Mayo Report

[drew]

Trades episode was great - TJ - as a trade reader predominantly, have you ever been so blown away by a volume that it made you go back to single issues because you just couldn't wait?

[erickowabunga]

Trades episode was great

Agreed! A lot of great info here. I think that one item of interesting discussion was the talk about manga. In our store, we don't really see much crossover from comics to manga, and those that are buying manga, are usually going to Barnes and Noble 30 minutes away. Which makes sense - we aren't going to stock all 50 books of Fairy Tale, Black Butler, Attack on Titan, hoping for that one person to come in and get them all. Not to mention the hundreds of other titles up through book 10+.

Manga has a very common issue that Marvel and DC had before the constant renumbering started, and that is a very imposing catalog of back matter to get caught up on to be current for the main titles. Arguably many comics before writing for the trade, were easier to jump right on and go, as they were done in one stories. With most manga, that is not the case.

Another component to manga that makes the crossover tough is that it is all black and white. Now, granted, the higher page count per dollar is a better deal, but many comics readers are as in tune to writing as they are art. For them, they want to see the colors, textures, etc. (not all, but many).

Now, that said, there are some great manga titles out there. I decided, that to be a good shop owner/operator, I should probably dip my toes in a bit, to know what we are getting in to. I am enjoying the heck out of Black Butler, and would recommend that to almost anyone, but just couldn't get myself into Attack on Titan. I don't know if the first book developed too slowly, or not, but it didn't grab me out of the four #1 books I snagged. For full disclosure, I grabbed two for myself, and two for my wife. She is reading, and very much liking Fairy Tail, and has read both books of QQ Sweeper, and is interested in reading the third, but is making it sound like it is on the edge of being cut.

[clobberin_time_bs]

I just listened to your Mayo Report about the monthlies and loved the discussion about what readers are fans of these days. Your discussion about readers following only writers was interesting and it made me think about my habits. 1st and foremost, I will read anything that says Fantastic Four on it when it's published (dammit Marvel), but because of his great run on F4 a few years ago I now also follow Jonathan Hickman onto whatever he writes now. Back when there was only Uncanny X-Men and X-Men I was all in on X-Men too but as that line expanded I started choosing series based on creators or most interesting premiss (kind of like the Batman discussion), so there is a breaking point on our fandom where we are no longer all in. Quite honestly I think we all follow all of these things at different times for different reasons and the publishers need to market based on multiple aspects of the book and not just the author or the premiss (or the crossover).

Great job as usual guys!

[clobberin_time_bs]

I did have a question I forgot to put in my last post. When you talk about issue over issue rises and drops will 2nd and later printings be included in those numbers? The section on Diamond's website for new printings is full of Marvel titles right now and I just wondered if those new printings lessen the drop on those numbers or if they're not reported in time?

Also, I got an issue of Batman/TMNT in both Comic Block and Comicboxer this month so subscription boxes are probably accounting for some of those numbers. Interestingly enough, neither of those boxes had one of those retailer variants for that issue, it was just the standard cover. Books a Million had a retailer cover for it though.

The next Marvel Collector Corps box is Deadpool so I bet those #1s on that list are for that box coming next month. Comic Con Box also has a Deadpool theme next month.

[bralinator]

At least in the bookstores, trades are up. According to figures reported at Publishers Weekly. Graphic novels sales were up 22% with 10,591,000 copies sold, up from 8,669,000 in 2014.

[NDHorse]

There is a lot of discussion about when a series is restarted and it only shows a bump for a few issues and is selling right back at where it was before the restart. I wonder if some of this attrition is due to buyers changing over to digital. I personally have started buying more and more titles in digital. I buy/bought in digital Sinestro, Prez, Martian Manhunter, Ragnarok, Superman/Wonder Woman, Bizzaro, and BatMite.

I know it is frustrating that there are no numbers for digital out there, but there has got to be a good number of people converting formats. I love having my new comics at 6AM on Wednesdays. The only reason I still buy some titles in paper is because I have long runs of certain books like Superman, Thor, and GL that I like to keep going.

[MisterFerro]

So BleedingCool ran a couple of "stories" about DC relaunching every book to #1, those that don't get the chopping block that is.

On twitter both Jim Lee and Dan Didio posted this teaser:

[drew]

At least in the bookstores, trades are up. According to figures reported at Publishers Weekly. Graphic novels sales were up 22% with 10,591,000 copies sold, up from 8,669,000 in 2014.

wow that's a big jump

[drew]

There is a lot of discussion about when a series is restarted and it only shows a bump for a few issues and is selling right back at where it was before the restart. I wonder if some of this attrition is due to buyers changing over to digital. I personally have started buying more and more titles in digital. I buy/bought in digital Sinestro, Prez, Martian Manhunter, Ragnarok, Superman/Wonder Woman, Bizzaro, and BatMite.

I know it is frustrating that there are no numbers for digital out there, but there has got to be a good number of people converting formats. I love having my new comics at 6AM on Wednesdays. The only reason I still buy some titles in paper is because I have long runs of certain books like Superman, Thor, and GL that I like to keep going.

ICV2 estimate digital at 10-15% http://comicbookpage.com/forum/posting. ... =1&p=24915 annually

well at least last year, maybe the new estimate when released will show an increase share

[JohnMayo]

I did have a question I forgot to put in my last post. When you talk about issue over issue rises and drops will 2nd and later printings be included in those numbers? The section on Diamond's website for new printings is full of Marvel titles right now and I just wondered if those new printings lessen the drop on those numbers or if they're not reported in time?

I calculate the drops each month with the then current information. What that means is the December 2015 workbook includes data up to December 2015, including any reorder information. So, if I were to go back an recalc the data later after more information is released, the drop would look different. I have a column of data for each item containing the known sales for each issue of that series. For example, I might have reported a second issue drop of X one month and then months later when discussing that titles, the workbook could have different numbers for the issues because of reorder sales for those earlier issues in the months after they came out. Second printings get lumped in as reorders.

Also, I got an issue of Batman/TMNT in both Comic Block and Comicboxer this month so subscription boxes are probably accounting for some of those numbers. Interestingly enough, neither of those boxes had one of those retailer variants for that issue, it was just the standard cover. Books a Million had a retailer cover for it though.

I don't think I've heard of Comicboxer before. What do you think of it and Comic Block? Are either of those subscription boxes ones I should consider? Given how much I get, I suspecting not but I'd appreciate you thoughts.

The next Marvel Collector Corps box is Deadpool so I bet those #1s on that list are for that box coming next month. Comic Con Box also has a Deadpool theme next month.

Yeah, I'm expecting Deadpool #1 to be in that Marvel Collector Corps box. It is too good of an opportunity for them to not take advantage of.

[JohnMayo]

So BleedingCool ran a couple of "stories" about DC relaunching every book to #1, those that don't get the chopping block that is.

On twitter both Jim Lee and Dan Didio posted this teaser:

Seriously?

Re-voluming seems like a not-so-great idea. If they were to actually reboot the titles then I would have to give serious thought as to how much I care about reading the DC Universe titles as a whole. another New 52 style reboot of the continuity (which it doesn't sound like would happen) would also shape my opinion on if DC Comics needed new leadership. Honestly, just re-voluming to new #1 would also do that but to a lesser degree.

[clobberin_time_bs]

I don't think I've heard of Comicboxer before. What do you think of it and Comic Block? Are either of those subscription boxes ones I should consider? Given how much I get, I suspecting not but I'd appreciate you thoughts.

They both are good subscription blocks. Comic Block usually has more front half (of Previews) kind of books, sometimes with variant covers. In your case it would probably be a lot of comics you've already read but the t-shirt is usually really cool.

Comicboxer doesn't come with a t-shirt but will have 5-6 comics in it each month. The cool thing about them is that there is almost always a signed comic or sketch cover. Two months ago I got a Transformers comic with an original sketch by the interior artist. This month I got a variant of Squadron Sinister signed by Leonard Kirk.

[bralinator]

So BleedingCool ran a couple of "stories" about DC relaunching every book to #1, those that don't get the chopping block that is.

On twitter both Jim Lee and Dan Didio posted this teaser:

Seriously?

Re-voluming seems like a not-so-great idea. If they were to actually reboot the titles then I would have to give serious thought as to how much I care about reading the DC Universe titles as a whole. another New 52 style reboot of the continuity (which it doesn't sound like would happen) would also shape my opinion on if DC Comics needed new leadership. Honestly, just re-voluming to new #1 would also do that but to a lesser degree.

I expect this could be a great jumping OFF point for many of the DC readers they have left after convergence. No wonder continuity didn't matter anymore...

[doctormo]

Seriously?

Re-voluming seems like a not-so-great idea. If they were to actually reboot the titles then I would have to give serious thought as to how much I care about reading the DC Universe titles as a whole. another New 52 style reboot of the continuity (which it doesn't sound like would happen) would also shape my opinion on if DC Comics needed new leadership. Honestly, just re-voluming to new #1 would also do that but to a lesser degree.

As I listened the latest comic book episode of the Mayo Report, I wondered if John and Sam knew about the rumored renumbering at DC would their comments been different. I certainly look forward to future Mayo Reports in which this is discussed. Summer 2016 is definitely going to make for some interesting discussions, especially once we know how well Batman v. Superman does in the box office. If Bleeding Cool's report is accurate, the renumbering is being done in order to align the titles more properly with their tv/film counterparts.

Regarding John and Sam's discussion of creators and characters, I am someone who love certain characters but the creative team can influence my purchasing decision. My rationale is that I have a budget and I want to maximize my enjoyment. I cannot afford to be all in on a particular character. For instance, I started reading the X-Men back in 1987. At that point I only had to follow Uncanny X-Men. Depending on my finances/interest I followed some of the other X-titles.

Once X-Men started in 1991, I bought both Uncanny and X-Men. Even though I enjoyed Chris Claremont's work, I was so hooked on X-Men that I had to buy both books regardless of the writers. Though art teams matter, I often put more weight on the writer(s) because they will most likely be the more consistent voice. Art teams are constantly being reshuffled due to scheduling or moving on to a new assignment. Fast forward to 2016, I still enjoy reading and purchasing X-Men titles but now I make more data driven decisions. Some of the data I use to make my purchasing decisions include the creative team and shipping frequency. Marvel publishes three X-Men books (All New, Extraordinary, and Uncanny) right now; a fourth title (X-Men '92) will start in March. I am buying All New and Extraordinary, and plan to sample X-Men '92. I am not buying Uncanny because of the make-up of the team and the creative team.

With regard to sampling new titles, creators can have a big impact especially if this is a brand new property. When Fables started, I purchased the book because 1). I liked the concept and 2). I knew of Bill Willingham because of his work on Comico's The Elementals and couple issues of Justice League during Giffen and DeMatteis' run. I am willing to try certain Image titles because of that creative teams' track record on books they probably did at Marvel and DC.

[Perseus]

So BleedingCool ran a couple of "stories" about DC relaunching every book to #1, those that don't get the chopping block that is.

On twitter both Jim Lee and Dan Didio posted this teaser:

Seriously?

Re-voluming seems like a not-so-great idea. If they were to actually reboot the titles then I would have to give serious thought as to how much I care about reading the DC Universe titles as a whole. another New 52 style reboot of the continuity (which it doesn't sound like would happen) would also shape my opinion on if DC Comics needed new leadership. Honestly, just re-voluming to new #1 would also do that but to a lesser degree.

I expect this could be a great jumping OFF point for many of the DC readers they have left after convergence. No wonder continuity didn't matter anymore...

My reading of current DC books in June will be over. I'm not interested in reading new DC material. I have plenty of indie books and tpb's of Marvel and DC old material to check out. DC needs to stop copying Marvel.