on ebay, then it's a good strategy.

Anyway, here's where Marvel stands One Year Later. (I've overlaid the current sales over the intial sale to show how far titles have fallen.)

This is a much closer grouping of titles vis a vis sales. This is what I would expect the launch to look like (if it hadn't been skewed by variant titles.)

Notice the huge amount of titles in the Brown bars area. Those are all within the historical cancellation zone. Not good.

Here is another view of the data. The blue line is the starting sales of all the Marvel titles. The red line is where each of those titles stand now. The number of titles under the 50K mark is over half the line.


To give you some perspective, several years ago at HeroesCon, a DC editor casually dismissed a fans question about Aquaman getting his own title again by saying he never sells above 50K. Other editors at the panel all agreed with one making a joke involving the phrase sink or swim, which generated a chorus of laughter.

So that's what we have now. Half of the Marvel line sells at an amount that the industry used to sneer at.

Among those titles that have proved the most successful with the Marvel Now Launch are these three:




The biggest loser is the Fantastic Four titles (both of which are being cancelled.)



The series is going to be relaunched with James Robinson writing it and while he can be a very talented writer who brings greatness to a title, I don't know if he had enough marquee value in this day in age. Starman and The Golden Age were a long time ago.

So What's Next? - I've been watching these numbers come in over the past few months and I have to wonder what Marvel is going to try to increase sales for next year. I know they have some second wave of Marvel Now books coming out but I don't think we are going to see anything close to the sales they started with last year. Nor do I think Marvel is going to have another successful(?) event after the slow burn of Age of Ultron and Infinity.

Ultimately, I think 2014 is going to be a challenging year for Marvel.

- Jim

Is Andy Olsen the real creator of Wolverine?

Over at Bleeding Cool, Rich Johnston has been following the astounding price jump in ebay auctions featuring Foom Issue 2

 

On ebay, this issue normally sells for $5 but recently, it has been selling for over a $100 with a recent auction ending at $225. What seems to be driving this price is a story Rich did pointing out that in issue 2, there was a Create A Character contest in which a Marvel Fan Andy Olsen sent in a cyborg character named Wolverine.

Click on the image below and look at the center of the page to see what the hoopla is all about:

 While the timing is coincidental (Andy's character appeared 6 months before Len Wein and Herb Trimpe created the character in Hulk 181) I think it's safe to say Marvel doesn't have to worry about Mr. Olsen getting lawyered up and coming after them. While Olsen's contest entry is sort of neat with its Origin Montage as a background, the character design is vastly different. This is just another one of those cases of people latching on to a cool sounding name (like Scarecrow) and going with it. Notice there is also a Quasar among the entries.

Still, in digging around to find out what the character looked like, I got a kick seeing all the Create A Character entries. Here's the other page of entries from the same issue.

While the entries range vastly in quality and technique, I think my favorite is Chuck Slater's warrior woman with her chained ape sidekick.

Anyone else remember this issue?

- Jim

Bringing Wonder Woman to the Big Screen

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. Thanks to everyone who asked how things were going during my break. I used to the time off to reflect on the future of this blog. One of my issues is that my day job is one that has me sitting down typing a lot, so I am often reluctant to do the same thing during my weekends.

So, what I think I might want to try is an experiment of sorts where I post shorter items, more frequently, rather than the big posts on the weekends. From time to time, I will still put out a big post, (I have one on comparing Marvel Now sales data in the works) but I think shorter posts might work better for me in the long run.

With that in mind, the topic of today sprung to my mind from an email from friend of the FBU Scott Simmons. He found this exchange on some social media site accompanying this image of the new Guardians of the Galaxy move line up:

DC:  "Wonder Woman is a difficult character to work out on the big screen."

Marvel:  "Our next movie is about some failed '70s characters, a talking raccoon, and a tree."

This elicited a chuckle from me because it really illustrates the different approaches between the two studios. The conventional wisdom (which Time Warner seems to hold dear to their heart) is that action/adventure movies that feature woman historically don't do well. That coupled with the problematic nationalistic imagery of Wonder Woman would make a movie with her a chancy proposition.

Meanwhile, Disney continues to crank out mega blockbusters that feature female heroines. At the time of this posting, their latest movie in this category, Frozen, has earned $256 million dollars.

Now, I can already hear the naysayers...

...but Frozen is an animated musical based on a fairy tale for kids! Wonder Woman needs to be an serious superhero movie like Iron Man or Man of Steel!

Well, while I think you *could* make a good action/adventure movie with Wonder Woman (because I've seen several cool fan film trailers that have done just that very thing) I have to think that Time Warner might be missing a golden opportunity to lasso a whole new contingent of fans for the character by taking a different approach with the movie.

Think about it:

• Wonder Woman is a princess created by magic
• She inhabits a magical/mythical realm
• She has a brightly colored outfit that would look fine in an animated movie (as opposed to how we will probably get it in a live action movie - dark and drab)

What if TW went with an animated action/adventure (like How to Tame a Dragon or Monsters vs Aliens) using the Wonder Woman mythos?



One of the battle cries of comic curmudgeons such as myself is that there are no new readers coming into the hobby. I think such a movie would be a perfect way to introduce a whole new generation of kids to the character.

What do you think?

Holiday Break

Looking at my calendar over the next few months, I see I'm going to be pretty busy with holiday events and other projects, so I'm going to take a break from posting for a bit.

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday season!

- Jim

The Demon vs The Phantom Stranger

Continuing my Halloween themed Lost 100 Pagers, I present a cover featuring two of my favorite Bronze Age arcane adventurers:  Jack Kirby's Demon and the mysterious Phantom Stranger.

 

The art for this cover was designed and created by FBU Goto Artist Reno Maniquis, who came up with the interesting notion of Etrigan trapping the Phantom Stranger in a pentagram (which strikes me as something that might actually work given that the Stranger is often alluded to as being a fallen angel of some sort.)

Here is the original artwork without my 100 Pager embellishments:

As I was working on this cover, I thought about how many times DC has presented the Demon in a regular title. As a refresher, here's what I recalled:

First there was his initial run by creator Jack Kirby (click to see this page in full size)

Sadly, Kirby's run didn't last nearly long enough. After Kirby left DC to go back to Marvel, the character would languish only appearing in a few Brave and the Bolds (which is where I discovered him.)

His next solo series - which I was eagerly waiting for upon first hearing about in the mid 80's was with rising star Matt Wagner, creator of Mage, an independent series I had enjoyed.

 

I had high hopes for this series, but was greatly disappointed by it at the time. To be honest, I don't remember much about it (I have a vague memory of the Etrigan and Jason Blood being separated, which is always a mistake) but other than that, no details stand out. I should check it out again to see if it was really as bad as I my younger self thought.

From there, the character would make a few cameos in some 80's comics with his most notable being in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run. It would be awhile (1990) before he got another run in a full blown series - this time written by Alan Grant and pencilled by Val Semeiks.

I tried a few issues from this run, but it never really struck a chord with me. It may have been a bit too jokey for my tastes (perhaps emulating the jovial tone of Giffen's Justice League?) On the other hand, I've seen it convincingly argued that this version of the Demon is this most definitive (outside of the Kirby run) and my tastes in comics and art have changed quite a bit in the last 20 years, so it's possible I would enjoy the series more now. I will probably round up the first 12 issues and give it another go.

Next up is another near miss I'm afraid (based on the short length of the run) when John Byrne took a shot at the character.

This run wasn't bad (as most Byrne stuff tends to be pretty solid) but the title didn't really ignite with modern readers, most of which were only familiar with Byrne as that crazy guy who is always getting his rather incendiary message board post reported on Bleeding Cool.

The last entry in the list presented a non-rhyming Etrigan who was mostly Demon In Name Only. Paul Cornell's Demon Knights.

The premise of this series really had me excited but the overly large cast of characters (none of which really seemed to actually IN character) grew wearisome. The series felt a bit like it was a story Cornell had dreamed up with other characters and he was shoe horning elements of the DC universe into it to fulfill his monthly obligations.

Which brings us to now? With so many incarnations of the Demon having come before (and only the 90's version lasting very long) one has to wonder what will the next one be like? And how long will it last?

Only time will tell.

Happy Halloween!

- Jim

Aquaman (and Namor) vs the Creature of the Black Lagoon

Here's one of two Lost 100 Pagers I'm presenting this month in honor of Halloween. This one features the undersea battle we would a like to see but probably never will: Aquaman vs The Creature of the Black Lagoon!



The artwork for this cover comes to us from the talented Randy Valiente who was recommended to me by Reno.

Here is the actual art without the cover embellishments:


If you want to see more of Randy's art, check out his website and deviant art page at:
www.randyvaliente.carbonmade.com  and www.randyvaliente.deviantart.com

Bonus: While looking for reference materials for this cover artwork, I stumbled across what looks like someones mock ups for a Sub-Mariner vs Creature of the Black Lagoon movie. Does anyone know the origin of these images:




I also found something I remembered seeing before - some panels from a actual Sub-Mariner comic story (Sub-Mariner #35 published in 1954) in which he fought a CotBL looking opponent.


On the DC side, the closest approximation or analogue to the CotBL didn't appear in Aquaman (as far as I know) but rather in the Legion of Super-heroes issue 202...

Where we were introduced to the Dave Cockrum designed Devil Fish (albeit, this creature lacks a lot of the distinctive elements of the Universal sea beast. I suspect that was partly intentional.)

If anyone knows of a better DC cameo by the Creature please let me know.

- Jim

Super Born: Seduction of Being Interview

Months ago, I posted some reviews of some superhero novels I had enjoyed. This post put me on the radar of new novelists who wanted to let me know about their new Superhero novels. Today, I present an interview from one such novelist, Keith Kornell, the author of Super Born: Seduction of Being

FBU: What is Super Born: Seduction of the Being about?

KK: The Super Born are a group of normal average women born during a time of Cold War performance enhancing experiments who develop super powers in their thirties challenging the lives that had come to know. This book revolves around a Journalist's obsessive search for one of the Super Born who has chosen to risk her existing life to use her powers in public service.

FBU: What are the powers of your main character?

The woman the Journalist searches for is known as the B.I.B. and her powers are similar to that of superman; speed, flight, strength with the addition of fashionable shoes, nurturing motherhood, and vulnerability.

FBU: If you had to compare her to other super-heroines, who would you say she's most like? (Personality, Powers)

It would be a tough stretch to compare her to other super-heroines who are typically women given male characteristics and stylized female bodies. Being that she had an average life for 30+ years and only recently has developed powers she can't understand or sometimes control, she is some what uniquely feminine and somewhat real compared to other heroines.

FBU: What comics inspired you to write this book?

I think a super hero novel is a natural extension of the roots of super hero in the comics. The book was a work of inspiration whose source is mostly unknown even to me.  It's source was a simple conversation I overheard about women complaining about the childlike nature of the local men and how they felt very powerful and strong compared to them.  

FBU: Were you a big comic fan growing up? If so, what comics were among your favorites?

I was more of a James Bond Novel fan at a young age, writing secret agent style stories. However, a great respect for women has always put strong female characters in my stories.  I think making them Super Heroes is just a natural extension and maybe exaggeration of that concept.

FBU: Do you read comics now? If so, which ones do you like?

Sorry, I am not much of a comic reader. I prefer writing novels and making film productions.  We have numerous Super Born videos.

FBU: Do you plan on writing more superhero themed books?

Yes, Super Born is a multi-book series.  This is the first and concerns the search by the Journalist for the B.I.B.  The second book concerns the Journalist's relationship with the B.I.B. and the B.I.B.'s relationship with the other Super Born.  I would like to turn the complete series into a feature film or possibly a TV series.

FBU: Have you read any other superhero themed books that have come out now or in the past?

When I went to a Barnes & Noble and asked where the Super Hero Novel's were, I was directed to the graphic novels section.  Most super hero characters have come out of the comics and graphic novels. So even finding a super hero themed book is difficult.  When I wrote Super Born I had no idea that would be the case.

FBU: If they were going to make a movie out of Super Born: Seduction of the Being, who would you see cast as the main characters?

Now you are talking, because I have given a great deal of thought to producing Super Born and have made a low budget film version of the book's first chapter for promotional reasons. Logan, the journalist is a humorous romantic lead, so my first thought for him has been Ashton Kutcher as he can do comedy and is attractive enough to be a lead.  I have a great deal of trouble with the B.I.B. mostly because of age.  If Elizabeth Banks were younger she would do well and if Gillian Jacobs were older she would do well. The woman who starred in my video was Amy Brenckle.  She did an excellent job in the film, is the right age, and has moved out to Hollywood just recently to work on a project. Of course I have been spoiled by the model who did my book cover.  She is not an actress but embodies the look of both the Super Hero side and the single mother side of my book's main character.  Anyone playing the B.I.B. in my film will have to live up to that.

FBU: Thank you for this interview. Is there anything else you would like to tell people before we go?

KK: I think the relationship between super hero comics and novels such as mine, is a natural extension of the same base.  Writing the novel gives me the opportunity to add depth and humanity to the characters by showing all the sides of the character via their thoughts and feelings. Doing this has allowed me to make the B.I.B. a heroic yet 'real' character. She has to deal with the eternal questions that define all true heroes, as well as practical real life concerns Superman never had to concern himself with, such as if I go into this death defying battle what happens to my daughter if I don't come back out? In that way extending the comics with a novel adds depth and a more real, less fantasy, sense to the work for the reader to enjoy.

- Jim