Mayo Report

[NiklasJ]

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.

That DC dont push out new #1s all the time like Marvel is one of their strong points so this will be interesting I dont think simply putting a new #1 on it for no reason and not changing anything will do anything to raise interest but some character focus, interesting directions and fresh creative team swaps could work. Rebooting again like N52 cant possibly be on the table??

[...] 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 [...] 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).

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. [...] I am willing to try certain Image titles because of that creative teams' track record on books they probably did at Marvel and DC.

So much in agreement with the above statements. Im a spiderman and x-men reader and for the last 25 years or so I know theres been a lot of ongoing spider- and x-titles, often 3-4 or more at the same time and with limited time and budget one have to do some prioritizing. When there was only one there was no choice, now with many more... lets just say its hard to get everything.

One MAIN title makes it easy to pick the one you want, after the Secret Wars there are no clear main titles in the avengers or x-men camps which is probably (one of several reasons) why we have no standout sellers for those properties.

The actual Amazing SpiderMan only have one solo title (even if they double ship) which make my choice very easy. On the other hand we have some 8(?) other spidery titles with other new and old popular characters. You mention in the cast that AMS has dropped a bit since SW, that some readers move to those dont surprise me very much with the huge amount of similar titles/characters.

There are creators that engages interest in characters that are otherwise not interesting for me (warren ellis moonknight karnak, bendis iron man, aaron dr strange and so on). I continued with moon knight after ellis left, on the other hand i left wonderwoman after azarrello left... depends on how big changes that follows with the creative shift i guess?

It will be intersting to see what I choose when Snyder moves to detective, im not a hardcore batfan but ive liked snyders batman series, do i get both, do i stay on the main Batman title and put myself through (the suspected) frequent crossovers and interconnections with other bat/dc-titles or switch to detective with more focused stand-alone stories...

As a reader I like different comics for at lot of different reasons (FaveCharacters Spiderpeople/XMen/DarthVader, FaveCreators Ellis/Rucka/DelMundo) but a lot of what i try out is based on reading solicits and previews and trying out the #1-2 when it comes out (motivating an increase in orders for early issues, some actually samples a #1-title when it starts), some i like and continue with (howard the duck, monstress, new wolverine/ironman), some i like a little but cant fit into the ever expanding pull list (antman, gotg) and some just dont click for me(paper girls, black science, contest of champions)

Oh and when listening to your latest Comic Report i really feel your frustration and pain about getting the numbers to work out for all the marvel comics number shenanigans, couldnt help but loling to it still
(sorry)

[JohnMayo]

Have there been any solid reports about DC's Rebirth plans other than rumors from Bleeding Cool?

[MisterFerro]

Nothing but the teaser pic that Jim Lee and Dan Didio posted to twitter.

*EDIT*

There was this from earlier this morning:

[GABE!]

Re: Batman Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 selling over 100,000 copies.

There were 20, or more, retailer incentive covers as well.

[doctormo]

First part of an interview with Eric Stephenson of Image in which he talks about the company's 2015 sales - http://www.comicbookresources.com/artic ... s-industry.

I think it contains some of the same conclusions reached on various episodes the Mayo Report.

[JohnMayo]

First part of an interview with Eric Stephenson of Image in which he talks about the company's 2015 sales - http://www.comicbookresources.com/artic ... s-industry.

I think it contains some of the same conclusions reached on various episodes the Mayo Report.

Very interesting article. One of the line which caught my attention was: "Talking about comics and analyzing the industry has, by and large, become more interesting than a lot of the work being generated."

[doctormo]

Here is part two of the Eric Stephenson interview - http://www.comicbookresources.com/artic ... nsons-goal.

I have always enjoyed keeping up with comics related news and analysis. My appetite has only grown as I age. I believe knowing about the medium has helped me become a more informed consumer of comics; I certainly would not experiment with new titles if it was not for the information being shared. At the same time, I would rather know more about the inner workings of DC and Marvel than go all in on their lines.

[RowdyFromScrubs]

One of the line which caught my attention was: "Talking about comics and analyzing the industry has, by and large, become more interesting than a lot of the work being generated."

As an avid hockey fan, I think you could say the same thing about sports & probably most other hobbies. Talking about a specific actual game is fun. But discussing contacts, salary cap, free agency, TV ratings, fantasy stats, roster changes, etc... is part of the fun too. It just is how deep do you want to get into any hobby. I'm not saying he's wrong. You can however only break down one game/comic so far, while wild speculation on a team/company & league/industry can pretty much go on endlessly with new data coming out all the time.

[NiklasJ]

Discussions are fun, it brings another dimension to the hobby as long as it can get away from the constant berating of how bad Marvels high sales are for the business (since DC sales are bordering on insignificant jokejokejoke), its only star wars, only #1s, only events, only gimmicks... (because DCs dont use cover variants/gimmicks, #1s, events or connections to licensed trek or turtle properties)

the january numbers dont paint a pretty picture for DC, even if the ANAD #1 marvels half their numbers they still own the top 100list, and several are coming up to #4-5-6 where it (usually) evens out, with the constant slow monthly drop...

Im actually surprised not more are on that probable cancellation list from Johns CBR article. MoonGirl and Starbrand feels like a different type of comic than what we usually see from the superhero division of Marvel so I can see them giving those a longer trial period but weirdworld (why dont ppl love delmundo!?!?! baaad world!!), hercules, hellcat, illuminati, angela and some others wont last very long.

That vision might have a chance is win (only -3% on third issue), red wolf #3 was actually pretty good there can be hope for it, except for the ultimates the squadron supreme is one of the better team books. Spidergwen, dr strange, ironman, wolverine are strong, ANAD avengers and Exmen is not huge but comparable to preSW given that they really pushed out a whole lot of new books, similar to the flood of spiders. Howard the freaking duck not dead on arrival, how did that happen???

Sadly it looks like a healthy number of sales for a title seem to have dropped to 30k. The SW delays definately hurt sales, loosing momentum hurts, just look at the restart of Pretty Deadly you discussed last month. Hopefully people stay on the Image titles that run into the same, Low, Lazarus, Saga and more have all had some longer delays recently.

[MisterFerro]

And now it will be time to say goodbye to The Vision because Tom King is now DC Exclusive.

[NiklasJ]

And now it will be time to say goodbye to The Vision because Tom King is now DC Exclusive.

Good for DC and King!

About time he has been doing great work. I´m not actually reading Vision so not too upset, but I guess like when Soule or others sign exclusive deals they can make a clean exit, maybe do the planned (12?) issues and pass the torch or end it on a high note. (ReLaunch!)

[NDHorse]

John and TJ,

Was just listening to the Mayo Report - Trades for January and you were wondering about the sales for Vol 1 of Superior Iron Man. I have a two word answer for you: Comic Bento. It was in the January box. Also in there was Lola XOXO Vol 1, Rai Vol 1, and Trouble Maker Vol 1 (by Janet and Alex Evanovich) which wasn't on the list.

I have found that Comic Bento has a subscriber base of about 2,500-2,600. In January Superior Iron Man had sales of 3,148 and Rai had sales of 2,728. I assume the others over 2,600 were normal sales. On a Reddit thread, Comic Bento said that they try to do most of their purchasing through Diamond, but it is not always the case.

Hope that helps.

[JohnMayo]

John and TJ,

Was just listening to the Mayo Report - Trades for January and you were wondering about the sales for Vol 1 of Superior Iron Man. I have a two word answer for you: Comic Bento. It was in the January box. Also in there was Lola XOXO Vol 1, Rai Vol 1, and Trouble Maker Vol 1 (by Janet and Alex Evanovich) which wasn't on the list.

I have found that Comic Bento has a subscriber base of about 2,500-2,600. In January Superior Iron Man had sales of 3,148 and Rai had sales of 2,728. I assume the others over 2,600 were normal sales. On a Reddit thread, Comic Bento said that they try to do most of their purchasing through Diamond, but it is not always the case.

Hope that helps.

Great information. Thanks!

[clobberin_time_bs]

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.

PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:

I'm sure you'll talk about this in your next Subscription Boxlight but Comic Con Box had a Deadpool Mercs for Money Comic in it so that re order activity on Deadpool #1 is probably all for Marvel Collector Corp (unless Comic Block or Comic Boxer has an issue in it, but they usually only send issue from that month so I think Deadpool #1 won't be included).

We can probably assume those numbers are in the ball park of their subscription base.

[bralinator]

Really enjoyed the recent trades discussion between TJ and John. Especially the discussion on coloring books. You could turn that into a game, which comics or artists would be most difficult to convert their work into coloring books?

Thanks for another lively discussion.