Like in any industry, comic books and their companies listen most to one thing and that’s your money! What does your money tell them? What does it tell us as fans? What series do people say they adore but can’t seem to catch a break and what books to people hate that sell out? What are the trends? What looks good? What looks rough?

All these questions and more will be answered here, every month in ‘By The Numbers’ by comic writers, editors and fans, Glenn Matchett and Ray Goldfield.

Glenn Matchett is a comic writer and editor. He’s worked in the industry for 6 years but grew up reading comics. He is currently published with Outre Press, Nemeses Studios and Alterna! This year spent Christmas surrounded by family and watching Doctor Who. That wasn’t a tear in his eye…it was just dust.

Ray Goldfield is a fan of comic books for going on 25 years, starting with the death of Superman. He is a writer and editor for Grayhaven Comics and is working on his first novel. Ray also does a weekly roundup of DC comic reviews for website Geekmom and they’re brilliantly entertaining. Ray spent Christmas eating Chinese food and wondering why he lives in a world were Telos gets a series while Supergirl does not.

We also do a podcast together with longtime buddy, Brandon James on iTunes with Rabbitt Stew or at the link here! Don’t ask, I didn’t pick the name. Ironically in the last pre Christmas episode we talked about the Sales Chart so if you’d like to hear what me and Ray sound like when we do this, give it a listen!

Full sales numbers for November 2015 here!

Sales

Glenn: The top ten was again dominated by Marvel where they had 9 out of ten spots but the all important top spot was claimed by DC. Almost in response to being frozen out of the top ten last month, DC seemingly decided to go all nuclear with the November release of Dark Knight III.

With a follow up to one of the best regarded comic stories of all time (and a sequel too that no one likes to talk about), the return of a comic legend and putting Batman in a big elseworld title, it was inevitable that Dark Knight III would rack up the sales.

Despite costing 5.99, the newest installment in the universe first created by Frank Miller in 1986 sold over 440k. Some may say that compared to the much higher debut of Marvel’s Star Wars title last year, DC might have expected a bit more but there are a few factors to consider. Firstly, the price point which is very high, especially for a DC title and although Frank Miller in unquestionably a legend in the comic business one could argue that with his last Batman offering being All Star Batman and before that, Dark Knight Strikes Again, people may have been a bit hesitant to try out another chapter in this version of Batman.

I would still class this as a big success for DC because even with the amount of variants this book had, selling over 440k is something not be to be sneezed at. We’ll see how the title does as the series goes on but it will no doubt earn a fair amount for DC for years to come in collected form. Its probably just nice from DC’s perspective to have such a big sales number for any book in a market where Marvel is very much calling the shots.

Ray: I will be very interested to see how DKIII holds up over the rest of its run, but I think we can very clearly say that people are still interested in revivals of these classic 80’s epics. We saw pretty great numbers for the central minis of Before Watchmen, and this blows even that out of the water. Reception was overall pretty positive to this first issue, actually, a definite rebound to DKSA, so I think DC can easily chalk this up as a big win.

It’ll also be really interesting to see how the special collector’s edition does in the December sales, and where that is placed – on the regular sales charts, or the collected editions.

Glenn: DC certainty can’t be criticized for limiting the choice of format that you can buy DK III in. I don’t see the hardcover editions doing as well in the direct market but they’ll earn the company a pretty penny outside the direct market for sure.

Playing second fiddle to Batman is Star Wars, the little known franchise you may possibly hear a lot about this month. The Star Wars line are experiencing their first major crossover since coming back to Marvel and sales have reacted appropriately. The sales for the one shot, ‘Vader Down‘ sold over 384k which is a great start for any event launch. Of course, Darth Vader is one of Star Wars most popular characters so having his name in the title helps but never underestimate the power of the Marvel hype machine and the sales draw of writer Jason Aaron.

Curiously the main Star Wars book still made the top ten (twice) and sold its usual mega number of volumes with issue 11 selling over 126 k and issue 12 selling over 123k at numbers 7 and 9 respectfully. These are great numbers as always and Star Wars continues to be the best thing that Marvel have got their hands on in years but I would have thought that the Star Wars books might have seen a sales bump from the storyline. These issues sold over 200k under the first part of the event so again I wonder, where to retailers think these people they’ve clearly ordered Vader Down for are going to go when they want the next part of the story? I don’t want to infer these are bad numbers, they certainty are not but its an odd difference.

Ray: It’s pretty amazing – Vader Down is actually just the launch issue of a fairly limited-scale two-book crossover. Stores still ordered it higher than any event comic in years sans Secret Wars. The level of sales Star Wars is bringing to Marvel at this point is pretty much unprecedented for this era of comics, and I’m sure they’re going to be riding this wave for a long time. And after the movie hits (only a few days!!!), I’m sure the new fans will come flocking to these titles. Could there be a “Star Wars effect” for these books in December and January? Wouldn’t be surprised.

When it comes to the drops, that’s something we see a lot of. Crossovers are often ordered somewhat oddly, with big changes in the number ordered between chapters, based on what book they’re taking place in. My guess is, the numbers on Vader Down reflect the variant covers more than actual demands, but it’s still a huge number.

Glenn: I could see a definate buzz from the movie helping these title climb a bit. After its been a few months, I wonder if we’ll see Marvel release a new book set after Force Awakens cause that could mean some serious numbers for Marvel. Would Disney allow it? We know they like money but they want to starve people of more New Star Wars to make Episode 8 as big an event as Episode 7.

Proving his popularity continues to be just as crazy as he is, Deadpool launches his third new number one in under a decade with sales of 180k. The character has been a big seller for Marvel since the Daniel Way run of yesteryear and he continues to be worth all the mexican food in the world. To put it in perspective Deadpool outsold both the latest issue of Secret Wars and the new premier X title, Extraordinary X-Men as well as the new main Avengers book. Secret Wars is still selling strong despite everything slowly moving on from it but to me its really telling that Deadpool in his own solo title outsold a new X-Men book by an all star creative team that features characters that are way more better known to the casual market (at least until February). It also manages to beat out Avengers which was Marvel’s bread and butter title for over a decade, how things change indeed. I don’t expect the sales of the title to remain at this level but I can definitely see our favorite Merc With a Mouth becoming a top 15 staple (at least).

Backing up to Secret Wars for a moment where the seventh issue (only two more to go!) gets the number 4 spot with sales over 177k. Quite literally, the Marvel universe is leaving this event behind but it is still pulling in really good numbers. If it can end its run (in January as of this typing) over 150k, I’d say Marvel will be pleased enough of course.

The X-Men book by Jeff Lemire and Humburto Ramos may not have the pedigree of Uncanny but much like Astonishing X-Men back in the day, it seems to be the title that mutant (or is it gifted?) fans want to read. It makes the number 5 spot with sales of over 133. Another solid debut out of ANAD Marvel which drops down in the second issue in the same month of just over 64k and is being grouped together with the second issue of a lot of other new Marvel books (more on that later). I’ve seen far worse drops and if the book stabilizes quickly (which I believe it will, especially with an inner title crossover coming Summer 2016 featuring Apocalypse) Marvel will undoubtedly be pleased,

Ray: Yeah, given the state of the two franchises at the moment, I was rather surprised to see Extraordinary X-Men beat out All-New All-Different Avengers on the charts. I definitely think it feels like Avengers is in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment, with this team feeling more like a blend of experienced heroes and rookie teen heroes, which is definitely not what people are used to for their Avengers. Meanwhile, Extraordinary really got people’s interest with this new (and as always, grim) status quo for the X-men. It reminds me a lot of Astonishing years ago, where even though it wasn’t the most famous title, it immediately took over as the top-tier book (there due to the creative team). It’ll be interesting to see how both these books hold up over the long run, but I think they should remain mostly healthy.

Glenn: The new Avengers book does make the number 6 place with sales of over 128k. Again a very respectful

debut but it seems like Avenger’s time in the sun as Marvel’s big consistent seller may be over. It will remain stable of course, maybe for years to come but new Avenger’s titles could have bagged 200k easily not too long ago. Its a different market of course and this is a team filled with people who have never been on an Avenger’s team before but I would have thought it would have done a little better. For some reason even though for the moment, this is supposed to be the main Avenger’s book it appears to me to not have that kind of feel around it. I think its going to find it hard to distinguish itself from the other Avenger’s books in the coming months. We’ve also got the word that for FCBD that Marvel is doing another Avengers 1 without little more information than that. Is that going to be the main book then? A lot of questions around that one and if it replaces this book or takes its spot as the ‘main’ Avengers book, it would be a curious move by Marvel

Finally after a huge delay, Uncanny X-Men 600, the final issue of Brian Bendis X title run releases with sales over 126k at spot number 8. The exact reason why this issue being delayed for so long has been a big talking point. Some say that Marvel wanted a sure fire seller following the completion of Secret Wars (oops) but like many things in the world of comics, the true story behind it could forever remain a mystery. If Secret Wars is being left behind by ANAD Marvel then this issue of Uncanny is even further behind that. This is an anniversary issue of the long running X-Men title and sales are less than half of what I would have expected. With delays and being told by Marvel ‘no don’t look over there, look over here’ for several months, that probably explains the resulting numbers. Again, on their own the numbers are great but like a lot of the numbers in the top ten this month, they look odd in context.

Ray: I’m wondering what happened with the orders on #600, given that it was solicited, ordered, and then resolicited for months later. Were these the original orders, or were re-orders done? Either way, I think it reflects the end of a run that wasn’t received quite as strongly as Bendis’ runs on Daredevil, Avengers, or USM.

Glenn: Yeah, the Bendis run on X-Men seems to have been a bit of a non-starter. No better or worse than any previous X-Men over the past number of decades. As you mention, his previous runs did comparably better and he’s certainty done wonders for Guardians since. I would think these are probably the reorders and a few retailers perhaps missed the memo they had to?

One book in the top ten that is an unquestionable success is the All New Wolverine title which takes up the last spot at number 10. This is X-23 behind the cowl and this seems to be following in the footsteps of Thor and Spider-Gwen by having a female replacement of an iconic hero meaning a big hit for Marvel. The issue sold over 119k and for a book with a female lead that is a fantastic result. With X-23 taking on the identity of Wolverine, Marvel is showing that it is possible to have their cake and eat it too by having this title and the Old Man Logan title that will debut next month. I hear from Ray that the book is damned good too so well done to everyone involved.

Ray: Really glad to see All-New Wolverine debut so well! I said in our sales predictions article a while back that I didn’t feel like Marvel was promoting this as well as they were others, with Old Man Logan getting much more attention. It doesn’t seem to have mattered, because the character is rebounding pretty well from her appearance in the woeful “Wolverines”. These sales are far from what a Wolverine book would have launched with years ago, but the character’s days as a powerhouse are far behind them. I’m just happy to see that enough people checked out what is turning out to be an excellent book, and I think a lot of them will stick around.
Heading out of the top ten, the news becomes a little more mixed as we see DC start to get some names in and we see the second-month falls for Marvel’s books, as well as their lower-tier debuts.

The Mighty Thor launches at #12 with sales just over 112K. Definitely good numbers, but I kind of expected this to be ordered a bit higher given how well the first run went over. The real question here is whether it’ll hold as well as the previous run, which showed very little attrition over its run. Either way, I’m pretty confident that Aaron will be able to keep Jane Foster in the role as long as the story calls for it. I don’t feel that way about another replacement hero, which we’ll talk about much later.

Glenn: The new, new Thor book is another in the win column and if it holds well it kind of makes you wonder if it makes it worth Marvel’s time bringing the original version back. Of course, we asked the same of Superior Spider-Man and the fact that run was executed well brought a lot of attention to Amazing when it relaunched so it could be the same here. We’ll know either way towards the end of 2016 for sure but for now, another big success for another new version on a classic hero.

Ray: Amazing Spider-Man #3 seems to have found its level at roughly 93K. Very impressive, although it’s worth noting that Marvel’s top-selling ongoing is already below the level of DC’s top-selling ongoing, Batman – which continues to sell consistently above 100K.

Glenn: Has Batman ever slipped below six figures under Snyder and Capullo? I don’t believe it has and that’s rather unreal considering we’re going on nearly 50 issues now. A testament to how good that book is and I hope that if DC wants to keep it that way (which they will) they will have Snyder chained to his desk for the foreseeable future.

Ray: Yeah, I’m pretty sure this Batman book has never dipped under 100K, and I don’t expect it to anytime soon. That’s a whole other level of consistent success that Marvel – and every other book at DC, too – would love to have. The power of Batman! And this creative team, which can’t be ignored.

Glenn: It really is a perfect combination of creative team and character. Like another long running successful title in Walking Dead I think Batman gives something the market doesn’t have much of outside of small press titles and thats a consistant high quality creative team. Call me old school but I really want to go back to the days where we were getting 24 plus issues from the same writer/artist, I do think it makes a difference.
It also helps that both books are amazing, natch.

Ray: Deadpool #2 landed at 92K, so it may just give Spidey a run for his money as Marvel’s most consistant supehero book.

Glenn: Good solid numbers on both books. Amazing is enjoying its moment as Marvel’s consistent ‘go to’ title outside of the Star Wars line. It seems that Dan Slott has quite a lot up his sleeve for this book so I’d say that the sales will stay around this level, receiving the occasional bump when we get to the next big Spidey central event.

Knowing Marvel they’ll throw these guys in a book together or someth…oh wait. Like I said above, the fact that Deadpool is outselling most of the X-Men, Avengers and each team members solo titles is rather astonishing. People love their crazy merc with a heart of money.

Ray: The much-delayed Batman: Europa launched at #17. Strong numbers at over 80K, but likely a far cry from what the sales would have been with Jim Lee was slated to paint the whole thing.

Glenn: I guess its good for DC that they’re still putting out this book they promised oh so long ago. It launched okay with the names attached to it but I expect it to slide quickly and be forgotten about even quicker. Of all the times for it to launch given its history, finally coming out when a follow up to Dark Knight Returns has come out may have not been the best timing. Still its good numbers and again proves that when it comes to Batman, DC can still keep the lights on.

Ray: Now we get into an avalanche of #1s from Marvel, most of which had pretty solid if unspectacular starts. Ms. Marvel got a healthy boost from its first run, landing at #18 with 79K sales. Got to say I’m shocked that Carnage landed only one spot lower, as this was a title I had very little faith in. Maybe symbiotes still sell? And All-New Hawkeye’s #20 debut continues to show how the purple archer has become a hit character again. Even with Hawkguy still in the title!

Second-issue slides were fairly rough for Doctor Strange and Spider-Gwen, taking them down to the mid-60K range, but put it into perspective – this is a character who hasn’t had an ongoing for a decade, and an AU version of Spidey’s dead girlfriend! These are still smash hits, and I don’t know how many Marvel books will wind up holding better than these two.

Glenn: Its actually really interesting to me that a lot of these second issues have all dropped to the same level. The numbers are all roughly in the 60k range and the success will depend on which property is on the cover. As you rightly said, books like Doctor Strange or Spider-Gwen or Wolverine 2.0 will be considered a big hit but I’m sure that Marvel might’ve wanted a bigger landing point for Extraordinary X-Men. We even see Iron Man dropping below 60k on the third issue which makes me question the decision to give him another book, even if it is by a top tier creative team. It suggests to me that for the majority of Marvel books, retailers see them as being interchangeable. With so many relaunches over the past number of years Marvel has essentially trained the market to treat the majority of their books regardless of character or creator the same where they are mostly outsold by the Walking Dead.

Now, this could be looked at one of two ways. Firstly, it could be seen as genius because Marvel has now developed a stranglehold on the top 50 or so spots with a lot of their books coming in at that level. However it can be looked at that some of their previously mega successful properties like Avengers and X-Men have quite the punch anymore without a big mega event to hype them up. Its odd to think that slowly, month by month, chart by chart, Marvel is becoming increasingly successful on the fact that they are the company that publishes a lot of Star Wars books and new 1’s every so often.

Ray: I have to say, if the majority of Marvel’s new launches are at only 60K with their second issue, that’s not good news overall. There’s a few exceptions, but it seems the ceiling for all but the top titles is getting lower and lower, and even Marvel’s frequent relaunches and first-issue bumps can’t mask that forever. Of course, most of DC’s non-Bat titles would still kill for these numbers.

Glenn: That’s really true on both points. The relaunches are creating less and less of a benefit outside of a huge issue one (which are gradually getting less and less huge) but yeah, some of the post convergence DC title would be very pleased with these numbers. Its all about perspective in that regard and I’m sure that Marvel is happy with the majority of where the books have fallen and they’ll soon get back to the chalkboard on the ones they’re not happy with.

Ray: On that subject, Web Warriors, Ultimates, Howard the Duck, and Venom: Space Knight all debuted back-to-back in the 60K range. I expected a bit more for Web Warriors, being a direct spin-off of Spider-Verse. The others overperformed a bit, given that they’re lower-tier characters. Very happy to see Howard getting so much attention!

The lower-level Spider-titles of Silk and Spider-Woman didn’t hold up as well as the others, debuting at 33 and 37, respectively, with sales in the 50K range. I think the quick relaunch might have blunted Silk’s momentum a bit, and Spider-Woman was near cancellation numbers by the end of her last run, so I’m not too optimistic long-term for these.

Glenn: With Spider-Gwen on the case, other female Spider characters are going to suffer because even though they’ve been around a hell of a lot longer, they’ve never been as popular (well Silk is verly new too but you get my point). the market may only have enough love to give to one female Spider and the choice they’ve made is clear. I’ll be curious to see how long they both last.

Ray: Drax and the flashback-heavy Star-Lord relaunch landed at 40 and 44 respectively, with sales in the high 40K range. There’s probably a limit to Guardians mania, and these books might find it quickly – along with next month’s Guardians of Infinity launch. Nova did roughly the same range, with all three doing close to the second issue of the main Guardians book.

Glenn: It seems like many things, Marvel is testing the limit of how many Guardians books they can float. Certainty the fact that these books are doing verly well is something still even with so many but it might be time to start scaling back before they wear the characters out. I wouldn’t mind seeing the main book, Rocket and Groot and maybe an oversized issue (Guarding the Galaxy? Seriously Marvel I’m doing your job for free here) seeing interchanging teams handling the others would be good. Right now we have a lot and still Gamora on the schedule (as of this typing) and it might be a bit much.

Ray: We finally see some DC action down here, with the second month of Batman and Robin Eternal doing numbers roughly equivalent to the latest issue of Detective Comics, in the high 40s. I think DC might be getting steamrolled a bit by the avalanche of Marvel books, but from what I can tell this new run of Eternal is doing very well and will likely give them opportunities for new books to launch out of it.

Glenn: Oh yeah, DC is here too! For those keeping score, the highest non selling Batman book (again counting Harley Quinn) is Superman at 55 with of just under 42k. So outside of Batman, DC can’t get a win over Marvel or even Image in the top 50, oh dear.
Eternal though, like you said is holding up well. Not the powerhouse the last one run but its going to give a respectful number under it finishes up. I think if we view this mini as a hype book for a new DC launch (more Batman! More!) at this point then these are good numbers.

Ray: The 37th new Superman origin, American Alien, had less than Super numbers at #58, just over 40K. His current iffy status quo probably doesn’t help there.

Glenn: I have heard of this book, I can’t tell you one thing about it but I’ve heard of it. There seemed to be a lot of hype about the writer but either through ignorance or disinterest I’ve never heard of him. Superman the character is not in a position to hold the sales for a spin off outside of continuity unless its by names the market are familiar with or with a hook that seems halfway interesting. Even the very heavily critically Lois and Clark has sales just over 22k at the 109 spot with an in-continuity story (sort of?) and two comic legends. Since the new 52, it seems that outside of the Geoff Johns/Romita JR run that the damage has been done. This will need to be fixed to take advantage of when the film comes out in 12 weeks or so…if DC is going to do that.

Ray: And this is where we start getting into some of the lower-tier Marvel books. Hercules and Illuminati, both books with great creative teams but B-list characters, could only manage debuts in the 44K range, at the midpoint of the top 100. The news was even worse for Black Knight and Moon Girl/Devil Dinosaur, arguably the two most puzzling characters to spin ongoings around. They didn’t break 40K in sales.

Glenn: I am interested to see Illuminati not do better given how a profile the group has enjoyed over the last number of years. Maybe cause this is a slightly different take with a lesser known cast of characters and a writer who is still new to the market? Hard to call but I don’t see this one lasting but I hope Joshua Williamson continues among the ranks at Marvel.

Ray: Illuminati was one of the odd books in the list from the start. A book starring the Hood and a host of B/C-list villains in a criminal conspiracy? That’s not the kind of concept that sells at all. Williamson’s got an odd history of offbeat Big Two titles that were better than expected, but didn’t catch on in sales. Remember him taking over Voodoo for DC, and immediately making it an intriguing title – only for it to be cancelled with 12? I expect the same may happen here. At least he’s got the Haunted Mansion title coming soon from Marvel, which should be right in his wheelhouse and sell well in the bookstore market.

Glenn: I’m really looking forward to Haunted Mansion and given what we’ve seen from Williamson in the indie market to date, there’s not many titles I can picture him on. Perhaps something more supernatural based but I would say that the prime candidate for that is spoken for in Aaron’s Doctor Strange and since he just re-upped his exclusive with Marvel, he’s not going anywhere soon.

Still, Rome wasn’t built in a day and Williamson (in my book) is one of the most interesting writers in the industry as far as potential goes. Marvel took a little bit to build up Matt Fraction and are doing the same now with Nick Spencer, it could be that they have a long term investment in Williamson which is not a bad thing.

Ray: Probably the most disappointing entry here, though, is Vision #1. This landed at #54, with sales of 42K. Vision’s not a character with a big sales profile, but this title had a ton of advance buzz and the best reviews of any launch in the big Marvel relaunch. I’m hoping it stabilizes, and quickly, because if a Vision title can’t survive with this buzz and the raised profile from the Avengers movie, it bodes really poorly for anyone but the big names in the market. And in case our readers didn’t notice, this is an endorsement – BUY VISION!

Glenn: It seems that Marvel are genuinely invested in Vision, they announced the first issue will be included for free with Spider-Man/Deadpool which will no doubt sell like its going out of fashion. Hopefully that gets the eyes on the book thats needed because all I hear is amazing things about it.

(Note from Ray/Glenn: Recent news about Vision that came out after initial notes indicate Marvel is including extra issues into retailers orders for free. This underlines that Marvel does want more eyes on this book but action like this suggests that the title might not have a healthy future. If you are enjoying Vision, make sure you spread the word)

The rest of the books is like…well what do you expect? I’m surprised with some of the talent involved some of these books haven’t done better. If they remain stable they could have a verly respectful run but if they make drops like some of the number 2 issues on much bigger titles have this month, there shall be trouble.

Going back to Image, it seems much like Saga, Brian. K Vaughn’s ‘Paper Girls’ has become the latest success story for the imprint. The second issue checks in at 46 with sales over 46k outselling some new Marvel books, some of Batman Eternal and the latest issue of New Avengers. It seems that BKV has that midas touch that the likes of Snyder, Johns, Kirkman and Millar seem to have but he’s keeping it to the indie market. On the surface, it doesn’t seem that a book that Paper Girls should do this well but I’m very pleased it has.

Speaking of New Avengers quickly, the third issue has sales of just over 41k. There will come a day, when I tell my children of the days when New Avengers was one of Marvel’s highest selling books because that day is now become legend. I’m not quite sure whats happened to the Avenger’s line since the relaunch. It does seem that outside of the new ANAD Avenger’s that retailers are treating Uncanny Avenger’s much better (it does have Deadpool though) with sales of 55k at number 35. Perhaps the early numbers at Marvel (who of course learn of these things much faster than the rest of us) has inspired them to do this Avengers FCBD issue?

Ray: It looks to me like New Avengers, with its oddball team spinning out of Avengers World, has become regarded as the third-tier Avengers book, with Uncanny moving up to the secondary position pending how ANAD holds in upcoming months. I think it’ll probably stay solid for a while, though – even if it continues to dip, it’ll stay in the healthy range.

Glenn: Going back to Mark Millar, his new title ‘Huck‘ pulls in really good numbers with sales over 35k at 71. Essentially he’s doing a Superman variant which is not selling that far below the real *cough* Superman. What a strange market we live in but yeah its just another success for Millar who continues to rack them up.

Ray: Huck, The Goddamned, and a little below it Monstress and Boom’s Santa Claus revamp Klaus all landed towards the bottom of the top 100, which qualifies as a definite success for any creator-owned title in an insane month like this. I think they’ll all hold pretty decently (Klaus is only four issues), as all four got pretty good critical reception. It’s good to see some creator-owned books fighting against the tide and making an impact.

Glenn: Big launch for Dynamite’s James Bond with has sales of over 35k but it has Warren Ellis who can be a sales draw in himself (hello Karnak) and the new movie to get some hype of. There’s been a lot of books coming out of Dynamite and this has certainty landed at a really good number and is one that will definitely appeal outside the direct market.

Ray: I’m pretty sure Bond is the best debut for a Dynamite book in quite some time, actually. Definitely a combination of the creative team and movie hype. The big question is, how long does Ellis stay on the book, and how does it do when he leaves?

Glenn: Descender is back this month, round about where it finished off I think. Decent numbers, especially for creator owned. I think this is one is going to be a grower with trade waiters and with Lemire become more of a name through Marvel, I’m just glad to have it back in any case.

On a personal note, glad to see Spidey 2099 continue to do consistently well. Its ended up pretty much where it was prior to the relaunch at number 72 with sales over 35k. I’m a big admirer of Peter David so I’m glad this book is doing solidly.

Ray: Spider-Man 2099 is probably low man on the totem pole when it comes to the Spider-characters, being more of a cult characters, so I’m pleased to see it still doing so well. These are definitely sustainable numbers, and it really goes to show just how powerful the franchise has become.

Glenn: The second batch of the Darkseid War one shots release this month at 74, 80 and 81. Without cheating who do you guys thing did best out of Superman, Green Lantern and Flash? Got your guesses? Good! It was Flash which I think is really telling to the state Superman is in at the moment but is quite astonishing when it comes to Green Lantern which did the worst of the three (although not too far behind Superman), As we’ve talked a lot about, the franchises hey days are over (for now) that much is clear but I can’t see why it and Superman lost out to Flash which hasn’t gotten much attention from DC at all since Flashpoint even though it has a super successful TV show on the air (although that fact doesn’t help Supergirl who seems to be MIA in the new 52 currently cause…reasons?)

Ray: The Darkseid War sales are kind of interesting, because it shows that these sales only reflect initial interest, rather than any sort of judgement on quality. Sometimes things sneak up on people. The Superman and Flash issues came and went with mediocre reception, but they outsold GL – which is being hailed as one of the best Hal Jordan stories in years and easily the best thing to come out of Darkseid War! I expect there’ll eventually be a second printing of that, once word gets around. There was also a Shazam mini, which landed about 10 spots lower – not a big surprise since he’s the only one without an ongoing right now.

Glenn: I completely missed Shazam, shame on me. I did love the backups by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank in early Justice League issues but the character hasn’t had much attention in the main 52 after that so yeah, the numbers on his book being so much lower than everyone else’s is no surprise.

I remember you singing the praises of the Green Lantern DW one shot which is another reason that I find the resulting sales so surprising. Given how well Justice League performs and how heavily these issues were stated as being involved in them, none of them have done super great. Perhaps people are just buying Justice League cause of its significance but aren’t interested in Darkseid War overall? I think its an okay story personally but am looking forward to other things from the book.

Ray: Meanwhile, Marvel’s had a lot of success with their recent relaunches, and I’m sure all their icons are well-represented. I wonder where Captain America landed. *looks down the list*
*keeps looking as the list gets longer and longer*

#78???????

Marvel’s had a lot of success in their new line, but this is clearly the most prominent disaster. This isn’t just any character, this isn’t some B-lister. This is the new version of one of their most iconic heroes and a character about to have his biggest spotlight ever in Civil War. And his solo title is a complete disaster. The initial rollout and the controversial early stories involving Sam Wilson being inverted couldn’t have helped, but the sheer speed with which this title is plummeting down the charts is really alarming. I know some people were talking about how the controversy over the early issues was going to drive sales up, but if anything the opposite is happening.

To put this in perspective, the third issue of Captain America sold less than the 46th issue of a poorly-regarded Wonder Woman run. It barely outsold Suicide Squad and a reprint of Spider-Gwen. It only sold 6K more than latest issue of the Hindenburg crash that is the current Teen Titans run. Marvel’s put a lot of promotion behind the new Captain America, but occasionally there’s a case where something just doesn’t click with the readers. It’s obviously a dicey issue to replace Sam in any way, but these sales have to have Marvel panicking. I can see them trying to ease their way out of it, perhaps by launching a new classic Captain America flashback series around the time of the movie and seeing how it goes from there. But something’s got to give, because this title looks like it’s on its way out of the top 100.

Glenn: Captain America has just been struggling a lot since Ed Brubaker left but looking at what Marvel’s been doing with the book, you would almost think its on purpose. The book needs some serious tlc and maybe the mini event happening in it in early January might help but the real saving grace will probably come in the form of Marvel’s 2016 event ‘Civil War II: The Quest For More Money‘.
Sam Wilson as Captain America was a very good idea but how its done, especially in comparison to Jane Foster’s Thor (erm spoilers?) is just something that almost is impossible to ignore. I don’t expect any immediate action from Marvel because Sam is locked in the role until at least ‘Civil War II: Because 2015’s redo of an event went exactly as planned’ but there’s a movie that doesn’t feature Sam as Cap and Steve Roger’s could give the title some serious sales so…

Ray: Yeah, I suspect that Civil War will be when they decide how to proceed with Sam, based on whether his star ticks up a bit after appearing in these two miniseries. I think the biggest problem is the rollout of the character, though. They’ve constantly put him in compromising positions, where he’s acting out-of-character, is pitted against other heroes, or is being confronted by people who don’t support him as Captain America. Compare this to Jane as Thor, where we’re shown in no uncertain terms that she is a hero and she’s earning this mantle. I think the recent decision to set him and Steve Rogers at odds is the biggest mistake, personally. They’ve officially lost the fans of the original.

Glenn: There’s still time to correct the course on Captain America, we’re not in the Teen Titans land of disrepair…yet and when it comes to franchise makeover, no one does it better than Marvel.

Ray: From here it’s mostly business as usual at the end of the top 100, as we see a lot of DC titles and some of the stronger Image books. I Hate Fairyland held really well, and Black Magick had a very soft drop from its disappointing debut, so it might find its level quickly. Archie still holds onto the top 100 at 98, so it seems it has some staying power.

Glenn: We were both really puzzled last month with Black Magick so I’m glad its held well, that just means that retailers seem to know the audience pretty well. Consistency can be the life breath of titles like this so yeah, that’s another one in the win column for Image. They may not have the big flashy numbers that Marvel has but they are definitely putting out some great books with numbers they’re probably happy with and are probably causing DC to throw up big blue prints on walls trying to figure out how to replicate it.

Ray: We’ve already got two new Marvel books out of the top 100 – Angela and Howling Commandoes – so all eyes on those to end fairly quickly. We’ll see who joins them next month.

Glenn: Well I’m sure shocked at that *coughs* I think we both had them on our scorecards which I totally did not make up. Expect them both to be replaced by much better selling Star Wars titles shortly!

Just before leaving the top 100, Back To The Future 2 which followed up the issue that had arguably the best marketing campaign of this year (it started 30 years ago) held amazingly well at 99 with sales of over 25.7. That’s great numbers for IDW and shows there’s still genuine interest in the property (although nostalgia is the word of the day) and better than I expected for it to do. Good for them.

The digital first, Bombshells still holds up well at 101 with sales over 25.3. This book has really caught on with an audience that Marvel is really trying to tap into and at least it shows that DC is doing something right in that regards. This book was never going to have quite the heroes journey that Spider-Gwen has had but those are great numbers for a book that again, is digital first and will likely do well in collected form.

Outcast, the ‘other’ horror title by Robert Kirkman which sells just over 24 k at 104 might be one to watch. Its got a new TV series starting next year and we all know what that did for Walking Dead. It might not have the same level of success but it could get some new eyes on the book so if you want to be down with the cool kids, it might be time to jump on now.

Ray: Bombshells is definitely still the best selling of DC’s digital-first titles, and it’s gotten a pretty incredible response from critics and fans. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it brings back so many fan-favorite characters and current new faves. This is a title that is focused on giving fans of DC’s female heroes – both famous and obscure – a universe that’s all about them. Much like Thor and Spider-Gwen, this is a title that’s more concerned with actually giving female readers a great book than making a statement.

Glenn: The second issue of Titans Hunt seems to fall quite a bit with sales over 22.4 at 110 and really, even though DC is using this mini to try and fix the mistakes they’ve made it might be too little too late. They need to do something MAJOR to win back the good faith they’ve lost on this franchise. Call us DC, we can’t do any worse…we really can’t!

Ray: I think the Convergence mini has essentially been a pretty rough misfire for DC, and the sales are showing this in the spinoffs. Both Lois and Clark and Titans Hunt are great books that are actually bringing real changes to the two franchises that suffered the most from the New 52, but not enough people are reading. I’m hoping DC doesn’t take this as “people aren’t interested in the classic versions”, but I worry they will.

And then, of course, there’s the third spinoff – Telos, which saw its second issue chart at 166 with sales of just over 11K, and saw its final issue solicit land this month with #6 – the shortest run of any DC book since the New 52 began.

Glenn: I think they have to realize how these books are presented. They were both marketed as ‘side books’ (especially Lois and Clark) and with all the insanity in the market currently, people don’t have the money for those types of books. Every book from the big two has to be presented as the most important thing ever or I think this is the kind of the results you get. I wonder how much better Lois/Clark would have done if DC had turned on the hype machine on it just a tad.

Secret Wars Too, a comedy book costing 4.99 comes in at 116 for sales over 21k. I don’t know if the issue was funny but I know Marvel are laughing at this one…all the way to the bank. Seriously though, for this type of book to sell like this at that price is a big surprise and goes to show that for all the good natured poking we do at the Secret Wars delays, the power of the brand stands so even though we’re all pretty much frowning at the events, we have learned nothing. Huzzah!

Ray: The Comedy books have done consistently the worst out of the Secret Wars one-shots, so that’s not a surprise. Still, probably far better than this would have done without the branding, so chalk up another win for the biggest event of all time!

Glenn: The second volume of Jupiter’s Circle starts at 126 with sales of over 18k and without Frank Quitely along this time, its to be expected. Even though Millar’s creator owned stuff does launch well, any follow ups never perform as strongly. These are still good numbers for a follow up mini though, especially without the main draw from the first book.

Ray: Those are some seriously grim numbers for Jupiter’s Circle, honestly. Millar is one of the most consistent sellers in the creator-owned field, and he can usually deliver strong numbers. This book, though, has the feel of a spin-off to a story that might never finish, so there’s no urgency to it. It’s a shame – I think it’s telling some interesting stories, but I can barely remember what happened in the last issue of the main book.

Glenn: Millar can definitely sell books and his books always maintain good numbers but the sequels don’t tend to do quite as well. I think the main hit here is the loss of Quitely so people are bailing because its not what they signed up for. Then again all the Kick Ass sequels and the follow up to Nemesis didn’t set the sales charts alight either. With more creator owned comics paired with the likes of Greg Capullo and how successful his comic adaptions do, I doubt Millar is overly concerned and is quite happy with producing the comics he wants to produce without having to answer to anyone.

Pretty Deadly, the supernatural western from Image by Kelly Sue Deconnick and Emma Rios returns after a long hiatus to sales of just over 15k. Pretty decent for a book that hasn’t come out for close to 2 years. Having a loyal audience that gives you 139th on the sales chart when Marvel is trying to hoover up all the money is something to be commended.

Another new Image launch in Citizen Jack at number 142 with sales also just over 15k. This looks like a little bit of an oddball book which the market sometimes has a lukewarm reception to so with that taken into account and the fact that neither the writer or artist are really big names, this isn’t too bad of a launch. I don’t see it being one to go a long way though but we’ll see.

Two other launches I want to talk about that actually have somewhat personal significance to me are the first issues of Image’s Ringside and Titan’s 8th Doctor miniseries.

Ringside has a decent debut of 148 with sales just over 14.2 and I can’t say I’m surprised. I see a lot of overlap between fans of comics and pro wrestling but I know fans who are into the former than are into the latter than the other way around, if that makes sense. Essentially I’m saying I know a know a lot of comic fans who like wrestling but wrestling fans who don’t enjoy comics. With that in mind these are good sales and really look at the story behind the story in the wacky world of pro wrestling. I’ve been a fan of pro wrestling for nearly 20 years (So old…so very old…) and the story what goes on behind the camera can be sometimes far more interesting and hard to believe than anything we see on screen. The multi award winning movie ‘The Wrestler’ demonstrated this exceptionally as well as a largely forgotten issue of Tangled Web Of Spider-Man which looked at the career of wrestler Crusher Hogan before his crushing (no pun intended) loss to the mysterious hero in his TV debut. The issue is a solid favorite of mine and if Ringside can find an audience quickly and deliver issues even half as good it might be one to watch.

Ray: Both Citizen Jack and Ringside are definitely out of the mainstream for the subjects you see in comic books – politics and wrestling – so I think these numbers are decent all around. However, I’ve got to say I LOVED the first issue of Ringside. Unlike you, I have zero connection to pro wrestling, but I found myself pulled in by the world very quickly. The critical response to this book was very strong, so I can see it becoming one of Image’s many sleeper hits.

Glenn: People know me as a big fan of Doctor Who and it all started with the 8th Doctor in the 1997 special that nearly killed the franchise. I won’t go much into here but universally it was thought to be terrible apart from the Doctor who was played by british (duh) actor Paul McGann. Despite making a career in audio plays as the Doctor, when the show returned in 2005 it was without McGann. We didn’t see McGann until a surprise appearance as part of the shows brilliant 50th anniversary in 2013. Since then, this version of the character has had a resurgence of popularity and Titan have taken advantage of that. Its only a mini but I’m happy to see my first Doctor get in at the number 149 spot with sales just over 14k, outselling his much more popular 11th counterpart whose second volume at Titan lands in at number 177 with sales just over 10k. Not too bad for a Doctor with only two television appearances I must say.

Ray: Vertigo had four more launches this month, all of which didn’t have too much buzz in advance – the Scottish-based fantasy thriller Red Thorn, the Social Media Willy Wonka suspense book Unfollow, the firefighter/crime story Slash and Burn, and Eric Kripke’s suburban superhero drug farce Jacked. They all sold in roughly similar ranges with Slash and Burn selling the lowest. I think most of these – especially Unfollow, which has me hooked already – are strong, but I think Vertigo is rushing this. These books are being rolled out without enough hype, and I don’t know how many will be able to find a place in the market long-term.

Glenn: It seems that DC is putting a lot of effort making Vertigo books that sound great and getting great talent on them but aren’t really putting a spotlight on them. The Vertigo imprint is something they’ve kind of always had over Marvel but now the books that line might have produced are more likely to be seen at Image and with much better sales too. Vertigo has rested on the success of Fables for over a decade but it can’t simply survive on auto pilot for long. DC really needs to get the attention the books there deserve or it could lose even more talent looking to take their own stories to Image.

In fairness though its a harsh market so a five figure launch from unknown creators could be seen as not too bad really. It depends I guess on what Image or Vertigo wants from each book and how the book performs after this. Nailbiter, an Image fave of mine always does sales of around 9k (its at 188 this month) but its at issue 17 with no sign of it ending.

DC is trying to meet a demand for different books but I don’t think books like these are what people are wanting. They’re trying to fit a square block into a circle shape and this is the results we’re seeing. If they could find a way to replicate the success of a book like Bombshells or even better, Harley Quinn then they’d be coming up in spades. Of course, saying this and doing this are two very different things.

Image’s psychedelic supernatural detective story Limbo wasn’t given much promotion and launched at 172 with 10K sales. For Image books, it all depends on word of mouth, but there’s a few launches like this that seem to slip through the cracks without a big name attached.

Ray: Hey, there’s Doomed ending its run with sales just over 7K! I’m really hoping DC learns from lessons of this and Telos, and picks their new launches come April a little more carefully. They’ve got a lot of properties that could be hits. Teen Doomsday and Brainiac’s Silver Surfer aren’t among them.

There don’t seem to be many new launches from the smaller companies in the top 300 this time, but I do notice the launch of Hangman from Archie’s superhero imprint. This is one of the characters that DC tried and failed to relaunch about five years ago. These numbers are obviously more modest than DC got at first, but it’ll be interesting to see if they hold better. I should add that Black Hood and Hangman are mature-readers books, very out of Archie’s norm.

Glenn: I don’t remember this hero at DC at all. Archie has a different threshold that DC would do and sales of 9k they might be able to live with. Its a crowded market for new superhero books, even ones from the likes of Robert Kirkman in his very long running superhero love letter, Invincible can only get sales of over 12.5k giving it enough to make number 158. Creators with small press are looking at other genres for a reason so this could have been a lot worse…it sold more than some of the recent DC launches which ended which is a weird sentence to type.

Ray: The bottom of the chart has a lot of unusual books this month. Things like Captain Canuck, Zombie Tramp, Robyn Hood, and Blackcross. I think there may have been less books from the big five in general this month, as some of the companies may have decided to hang back during Marvel’s biggest launch months. Come the new year they’ll be down to just 5-10 new books a month or so, so the creator-owned books will have a bit more room to breathe.

Glenn: There are a few new launches doing around the 5k range like the ones you mentioned and book like Last Sons Of America from Boom, Postal FBI Dossier from Image and Itty Bitty Hellboy (?!?!?!?) from Dark Horse. These are all books that need a steady audience immediately or they’re likely to be forgotten rapidly. Once Secret Wars and the new launches die down it might be easier but who knows how big ‘Civil War II: Iron Man’s less of a dick this time, we promise‘ is. Hopefully we won’t be talking about that event for the same length of time we’ve been talking about Secret War this year.

Like in any industry, comic books and their companies listen most to one thing and that’s your money! What does your money tell them? What does it tell us as fans? What series do people say they adore but can’t seem to catch a break and what books to people hate that sell out? What are the trends? What looks good? What looks rough?

All these questions and more will be answered here, every month in ‘By The Numbers’ by comic writers, editors and fans, Glenn Matchett and Ray Goldfield.

Glenn Matchett is a comic writer and editor. He’s worked in the industry for 6 years but grew up reading comics. He is currently published with Outre Press, Nemeses Studios and Alterna! He is currently ordering the mullet special at the cafe 80’s

Ray Goldfield is a fan of comic books for going on 25 years, starting with the death of Superman. He is a writer and editor for Grayhaven Comics and is working on his first novel. Ray also does a weekly roundup of DC comic reviews for website Geekmom and they’re brilliantly entertaining. He is first in line for those flying cars we’re all going to magically have on the 22nd and isn’t going to let a lack of a driving licence stop him.

We also do a podcast together with longtime buddy, Brandon James on iTunes with Rabbitt Stew or at the link here! Don’t ask, I didn’t pick the name.

Sales

Glenn: So its that time again sales fans and now as we near the end of the Summer of Secret Wars which has turned into the Winter of Secret Wars and maybe even the New Year of Secret Wars lets see how comic sales did in September!

So with despite Marvel’s big event being a no show in regards to the main title, the event itself still makes itself known as Marvel win another top ten. It isn’t Secret Wars that take the credit this month for the win, in September it was Star Wars that led Marvel to victory.

Not only did the usual books land but Marvel launched arguably the biggest Star Wars series yet, the prequel comic to the Force Awakens ‘Shattered Empire’ which takes the top spot of sales just under 210k. Marvel keeps producing these books and seemingly no matter who is featured in them or what period they cover, its like they’re printing money.

Of course, this book will be of particular interest because the excitement for the new Star Wars movie is reaching a fever pitch and Marvel is reaping the rewards. Details in regards to plot of the new film are closely guarded so people will be picking up this book for hints of what is to come when the movie hits screens in December.

Even without the strength of the new movie, the other Star Wars books do ridiculously well making up 3 of Marvel’s 5 spots in the top ten (Lando’s comic also just misses out at number 11). It’s just crazy that the success of these books persists and the ‘main’ book continues to do huge numbers of over 135 k at the number 2 spot and is now outselling DC’s bread and butter title, Batman.

Ray: This month is really the calm before the storm. No Marvel launches besides a few minis, as they’re all coming in October, and DC has no new launches either before the return of Eternal next month. That is, of course, besides the new Star Wars launch which dominates the charts.

Glenn: October (quite fittingly) is going to be a scary month. Before we started, you said a top 10 with sales all over 100k but I think we could be looking at a top five (at least) with sales over 200k. Insane month to look forward to.

Ray: Honestly, I was expecting a little more from this newest Star Wars mini. It’s the first comic content that actually directly ties into the new movie as opposed to the old series. However, 208K is nothing to sneeze at, and congrats to the creative team! This one is likely to hold very strong through its whole run. With three issues in October, that top ten is going to be crazy.

Glenn: I think even though it does tie into the movie since its not the ‘main’ book it won’t perform as well initially. I expect it to hold incredibly well and the real money from this book will be the collection which will be out around the time of the movie.

Ray: It definitely seems like at this point, the Star Wars titles are set to continue dominating the charts for the foreseeable future. Once the launch craziness dies down a bit and the comics find their regular level, the top Star Wars titles should be occupying the top spot unless there’s an event on the level of Secret Wars coming out.

Glenn: More success from Star Wars means more titles of the same as Marvel are even now going to try their luck with a book set during the much divisive ‘Prequel Era’ but for right now, they can do no wrong. With Star Wars movies coming out every year for the next 5 years at least, I don’t see that changing.

Marvel also has the other spots in the top ten filled by the ridiculously successful Renew Your Vows and the first two issues of the Deadpool and Thanos mini series.

Renew Your Vows ended in a fantastic fashion and I have to give the creative team here some major props. Given how controversial this particular tie-in comics ‘source event’ was, the creative team of Dan Slott and Andy Kubert managed to tell a classic style Spider-Man story with a lot of new flavour also. The mini finished up at the number 5 slot and was Marvel’s highest selling Secret Wars tie in with sales of over just under 95k. This mini has held up better than any other Secret Wars tie in and these are numbers that I don’t expect Marvel to ignore. Expect to see a title with a married Spider-Man in one form or another soon.

Ray: The only thing that could stop some sort of continuation of Renew Your Vows at this point would be an agenda inside editorial against this version of Peter – but if that was the case, would they really have green lit this? Marvel likes money. This mini gave them an enormous amount of money. I’d be shocked if this didn’t follow in the footsteps of Spider-Gwen (and Gwenpool) soon enough as a comic the fans literally wished into being.

Glenn: Its no secret how much Marvel editorial aren’t fans of the married Spider-Man but these numbers are hard to ignore. Marvel continually says ‘vote with your money!’ and that’s what we’ve seen here. We’ll see how the react in 2016.

I did kind of think that given Deadpool’s popularity and Thanos getting a major push in the company due to his prominence in the movies that a mini starring the two would do well but I’m surprised it did this well. Whenever a series releases the first two issues in the same month there is usually a sizable gap between them but here, its not too bad. The first issue comes in with sales over 108 k at the number 4 spot which is great and the second issue comes in at number 10 with sales just under 70k. The difference of 30k can be explained with all the variants number one had but this is a great drop with a mini that seems to mostly be happening just because both the characters are into the same girl. If sales like this continue can a buddy comic starring the two be far behind?

Ray: Deadpool vs. Thanos…well, I thought the “Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars” mini might have launched that high because people believed it was a tie-in. Guess not. Guess Deadpool is just that hot right now. Looking ahead, Deadpool is going to be really prominent in the upcoming months, with a Spider-Man team-up book and a new Avengers team where he’s one of the headliners. I’m shocked to see Marvel pushing a Fox character this hard, but money talks! As long as people keep buying, he’ll keep getting books.

Glenn: Deadpool seems to transcend such things as movie studio rivalries. With the movie out next year, it’s only going to mean more Deadpool for us all. These Deadpool mini’s all have a solid performance history and are probably more cost effective than a second book (which they tried a few times). It is strange that Deadpool is probably going to be one of the properties that comes out top notch following the All New Marvel relaunch but I guess people like their wisecracking psychopaths!

Ray: I’m going to single out the Batman Annual for a minute, because this is pretty impressive. This book wasn’t by the regular creative team, but it did deliver a story that tied in pretty smoothly with the main arc, and it did incredibly well compared to the other annuals this month. The power of Batman! This might be the highest-selling annual I remember in a while.

Speaking of selling and people getting more books, impressive numbers for the Harley Quinn Road Trip Special this month, at #17 just two slots under the main book. This was an oversized, more expensive special, and yet it still nearly matched the main book. No wonder she’s getting a second title come a few months from now!

Glenn: The success of this book along with the Harley/Power Girl mini (which continues to do pretty good numbers in its own right at the number 45 spot with sales of just over 36k) more than justifies the oversized, bi-monthly team up book. I really think the success of Harley in the last few years is a big reason the big two are launching so many new female led books, especially kookier ones like Squirrel Girl. I think a lot of praise have to go to the creative team as Harley’s popularity continues to grow and she looks to gain new fans from both the Suicide Squad movie and the upcoming DC super hero girls.

Ray: The long-delayed Captain America: White also launched this month after a zero issue arriving eons ago, and it held pretty well. 59K is not bad at all for a book featuring a long-defunct version of the character’s relationship with Bucky Barnes (the Captain America and his boy sidekick version pretty much died out with Brubaker’s run) but the team of Loeb and Sale have a lot of goodwill left over.

Glenn: Jeph Loeb’s name usually pulls in a lot more numbers here and this is his first collaboration with Sale in a while so I would have thought it would have done better. Of course, the delays haven’t probably helped and this being a story featuring the ‘classic’ version of Cap and Bucky makes it hard to be relevant in this market. Sales of 60k aren’t too bad but I don’t think this collaboration will be going down in the annuals of comic history unlike their other projects together. I am wondering if this might be the last comic we see Jeph Loeb do because of his involvement with the television side of Marvel Entertainment.

Ray: And speaking of long delays, Sandman: Overture finally closed out its run at #18 with 48K in sales. Impressive, but I suspect that they’ll be doing much better business in collected editions for years to come.

Glenn: Sandman seems to have lost a lot of sales due to the delays (two years from issue one until this issue) but like you said, it’ll be collected and put on a shelf in comic stores and book shops all across the world and make its money back tenfold. I just hope this is not the last time that Gaiman returns to the series or to comics in general.

Ray: Down the list, most books are assuming their standard position with some attrition. The next new launch we get to is Tokyo Ghost, Rick Remender and Sean Murphy’s sci-fi thriller from Image, at #33 with about 40K in sales. A decent debut for an Image book for sure, but sort of muted compared to some recent launches. This book didn’t seem to have the pre-release buzz of some of Remender’s recent books.

Glenn: That’s a decent launch but yeah, I would have expected more from this creative team. I don’t think I’ve read anything of Remender’s but his Marvel work seems to have been very divisive. A lot of these Image success stories are due to fan favourites but Remender may be the first creator in a good while that has done more harm than good by venturing to Marvel for a while. Or it could be that the concept didn’t click but the book will still probably have a respectful run.

Ray: Bombshells is continuing to hold really well at #37. The best numbers I’ve seen for a digital-first book in a long time. So that wasn’t just a fluke last month. The book seriously deserves it!

Glenn: This again is fans using a book to tell companies what they want. I’m very happy for Bombshells and we’ll probably be due for even more female orientated books to come I’d say.

Ray: And wow, Invader Zim #3 at #41? What happened here? Some sort of incentive or bundle, likely, because this is easily the highest I have ever seen an Oni comic, and I can’t imagine the nostalgia for a cult hit comic from 14 years ago is driving it all.

Glenn: That is a random, crazy good spike for Zim. Perhaps its found a whole new audience in this format? We’ll see if it can hold these numbers next month because if it can, with October being as crazy as its going to be then it’ll be really something.

Ray: And looking down the list, I have to go to #61 to find the next DC annual, for Green Lantern, with almost 50K sales less than the Batman annual. That just shows you how impressive that performance was.

Glenn: Batman continues to be DC’s MVP and even though the annual this year was the first one since the new 52 without Snyder’s involvement, it was still very closely tied to his main story. Green Lantern had its moment in the sun for a while but night has fallen again and Batman reigns supreme. The main Lantern series is at the 35th spot with sales of just over 39k. Its sort of wading in the middle of a lot of Secret Wars tie in titles so it could drop quite a bit once Marvel gets all their new books out. The bloom has come off the rose and I think we’re seeing the franchise resume its pre-Johns B list status.

Big shout out to The Walking Dead for continuing to hang in there in the top ten and outselling a lot of high profile books. I think it won’t make it in next month but I think the return of the insanely popular TV show will definitely give it a more than respectable number. Much like a zombie, it’ll shuffle along and wait for the crazyness to die down before resuming its dominance.
Another great performing Secret Wars tie in is X-Men 92 which we all know is going to get its own spin off series following the event. The sales of just over 40k have probably been a big surprise for Marvel. I expected this mini to maybe to numbers the likes of some of the more fringe Secret Wars books but its outselling some of the higher profile books by a fair margin. Nostalgia rules for the x-fan so we’ll see how it does once it has to compete against the proper Marvel universe titles.

Superman seems very high this month, I don’t remember the title in the top 25 for a while but there it is at 24th spot with sales just under 44k. This could be because its a relatively calm month, we know now that John Romita Jr will be leaving the book to do a Dark Knight III: Batman does Dallas (still a better title) so it’s going to be interesting to see who DC get to replace their biggest Marvel grab in years and how the title will fare afterwards.

Ray: When it comes to Superman, this is where the Superman identity reveal story finally reached its head and we saw how the whole thing went down. I wouldn’t be surprised if they got a bounce for that event, but without Romita Jr. in the coming months, I expect the sales to drop. This run hasn’t been the best received. The replacement artist is Howard Porter, an old DC hand who has been part of some great runs, but not a huge sales draw.

Glenn: It’ll be interesting to see how sales of the recently released but much lauded Lois and Clark series fares up. If people gravitate towards that book then when Superman’s ID inevitably goes back in the bottle then perhaps we’ll see a return to that status quo? (note: this comment was made prior to Ray telling me of the huge twist in said series)

This month also marks the end of an era with the final issue of Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s much praised run of Daredevil coming to an end. The final issue of their run checks in at number 60 with sales just under 30k. This is the level that Daredevil has been at for years apart from launches here and there but I thought there might have been a bit more attention to their ending their run which has been praised as one of Marvel’s best for years. Of course, collections and such will benifit Marvel for years to come and I don’t thing anyone is envying the job that Charles Soule and Ron Garney have when they relaunch the book in a few months.

Ray: Daredevil has never been a powerhouse sales force, but this run has been crazy consistent and will be selling in collections for a very long time to come. I’m hoping Charles Soule will be able to keep Daredevil’s hot streak going.

Glenn: Me too for sure and I’ll be curious what this team can do when they move on to Black Widow. No one can accuse Marvel of not trying to make that book work.

Archie continues to hold up pretty well with sales just under 28k and the number 55 spot. This is a long way from where it was before so if it can stay around this number, I think the company can call the relaunch of their main title a massive success.

Ray: Archie wasn’t any sort of force in the direct market for the longest time, and now they’re doing healthy numbers there in addition to their newsstand sales, so they’ve got to be very happy here. It’ll be interesting to see how Jughead’s solo title does in October.

Glenn: We see this month the beginning of the reprinting of the legendary run of Miracleman by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham. Both have gone on the be power houses in the industry so sales of over 27 k at the number 69 spot on the surface look disappointing at first but again, this is a reprint comic of old material. I think if/when we see the new material from these two on the character it will be quite a different story but I’m sure Marvel is very pleased with the numbers a series they paid for years ago is making them.

Ray: I still expected slightly higher numbers for Miracleman, given how legendary this run is, but it is a $4.99 book in a polybag. I do think when it comes time for those last few issues that were lost, and anything that comes after, sales will shoot up significantly.

Glenn: Agreed and like I said, the Miracleman material has been paid for. I’m sure the creators are perhaps getting something for reprinting it but it surely won’t be anywhere near as much as they would be paid for new material. It’s a cost effective book and will be a big asset for Marvel’s catalogue for a long time no doubt.

There was also the Agent Carter of SHIELD anniversary issue this month which came in at the number 72 spot with sales of just under 26.5k. That’s pretty damn good for a throwaway anniversary issue for a secondary character. I’m actually surprised with the increasing popularity of Peggy Carter in the MCU and Marvel’s recent batch of female books that we’re not getting a series of her featuring an all star creative team.

Ray:In general, all five of the SHIELD specials did pretty well, landing in the top 100. That’s better than I would have expected from one-shots focusing on non-costumed characters. No surprise, Agent Carter and Fury did the best, with Mockingbird, Quake, Cavalry all lagging behind a bit. Good news for Marvel, though.

Glenn: We see Jeff Lemire’s new Image book Plutona debut with sales over 25 k at the number 78 spot. Not quite the success story of say Descender or Wytches but really good numbers for a mini featuring a superhero outside the big two. It’s clear Lemire is turning himself into a bankable name and that will only continue when his new Marvel books are released in the coming months.

Ray: I expected a bit more of Plutona, but this is the mainstream comic debut for Emi Lennox, so it doesn’t have the same pull as Descender does. Still, it’s a pretty strong debut for an Image book and I expect it’ll hold pretty well, as well as it’s been reviewed.

Glenn: I think the indie market (if Image can still be called ‘Indie’) is harder with superhero books of any kind. Marvel and DC are flooding the market with much more recognizable superheroes and even though this isn’t marketed or presented the same as a superhero book, I think that might be a key factor. I think it’ll also do very well in collections as Lemire’s star continues to rise.

Ray: We’ve got the Valiant event comic Book of Death hanging around the 25K mark, at 85. It’s a solid performance, well above the ratings of any other Valiant book. Valiant seems to be moving more towards a model of short runs and limited series, and that might be smart given the performance of some of their other books.

Glenn: It seems that Valiant want to make themselves a force to be taken seriously and they’re not doing a bad job of it. Outside of Marvel or DC or Image, most companies find it hard to market or make an ‘event’ successful but I think Valiant is just doing that. They’ve also got rumblings of movies coming and they could be one to watch for the foreseeable future.

Ray: As always, the news is not good for DC’s new launches this month, with more and more of them slipping towards the bottom of the top 100 or even out of it. There’s a few, like Starfire and Robin, Son of Batman holding on pretty well, but beyond that we’ve got We Are Robin almost out of the top 100 despite a great reception and an upcoming crossover. A big chunk of the line is under 20K already, including fan favorite Secret Six. Shockingly, two of the cancelled titles – Doomed and Prez – are even in the four-digit range after only four issues.

Glenn: Those are really some rough numbers. I am really surprised especially by We Are Robin and Secret Six. Both have a great hook and one is tying into the mega successful Batman book and the other has Gail Simone who usually can command an audience of much more than what we’re seeing here. These two books may not be long for this world so if you’re supporting them, spread the word now.

Ray: The sequel to the Disney comic “Figment” debuts at 109, with sales of 20K. Not terrible, but Marvel hasn’t been able to get their Disney properties off the ground yet in terms of the direct market.

Glenn: These Disney books are destined to be sold in gift shops at theme parks so I doubt Marvel is too concerned about the direct sales of these.

Ray: Even with no new issue this month, here comes Spider-Gwen! The $1 True Believers reprint lands at 123, with sales over 17K. It even outsold two other major female character hits, Thor and Ms. Marvel, in their reprints.

Glenn: Stop invading our sales column Spider-Gwen! I’m wondering how many much higher tier characters she’s going to outsell when all the new number one numbers come in.

Ray: Another Image debut this month, Faster Than Light, promised an enhanced reading experience with digital tie-ins, and it was rewarded with a strong debut of about 15K. No name creators on this book, but it was marketed very well.

The news wasn’t quite as good for the fantasy epic “From Under Mountains“, which was a challenging read and only managed to get sales of about 11K. Still, if people respond to this title, it has room to grow and isn’t in immediate danger.

Speaking of Image fantasy, the quarterly oversized swords-and-sorcery book Head Lopper transitioned smoothly from webcomic to print with sales of 11K. This is one book I would heavily recommend, if you can get your hands on it. A blast to read, and a ton of comic for $5.99.

I can’t believe how many DC titles, even some strong ones like Manhunter or Omega Men, we’re seeing down here in the lower 100s. DC brought the quality, but they didn’t market these new launches well enough to keep them alive, it seems.

Glenn: Producing fringe books to go up against small press books is an interesting strategy that DC seems to have missed the mark on. I think they were hoping for another surprise hit like Harley Quinn and while there will be a few that end up with decent sales, there’s not really any major hits apart from the books that were already doing well.

They are doing well with Arkham Knight with the main title pulling sales of just under 19k at number 115 and the annual not being too far behind it with sales of just over 17k at the 124th spot. This is not too bad at all for a game tie-in and seems to have warranted a ‘promotion’ for the books writer to a main Batman book!

Ray: Arkham Knight definitely seems to be the biggest hit out of the Arkham spinoff titles. I put part of that on the A-list writer they put on the book, and part of it on the fact that the title character has a dedicated fan base who will follow him anywhere he goes. All in all, I think DC’s got to be extremely happy here, even if it’s fallen a lot from its top ten debut.

Glenn: Back to Marvel for a moment, showing that much like Captain America, Bucky’s time in the sun has ended. The Winter Soldier book is coming to an end, fizzling out with sales of just under 12k. Maybe its something to do with making a gritty espionage character into a space cop of sorts? Just speculating.

Ray: Yeah, I don’t think this take on Winter Soldier clicked with fans at all. It was a very odd story with a complicated structure, alternate realities, and a writer and artist whose style seemed more suited to indie comics. It really didn’t resemble the Bucky Barnes that people knew at all. I suspect he may get a second chance, though – there’s a movie coming up, and that would be a good time to bring the character back in a title with a new creative team. Maybe by the team of the Black Widow book that just ended, which was well-received and featured him in an issue midway through?

Glenn: We’ll be seeing Bucky again and in a much more traditional setting for him (apart from him being you know…dead). I would say that this interpretation will be quietly put under the giant continuity rug at Marvel along with Spider-Man: Chapter One and that time Moon Knight thought he was a bunch of other heroes.

A new launch from Dynamite this month is Aliens/Vampirella. The character is due for a major rebranding in a few months but sales of just over 11k for a bizarre tie in featuring a character that is…controversial at best is…alright I suppose?

I also want to point out that Jimbo Jones made the comic chart at spot 260 with sales just under 6.5k. He isn’t even the Simpsons most popular bully but there you go…

Ray: There’s always some oddballs in the top 300. I would never have expected an Aliens/Vampirella crossover, but Dynamite tends to be good at getting first issue sales with variant covers. As for Jimbo Jones, I will congratulate him and say nothing more because I fear my nurples being purpled.

Glenn: It looks like Sex Criminals is about to drop out of the top 300 despite its critical acclaim and award winning/award refusing. Perhaps people are worried about being seen with the book? In all seriousness, it seems to do decently in trade but I wouldn’t be surprised if the creative team maybe pair up on something a bit more marketable to a wider audience soon.

Ray: I think Sex Criminals was always going to be a niche book of sorts, despite critical response. I know that it’s the one book I won’t take out to read in public! Still, the team has a lot of pull, and I suspect they’ll be able to keep it going as long as they want. Remember, Fraction and DeConnick have the production studio now, so they have more than enough clout to keep some low-selling passion projects going.

Glenn: If much like Kirkman’s other long running comic ‘Invincible‘, they can run it on the sheer joy of doing it, then fair enough. I still wouldn’t be surprised if the book took a break and the team did something else more profile together to get more of an audience for their baby.

2 other launches this month, Boom’s Wilds End Enemy Within and Dark Horse’s Colder Toss The Bones barely scrape in the top 300 this month with sales just over 5 k each. Not good launches for either and I doubt we’ll ever see or hear from them again. This is not the year to try your luck with a new book unless you happen to already be a major sales driver in your own regard.

Ray: Both Colder and Wild’s End are actually sequels to previous minis which also had low sales, so maybe they’re doing well in trades? Wild’s End is a personal favorite of mine, so buy this book, people! It’s talking animals vs. HG Wells Martians!

Glenn: You learn something new every day!

Ray: There’s a few other books scattered around, like the Tyson Hesse all-ages Steampunk Adventure “Diesel”, that landed near the bottom of the top 300. Seems to be that most small creator-owned books land here if they don’t have a big name. Hopefully they’ll be able to find their footing and pick up more audiences in trade.

That’s about it for September, and looking ahead, we’ve got…*is buried under an avalanche of new #1s”

Clearly, October is one of the biggest months we’ve ever had. The big story, of course, is All New All Different Marvel Now, landing three months or so before the event that leads to it even concludes. But that won’t matter to audiences, and in October alone we’re getting the launches of Amazing Spider-Man, Invincible Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Uncanny Avengers, New Avengers, Uncanny Inhumans, new #1s for Captain America and Ant-Man, and a pair of sampler issues that show off some of the new titles. Underdog titles Howling Commandoes and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl are going to try to make an impact, and as for the Juggernaut that is Star Wars, Chewbacca’s getting his own mini. So Marvel will clearly dominate, and –

Oh, what’s that? DC’s here to play as well! Obviously, the big story of the month for them is the return of Batman Eternal, now rebranded Batman and Robin Eternal. Coming off a smash hit first volume and delivering four issues a month, this is clearly going to ease a good deal of DC’s sales chart pain all by itself. They’re also debuting a trio of new series coming out of Convergence. Lois and Clark, featuring the return of the classic married Superman, and Titans Hunt, promising to revitalize the struggling franchise, seem likely to be fan favorites. The third book, Telos, a solo spotlight for the event’s villain, seems like a much more questionable choice. This is also when Vertigo rolls out a new series every week, including new outings from Gail Simone and the powerhouse team of Darwyn Cooke and Gilbert Hernandez.

Even in the advance of this juggernaut, we’ve still got some really interesting indie launches as well. Image has the new Brian K. Vaughn 80’s teen thriller Paper Girls, the Shane Davis video game thriller Axcend, the Skottie Young ultraviolent fantasy I Hate Fairyland, and the new Greg Rucka thriller Black Magick, among others. Top Cow is trying to reboot the Witchblade franchise with “Switch“, while Cullen Bunn debuts another original horror property with Oni’s “Blood Feud” and James Tynion spins another tale of the apocalypse for Boom with “Cognetic“. And of course, we can’t forget Dynamite’s blockbuster entry next month, with countless variant covers and a mass media rollout – Grumpy Cat #1! Will this foul-tempered feline ruin everyone else’s sales day?

Probably not, but it’ll be fun to see where it places.

Glenn: I’LL SAVE YOU RAY! Well maybe next month, you look like you’ll be warm until then

Next month is going to be insane. I think a little too insane, I was talking to my local comic ship (shout out to the great dudes at Comic Book Guys NI) that they felt there was far too many number one’s this month and all at high prices. I think next month, due to the juggernauts that Marvel are rolling out at $4.99 or $5.99 a pop we’ll see a lot of other new books kind of struggle.

This has been a verly quiet month but the next few months are going to be some of the wildest sales wise so stay tuned for that, folks!

Enjoyed what you read? Let us know and follow us on Twitter @glenn_matchett& @raygoldfield

Like in any industry, comic books and their companies listen most to one thing and that’s your money! What does your money tell them? What does it tell us as fans? What series do people say they adore but can’t seem to catch a break and what books to people hate that sell out? What are the trends? What looks good? What looks rough?

All these questions and more will be answered here, every month in ‘By The Numbers’ by comic writers, editors and fans, Glenn Matchett and Ray Goldfield.

Glenn Matchett is a comic writer and editor. He’s worked in the industry for 5 years but grew up reading comics. He is currently published with Outre Press, Nemeses Studios and Alterna! He is currently loving that his own comic book, Sparks is getting a rerelease and being sold in proper shops for real.

Ray Goldfield is a fan of comic books for going on 25 years, starting with the death of Superman. He is a writer and editor for Grayhaven Comics and is working on his first novel. Ray also does a weekly roundup of DC comic reviews for website Geekmom and they’re brilliantly entertaining. He worries that Mr. Bloom is hiding under his bed.

Sales

Glenn: We’re back again as the Summer of Secret Wars continues but it seems that this month holds more than a few surprises.
Before we get to those, we have to get to the fact that Secret Wars continues to do mega business at Marvel, allowing them to continue expanding the Scrooge McDuck style money pit they must have at this point. Out of the top ten, Marvel holds an astonishing 8 places with 5 of those being tied into the Secret Wars event.

We have Civil War, Age Of Apocalypse and Guardians Of Knowhere all debuting to exceptionally strong numbers. This again to me, underlines the power of the Guardians brand currently that it can hold its weight with spin offs one of the biggest event of the 90’s and Marvel’s last hugely mega successful event. It also doesn’t hurt that at least the books that I’m reading that are involved in the event are ridiculously good. These don’t just seem to be slapped together tie in’s that are for an easy buck, it seems that a lot of creative energy is going into these books, which is brilliant.

Ray: Yeah, clearly Secret Wars continues to be the story of the year. Starting at the top, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a main event mini hold its numbers so well over the course of the run. It’s pretty much guaranteed by now that the main mini will sell over 200K for the duration of its run, and I don’t know the last time that’s happened. Probably Civil War. Even AvX, their last megahit, sunk down to the mid 100K range by the end.

The tie-ins are consistently strong, and it helps that the majority of them are getting great reviews as well. Age of Apocalypse opened strong, but got a very mixed reception among fans and critics, so it’ll be interesting to see how it holds its numbers. Civil War, on the other hand, has gotten great reception across the board and will likely stay in the top ten.

Glenn: Yeah, this is definitely Marvel’s biggest winner in terms of events since Civil War. Like Civil War, this event has taken up the majority of the line and like it as well, delays are a bit of a problem but it doesn’t seem to be effecting any sales, whatsoever.

Also showing that last month wasn’t a fluke, Renew Your Vows holds steady in the top ten and continues to perform very well. Is this a message that people want a married Spider-Man again? Is it just because of the top creative team or just an effect of the event itself? I would actually say its a mix of all 3. Like we talking about last month, perhaps the success of this book indicates that Marvel could be able to float a book where Spider-Man is married? Time will tell exactly where this might lead and how it might even effect the Amazing story line we’re getting post Secret Wars that has been dubbed, ‘Spider-Man Inc’.

Ray: Yeah, it’s pretty amazing to see Renew Your Vows sitting in the top ten with its second issue, when the next highest-selling non-#1 of Secret Wars tie-ins this month is Old Man Logan all the way down at #19. That shows this title has some serious staying power that Marvel is going to want to take advantage of. I’ve heard all sorts of rumors about how Marvel might take advantage of this new status quo, and Spider-Gwen showed they’re willing to jump into action when the fans demand it.

Glenn: Good point in reference to Spider-Gwen (who still manages to get a mention, even if her book is on hiatus, thus is the power of Spider-Gwen). Amid recent controversies, Marvel have stated that they will go where the money is. If people are buying a married Spider-Man book then they will be given exactly that in some form or another. The point you made about the difference here between Renew Your Vows and Old Man Logan is something worth noting, especially since I think the Wolverine mini is based of a much bigger event from the past.

Ray: Although both companies have their pluses and minuses, it’s funny to note how quick Marvel is to respond to fan demand. Spider-Gwen got her series less than six months after she was introduced as a one-off. It took DC three and four years respectively to bring back Stephanie Brown and Cass Cain!

Glenn: You can finally step off your box and that one and get on a new one to somehow fix the Teen Titans (we’ll talk about them later, put down the box, Ray. RAY PUT IT DOWN!!!!).

Aside from all the Secret Wars madness is the biggest news story of the top ten this month which is the newly relaunched Archie #1 lands at the number 7 spot with sales of over 100k. There’s a lot of variant covers that helped bump up the numbers, no doubt but I think its a great achievement by one of the oldest publishers in the business in an attempt to still stay relevant. They seem to have done everything right with a top tier creative team, a new direction and marketing the whole thing for months. Will it last? Not at this level I don’t think but I think we could see the book land at a significant increase at where it was previously.

Ray: Amazing numbers for Archie, but like you said, there were a plethora of variant covers driving this. However, the title did get incredibly strong reviews and some mainstream media attention, and I haven’t heard a single person who disliked it. It’s going to be interesting to see where it lands next month, but I think Archie did what they needed to do. People are talking about the main Archie book again.

Glenn: Word of mouth is going to be incredibly important for Archie and their future. If people are saying they want an alternative from Marvel, DC or even Image then this could be it. We’re not talking about your father (or grandfather’s) Archie, here is a high quality book by a pair of talented creators on a property that is pretty iconic. All the tools are here and we’ll see how we do in a few months.

Ray: With Archie, I’m also interested in how the rest of the line will do. Jughead was the first issue’s breakout character and is getting a series by Chip Zdarsky, while Kevin Keller is getting a series by his creator Dan Parent. Then there’s arguably their second-most iconic property, Betty and Veronica, which is being relaunched at a later date by Adam Hughes. I’m skeptical if we’ll see that one, at least by the original creative team.

Glenn: I think we MIGHT get an Adam Hughes one-shot of Betty and Veronica but yeah…Archie will only be so patient. They have buzz right now but as we both know, today soon becomes tomorrow and if you don’t move, you become yesterday. I can’t honestly remember the last Adam Hughes project that made it to publication so I can hope that Archie are keeping the grip firmly on that one. Hopefully it proves us both wrong!

The other big talking point in the top ten this month is the continued success of the juggernaut that is Marvel’s Star Wars line and specifically the launch of a new book in the form of Lando. We’re now seeing that secondary characters (albeit very popular ones) can carry mega numbers. It seems as if this line can do no wrong under Marvel and while we all knew it was going to be a big thing when they got it back from Dark Horse, I don’t think anyone expected it to be THIS successful. Of course we also have Star Wars and Vader still holding firm in the top ten and we know now, this is not a flash in a pan. These books are here to stay in these spots for the foreseeable future.

Ray: It seems pretty clear that Star Wars is bulletproof right now. If Lando or even the Kanan spin-off could do strong numbers like this, I can only imagine what Greg Rucka’s bridge series between Jedi and the new movie is going to do. That is going to be gigantic. I just hope Marvel keeps making sure they get a-list creative teams on these books and resists the temptation to put out too many books at the same time.

Glenn: I was going to say that the Force Awakens preview book is going to do crazy numbers. I think Marvel are smart enough to know how to float this franchise which is why I think we’re only getting mini’s to test the waters. We have more mini’s on the ways featuring characters like Chewbacca and you have to know they’re doing some sort of Han Solo book eventually. Beyond that, I think they’ll keep this one to a minimum, they currently have no reason to push their luck at the moment.

Oh and Batman is in the top ten too, yay Batman!

Ray: There’s a couple of other debuts a little lower that still started strong. Spider-Island and Siege, both moderately popular events in their time, launched at 20 and 32 respectively. The latter is especially interesting, being Kieron Gillen’s farewell to the Marvel U for now. There’s also the second Guardians spin-off of the event, Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde, launching at 39. Not bad for a spin-off of the Star-Lord title. Hail Hydra, Remender’s finale to his Captain America run, only lands at 44, which has to be a bit of a disappointment. Western-themed tie-in 1872 landed at #45, which is impressive given how offbeat it is, while Dirty-Dozen-inspired thriller Red Skull was only able to land at 70. Not every Secret Wars title is going to be a hit when the event gets this large.

Glenn: With regards to the end of Remender’s Captain America, the whole run seems to have had a pretty indifferent reaction since it started. It was going to be a hard job for anyone following Ed Brubaker but Remender’s run seems to have been met with a general ‘Oh right, yayy…’ I’m not surprised that the run kind of fizzled out sales wise. It’ll be interesting to see how it does when it comes back, still starring Sam Wilson in the title role.

Ray: The performances of Thor and Captain America in recent months have really been opposite images of each other, and it shows how following a trend – in this case, increased diversity in comics – isn’t enough to guarantee a hit. You need a good hook to launch the series, a creative run that people like, and an effective way of handling the displaced hero. I’d be surprised if Captain America turned itself around for long, and it’ll be interesting to see how long Marvel holds to these plans with a new movie coming.

Glenn: You’re absolutely right in that comparison. Thor has been a big hit with the new female led direction whereas the black Captain America has been a bit of a dud. Even the Secret Wars tie-in, Thors holds up well at the number 26 spot with sales just under sales of 60k. I think this shows that people are really digging what Jason Aaron is doing even if its male Thor, female Thor or multiple Thor’s. This precedence gives good chances to his upcoming Doc Strange title. With Infinity War now closer than it is far away, I can see a possibility we’ll end up with both a male and female led Thor book but definitely only one Captain America who likely won’t be Sam Wilson.

Ray: With Thor, I suspect that Jason Aaron has a very clear long-term plan for this status quo. I do think that it’s possible Marvel has been so won over by the female Thor’s success that they might keep it going after he’s gone, like DC brought Damian Wayne back after Morrison left. With Captain America, we see a creative team change already so it’s pretty clear that the ball is in editorial’s court on that character, and it’ll only last as long as they feel it’s worth it.

Glenn: It’s interesting to me that Aaron started out at Marvel as the grim and gritty guy. He was writing characters like Punisher and Wolverine but of course proved he could handle other types of the characters like Spider-Man. Apart from his short Hulk run, the guy seems to be having a great creative streak. It’s the quality that people are gravitating towards that is mixed with the familiar aspect of these characters everyone knows and cares about. After Brubaker left Marvel, we’ve seen Bucky flounder somewhat so could this be the same for female Thor or even Spider-Gwen? Will people care about these corporate characters once their original creative minds have moved on? All questions time will tell of course and thankfully, questions we don’t have to answer for the immediate future.

With regards to Captain America, they can only flog the horse so long. The thing is that Ed Brubaker proved that Captain America without Steve Roger’s can work but here maybe its just the direction? We’ll see how the next creative team serves up but it doesn’t look like many changes are being made short term in any case.

Ray: Oh, yeah, creative team is so key. We’ve seen so many fan favorites immediately slide down the charts when the creator departs. Five years ago or so, Geoff Johns was putting Justice Society of America near the top of the charts every month. However, successive creative teams didn’t come close to achieving the same thing and title title went down the charts until it actually no longer exists in anything resembling its previous form. I doubt the same will happen to any of these properties, but it’s something to be worried about. I also get the feeling that the Spider-Gwen creative team wants to stick around for a while.

Glenn: Yeah for sure, its stuff the companies won’t have to worry about for a good bit. We’ve also seen that her popping up in other books by different people seem to sell pretty well anyway.

Getting back to the Secret Wars tie-ins, I think has to do with a reflection of the creative team and how popular the original event was. Outside of the biggies (like Civil War), the nostalgia factor (Age Of Apocalypse) some of them will either hit or miss. Most of those on the lower scale are mini’s based on story lines which, to me are more of a fringe thing that the most hardcore fans of those original events will seek out or would depend on their original creator(s) coming back. Look at Angela for example, the original 1602 sold big because of Neil Gaiman but further spin off mini’s in the same universe haven’t performed. That along with the overall lukewarm reaction to Angela probably explains why that mini is on the lower end. I would have hoped for higher numbers for Red Skull considering this is Nailbiter and Ghosted writer, Josh Williamson’s Marvel debut but this one didn’t have the strength of a big event to bounce off (apart from Secret Wars overall natch).

Ray: DC only had one launch this month, Cyborg, which got a ton of hype and good reviews. It landed at #37, but the key is going to be how it holds up. DC has put a lot of effort into promoting this character to DC’s elite, and this series is a big test for that. For what it’s worth, I thought it was one of the best first issues of the new wave.

Glenn: Cyborg did pretty damn good, outselling a few new Secret War mini’s and a few other books the character likely wouldn’t have been able to outsell prior to his big push at DC following Flashpoint. The word of mouth on the book was really strong and seems to satisfy a desire in comics that many say is lacking at Marvel (a black writer writing a black character and doing a damn good job). Although he’s been featured pretty heavily in Justice League over the last number of years, this is better than I would have thought a Cyborg book would have done. Like you say, the key to success here will be word of mouth and stability. They’ve given the book a top notch artist so if Ivan Reis sticks around, it could mean that Cyborg has a lot of life in his system.

Ray: The really interesting story for me this month, though, is just how many unusual titles there are in the top 100 out of nowhere. Just going down the list, we have We Stand on Guard at #14 – a new BKV title will always do well, but this is one of the most impressive Image debuts in a while. The Mad Max tie-in from Vertigo landed at #12, incredibly high for a licensed comic. Then there’s Invader Zim at #17, which is the highest sales placement in Oni’s history. Only a little further down at 21 you see the Star Trek/Green Lantern crossover, which IDW pushed pretty hard, and at 22 you have the first issue of The Book of Death, Valiant’s most-promoted event crossover ever. Probably the most surprising to me is a title called Sonic Worlds Unite Battles, from Archie, landing at #43. Archie had two titles in the top 50. Wrap your mind around that. And then down at 99, you have the launch of the new Bob’s Burgers comic from Dynamite. Impressive numbers all around for some comics that you wouldn’t expect to see so high.

Glenn: We’ve talked a lot in the last few months how hard new books are going to find it during this period and yet, as you say we have a lot of success stories this month. Like you said also, a lot of these books are either media tie-ins, ‘gimmick’ inter-company crossovers or relaunches of franchises that have never shook up the sales chart and here they all are, making the top 100. Perhaps we’ve become too cynical in our old age. Ray? I would say Sonic has hit high on its relaunch due to the buzz around Archie’s revitalization, Star Trek/Green Lantern because it sounds awesome and both of these franchises have had a very recent revitalization, Mad Max due to how well the movie was received and the others a mix of promotion or nostalgia for cartoons that didn’t get to run as long as they should’ve.

Ray: With Book of Death, it’s important to note that there was a highly unusual incentive – an exclusive comic that was only shipped in 1-25 ratio to the main book and won’t be collected. This is a trick straight out of the 90’s, and it was very controversial. Even at Midtown Comics, maybe the busiest comic store in the country, this special issue was selling for $50. So that definitely drove up sales on Book of Death a lot.

Glenn: Wow, that is pretty crazy and yeah, an old school stunt from the dark ages of the speculator crash. I wonder how many other books will do something similar? We saw a lot of title’s follow the pattern of custom store covers after IDW found success with Godzilla stomping on multiple store’s a number of years ago. These things are incredibly risky and bold put perhaps that’s what Valiant have to do to get noticed? It seems to have paid off short term for this book. They might try the same strategy since their next highest selling book is a good 50k sales lower.

Ray: We’ve seen a lot of speculator stunts in recent months, but this is the first time in ages we’ve seen a company tie actual story content to orders. It worries me, and I’m hoping it doesn’t catch on. Although given the sales boost, it very well might.

Glenn: I think it might help if we don’t point out the success. Oh wait…

Other success stories this month, in my view include Fight Club 2 which is holding up remarkably well. Could this perhaps indicate that we’re going to see a lot more cult favorites get comic sequels? It seems like we get a lot of TV shows continuing on as comics so perhaps movie sequels or continuations could be next. Among all the Secret Wars mini’s we see Groot establishing firm roots at number 52 with sales at just under 40k. If it can remain stable at this level then that has to be seen as a big success for a character who can only say 3 words that couldn’t have held his own book just over a year ago.

We also see Image’s Descender continue to hold up very well at number 96 on the charts with sales over 26k. With the response its getting and the news that its being made into a movie, I’m surprised more people aren’t giving it attention but those are pretty good numbers. I am thinking that after it takes its break in a few issues that the first trade will drive people towards the singles, I know it would for me if I wasn’t loving the book already on a monthly basis.

Something I want to point out in the bad news side before I forget is Ultimate End. Its still in the top 50 at the 42 spot with sales over 42k but given what this universe meant to Marvel when it first started and this is the final story (for realsies this time) I thought it would be performing a lot better. Indifference towards the Ultimate line has been a big thing over the last couple of years and while sales of 42k aren’t terrible, considering the creative team, the story and the tie-in I think that number shows people are more than ready for the curtain to fall on this one.

Ray: Given how poorly the Ultimate books have been selling overall for the last few years, it’s not the biggest surprise that the line is ending with a whimper rather than a bang. It doesn’t help that it’s gotten the poorest reviews of any of the early Secret Wars minis, too.

Glenn: Maybe this is a conversation for a different place but I wonder how well the Ultimate universe will be remembered. Asking that question even 10 years ago would have seemed like madness but now the imprint is so past its heyday that its has that kid crying out ‘Stop, its already dead!’. We got so many things from the Ultimate Universe carried over to the main universe and other media that it’s just crazy to think that in another 10 years, no one will remember the books outside of the odd character that might still be around.

Ray: It seems like ages ago when we had four Ultimate titles, all of them hits. The last time there was a relaunch, one of them was cancelled in six months, the other in twelve. I have a feeling the universe will wind up being regarded like the 2099 or MC2 lines – nostalgia and maybe a survivor or two running around, but no long-term presence except in events like Spider-Verse.

Glenn: This feels different to me than 2099 and MC2 for one reason in particular. Both those universe’s had their day and knew when to either take a break or fade away. Marvel has been keeping the Ultimate universe long past its sell by date for roughly 4 or 5 years. Maybe we’ll see a call for a fond look back someday but I just think we’re seeing the market is ready to be done with this universe. I do think some of the characters might endure but their link to this universe will just gradually fade over time.

Ray: Thus far, we know that Miles Morales and Ultimate Reed Richards are the remaining characters from that universe. Both escaped the destruction in Secret Wars, so that makes sense. Will there be any other survivors? We’ll see. But I think the fact that it’s a similar parallel world will make it easier to work into the main continuity, and more likely that its origins as a different universe will be forgotten sooner or later.

Obviously, we’re coming off last month’s big DC relaunch, and a lot of books are going to be finding their level. Justice League of America stays in the top 20 and should be a long-term hit, as long as Hitch stays on board. Beyond that, none of the new titles are high up on the charts. The Harley Quinn/Power Girl title is at 38, and Robin’s solo title lands at 41 with its second issue, which are decent numbers. However, after that the next new ongoing for DC is Starfire, at #68. It’s all downhill from there, as the new Earth 2 book and the critically acclaimed We Are Robin land at 74 and 76, followed by Green Lantern: Lost Army at 77. And these are some pretty high-profile books. The majority of DC launches, including Martian Manhunter, Dr. Fate, and the excellent Midnighter, are already well outside of the top 100. And there’s a couple of books, like Doomed, Omega Men, and Prez, circling the drain well under 20K sales already. DC tried to go offbeat and unique with their new launches, but I’ve got to say, a lot of these numbers are worrying me quickly.

Glenn: I must give credit to DC, people said they wanted more choice in their product and they’re like ‘okay, here you go’ but like always, the numbers never reflect the supposed demand. People complain that there are (as of this typing) 8 books with Batman’s name on them or starring him, the lowest selling of which is a continuation of the Adam West TV show which is still managing a respectable spot at 149 with sales just over 17k given the source material. It’s also telling that Batman is the only book they have in the top ten and they don’t have another book not involving Batman or featuring one of his more popular villains until number 36 which is freaking SUPERMAN. Like you say in your next point that people may want more choice and diversity in their reading and are even constantly asking the big companies for it but the sales don’t back it up. The sales indicate that the audience that do want those things are getting them elsewhere and I suppose this is the mindset that Marvel and DC have created for the market. If you want your old reliable favorites, here you go but if you want something else then go elsewhere.

So this is why I think we get people giving these books a bit of a chance. We see the comic market starting to take more risks in their buying. I think this is partially due to the creative expansion of Image (who released 2 of the books you mentioned) and also due to the mega success of the Walking Dead that shows that the comic buying public will put their support behind something that isn’t even superhero related. We also have really respectable launches from Wolf and Onyx so there is evidence to show that people are wanting new things but like I said, not from Marvel or DC. There are a few books that buck this trend (Harley, Ms. Marvel, Batgirl) but largely people buying big 2 books respond to characters they know and events.

Another book I want to mention this month is the Batgirl Annual which sells only 5k than its parent title. I think this shows that despite a few bumps in the road that a lot of people are liking the writers new direction for Barbara Gordan. DC are proving here that they can create a fun all ages title that appeals to a lot of the female market also.

Ray: That’s one of the more promising numbers for an annual in a long time for Batgirl, I think. I wonder if it helped that the issue brought in guest stars from Grayson, Gotham Academy, and the cancelled Batwoman. They may have brought in additional fans from those titles to counter the standard annual drop. I’m always amazed when an annual like the recent Wonder Woman one is the conclusion of a story and still comes in 20K lower than the regular title.

Glenn: Yeah we talked about Wonder Woman last month and that just indicates to me that less people are interested in even getting the last part of that creative teams story than seeing a random new one from Batgirl’s and the reviews seem to back that up. We’ve recently learned that Batgirl will seemingly be involved with Dawn Of Justice so we could get even more eyes on her. It might not be a creative direction that appeals to everyone but it seems to be working. Let’s hope DC doesn’t rock the boat too much.

This leads us back to Teen Titans which isn’t overly all ages but sells just a few units under the Batgirl Annual at the number 86 spot with sales over 28,500. The book is long past its heyday but I think books like Batgirl, Ms. Marvel and yes, even Archie shows that there could be potential with the right direction.

Ray: Teen Titans should be a huge hit. It’s one of DC’s most iconic franchises, and had an incredibly popular cartoon – two in fact, one was called Young Justice. There’s no reason this shouldn’t be an A-list book, but here we are.

Glenn: They’d have to have the whole team revealed to be evil clones and put a top notch creative team to save the book at this point. It’s kind of DC’s equivalent of the Ultimate Universe in a way. Once upon a time, it held pride of place on the companies roster but the glory days are long gone and what we’re left with isn’t pretty. I don’t say that to demean either company or the properties, these are all characters a lot of people care about and I think their treatment by DC is reflected in the sales. Maybe they should have Batman join the team?

Ray: When it comes to Teen Titans, the impact of two poorly-received run and the fact that the fans pretty much hate this version of the team is going to make it very hard to revive the property. I think a new writer would need to essentially throw the characterization of the entire team out the window and start anew with some subtle retcons. I think even that would be tricky when it comes to actually getting sales up, though. When a property flounders for this long, it’s a long road back.

Glenn: It can be but it can be done. I don’t think the Green Lantern books were in the best state before Johns came along and I still have nightmares about the post ‘Final Chapter’ Spider-Man period but we got over it. There can be light at the end of the tunnel.

Ray: This is true. Most series have had low points and recovered, even some of the most iconic heroes. Remember Teen Tony? Superman Red/Superman Blue? Armor-Cap? But what worries me about Teen Titans is just how long the bad period has gone on without DC really seeming to notice. The ironic thing is, DC’s young heroes are going through a renaissance in many ways. The Bat-family is growing with several hit books focusing on teen characters, and Supergirl is about to get a TV show and likely at least one tie-in comic. The only exception…is DC’s flagship teen franchise, Teen Titans.

It’s worth noting though that DC and their next wave seems like a healthy mix. They’ve got Eternal 2, a new married Superman book and a new Teen Titans title that seems to be appeasing the fans by bringing back some classic characters, along with some revivals of more obscure characters and long-shot titles like Telos. It’s definitely playing it a bit safer than this initial wave did. I suspect the two Robin titles, Starfire, and a few others will last past 12 issues, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re getting another huge launch wave in a year.

As we head away from the big names, I notice a trio of creator-owned books that did pretty well. The oversized anthology Island, the controversial civil rights parable Strange Fruit, and the unique Brandon Graham fantasy series Arclight all landed around the 15K mark, which is pretty impressive for creator-owned books.

Glenn: Another decent launch this month is Grant Morrison’s 18 days that is being published by (no clue, it just says Gra?) and hits the top 150 with the 142 spot with sales over 18k and outselling a lot of Image launches and ongoings. This shows the selling power of Morrison’s name alone and now, he has no one to curtail his insanity (which often seemingly results in brilliance).

Ray: Looks like 18 Days by Morrison was published by a company called Graphic India. Certainly the first time that company has wound up on the charts, but good for them. Morrison’s publishing is incredibly diverse, as he’ll show up almost everywhere lately.

Glenn: Well you learn something everyday! Considering I’ve never heard of the company, I suppose that underlines my point about Morrison’s selling power even further.

Another book I want to mention is the launch by Titan of the adaption of the mega hit show, the Blacklist which has spot 174 on the sharts with sales of just under 12.5k. Again this is a huge show trying to get the audience to pick up the book but there seemingly aren’t many takes. The Blacklist’s main strength is the performance given by James Spader which is of course going to be lost in a comic adaption. Most of the successful comics more have a following that lends itself to comics (like Doctor Who) or has ended and has an audience wanting more (Buffy), this one is a bit of a puzzler to turn into a comic and I think the sales reflect that.

Ray: We’ve talked a lot about how licensed comics have a serious problem catching on, and this is another example. Outside of a few examples – like the ones at the top of the chart this month – most of them are lacking any real momentum on the sales charts. Especially for live action shows, something is lacking without the performances. There are a few, like Buffy, that continue to pull good numbers, though.

Glenn: Like I said, I think the audience that are watching the show aren’t looking for more in comic form. Even looking at the Flash and Arrow tie in books and the sales are rather frightening but both their respective comic book counter parts do quite well. I mean, these media tie-in apart from official continuations are usually throw away add ons, something no more essential than a deleted scene on a DVD (death to blu-ray). That’s the key problem here, no one is particularly bothered unless the fan base is die hard enough.

Ray: Going down the list, I see the Lobo annual pulling just over 10K, easily the lowest-selling main line DC book this month. I was a bit surprised to see this title continue after the Convergence jump, and the recent sales aren’t convincing me otherwise.

There’s a few other lower-ranking debuts, too. Rob Liefeld’s new title Bloodstrike landed at 197 with just over 10K, and the critically acclaimed Image sci-fi book The Spire sold landed at 215 with 9.5 K. Given the profile and names attached, it’s definitely a bigger win for The Spire, I would say.

BOOM! has a consistent all-ages hit in Lumberjanes, which sold about 8K this month, and I think they were hoping for a similar effect with their new magical girl comedy Power Up!. Given that the first issue debuted below Lumberjanes, though, that might be tricky.

Oh, hey, there’s the legendary meme-spawning comic, Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose at #298! That’s not something you see everyday!

Glenn: Holding steady as well as the books you mentioned is Image’s Injection at the 131st spot with sales over 19,500. Of course, this again has something to do with the sales draw Warren Ellis is in himself but I’m very happy for the artist, fellow Irish fellow, Declan Shalvey. It didn’t likely hurt of course that this team had a run on a Marvel book not long before this one launched.
I just have to mention Archie vs Sharknado as well because…its there. Selling over 18,800 copies gives it the 137 spot over some other, books that underlines the crazy hit that Sharknado is. It’s overall ridiculousness even trumps the rule we were talking about media tie-in comics. I’m hoping now for the mash up we’ve all been waiting for, Punisher vs. Archie vs. Sharknado.

Ray: Archie certainly seems to have committed to the strange crossovers in recent months, haven’t they? And they seem to be profitable, so look for Archie vs. Freddy and Jason next year, no doubt!

Glenn: Plus Sharknado? Right? Right?

Big shout out to Chew for making it to 50 issues! Hard for any book in the current market it seems, especially one with such a bizarre concept. I’m hoping that the upcoming animated series can draw more eyes to it. It’s a great book even if it makes even Deadpool look relatively normal.

The last thing I think we have to talk about is something we have never done before on this and nothing we will ever likely do again. We’re going to turn our attention briefly to the graphic novel chart for the last Fables issue/trade. It sells pretty much just a little bit higher than the individual issues did which is pretty damn impressive for a trade of this size. This is an end to an era to one of the most critically acclaimed and successful non superhero properties of our lifetime. It’s easy to say that it likely held on past its prime but for the last number of years, Fables was keeping the Vertigo print afloat pretty much single handed. It’s impact in not only comics but other media such as the games it has inspired but the shows like Once Upon A Time it has influenced is something truly amazing. I remember this was your favourite book once upon a time (no pun intended) and going along with the ‘Deluxe’ editions, I have so much Fables ahead of me, I can’t help but feel a little sad its over now. Of course, this will be a series, much like Sandman that will sell not only in comic shops but bookstores for decades to come and that kind of success is something a little bit special.

Ray: It’s definitely the end of an era when it comes to Fables. The title isn’t actually 100% over, as the prequel series The Wolf Among Us is still running indefinitely, but this is the end of the main narrative. I personally feel the series was well past its heyday, but it’s still the second longest-running Vertigo title of all time, only behind the legendary Hellblazer, and we got well over 200 issues set in this incredibly vast universe. Its influence is extremely wide-spread, and now the rumors are a movie is coming. Amazing.

Glenn: Let’s take a moment to salute Fables, it will be one that we’ll all remember for decades to come because as the book itself taught us, the end is never truly here.

Ray: Looking ahead, August is sort of the calm before the storm. DC is done relaunching titles, although they do have two new digital-first books in Gods and Monsters and the WW2-set Bombshells), and Marvel only has one significant launch in the revival of House of M. However, we’ve still got a lot of interesting indie books hitting the charts in the coming month. Paul Cornell has his supernatural music thriller, This Damned Band for Dark Horse, and Image has a number of interesting debuts such as crime thriller Dark Corridor and the return of Pilot Season winner The Beauty. Archaia has the controversial Americatown, which touches on some very timely issues. But aside from that, this is one of the quietest months coming up that we’ve had. It’ll be interesting to see how a lot of these Secret Wars titles continue to hold up as we get later into the event, and whether any of DC’s new titles find their footing.

Glenn: I’m also interested to see how the Doctor Who mini-event The Four Doctors from Titan performs. They’re giving it a lot of promotion and putting some big names on it so lets we’ll see if it pays off.

We shall meet again! Same(ish) column time, same column channel

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Like in any industry, comic books and their companies listen most to one thing and that’s your money!  What does your money tell them?  What does it tell us as fans?  What series do people say they adore but can’t seem to catch a break and what books to people hate that sell out?  What are the trends?  What looks good?  What looks rough?

All these questions and more will be answered here, every month in ‘By The Numbers’ by comic writers, editors and fans, Glenn Matchett and Ray Goldfield.

Glenn Matchett is a comic writer and editor.  He’s worked in the industry for 5 years but grew up reading comics.  He is currently published with Outre Press, Nemeses Studios and several others including Alterna which is running a pretty awesome Kickstarter currently which his story got the cover of!  He is currently enjoying the Captain America: Civil War meme’s way too much

Ray Goldfield is a fan of comic books for going on 25 years, starting with the death of Superman. He is a writer and editor for Grayhaven Comics and is working on his first novel.  He is currently standing outside of the houses of the Supergirl showrunners waiting for them to dare and mess up.  Paranormal Activity got nothing on Ray.

Sales

Glenn:  We continue the summer of Secret Wars in the June sales chart!

Ray:  Yeah, the bulk of our conversation this month is going to be on two things – the continued domination on Secret Wars, and how the DC mini-relaunch fared. We just learned today that a second mini-relaunch is coming in October for the company, so they’re far from done. It looks at first glance to me like the former continues to be an unmitigated hit, while the latter is a bit more of a mixed bag.

Glenn:  We’ll probably also talk a bit later about how everyone else is fairing up with all this going on but you’re right, June (and most likely the next few months) will be us mostly saying ‘Secret Wars sells!’ and ‘some of DC’s new books sell…some not so much!’

We had speculated a little bit last month that Batman by the super solid team of Snyder and Capullo may take the top spot but it seems that the event that spawns other events, Secret Wars keeps the top spot.  Due to a Secret War banner and going back to what be the most controversial Spider-Man story ever, Renew Your Vows lands close behind it at the number 2 spot.

Ray: Secret Wars held fairly well, staying over 200K, but the big story, to me is the debut of Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows. This alternate story featuring a married Spider-man who is a father in a world that’s gone to hell is easily the biggest debut for a Secret Wars tie-in, selling more than the majority of full event comics do. Sure, there were incentives and lots of hype, but could this be the silent majority of Spider-man fans still angry about One More Day showing up to support this book? Certainly looks like it. With DC just announcing a Superman title set in the old continuity, don’t be surprised to see Spider-man follow.

Glenn: I think the success of Renew Your Vows is due to a few factors.  Obviously people still remember One More Day and it will likely be the talking point for this comic generation like the Clone Saga was 20 years ago.  Are we better off or worse off?  Who knows?  Now at least, we get a small window of what could have been.  So I think people will be beyond curious and then Marvel’s given the book a top notch creative team. It could have probably sold well without Secret Wars but that helps too of course.  I think its probably surpassed some expectations by performing this well, we’ll have to see if it can hold that for the remaining issues.

I think we’re more likely to get a new Spider-Girl book rather than a married Peter book but we might get both?  Marvel has 3 female led Spider books at the moment so it could leave May Parker get lost in the shuffle.

Ray: Thors is another huge hit for Secret Wars. I’m not surprised here, because this is by Jason Aaron, writer of the most popular Thor run in ages, and this mini is supposed to be a major piece of the Secret Wars puzzle. The first issue was excellent, as well. I’m most surprised by the massive numbers for X-Men ’92. A comic set in the world of an old animated series, that was released digital-first, and was surrounded by a controversy when it was announced. The power of Secret Wars!

Glenn: I think with X-Men ’92 there are a lot of people nostalgic for this era.  A lot of people have fond memories of the cartoon in this 90’s that had the same costumes and the Jim Lee era.  It just shows that comics do have some memory it seems!  I thought it would debut a little lower but it shows that there is life in the X-Men franchise which for the last decade or so has played second banana to the Avenger’s.

It seems that nostalgia has also paid off in kind for Future Imperfect and Armor Wars.  These are not recent tie ins and didn’t have the benefit of modern marketing to hype them to death but yet, here they are holding their own.  They’ll probably drop down a bit next month but I’m sure Marvel didn’t expect numbers like this from tie ins that pay tribute to stories from 30 years ago.

There’s still a few books to land which I think will have a big impact like Civil War but it seems the event is a big hit for Marvel.

We then get the third spot held by Star Wars which continues to perform fantastic numbers and of course, Marvel responds with just more and more mini’s and ongoings in that universe and who can blame them?  After the main Secret Wars magic is long gone, this might be the best performing Marvel book and there’s no superheroes in sight!

We then see DC make it into the top ten with Bryan Hitch’s JLA title. It shows what a sales powerhouse Hitch, ever after all the flack people give him for delays his name still demands a lot of buying power.  It will be interesting to see though how consistent this book can be shipping wise. Sales of 150k is brilliant of course but it means less and less the longer you stretch that out between issues.  Here’s hoping he’s had a while to work on this and it means DC has another solid hit to combat the insanity Marvel is offering.

We then finally land on the new arc and direction for Batman.  I’m surprised it wasn’t higher up in the charts but I’m sure no one is crying at these sales.  The book continues in many ways to be DC’s flag bearer and will be possibly continue to be the best selling superhero book once all this event stuff dies down and all the new number one hype Marvel has coming dies away.  After all that, Batman will still be doing these type of numbers and that stability at this level in this market is something to be highly commended.

Ray: Batman relaunched with a bang, increasing by about 30K in sales for this new arc, and Justice League of America is a huge hit with 150K sales to launch. Hitch seems confident he can stay on schedule here, so hopefully it maintains its momentum.

After the few top launches, though, it seems like most of DC resumed business as usual. I was surprised by how many of the new launches had modest numbers for their first issues.

Glenn: So yeah, like you said this is a big month for DC since it the launch of their ‘DCYou‘ campaign which features a new direction for a lot of books and a lot of new launches.  There are some books that were steady performers before (anything remotely associated with Batman) and continue to be and then the majority of everything else gets outsold by Image’s juggernaut The Walking Dead.

I would have expected bigger numbers for Superman since it has a new writer and a very interesting new direction by making Superman’s identity public.  I would have thought this would have been a real sales grab for people but it sells just over 53k at the number 32 spot.  I also thought we would have seen big numbers for Batman/Superman which features the new version of the former.  This says to me that while people are interested int his character, they’re mostly interested in how Snyder and Capullo tell the story and that Superman is just kind of…there.

We also see a good debut for We Are Robin a book that I’ve seen you talk about in one form or another as long as I’ve known you.  I know you’re not a big fan of the current direction of Teen Titans (the market seems to agree with you with it landing at spot 77 with sales just over 33k) so hopefully this will be the book that Teen Titans should be.

Ray:  I don’t think any property got hit harder in the relaunch than TT, because it’s a title that’s really dependent on legacy and family. They tried to keep the core four of the current generation around, but none of them are remotely the character they were before the relaunch – Tim is the closest, but he’s still very different. Honestly, the most authentic Teen Titans-like book I’ve read since the new 52 is We Are Robin #1, as well as some of the Eternal issues focusing on the Gotham Kids. With the recent announcement of Batman and Robin Eternal by the same creative team, we may finally be getting the a-list young DC book we’ve been waiting for – but it’s not going to be Teen Titans.

Glenn:  We see most of the other launches which were fringe books like Bizarro, Doomed, Midnighter, Justice League 3001, All Star Section 8 and the like do very middle of the line numbers. This suggests to me that retailers didn’t really know how to treat these books. I commend DC for trying new things but it seems that retailers are less happy to gamble themselves. We could see some pick ups on some of these books as well but I think the majority of them are going to be short lived.

Ray: Beyond the regular biggest hits for DC like Batman, the two JL books, and Harley Quinn, it was definitely a mixed bag for the launches and returning titles this month. I think this relaunch may have gotten lost in the shuffle a bit with the craziness of Secret Wars. The big winner, to my eye, is Robin. With two new titles, the Robin: Son of Batman title spinning out of Batman and Robin, and as you mentioned the less conventional We Are Robin, they both launched between 65K and 50K and are two of the three top-selling new titles that don’t star the Justice League or Harley Quinn. The other one is Batman Beyond, the only new title with Batman in the title, but this one has had a mixed reception and spun out of the controversial Futures End event. I’m thinking these two Robin titles will have a much healthier hold over the next few months.

Glenn: I have no doubt about that I mean, I think the ‘Beyond’ titles have had a verly steady audience the last couple of years but this book I think benefits like you said of coming off a big event and such.  Of course, part of the appeal was that this was a Batman in the future and while that is still the case, its no longer Terry McGuinness under the cowl.  We’ll see if DC’s decision to kill him off and replace him with Tim Drake will pay off.  Overall it does underline that anything even remotely related to Batman is going to draw.

Ray: The big thing I notice about DC as we go down the list is that there seems to have been virtually no impact for a lot of the returning titles. Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman all returned to similar numbers as they left with. Superman seems to have gotten a slight bump since it’s coming back with a major new storyline, but not nearly as much as Batman did.

Glenn: Again, I would have expected higher numbers for Superman given the new direction. You think Superman would be one of the easiest titles on the market to sell but much like Fantastic Four at Marvel, it has its place in terms of history but no matter what they do, they just get a modest boost at best (aside from rare exceptions here and there)

Ray: Down the list a little, we see Starfire, a surprising hit in this new line. It’s by the writers of the Harley Quinn series and is part of DC’s attempt to have more light-hearted, female-led titles. I’m thinking this could be a sleeper.

Glenn: The creative team behind Harley Quinn seem to be able to work some real sales magic because the same writing team also seem to be able to launch the new Starfire book to middling numbers which is really probably what you can expect for a character like this in the current market, especially since she’s been the center of so much controversy since the start of the new 52.

Speaking of Harley, the spin off mini co-starring Power Girl debuted well with sales just under 65k.  Of course, this arc isn’t just a throwaway story and in fact, shows what the pair got up to during being trapped in a portal in her main book so it inheriting most of the main books audience is no big surprise.

Ray:  The fact that the only new Green Lantern title debuted below Starfire makes me think we can officially say that GL’s days as an a-list DC franchise are over for now. Much like JSA, they weren’t able to maintain that once Johns left.

Glenn:  Much like Daredevil in the 80’s when Frank Miller came on board, Green Lantern went through something of a revolution under Johns.  It certainty isn’t the force it used to be but still has allowed the franchise to support several spin offs and will probably be in a relatively stable hold for the foreseeable future.  It certainty, like you said is past its moment in the sun but who knows what tomorrow brings?  There are probably a few franchise’s Snyder might bring his magic to yet.  We’ve also seen Johns return multiple times to both Superman and Flash, he may have another Green Lantern story in him down the line.  For right now however, it’ll have to settle for middle of the pack along with most of the DC heroes that don’t have ‘Bat’ in their name.

Ray: Yeah, GL’s days as a top seller may be gone, but it’s still miles above where it was before Johns came on, at least in term of chart placement.

Much like Starfire, Black Canary had strong numbers spinning out of Batgirl. DC seems to have gotten the word out on this new wave of titles, at least for those targeting a female audience. It sold about as much as the Earth-2 relaunch, which has to be a bit of a disappointment on that front given how high Earth 2 was riding last year with the weekly and its huge role in Convergence.

Glenn: Clearly from the sales of Harley Quinn, DC got told there was a market for books with female leads and responded in kind, as have Marvel.  DC has chosen to give most of their existing female characters their own books (like Starfire and Black Canary) while Marvel has done the same but also turned or are turning most of their main heroes female (Thor, Wolverine).  It seems to be something that at the moment that seems to be working so far (with some books more than others).  Hopefully as more and more similar books, we don’t have the bubble burst.

Ray: Harley, oddly, really seems to be the most bulletproof character at DC right now besides Batman. Her Convergence mini was the top seller besides the main mini, and now we see both her regular title and this spin-off mini dominating. I also suspect she’s a huge part of how well Suicide Squad is holding, at roughly the same level of a-listers like GL and Flash, even though she has a relatively small role in the book.

Glenn:  People like Harley and she’s probably the main reason Suicide Squad is getting a movie before Wonder Woman or other major DC heroes.  She’s always been a character that has kinda defied the odds and as a fan myself, I hope she continues to be for years to come.

Ray: Constantine more than doubled its sales with the relaunch, and this new take is getting great reviews, so this might be a case where the relaunch really works out.

Glenn: The blend of going slightly back to the Vertigo roots seems to have helped Constantine a lot.  Maybe people that liked the TV show wanted more too since that was cancelled?

Ray:  Like you said, there’s a lot of books like Dr. Fate, Martian Manhunter, Doomed, Midnighter, and Omega Men that debuted pretty low. Some, particularly Midnighter, have built some strong buzz. The others are likely to struggle as the months pass.

Glenn:  Midnighter will probably be the one to do the best out of most of them because he’ll have a core audience that enjoyed The Authority that want more from him.  He will also benefit a little bit from being a Batman derivative.  His book may cling on but the others?  I don’t see it but who knows…

We also see that the Wonder Woman by the main books creative team didn’t do anywhere near where its mother book sells.  I’m hoping DC is ready to capitalize on her big screen debut next year because at the moment, with so many female led books performing well, the first major female superhero seems to be languishing.

Ray:  I believe this annual was delayed two months, so it may have been under-ordered partially due to this. It’s odd, because it was the direct conclusion of the previous arc. This run as a whole has been lacking in buzz, and I’m expecting an a-list creative team to be on the book in time for the movie. Snyder has specifically said he wants to take his turn on this property.

Glenn:  Could this team be a place holder then?  You think if Snyder wants the book, DC would throw it at him but then they might be waiting for the movie, who knows?

Ray:  Snyder’s pretty busy right now, so he might be waiting until he and Capullo wrap up their Batman run. They’ve stayed on longer than they originally planned, but the end will come sooner or later. That might be when Snyder jumps on to WW. Either way, given how enthusiastic he was, it’ll happen sooner or later, and I expect that will finally be Wonder Woman’s moment to grace the top ten, much like Johns did it for GL.

Glenn: Stop saying Snyder and Capullo has to end on Batman, Ray! It never will end!  NEVER!!!!!

Ray: Since I can’t pick on Wolverines anymore, I’ll pick on Teen Titans. This book, one of DC’s flagship franchises, sold less this month than Dr. Fate and Bat-Mite. It’s ridiculous that the title was allowed to get to this point, and I’m sure another relaunch isn’t far off. They’re launching a new spin-off title, Titans Hunt, shortly. Hopefully that’ll bring a little bit of momentum back to this book.

Glenn:  We could probably do an entire article about Teen Titans and how the franchise has been treated for the past decade or so.  Like we said earlier, Green Lantern really turned itself around from being a struggling b list title to DC’s top franchise at one time and Teen Titans has long fallen from the glory days of Marv Wolfman and George Perez.  They’ve tried several times to get the book back on track but from an outsider perspective, have seemingly just repeatedly made matters worse.  You’re much closer to the franchise than me but I watch say…Young Justice and go ‘well that’s pretty damn awesome’ and the comic has the ability to be that.  Perhaps too much damage has been done at this point though?  Perhaps we’ll need to wait until the next relaunch before any damage can be undone?

Ray: To no one’s surprise, the biggest head-scratcher in the entire line – the relaunch of Prez – was the lowest-selling of the new titles. I salute DC for digging through their archives and taking a chance, but not every obscure revival can be Howard the Duck. Some are going to wind up being GI Zombie.

Glenn: I’ll be honest, I didn’t know Prez was a thing outside of one of the best issues of Sandman until I did some research after it was announced.  It is the most puzzling relaunch I’ve seen in quite a while and I wonder its from the same mind that thought the Katana ‘doesn’t even warrant getting collected’ series was a good idea.  Of course, experimentation is good and any book could be a bit of a surprise hit but this one must have seemed like a real long shot. It very quietly got turned into a maxi series I believe so in a year or so, I’m sure most people may buy it from a bargain bin somewhere.

Ray: Prez, unlike Katana, does seem like it has a more distinct voice in mind, with a focus on teenage girls and the current online zeitgeist, but I think it may just be a bit too obscure and a bridge too far for that audience to latch on to. It’s a 12-issue miniseries, so DC probably plans to see it through to the end.

Glenn:  If DC are letting it run its entire 12 issues (which I suppose they have to) I wonder if we’ll see all 12 in the top 300.  I don’t think Prez will fade out completely but its going to be one to watch over the next year to see how low it may go.

Ray:  And as it just so happens as we were working on this column, DC announced that Prez has been cut back to six issues! Our first case of breaking news affecting our article! Can’t say I’m surprised, given how it slipped under the radar. It’s a shame that odd concepts have a hard time gaining traction at DC and Marvel, though.

Glenn:  Well there you go, the mini is now half the length it was when we started!  I think DC and Marvel have to realize that these kind of books do have a market but that it being filled by everyone else.  Given how many big sellers both companies have, I suppose they can afford to lose a bit on a gamble because you really do just never know.

Ray:  A lot of the low-selling titles seem to have gotten little to no bump, like Gotham Academy, Gotham By Midnight, and the lowest-selling main DC title, Lobo. These were struggling before the relaunch, and it doesn’t seem to have done much good. I’m enjoying both of these books, but it’s going to be a rough road ahead if DC didn’t get them higher numbers here.

Glenn:  Absolutely which, like you said will lead to varying results but both company line ups look or are due to look very different than how they’ve ever been before.  Is this good or bad?  Time will tell

Ray:  It was a quieter month for indie books. Fight Club 2 held very well with its second month, remaining the top indie book that isn’t Walking Dead or Saga. Descender isn’t doing those numbers, but as the #4 Image book of the month, everyone involved has to be very happy.

Starve, Brian Wood’s new celebrity chef dystopia thriller landed just outside the top 100, with very healthy numbers of 24K. This guy really likes his post-apocalyptic books.

Beyond that, the top-selling indie launch of the month was James Robinson’s bizarre Airboy, a strange fusion of golden-age revival and adults-only bio-comic. And just below that, Titan Comics lands on the chart with a Minions comic. A hearty Ba-na-na of congratulations to them!

Glenn:  I was just mentioning to someone I know there was no Minions comic!  Yay for Minions!  This of course will probably make its money elsewhere than the main market, those cute little servants are like printing money.

Ray: Old Archie’s final issue lands at 130 with 17K sales. Next month’s relaunch, naturally, will be MUCH higher.

Glenn: Thought they’d get more sales for the end of an era where Archie is concerned.  Of course, it’s going to be interesting to see how the new book with its a-list creative team fares next month.  The company is going with a very aggressive strategy to stay relevant at arguably the craziest time to do so I’m going to be fascinated to see how it all unfolds.

When all is said and done, with the help of Secret Wars, Marvel wins the top ten this month with new books like Thors, Groot and X-Men ’92 along with their other main Star Wars book, Darth Vader all performing well.  Who would have thought a year ago that a Groot title would be a best seller and actually doing better than books starring Batman, Wolverine or Deadpool?  Crazy how things go at times.

Ray: Like you said, Groot is pretty impressive. And it’s not even a Secret Wars tie-in, although it is filling in for Rocket’s title during its Secret Wars hiatus. This is one of those strange organic success stories where the concept just catches on with the audience. Of course, the movie has a lot to do with that.

Glenn: In some ways, Rocket and Groot have become Marvel’s very own Han Solo and Chewbacca…but with even more attitude.  They’ve both been able to become huge in pop culture in a very short amount of time.  It’s really interesting how something like that can happen, we’ve seen the same thing really with Spider-Gwen which also has exploded everywhere.

There are definitely some stars of the event and other books which are doing probably better than a straight up relaunch would have done but not as good as some others.  We still have a lot of Secret Wars books to come that will both land at the high and low end of the events sales spectrum but overall, its been a huge hit for Marvel.  They’re essentially doing a few months of their ‘greatest hits’ and its paying off in kind.

Ray:  Absolutely, beyond that, most of last month’s Secret Wars tie-ins held really well – Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars sold another 70K this month, despite not actually being a tie-in! And Marvel’s got to be really happy with the launches for Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies, Years of Future Past, Armor Wars, and Future Imperfect. These all debuted in the 60-75 range. Heck, even the Skottie Young Marvel Babies comic tying in landed in the top 25! And some more obscure tie-ins like Squadron Sinister, E is for Extinction, Weirdworld, and Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos sold around 50K for their first issues.

There were a few again, that didn’t quite find the same footing, though. Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps, X-tinction Agenda, and 1602: Witch Hunter Angela struggled a bit more. But given their concepts, they’re all doing much better than they would have without the event to boost them. It’s lifting all boats. Korvac Saga and Ghost Racers are the two that struggled the most, not surprising since they’re direct spin-offs of cancelled titles.

Most of Marvel besides the tie-ins is business as usual. Spider-Gwen took a bit of a hard hit this month as it ends its run, falling to 67K and 20, but that’s still amazing for an alt-universe book that grew solely out of word of mouth.

Glenn:  Maybe the lack of word about the books future at the time these orders would have been due hurt Spider-Gwen a bit?  People like you and me knew that this book wasn’t going anywhere but perhaps not enough people believed the same?  Hopefully the break won’t hurt the title and the renumbering won’t confuse too many people.  I wonder if an ongoing relaunching after 5 issues is some sort of record?

I want to mention Old Man Logan also which landed just outside the top ten with sales just under 80k.  We’re getting two new Wolverine books post Secret Wars so it’ll be interesting to see if this older version of the character who comes from the best selling story line of yesteryear can be a bigger sales draw than his younger self. The series that will launch has a solid creative team but I am curious why they didn’t have Lemire write this tie-in considering he will be writing the main book once the dust settles?  It’s an interesting gamble by Marvel and I’m curious to see how retailers react.

Ray:  There’s quite a few of Marvel’s books that are relaunching after only one arc like Spider-Gwen, actually. Ant-Man and Hawkeye both seem to be doing the same thing. It’s an interesting model, and I was wondering what would be the fate of these books that were launching right before SW started. It’ll definitely get some more eyes on these books when they start anew in the wake of this event, though.

Glenn:  Do you think so?  I have my doubts.  I think that some of the existing audience may use this as a chance to switch to trades or even worse, not come back at all.  I think they’ll relaunch high but drop below the numbers the titles were performing at prior to Secret Wars a lot faster.  I hope I’m wrong but the comic market, by and large is very fickle so I’m thinking that in a few months time, some books will be worse off somehow.  I hope I’m wrong.

Ray:  If Marvel can do one thing, it’s promote relaunches. This is their first time doing a total relaunch in a single month, and it’s coming with an across-the-board status quo change. That in and of itself should launch the titles really high to start. Some of the titles launching in the year before Secret Wars snuck below the radar a bit, like Hawkeye and Squirrel Girl, so this will at least get a lot more people to check out that first issue. But yeah, unless people really like what they see, the bounce won’t last and some of these same titles will be at cancellation numbers again soon.

Glenn:  Its a pattern we’ve seen over and over the last few years which is probably why number one relaunches are getting so frequent.  How many times this can continue to work will remain to be seen.  At best, it seems to me like a band aid over a heavily bleeding artery but I don’t see the strategy changing anytime soon.

Ray:  Diversity seems to be the order of the day at both companies, and I think we’re seeing the market do its work just like with any pattern. You have the smash hits like Ms. Marvel, the new Thor, and Harley’s new prominence, but you also have those concepts that just aren’t catching on, like the new Captain America, Squirrel Girl, or DC’s aborted titles like Mr. Terrific or Voodoo. There’s a bit of a rush right now to get all these concepts on the market, and I imagine it might not hold up completely in two years as the weaker ones die out – but the lineup is still going to look a lot more diverse than it did before the companies started trying out these concepts.

Glenn:  One book I want to mention before we leave the main books behind entirely is the Secret Wars tie-in Runaways.  This is a book that has always kind of been a low performed, even since its hey day of Brian K. Vaughn but this is a pretty good number for it.  With Runaways being very much a Marvel property and the success of Big Hero 6, I wonder if this will get a similar animated adaption or be one of the projects Marvel Studios wants to work its magic on?  I don’t think Marvel has any plans for the franchise post Secret Wars but these numbers are pretty good for a book that largely lived (at best) around 30k for most of its existence (when it wasn’t written by Joss Whedon, natch)

Ray: It’s really good to see Runaways back on the charts, although it’s worth mentioning that this series has very little in common with the original version. Still, the return to prominence can only be good. There’s been a movie in development for eons, but I think the property may be best suited for a Netflix miniseries. It’s teen-oriented, but it has a lot more mature content than you’ll see in BH6. And Netflix is dipping it’s toe into the YA pool with A Series of Unfortunate Events adaptation.

Glenn: Good call with Runaways on Netflix and although this may be different due to Secret Wars related shenanigans, at least it gets the brand out there again in people’s minds.  I doubt we’ll see it on a regular basis anything soon but the sales it managed here (tie in or not) are something worth noting I think.

Going back to smaller press, it’s going to be a rocky few months for any new debuts that don’t have big names attached and even then, it’s going to be a struggle.  The highest debut I could spot from an non Marvel or DC company was Image’s Airboy which lands at 124 with sales of just under 19,500.  This has quite a big name writer in James Robinson attached and finds it difficult to crack 20k.  From there, the new debuts get smaller and smaller in numbers.  Launching a new book now is the equivalent of flying a kite in the middle of a tropical storm.

I don’t think people should stop making their own comics while Marvel and DC produces their big money makers but its going to be hard for any new book to land an audience.  People make comics to obviously earn a living but I’m sure people want fans to read the books of course.  With prices increasing and more product being thrown at people, its harder for anyone to get a comic into the fans of the average fan unless you’re Robert Kirkman, Jeff Lemire, Scott Snyder or whoever.

It’ll likely be like this until the end of the year too.  It’s a hard time and I hope these books can hang on.

Ray:  Yeah, there were only a few debuts this month besides Airboy, like Empty Zone at 151 with sales just under 13K, and Rob Liefeld’s Bible comic Covenant at 187 with 9K, as well as indie relaunch Astronauts in Trouble at 208. These comics didn’t light up the charts, but they still had sustainable numbers for Image books for now. Kieron Gillen did a great breakdown on indie sales thresholds a while back, so while these numbers may look buried at the bottom of the charts to us, they may be healthy enough here. While the big events push the indies further and further down the charts, as long as the numbers stay steady, the indies will come out of it okay.

Time for my monthly shout-out to some books that need more love, like BOOM! sci-fi launch Broken World, which dropped at 226 with sales just over 7K, and The Fiction, a fantasy adventure which landed at 246. BOOM! is putting out some amazing books right now and deserves more in the way of sales.

Glenn: Stability is key to the success of any small press book.  Make sure you can get a good, solid core audience and build from there.  It’s how Walking Dead has become what it is today and really, any book has the potential to be a big a hit given the right opportunity.  These books may go the distance or they may not but you hit the nail on the head where finding stability FAST will go a long way to tell if a title can survive the long haul.

Companies like BOOM!, IDW, Valiant, Titan and other small press are all putting out great books.  Trying to get people to pay attention to them when Marvel and DC are putting out multiple, dependable tried and tested sellers month after month can’t be easy.  A lot of big name creators are going to Image over these companies but there are a few gems here and there.  These companies have to get through periods like this by producing solid comics.  I know that sounds silly but its true.  At the end of the day, if you can build a comic that people like to read then at the end of the day, you can survive whereas this time by the end of the year, most of what we talk about now at the big companies will be over.  The need to remain consistent and reliable in a world where the two biggest comic companies are ever changing.  This is how they’re going to get noticed and hopefully find more and more people to pick up their books.

Ray:  Looking ahead, it’s a fairly quiet month for new launches as DC has just relaunched its new wave and Marvel is still a few months away. The last Secret Wars minis roll out, with such A-list names like Civil War, Siege, House of M, and Age of Apocalypse. DC has one new book left to launch this month, Cyborg. This is a character they’ve made a concentrated effort to elevate to the a-list, so we’ll see whether his first solo series delivers. Outside the big two, there’s a few buzz-worthy launches, like Brandon Graham’s bizarre sci-fi fantasy 8House, the gritty urban fantasy The Spire from BOOM!, and BKV’s next Image ongoing, We Stand on Guard, about a war between the US and Canada. With giant robots! One of the most interesting debuts next month is the Star Trek/Green Lantern crossover from IDW, which might do some of the biggest numbers for a licensed crossover we’ve seen in some time. There’s Mark Waid and JG Jones’ controversial period piece superhero epic, Strange Fruit, and of course, the event of the month – Archie #1, by the a-list creative team of Waid and Staples, with dozens of variant covers by the best in the industry and rave reviews across the board. Could we be seeing America’s favorite ginger in the top ten?

Glenn:  The summer of madness continues next month!  It’s going to be interesting to see how the remaining Secret Wars books perform, how the new DCYou books handle that and how the rest of the industry levels out.  I do think we may be seeing Archie in the top 20 next month.  I would like it to see it in the top ten but I think there will too much else going on.

We’ll see next month, old chum!