Mayo Report

[Perseus]

I just wanted to say I was happy to see at #136 Scooby Doo Team Up with over 15k units. That's over double its sales from two months ago. This book comes out every two months.

Also, it helps that Harley and Ivy are on the cover, also drawn in the Batman Animated Series style.

It's a fun all ages title I'm happy to buy every two months. It's good for adults and kids alike. I'll be interested in seeing how the 2nd printing numbers shake out which is out this month as well.

Also, great to see Invader Zim #1 and #2 getting reorder activity. Great fun title for fans of the show and maybe new fans.

[Elprez]

My 2 cents on the Annuals question, as a (UK) retailer:-

Annuals sell pretty much only to pull-list customers
In fact, we generally order annuals at slightly under our pull-list customer numbers, because some of our pull-list customers have indicated that they don't want any annuals at all.
And some reject the annuals because they are rarely by the regular creative team, or connected to the regular issues.
Using your examples, Batman and Flash are only slightly down on last years number of pull-list customers, Batgirl is pretty much the same as last years number, Green Lantern is down on last year.
Selling any annuals off the shelf is rare

[Elprez]

Re Drew's question about "Crossed" TPBs vs single issues, for us the TPB's sell more copies than the single issues, albeit slowly and steadily. We try to keep the TPBs all in stock all the time

Avatar's TPB's by Alan Moore and Garth Ennis (including Crossed, although that is continued by other writers) are all steady, reliable sellers. Their other titles less so.

[NiklasJ]

Interesting little survey on Annual customers. I have an ongoing order on annuals from titles that are on my pull-list. I seldom order annuals from titles I dont get on a regular basis unless they have a familiar guest star for example the latest Batgirl Annual had an appearance of Grayson. It would take something like a DC september special Villains/Zero/Futuresend month to make me cancel a special issue of a title I´m reading (to be company fair i also skipped out on the x-men black vortex tie-ins as i wasnt reading gotg).

[Elprez]

Regarding your discussion of Image releasing 1st volumes of TPBs at $9.99.
I believe Image are doing exactly the right thing - a low introductory price for a series of graphic novels makes trying new titles a much more attractive option for our customers on properties they may not be familiar with (unlike for example Spider-Man or Batman, which are familiar characters to almost everyone)

When looking at the monthly order form I am certainly more likely to order, say 3 (or more) copies at $9.99 to put on the shelves, whereas I would order less if the price were higher. Maybe even just one copy.

Getting shops to stock enough of a book to gauge potential sales of future volumes has to be a good thing. And, while retailers may not pay much attention if a book sells one copy ("hey, it sold - good"), hopefully they'll pay attention when a book sells 3 (or more) copies, and remember it when it comes time to order volume 2 and on.

Also, at $9.99, a first volume is a no-brainer to restock when it sells - you're not risking much money, and hopefully it will sell. Then repeat. If you've sold plenty of copies of the first volume by the time vol 2 is solicited, then you have a rough estimate of it's popularity.

Plus, retailers should also have a fair idea of the material from the individual issues, so even if they've under-ordered on those (which definitely happens - I've done it), now is the time to make amends (and, hopefully a profit)

Off the top of my head, I know this has worked for Saga, Deadly Class, Southern (bleeps) and Wicked & Divine (I'm sure there are more)

[drew]

Regarding your discussion of Image releasing 1st volumes of TPBs at $9.99.
I believe Image are doing exactly the right thing - a low introductory price for a series of graphic novels makes trying new titles a much more attractive option for our customers on properties they may not be familiar with (unlike for example Spider-Man or Batman, which are familiar characters to almost everyone)

When looking at the monthly order form I am certainly more likely to order, say 3 (or more) copies at $9.99 to put on the shelves, whereas I would order less if the price were higher. Maybe even just one copy.

Getting shops to stock enough of a book to gauge potential sales of future volumes has to be a good thing. And, while retailers may not pay much attention if a book sells one copy ("hey, it sold - good"), hopefully they'll pay attention when a book sells 3 (or more) copies, and remember it when it comes time to order volume 2 and on.

Also, at $9.99, a first volume is a no-brainer to restock when it sells - you're not risking much money, and hopefully it will sell. Then repeat. If you've sold plenty of copies of the first volume by the time vol 2 is solicited, then you have a rough estimate of it's popularity.

Plus, retailers should also have a fair idea of the material from the individual issues, so even if they've under-ordered on those (which definitely happens - I've done it), now is the time to make amends (and, hopefully a profit)

Off the top of my head, I know this has worked for Saga, Deadly Class, Southern (bleeps) and Wicked & Divine (I'm sure there are more)

9.99 trades are definitely reader friendly - but I remember hearing news from the diamond retailer summit a few years back with store owners railing against 2.99 comics in favor of higher profit margins on 3.99 books - I wonder if same sentiment is true for trades

[JohnMayo]

9.99 trades are definitely reader friendly - but I remember hearing news from the diamond retailer summit a few years back with store owners railing against 2.99 comics in favor of higher profit margins on 3.99 books - I wonder if same sentiment is true for trades

From what I've heard, yes, some retailers aren't crazy about the $9.99 trades feeling they would make more on them if they were priced higher. And, on those trades, they might. But the real question is if they would make more on those series of trades if the first volumes were priced higher. While the first volumes might make as much or more money, they'd be doing so at lower sales which would then limit the sales of the later trades.

[erickowabunga]

From what I've heard, yes, some retailers aren't crazy about the $9.99 trades feeling they would make more on them if they were priced higher. And, on those trades, they might. But the real question is if they would make more on those series of trades if the first volumes were priced higher. While the first volumes might make as much or more money, they'd be doing so at lower sales which would then limit the sales of the later trades.

Absolutely dead right. As retailers, making more money is always great . . . but how do you want to make it? Up front, or long term? We love the long term approach. We sell a TON of Image trades, and we know we wouldn't sell as many vol 2, 3, 4, etc of the series if volume 1 was priced higher.

We have two types of people, those who say "Oh, its $9.99, I'll give it a try." Only to have them come back and say "That was really good, give me Saga vol. 2, please."

The other are people looking at Marvel and DC trades, and putting them back in favor of buying the next $14.99 Image trade. So, from our standpoint, regarding Image, it's working, and working well.

Scenario 2 is Peter robbing Paul, and that will happen as people are on budgets. But, for those in the first camp, it is wonderful. The one thing I think is very smart is Otis Frampton keeping his Oddly Normal trade at $9.99 with vol 2. That is the PERFECT price point for parents. When they see $14.99 or more, and are just casually stopping in to our store, they can get turned off. But to have two volumes of a series at $9.99 . . . that is pretty easy to let parents get in on.

[drew]

Marvel Sweeps the top 10, how often does that happen?

Top-selling comic books to retailers - October
Comic Book Price Publisher
1 Invincible Iron Man #1 $3.99 Marvel
2 Amazing Spider-Man #1 $5.99 Marvel
3 Spider-Gwen #1 $3.99 Marvel
4 Secret Wars #6 $3.99 Marvel
5 Doctor Strange #1 $4.99 Marvel
6 Star Wars #10 $3.99 Marvel
7 Chewbacca #1 $3.99 Marvel
8 Star Wars: Shattered Empire #2 $3.99 Marvel
9 Guardians Of The Galaxy #1 $3.99 Marvel
10 Amazing Spider-Man #2 $3.99 Marvel

http://comichron.com/

[JohnMayo]

Marvel Sweeps the top 10, how often does that happen?

Only one other time in the final order era: January 2005.

[NiklasJ]

Since DC is really lackluster at the moment its no surprise Marvels ANAD #1s were going to get high numbers but all ten is kinda cool. Lets hope more readers understand the story continues in issue #2

SpiderMan, Starwars and GotG wil stay in the top, ironman and dr strange too as long as they keep their creative teams.

The interest in SpiderGwen is weird, its not a bad comic but it isnt great, nice covers though, good for the hype.

Hopefully many of the new marvels can keep their numbering longer than half a year.... though with soooo many new comics in the pipeline alot are going to have a tough road ahead.

Vision, scarlet witch, black knight, hercules, weirdworld, drax, guardians of infinity(?), moon girl, carnage, hellcat, illuminati, angela and more... ongoings in transition to miniseries. If DC can do it Marvel can copy it.

[drew]

SpiderMan, Starwars and GotG wil stay in the top, ironman and dr strange too as long as they keep their creative teams.

Iron man was a huge surprise to me coming out on top spot, I wonder if there is a loot crate tie in?

I can't see GotG as more than a 50k/month book so that would be a surprise to me if it maintained its top ten slot

[JohnMayo]

SpiderMan, Starwars and GotG wil stay in the top, ironman and dr strange too as long as they keep their creative teams.

Iron man was a huge surprise to me coming out on top spot, I wonder if there is a loot crate tie in?

I can't see GotG as more than a 50k/month book so that would be a surprise to me if it maintained its top ten slot

I'm not aware of any such subscription box promotion for Iron Man but it is entirely possible. The second issue of Iron Man will be at more realistic and sustainable levels than the first issue. I really can't say more until the rest of the data is released on Monday.

[NiklasJ]

Iron man was a huge surprise to me coming out on top spot, I wonder if there is a loot crate tie in?

I can't see GotG as more than a 50k/month book so that would be a surprise to me if it maintained its top ten slot

I'm not aware of any such subscription box promotion for Iron Man but it is entirely possible. The second issue of Iron Man will be at more realistic and sustainable levels than the first issue. I really can't say more until the rest of the data is released on Monday.

Bendis is still a big name for marvelfanatics, add sharp art from Marquez and the starting high numbers isnt that surprising for me. Haven´t read much ironman in the past but jumped on this and Im liking it so far. Situation for Dr Strange is pretty much the same, movie properties with big creator names, trying it out and liking whats come out so far.

In todays market if Guardians can keep some 60k sales in the diamond numbers that is in the top 30, maybe not in the absolute top but still higher than most.

Going forward a few months it will be very interesting to see what happens to the Marvel numbers as they come to issue #4-5, and further onto issues #20-30-40-50 (I can dream...)

[JohnMayo]

First issues, particularly over at Marvel, at not indicative of how a series will do. Marvel tends to heavily promote first issues with an excessive number of variant covers which inflates the first issue sales leading to heavy drops on second issues.