A much, much smaller week this time out... not much from Marvel or DC's big crossovers (Dark Reign and Blackest Night, respectively) and not many "heavy hitter" books. My favorite new book of the year (Chew) is shipping this week, though.
This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.
1. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
2. Batman
3. All Blackest Night
4. Deadpool
5. Justice League Cry For Justice (tie)
5. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (tie)
5. Wednesday Comics (tie)
6. Marvel Zombies Return
7. Agents Of Atlas (tie)
7. Exiles (tie)
7. Immortal Weapons (tie)
7. Northlanders (tie)
8. All BPRD & Hellboy (tie)
8. Boys (tie)
8. Cable (tie)
8. Incognito (tie)
8. Invincible Iron Man (tie)
8. Star Wars Invasion (tie)
8. Supergirl (tie)
9. Batman Confidential (tie)
9. Doctor Who Ongoing (tie)
9. Irredeemable (tie)
9. Resurrection (tie)
10. Chew (tie)
10. DMZ trades (tie)
10. Ghost Riders Heavens On Fire (tie)
And Tied For 11th Place: Army Of Darkness #24, Authority #14, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep #3, Jonah Hex #47 & The Good The Bad & The Ugly #3.
Last week was a much bigger week... in fact, the tie for 11th place numbers last week were the same as the numbers for the number 5 slot this week. And two of the 11th place-holders this week actually have *zero* shelf sales, as they've sold so poorly over the last couple years that we've had to cut them back to subscriber-only and special-order books.
As with last week, the licensed books have higher preorders and lower shelf sales. This wasn't always true of Buffy, but it has become so in the last few months. We sell 50% less of that book now than we did at its outset. However, even after more than two years of sales, the book continues to sell better than any other licensed book we've ever had.
I generally just include the "all" numbers in with the totals, but I thought it'd be interesting to see that this week, the third place number is "anything with Blackest Night in it" (even the final issue of a miniseries not a ton of folks have been following, although in fairness, I expect a fair amount of those to go back to the shelf) rather than any specific comic. Judging by the sales, "Event fatigue" is not as prevalent as many might claim. My theory is that "event fatigue" should more accurately be called "buyer's remorse" as it doesn't really stop folks from buying (and being excited by) the next big event. And in many cases, those who gripe about event comics will also reminisce fondly about Civil War, Final Crisis and other events later on.
No real anomalies for us this week. We sell fairly well on Incognito, Northlanders, Agents of Atlas, which I think of more as "buzz" books, but I believe those are holding up relatively well on the sales charts as well nationwide.
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3 comments:
I was surprised to see Blackest Night at #3 until I read your explanation below, which I'm not sure I completely understand. When you sell big on GL Corps and BN Batman next week, will you list them separately, or glom them together as "all Blackest Night"?
When new issues of both BPRD and Hellboy come out next week, how will they be listed? I'm not trying to bust your balls here, just curious how you work it out.
In the end, I expect you'll sell less Solomon Grundy #7 this week than, say, Chew #4 or the Supergirl annual. (Hey, where's Proof?) But with the BN tie-in, maybe more of Grundy #7 than of issues 2-6?
Times like these, I thank God I am not a retailer.
I'll put the extra numbers from All Blackest Night in with Green Lantern Corps and Blackest Night Batman. Many of the subs who want All Blackest Night are already down for GL Corps or BN Batman, so it won't spike their sales as much. Really, it doesn't tell anything to say that Solomon Grundy #7 is at 3rd place this week, since it's really the Blackest Night tie-in that's moving it.
Same deal with BPRD/Hellboy, which this week is for Witchfinder. We've got folks who get BPRD or Hellboy separately, and I'll list those by title, but Witchfinder gets pretty much all of its goodwill from folks who've already bought into Mignola's shared universe.
And don't worry, I didn't feel like you were busting my balls. Honestly, I'm glad someone besides me finds this at all interesting. :)
Grundy #7 will *definitely* sell more than #2-6, and it might outsell Chew in the first week, but probably not over time. As for Proof, unfortunately that has moved to trade-only sales for a lot of our customers. It still sells to a handful of issue buyers, but a lot of folks have gone to trade on the series now that there are three trades out.
Thanks for the cogent response. I'm normally one who tells others not to obsess about sales figures, but I was interested in your P.O.V.
Re: BN -- I guess it should no longer surprise me that anyone would request "ALL" of a major event's tie-ins... even Grundy #7. I'm being selective (read: pain-in-the-ass), getting BN Supes but not Batman or Titans; will be getting Flash and JSA, but not WW. Maybe I'm unusual.
Y'know, I never picked up the Superman Beyond Final Crisis books, meaning that FC's last two issues are still gibberish to me. Some tie-ins are apparently more important than others... but how to guess which ones???
Re: Proof -- Yeah, trade-waiting's become a bad habit for me. But if you fail to pick up the medium-selling monthlies, there aren't likely to be many trades to wait for. I support my fave "smaller" books (Proof, Secret Six, Irredeemable) by buying them monthly now. I trade-wait on Walking Dead, JSA, Ex Machina and other books for which I don't fear cancellation.
Sorry about my long-windedness. Thanks for your indulgence.
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