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This episode covered both the February 2006 and March 2006 data.
The email discussions I had with person organizing the podcast were for back to back discussion of Feburary and then March. As a result, my notes were set up to discuss each month individually. One of the problems I faced during this podcast was the guys kept jumping between the two months. Had I know that was going to be the case I would have structured my notes in a manner to faciliate jumping between the two months. As it was, I was constantly flipping between two difference Excel files searching for specific titles.
Here are the rough notes I compiled for March 2006 in preperation for the podcast.
2006-03 IndexPointValue:
- CBG = ~697.97
- Up about 33.74 from 2006-02
- ICv2 = ~698.05
- Up about 33.58 from 2006-02
- 1 titles about 200,000
- Infinite Crisis #5
- 4 titles above 100,000 (and below 200,000)
- New Avengers #17
- All Star Superman #3
- New Avengers Illuminati Special #1
- Superman/Batman #24
- 17 titles came out with 2 issues:
- Amazing Fantasy #18 & 19
- Dooms of Doom #4 & 5
- Daughters of Dragon #2 & 3
- Fathom #7 & 8
- Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #5 & 6
- Godland #8 & 9
- Gold Digger #72 & 73
- Invincible #18 & 19
- JLA Classified #18 & 19
- Next Wave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #2 & 3
- Red Sonja #7 & 8
- Shadowhawk #9 & 10
- Spike vs Dracula #1 & 2
- Ultimate Spider-Man #91 & 92
- Uncanny X-Men #470 & 471
- Walking Dead #26 & 27
- X-Factor #4 & 5
MARKET SHARES
- Another strong month for Marvel
- Not quite as strong as 2006-02 but close
- A little under half (47.54%) of the comic book units sold this month
- A little under half (45.89%) of the comic book dollars sold this month
- Again DC came in second place behind Marvel
- A little over one third (36.42%) of comic book units sold this month
- A little over one third (37.27%) of comic book dollars sold this month
- Image gained some market share this month
- Comic book units: 4.56%
- Comic book dollars: 4.52%
MARVEL
- 90 new
- 10 reorders
- 100 total <--- 1/3 of the top 100 comics are Marvel
- Is Marvel trying to push everyone else off the comic book racks?
- Rank #2: New Avengers #17 (~121,100)
- Down ~3,100 (-2.50%) from #16
- About 50.14% of initial sales for #1
- The mention in New Avengers #18 could bring a ton of new listeners to CGS
- Rank #7: Amazing Spider-Man #520 (~89,900)
- Down ~23,000 (-20.37%)
- "The Other" storyline ended and sales dropped to around where they were during the first month of "The Other"
- Rank #16: Ultimate Spider-Man #91
- Up ~2,600 (+3.64%) from #90
- Ultimate X-Men guest star
- Ultimate Deadpool
- Rank #19: Ultimate Spider-Man #92
- Back down ~1,700 (-2.30%)
- Rank #28: Annihilation Prologue (~61,800)
- Not a great start for a Marvel event but not horrible either
- Rank #30: Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #5 (~59,900)
- Down ~18,700 (-23.79%)
- First issue that isn't part of "The Other" storyline
- Rank #32: Fantastic Four #536 (~57,900)
- Up ~14,800 (+34.34%)
- Civil War tie-ie
- Rank #47: Marvel Zombies #4 (~44,300)
- Up ~3,200 (+7.79%)
- Rank #145: Marvel Zombies #3 reorder (Second printing, variant cover) (~15,500)
- Rank #206: Marvel Zombies #2 reorder (~7,900)
- Impressive reorder numbers, particularly for a non-event mini-series
- Rank #80: Black Panther #14 (~28,800)
- Up ~2,800 (+10.77%)
- First part of "Bride of the Panther" storyline
- Rank #87: Thunderbolts #100 (~26,800)
- Up ~3,100 (+11.57%)
- Probably due to the "magic number" and increased size
- Rank #121: Thing #5 (~20,300)
- Down ~900 (-4.25%)
- #1: 30,200
- #2: 23,600 - down 6,600 - sold about 78.15% of #1
- #3: 21,800 - down 1,800 - sold about 72.19% of #1
- #4: 21,200 - down 600 - sold about 70.20% of #1
- #5: 20,300 - down 600 - sold about 67.22% of #1
- had the expected second issue drop but seems to be levelling off fairly quickly
- Marvel may cancel the book unles sales go up (according to the "Save the THING" thread on the forums
- Dan Slott is going all out to promote this book
- Marvel's "Line of Death" is around 21,000?
- Rank #129: Marvel Team-Up (~19,000)
- Down ~400 (-2.06%)
- Sell less than the Thing which can't be a good sign
- Marvel should give Robert Kirkman more freedom on this title
- Give Kirkman control/jurisdiction over characters that aren't in use and let him do his thing
- Give the book another 6 to 12 months for Kirkman to build up an ongoing storyline
- Rank #218: Astonishing X-Men #13 reorder (~6,500)
- Strong reorder numbers
MARVEL: NEW UNIVERSE
- Rank #169: Untold Tales of the New Universe: Starbrand (~11,200)
- Rank #175: Untold Tales of the New Universe: Justice (~10,700)
- Rank #178: Untold Tales of the New Universe: Nightmask (~10,400)
- Rank #179: Untold Tales of the New Universe: DP 7 (~10,300)
- Rank #188: Untold Tales of the New Universe: Psi-Force (~9,500)
- These landed lower than I expected they would
- The ordering of the titles within the group is a bit surprising
- I would have expected: Starbrand, DP 7, Psi-Force, Nightmask, Justice
- These issues really highlighted the difference in storytelling over the past 20 years
- Even Justice which was written by Peter David then and now had a different feel to it
- I think they should have written these comics "old school style" if they had been written during the original New Universe run
- Use thought balloons, 1980s panel layouts and pacing, etc
- Might not have sold any better but would have been truer to the original material
DC
- 73 new
- 10 reorders
- 83 total
- Rank #1:Infinite Crisis #5 (~201,800)
- Rank #203: Infinite Crisis #4 (second printing) reorder (~8,100)
- Rank #222: Infinite Crisis #3 reorder ( ~5,900)
- Rank #255: Infinite Crisis #2 reorder ( ~4,100)
- Rank #268: Infinite Crisis #1 reorder ( ~3,700)
- strong reorder numbers
- total sales to date:
- #1: ~268,400 - originally ~249,100 + reorders of ~19,300
- #2: ~224,100 - originally ~207,600 + reorders of ~16,500 - sold around 83.94% of total of #1
- #3: ~216,700 - originally ~188,900 + reorders of ~27,800 - sold around 80.73% of total of #1
- #4: ~207,200 - originally ~182,600 + reorders of ~24,600 - sold around 77.19% of total of #1
- #5: ~201,800 - originally ~201,800 - sold around 75.18% of total of #1
- Rank #3: All Star Superman #3 (~110,600)
- huge drop of around ~17,100 copies (-13.39%)
- biggest drop for a DC title this month
- I enjoyed issued #2 and #3 much more than #1
- It should be interesting to see where DC goes with the All Star line
- Rank #5: Superman.Batman #24 (~101,300)
- Down ~2,400 (-2.31%) from #23
- First issue to come out this year (#23 came out 2005-12-29)
- Still sold very well
- Rank #38: Blue Beetle #1 (~50,700)
- Good opening numbers for this series
- Rank #115: Warlord #2 (~21,600)
- Down ~5,800 (-21.17%)
- Not out of line with a typical second issue drop
DC: ONE YEAR LATER
- Nearly every One Year Later issue went up
- Exception: Green Lantern, JSA
- One Year Later resulted in a net gain of 96,800 copies sold compared to the previous issues of those titles
- Will these titles be able to keep the new readers?
- Rank #8: Green Lantern #10 (~79,700)
- One of only two One Year Later issues to go down
- Down ~10,200 (-11.35%) from #9
- Previous issue:
- Batman guest starred
- Two covers
- Down ~2,700 (-3.03%) from #8
- Rank #20: Batman #651 (~69,800)
- Up ~3,400 (+5.12%)
- Rank #25: Superman #650 (~65,600)
- Up ~1,600 (+2.50%)
- Rank #26: Detective Comics #817 (~62,200)
- Up ~26,800 (+75.71%)
- Largest increase in sales, both by number of copies and by percentage
- Rank #33: Action Comics #837 (~55,800)
- Up ~500 (+0.90%)
- Smallest increase in sales, both by number of copies and by percentage
- Rank #36: JSA #83 (~52,000)
- One of only two One Year Later issues to go down
- Previous issue:
- Art and cover by George Perez
- Infinite Crisis tie-in
- Down ~2,200 (-4.06%)
- Rank #42: Outsiders #34 (~47,300)
- Up ~4,000 (+9.24%)
- Rank #51: Nightwing #118 (~42,500)
- Up ~7,000 (+19.72%)
- Rank #53: JSA Classified #10 (~41,300)
- Up ~2,200 (+5.63%)
- Rank #57: Green Arrow #60 (~37,900)
- Up ~6,700 (+21.47%)
- Rank #58: Aquaman Sword of Atlantis #40 (~37,600)
- Up ~19,300 (+51.33%)
- Second largest increase in sales, both by number of copies and by percentage
- Rank #60: Birds of Prey #92 (~36,800)
- Up ~7,000 (+23.49%)
- Rank #61: Robin #148 (~36,700)
- Up ~4,600 (+14.33%)
- Rank #65: Hawkgirl #50 (~34,700)
- Up ~9,700 (+27.95%)
- Rank #82: Catwoman #53 (~28,500)
- Up ~6,600 (+30.14%)
- Rank #97: Firestorm Nuclear Man #23 (~25,100)
- Up ~4,000 (+15.94%)
- Rank #141: Manhunter #20 (~16,100)
- Up ~3,100 (+23.85%)
- Rank #151: Blood of Demon #13 (~14,100)
- Up ~2,700 (+19.15%)
IMAGE
- 40 new
- no reorders
- 40 total
- Rank #83: Cyberforce #1 (~27,500)
- Really low opening numbers for a revival of an early Image title
- Top selling Image book for the month
- Rank #127: Walking Dead #26 (~19,400)
- Up ~100 (0.52%) from #25
- Rank #131: Walking Dead #27 (~18,900)
- Down ~500 (-2.58%) from #26
- Rank #156: Invincible #29 (~12,700)
- Rank #159: Invincible #30 (~12,300)
- Surprising that there was a drop between issues, Invincible has had a solid upward trend for a while
- Rank #216: Savage Dragon #124 (~6,800)
- Resolicited
- Down ~700 (-4.41%) from #123
- Don't know if I want to go down this road or not (probably not):
- Is it time for Eric Larsen to put up or shut up?
- Eric Larsen has a history of "challenging" other creators to do better
- Sometimes creators and publishers need to be challenged by others
- Does Larsen himself need such a challenge?
- At the rate Savage Dragon is dropping in sales, Larson might not be able to give copies away in another 30 issue or so
- Eric Larsen can do better. Savage Dragon can sell better. Why isn't it?
- Is Savage Dragon Eric Larsen's "magnum opus" or just a self-indulgent vanity project?
- Rank #257: Retro Rocket #1 (~4,000)
- This is a really great title from Image featuring big robot mechs
- Myth: Image books sell well
- No books over 30,000 copies
- 2 over 20,000
- Cyberforce #1 and Spawn #154
- 9 between 10,000 and 20,000
- 4 of them by Robert Kirkman: Walking Dead #26 & 27, Invincible #29 & 30
- 12 comics between 5,000 and 10,000
- 17 comics between 2,500 and 5,000 copies
- Uncle Scrooge #352 from Gemstone sold better than each of these 17
- Uncle Scrooge #352 contains reprints and costs $6.95
- the total sales of Robert Kirkman's 4 comics from Image outsold the total of these 17 comics
- Robert Kirkman: 63,300
- 17 other comics: 60,200
- these are not bad titles
- Somebody explain to me why Image isn't considered "indy" these days
OTHER
- IDW:
- 15 new, no reorders, 15 total
- Dark Horse:
- 10 new, no reorders, 10 total
- Devil's Due:
- 9 new, no reorders, 9 total
- Rank #249: Angel Scriptbook #1 (~4,500)
- Even with low numbers this book have to be making some money since it can't be that expensive to produce
- I hope they keep this around as it is an interesting way to distribute scripts from the show
- Rank #226: Local #4 (~5,800)
- Up ~1,100 (+23.40%) from #3
- Rank #261: Victoria's Secret Service (~3,900)
- Alias issues a press release stating they were "excited" that this had sold out
- There was a thread about this on the forums
- Fun book and you get exactly what you might expect from the title:
- a light-hearted spy story with good girl art
- The title is sort of similar to Danger Girl from Wildstorm
- Rank #275: Plantery Brigade #2 (~3,500)
- Down ~1,600 (-31.37%) from #1
TRADES
- Rank #41: Walking Dead Vol 1: Days Gone Bye (~2,400)
- Rank #43: Walking Dead Vol 4: Hearts Desire (~2,300)
- Rank #87: Walking Dead Vol 2: Miles Behind Us (~1,400)
- Rank #91: Walking Dead Vol 3: Safely Behind Bars (~1,400)
