Mayo Report

[erickowabunga]

It's one thing to put these out for big books, but its a completely different story to put these out for titles that are, essentially, second tier. It will be interesting to see how the market shakes out. For our shop, these don't adjust how we order. The only book we ordered more than we normally would is the Deadpool Back in Black book coming out.

I also wonder how many other shops are starting to see the flow that Marvel is using, and are going to stop buying in to the hype?

[MisterFerro]

Bleedingcool just ran an "article" on How Marvel will claw back that marketshare come December:

• Order IvX #1 at 300% of Extraordinary X-Men #11 to get the party promotional package.
• Get smaller discounts off IvX #1 by exceeding 250%/300% of Extraordinary X-Men #11.
• Get massive discounts off IvX #1 by exceeding 350% of Extraordinary X-Men #11.
• Avengers #1 exceed orders by 150%/200% of ANAD Avengers #10.
• Foolkiller #1 exceed orders by 100%/125% of Deadpool #14.
• Occupy Avengers #1 exceed orders by 125%/150% of Moon Knight #2.
• The Unworthy Thor #1 exceed orders by 125%/175% of Mighty Thor #8.
• ASM:Renew Your Vows #1(now $4.99) exceed orders by 125%/150% of ASM #14.
• Avengers #1.1 exceed orders by 175%/200% of ANAD Avengers #10.
• Black Panther: WoW #1 exceed orders by 125%/150% of Black Panther #3.
• Invincible Iron Man #1 exceed 200%/250% of Invincible Iron Man #10.
• Venom #1 exceed orders by 125%/150% of Moon Knight #3.
• Ghost Rider #1 exceed orders by 125%/150% of Punisher #2.

[JohnMayo]

Bleedingcool just ran an "article" on How Marvel will claw back that marketshare come December:

Each of those titles is very likely to drop 40% to 60% (or more) the following month.

So Marvel "wins" December. Who cares? The reason DC sales are noteable the last few months is because it indicates a renewed interest in the DC titles, not because DC "won" the last two months. Marvel getting more market share in December through sales gimmicks like this is a short term boost in sales, not a long term benefit.

[doctormo]

Bleedingcool Each of those titles is very likely to drop 40% to 60% (or more) the following month.

So Marvel "wins" December. Who cares? The reason DC sales are noteable the last few months is because it indicates a renewed interest in the DC titles, not because DC "won" the last two months. Marvel getting more market share in December through sales gimmicks like this is a short term boost in sales, not a long term benefit.

The sales gimmicks continues with these 1:1000 covers featuring reused artwork. First Venom #1 (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/09/27/ ... r-venom-1/) and now Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/09/30/ ... 0-variant/). John is totally right, Marvel may win a skirmish but could do long term damage to brands. I just shake my head and chuckle each time these announcements are made. My LCL is not going to order 1000 copies of Venom #1. Other than subscribers, I cannot imagine the store ordering more than 8 - 10 for the shelf.

[MisterFerro]

John, are you going to do a compare and contrast between the first 5 issues (6 for Action & Detective) of the Nu52 and Rebirth books that started up in June?

Bleedingcool recently came out with their "Bestseller List for October 10th". (For books out on the 5th)

There is a very interesting book NOT in the top 10 and that is Marvel NOW: NOW Harder flagship title Champions #1. Here is what some of the retailers involved had to say:

Champions was the NOT the blockbuster that MARVEL was predicting – but these #’s are only based on WEDNESDAY sales – so we’ll see if word of mouth grows the book (I can’t see how it won’t, I reluctantly enjoyed it).

Nine Rebirth books from DC take the top nine slots on our Top Ten sales chart, with Jessica Jones creeping in at 10th place. The biggest surprise for us was the dismal response to Champions #1 (with only 10 of 250 sold, this was the poorest performer of the week in terms of sales versus expectations), Death of X #1, and in particular Cage #1, which most of our customers strongly disliked because of the inappropriate art.

Well,Batman was the “Champion” of the week since it was the only title to crack the century mark.few other books did pretty well and the week was good for sales since all the publishers needed product to talk about at NYCC.The loser’s of the week were Cage and Champions…it would be like trying to figure out if you should vote for “Giant jerk” or “Turd Sandwich”

Not a single Now! Again! book made our top ten. Champions #1 was closest but also sold just as well as Future Quest. Jessica Jones had strong numbers but not enough for a top ten spot.

So far we’ve sold a decent amount of some of the new Marvel books, including Death of X 1 at sales position 6 for us and Champions 1 at position 11. Nightwing has definitely picked up with that Monster Man crossover (I’m still not a fan of that arc), and Walking Dead has been great as always and is our 4th bestseller so far. Paper Girls, Cannibal, and Shade: The Changing Girl are our other bestselling indy books this week. I haven’t seen any new faces come in for any of the new Marvel NOW stuff just yet, so I hope they’ll do some advertising outside of this industry, but I’m not holding my breath.

Very good start to the month. Rebirth is still killing it. Death of Hawkman did not do well (it was mostly about Adam Strange with little to do with Hawkman which was odd). Marvel got Death of X and Now Champions into the top ten. Though for a first issue Champions still was easily beat by 6 DC Rebirth titles that did not have the first issue advantage. Now Cage started out very poorly sales wise. Now Jessica did decent. No one thinks “Now” (again) is a good tag line for Marvel’s books. Not a great start for Marvel’s latest launch. Walking Dead we would have sold more of but didn’t know the “death” would be such a big deal. More copies are still available which is good.

What an awesome week for comics (and comic sales) which just goes to show that a healthy top two is so much better for everyone. Marvel Now came out of the gate hot and DC Rebirth is still kicking hard! Plus Image, Boom! and others were shown some love. No negativity this week we are just going to soak up this incredible week and hope it carries through the Holiday season!

A retailer wrote in the comments that they decreased their orders of Champion #1 at FOC and still have too many left in stock. They wrote that Moonshine #1(a mature title @$2.99) sold better than Champions #1 @$4.99.

Big Bang Comics in Dublin mentioned on twitter that they also cut orders for Champions #1 @ FOC and has so far sold half of their order.

Comics Conspiracy in California tweeted the same as Big Bang Comics and have wrote that they will order less than the lowest Rebirth comic at their store for #2.

[NiklasJ]

The first of those quotes there is from someone who shouldnt be in sales at all as he is "reluctantly" enjoying the products he sell... nice attitude, wonder why they dont sell many marvel comics.

I also check those lists and thats a really negative place, both the comments from retailers and comments on the article, nothing is ever good and the world is always ending for one or the other company (while at the same time sales have overall been going up for quite some time now?).

[MisterFerro]

BleedingCool just released their "Bestseller list for week of October 12th" from a sample of 8 different retailers.

It's another week of weak NOW 2: NOW Harder sales for retailers but it's what two retailers are saying about the price points that is interesting:

So far, Marvel hasn’t advertised outside of the industry to bring anyone new in to grab any of these books, and I don’t see new people spending $4 and $5 on every new Marvel book anyway. DC somehow brought a ton of new people in with Rebirth, and so far, it’s been a bigger success at 5 months in at keeping people buying the books than the New 52. We are still selling a ton of copies of almost every Rebirth book off the shelf and are amazed at how many casual customers are still buying most of these new books at issue 8 so far. Our bestsellers this week are All Star Batman at 1, Detective Comics, Wonder Woman, Reborn, Flash, Suicide Squad and Action. Batman 8 made it to our 8th bestseller in it’s second week of release, selling almost as many copies so far this week as Champions sold in week one! Death of X did pretty well in week one, but not much movement in week two just yet.

Clone Conspiracy has been passed on by a few Amazing buyers from their folders as they said they’re done with $4.99 books, even if it’s supposed to be the “main title” for the next few months. We have NEVER seen price resistance like this in my 26 years of selling comics, but I understand it’s a breaking point when most of my bestsellers (except All Star Batman) are $2.99. When I’m selling more Superwoman 3 and Hal Jordan 6 than Clone Conspiracy, Marvel needs to take another look at who they’re marketing these titles to, and either fix the price or find a new audience to bring into stores.

Could this be the final straw against $4.99 prices for comic buyers?

[MisterFerro]

Marvel is expanding their Retailer exclusive variants to 11 for December:

• Power Man & Iron Fist: Sweet Christmas Annual #1
• Gwenpool Holiday Special: Merry Mix-Up!
• IvX #1
• U.S.Avengers #1
• Hulk #1
• Hawkeye #1
• Slapstick #1
• Nova #1
• Rocket Racoon #1
• Star-Lord #1
• Gamora #1

[MisterFerro]

Previewsworld has the top 100 comics out this morning.

This is where the Marvel Now 2: Now Harder books placed.

• Champions #1 - rank 2
• Doc Strange- Sorcerers Supreme #1 - rank 3
• Jessica Jones #1 - rank 22
• Infamous Iron Man #1 - rank 23
• Doc Strange #12 - rank 25
• Black Panther #7 - rank 38
• Deadpool #21 - rank 48
• Mosaic #1 - rank 61
• Cage #1 - rank 62
• Doc Strange #13 - rank 68
• Great Lakes Avengers #1 - rank 71
• Uncanny Avengers #15 - rank 78
• Prowler #1 - rank 82
• Gwenpool #7 - rank 91

How did those fake #1's do for Marvel?

• Doc Strange #11 was rank 42 in Sept, but #13 had what is akin to an 2nd issue drop and dropped to lower than the book had been doing.
• Black Panther #7 lost 4 spots from Sept #6.
• Deadpool #21 (the $10 issue) is up from #20 rank 57 -also came out in Oct.
• Uncanny Avengers #15 saw no uptick with the fake #1, only rising 1 spot in the rankings.
• Gwenpool #7 saw a tiny uptick rising 3 spots in the ranks.

Lastly, both GLA and Prowler seem to be DOA. Moasic #2 has a big uphill battle but it could also be DOA.

[drew]

[champions #1
[*] Jessica Jones #1 - rank 22
[*] Infamous Iron Man #1 - rank 23.

I liked these three hope they stick around - if you can dig though all the shenanigans marvel still putting out some good stuff

[MisterFerro]

If Doc Strange #13 is the indicator of Marvel Now 2: Now Harder then it means it is off to a very rough start.

Doc Strange #13 is the lowest selling issue with 41,290 units, it dropped almost 32k units (-43.43%) from the Fake #1 aka #12.

That is 2nd issue level drops and I wonder if any other Fake #1's will be the same.

Someone on reddit tried to say that all Marvel books have drops when double-shipped (which is true) but that the next month's sales would be up again. Maybe John can confirm it true or false because I don't have his data on Marvel books.

But that got me thinking if Doc Strange #14 would go up so I looked at the data and only issues 6, 10, 11 and fake #1 the #12 went up in sales. The problem is that they had 2-3 variants each attached and thus the increase.

[GABE!]

Is there a way too see what all the new collected editions that have been releasedoing in 2016?

[fudd71]

Is there a way too see what all the new collected editions that have been releasedoing in 2016?

It would take some work on your part to compile the full list as you may want it, but the complete lists for each week can be found at PREVIEWSworld New Releases and downloaded as either a txt or pdf.

The other site that has all that information but isn't as easily downloadable is Comic List

I hope that helps

[MisterFerro]

This is the list of the "continuing" books that are apart of NOW 2: NOW Harder, or more specifically a list of how well books did with the fake #1 in October:

• Black Panther #7 +2,111 units (3.59%)
• Black Widow #7 +2,096 units (8.69%)
• Captain America: Sam Wilson #14 -456 units (-1.62%)
• Deadpool #21 +5,242 units (11.37%)
• Deadpool & the Mercs for Money #4 -197 units (-0.65%)
• Doctor Strange #12 +19,272 units (35.88%)
• Ms. Marvel #12 +1,070 units (3.92%)
• Hellcat #11 +739 units (6.62%)
• Gwenpool #7 +8,475 units (32.73%)
• Uncanny Avengers #15 +3,062 units (8.75%)

* Titles marked yellow are all under 30k units, Hellcat is under 12k units.

[MisterFerro]

BleedingCool posted an article this morning about the $4.99 IvX #0:

Marvel doesn’t think that retailers have ordered enough. They think that more people will want to pick this up. And if they aren’t able to pick up #0, they won’t pick up #1. Which retailers may actually have ordered more of.

I wonder why that is, it possibly couldn't be because Marvel offered small & massive discounts for IvX #1 if they exceed % of a random issue right?

• Order IvX #1 at 300% of Extraordinary X-Men #11 to get the party promotional package.
• Get smaller discounts off IvX #1 by exceeding 250%/300% of Extraordinary X-Men #11.
• Get massive discounts off IvX #1 by exceeding 350% of Extraordinary X-Men #11.

But the retailers don't have to worry one bit as Marvel will have their back because

Retailers have now been informed that they will receive an extra 50% of the amount they ordered of IvX #0 for free, in addition to their normal order.