Mayo Report

[JohnMayo]

Hi John,

Forgive me if this question has come up before, I was wondering if you have ever done a sales analysis across the various volumes (and publishers) of Astro City?

Certainly not recently. I'll try to remember to discuss the sales history of Astro City on the podcast with Sam. The property is older than the sales history I have so I won't be able to cover the complete history of the title.

[NiklasJ]

For next Mayo report.

Nice numbers on Rebirth titles across the board. Are they sustainable?

Batman during Nu52 had 100k throughout the run, will allstar, detective and adjectiveless all stay around that number? Th strong start on Tom Kings bi-monthly Batman title indicate this is the "flagship" though Snyders hasnt come out yet and is only monthy.

5 Batman titles selling 100k each month sounds like a stretch if we look at the history of sales, which title will stand out. Quality will decide but Allstar seems "cheapest" to follow with only one monthly with well known creators (not to dismiss king and finch, but snyder is arguably/imo more high profile).

How does these #1 sales compare to initial N52 sales for main titles, wonderwoman, superman, green arrow, batman, flash... should be easily comparable? Can also indicate a worst case dropoff rate if it repeats n52 performance?

Interesting to see if Nightwing will be more popular than Grayson?

Marvels #1 issues are usually very high (for varius reasons...), I wonder if rebirth can escape the 25-50% drop off for the first 3-4 issues. Coming out twice a month does that mean stores wil be another step behind customer demand?

In the shadow of the rebirth launch most marvel titles are now pretty steady. Sadly the spiderwomen dropped after the crossover.

Punisher and captain america ofcourse dropped from #1

Moon Knight is deservedly doing really well (for a moon knight title).

High drop for Scooby apocalypse.

[erickowabunga]

Nice numbers on Rebirth titles across the board. Are they sustainable?

As a retailer, I can honestly say that no, they are more than likely NOT sustainable. HOWEVER, they may be more realistic than Marvel numbers. Reason being, these titles are not incentive/purchase based driven for variant covers. Civil War II #1 for example had the following variants and tiers:

MAR16 0703 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) (75960608471500111).........................................................$5.99

MAR16 0704 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) MIRROR IMAGE VAR (75960608471500118).........................$5.99
(NOTE: You may order 1 variant for every 15 regular you purchase.)

MAR16 0705 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) MATTEL VAR (75960608471500120).....................................$5.99
(NOTE: You may order 1 variant for every 10 regular you purchase.)

MAR16 0706 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) STARK HIP HOP VAR (75960608471500131).........................$5.99
(NOTE: Exceed 125% of orders for Secret Wars #9 (OCT150729) with orders for Civil War II #1 regular cover, and this variant is order all you want.)

MAR16 0707 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) NOTO CHARACTER VAR (75960608471500181)...................$5.99
(NOTE: You may order 1 variant for every 10 regular you purchase.)

MAR16 0708 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) MICHAEL CHO VAR (75960608471500121)..........................$5.99
(NOTE: You may order all you want of this variant.)

MAR16 0709 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) MCNIVEN VAR (75960608471500191).................................$5.99
(NOTE: You may order 1 variant for every 100 regular you purchase.)

MAR16 0710 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) MCNIVEN SKETCH VAR (75960608471500116)....................$5.99
(NOTE: You may order 1 variant for every 200 regular you purchase.)

MAR16 0711 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) MARQUEZ VAR (75960608471500161)................................$5.99
(NOTE: You may order 1 variant for every 25 regular you purchase.)

MAR16 0712 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) GI CONNECTING B VAR (75960608471500151)...................$5.99
(NOTE: You may order all you want of this variant.)

MAR16 0713 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) DANVERS HIP HOP VAR (75960608471500141)....................$5.99
(NOTE: Exceed 125% of orders for Secret Wars #9 (OCT150729) with orders for Civil War II #1 regular cover, and this variant is order
all you want.)

MAR16 0714 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) BLANK VAR (75960608471500119)......................................$5.99
(NOTE: Exceed 125% of orders for Secret Wars #9 (OCT150729) with orders for Civil War II #1 regular cover, and this variant is order all you want.)

MAR16 0719 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) PARTY VAR (75960608471500117).......................................$5.99
(NOTE: Exceed 125% of orders for Secret Wars #9 (OCT150729) with orders for Civil War II #1 regular cover, and this variant is order all you want. Must opt in to the party.)

MAR16 0720 D4 _________ CIVIL WAR II #1 (OF 6) PREM VAR (75960608471500171)........................................$5.99
(NOTE: You may order up 2 copies, when you opt in to the party.)

With DC going to the open to order variants, it makes the purchasing a much more realist approach. Not only that, but we have seen more people excited about the twice monthly shipping, from a story standpoint. In our day and age, no one wants to wait for anything, so getting a book every 2-3 weeks seems to be getting people more into the story.

Just my two cents

[NiklasJ]

Not only that, but we have seen more people excited about the twice monthly shipping, from a story standpoint. In our day and age, no one wants to wait for anything, so getting a book every 2-3 weeks seems to be getting people more into the story.

Just my two cents

As a customer I like getting good stuff often so if they keep me interested I agree!
(compare with Image´s slow release of multiple titles dont help their sales...)

The downside being that they are more sensitive if they put eggs in fewer baskets and quality/interest/demand drops.

[doctormo]

I had a thought about the May episode of the trades podcast. Could the reorder activity on Batman The Killing Joke be attributed to the July 25th (digital) release of the animated version of that story. The film will come out on Blu-ray on August 2nd. I understand Fathom Events will be screening the film in select theaters for one night only - The Killing Joke theatrical release info.

[NDHorse]

I had a thought about the May episode of the trades podcast. Could the reorder activity on Batman The Killing Joke be attributed to the July 25th (digital) release of the animated version of that story. The film will come out on Blu-ray on August 2nd. I understand Fathom Events will be screening the film in select theaters for one night only - The Killing Joke theatrical release info.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

[NDHorse]

Here is your monthly Comic Bento update relating to the Diamond Sales list.

The June box was themed "Fan Powered" and it ended up being an all Valiant month. I believe the Fan Powered theme comes in because in the box was Vol 1 of Faith (the ultimate fan girl).

Here are where they showed up in the charts with their June sales and cumulative sales.
30 0.90 $14.99 VAL Harbinger v2: Renegades 2,532 4,103
33 0.90 $14.99 VAL Harbinger Wars 2,516 4,012
34 0.90 $14.99 VAL Armor Hunters v1 2,512 3,298
35 0.89 $9.99 VAL Faith v1: Hollywood and Vine 2,500 2,500

The interesting thing I noted in there was how Faith Vol 1 had 2500 copies sold this month and the same number of cumulative sales. I thought this was odd (since Comic Bento usually gets books that have been around a bit) until I looked up the release date of Faith Vol 1. It actually didn't come out to stores until July 6th. But I guess since Comic Bento ships at the end of the month (this being June), these got put in the June numbers. All of the copies that go out to comic stores will show up on the July Diamond List, so that cumulative number will be much bigger next month. (It is also very cool that they got a book at basically release date).

One thing to also note was that all of the sales numbers for this month were in the 2500 range. In past months, I have seen sales for Comic Bento items around 3000. I hope this doesn't mean subscribers are going down. One possible theory is that since Comic Bento also sells past boxes on their website, they may have been over ordering in the past to have older boxes available for sale. Maybe they aren't selling past boxes as much, so they are pulling back their order because of that....or they are just losing subscribers.

Hope you all find this info useful.

[MisterFerro]

How does these #1 sales compare to initial N52 sales for main titles, wonderwoman, superman, green arrow, batman, flash... should be easily comparable? Can also indicate a worst case dropoff rate if it repeats n52 performance?

Sales comparison between Nu52 #1s & Rebirth #1s

• Batman #1(2016) = +91,940 units
• Superman #1(2016) = -12,996 units
• Wonder Woman #1(2016) = +31,523 units
• Flash #1(2016) = -28,868 units
• Detective #934(2016) = -6,811 units
• Aquaman #1(2016) = +4,769 units
• Action # 957(2016) = -107,399 units
• Green Arrow #1(2016) = +14,321units

[JohnMayo]

I record the June Comics episode with Sam Thursday evening and the June Trades episode with TJ on Saturday afternoon. I've gotten both edited and into the release queue.

The Mayo Report: 2016-06 Comics episode will be released on August 17th.
The Mayo Report: 2016-06 Trades episode will be released on August 19th.

The delays recording the episodes were due to me taking two weeks to drive to Comic-Con and back. There are also a few more timely episodes which need to get released first (the Previews Spotlight for the August Previews and the final part of the Comic-Con coverage).

The July data should get released this weekend (July 12-15) and I'll get it crunched and the episodes for it up as quickly as possible getting us back on the regular release cycle for those episodes.

[MisterFerro]

Diamond just released the Top Products for July 2016:

DC had a retail market share of 35.36% and a unit market share of 40.96%.

Marvel had a retail market share of 34.2% and a unit market share of 35.69%.

DC is up +5.43% in retail and +9.27 in unit share from June while Marvel is down -5.88% in retail and -8.48 in unit share during the same period.

Marvel shipped 97 comics to DC's 63 comics for July.

The Top 10 Comics:

• Justice League #1
• Justice League Rebirth #1
• Batman #2
• Civil War II #3
• Batman #3
• Nightwing Rebirth #1
• Civil War II #4
• New Super-Man #1
• Nightwing #1
• Hal Jordan & The GLC Rebirth #1

[JohnMayo]

DC is up +5.43% in retail and +9.27 in unit share from June while Marvel is down -5.88% in retail and -8.48 in share in the same period.

Keep in mind that the percentages are relative to the total sales each month which changes from month to month. A publisher can have a lower percentage than the previous month while having higher sales than the previous month. The change in percentages shows a shift in how the pie is divided but does not necessarily reflect a change in the size of the pie slice from month to month.

Or, in more tangible terms: A quarter of a 10 inch pizza is less pizza than a quarter of a 14 inch pizza even though both are 25% of the pizza. [I'm talking about gluten-free, casein-free pizza of course but the math holds up for standard pizzas also.]

[MisterFerro]

That is a good point John. Here is the Comparative Sales Stats July 16 vs. June 16 Comics: Dollars down -8.15% and Units down -3.24%.

At a glance, it would seem like July was a 10 inch pizza while July was a massive 21 inch pizza.

I was mostly looking at the data with a newbie eye. I'd seen that Marvel shipped 97 comics compared to DC shipping 63 comics; add to that Marvel being more expensive on average.

That's why I read your analysis along with listening to the podcasts to get the full scope of the industry.

[JohnMayo]

June 2016 was a record breaking month for the total units for the top 300 comics making it, at least at the time, the largest top comics pizza during the final order era (which started in Mach 2003).

The full set of sales data for July 2016 is publicly available Monday morning. At which point, we can discuss the size of the July pizza.

[MisterFerro]

Double shipping books has to be one of the smartest decisions that DC has made sales-wise. Here is a small list of books that I'm personally keeping an eye on:

• Batman 346,043 combined units
• Detective 192,797 combined units
• Nightwing 242,632 combined units
• Superman 199,559 combined units
• Action 159,045 combined units
• Flash 200,641 combined units

[drew]

Double shipping books has to be one of the smartest decisions that DC has made sales-wise. Here is a small list of books that I'm personally keeping an eye on:

• Batman 346,043 combined units
• Detective 192,797 combined units
• Nightwing 242,632 combined units
• Superman 199,559 combined units
• Action 159,045 combined units
• Flash 200,641 combined units

Wow that does look impressive