Mayo Report

[jrphoenix]

Marvel shipped a ton o books in January: 97 comics - almost hit the century mark

January's Top Ten
U.S.Avengers #1
Batman #14
Batman #15
Justice League/Power Rangers #1
The Walking Dead #162
All-Star Batman #6
Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad #3
Monsters Unleashed #1
Amazing Spider-Man #23
Justice League #12

Yes, they did.. my wallet is feeling the weight of all these comics. The numbers are out now for January.. I was surprised to see that only Batman & U.S. Avengers went above 100k. Too many books shipping / double shipping is hitting the sales per title.

[drew]

Marvel shipped a ton o books in January: 97 comics - almost hit the century mark

January's Top Ten
U.S.Avengers #1
Batman #14
Batman #15
Justice League/Power Rangers #1
The Walking Dead #162
All-Star Batman #6
Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad #3
Monsters Unleashed #1
Amazing Spider-Man #23
Justice League #12

Yes, they did.. my wallet is feeling the weight of all these comics. The numbers are out now for January.. I was surprised to see that only Batman & U.S. Avengers went above 100k. Too many books shipping / double shipping is hitting the sales per title.

Jan/Feb are historically the lowest selling months each year but only 2 over a 100k is a surprise to me too

[RowdyFromScrubs]

Couple thoughts on another great Mayo Report:

• I'd bet part of Marvel's shenanigans IS to make sure they stay on top at Diamond.
  
  Something else on The Kamandi Challenge; it is a five dollar book. That is one that didn't make my list because money is a thing.
  
  Cyborg just can't carry his own book, pretty sure he's New52 book didn't make it.
  
  Aquaman was a major plot point in HBO's Entourage a couple years back.
  
  Does Squarriors (2016) even finish its run of 4? #2 is under 4k

I had to pause listening at about the 1:15 mark

[MichaelCastle]

John stated that The Walking Dead 163 will not show up on the February numbers because of promotional pricing. How does this make sense when stuff that was heavily discounted to get in Loot Crates or other boxes show up on the list I.e. Big Trouble in Little China #1 a few months ago. It seems unfair to The Walking Dead considering that 163 had 730,000 preorders through Diamond and wasn't shoved into one of those boxes

[JohnMayo]

John stated that The Walking Dead 163 will not show up on the February numbers because of promotional pricing. How does this make sense when stuff that was heavily discounted to get in Loot Crates or other boxes show up on the list I.e. Big Trouble in Little China #1 a few months ago. It seems unfair to The Walking Dead considering that 163 had 730,000 preorders through Diamond and wasn't shoved into one of those boxes

I don't think it Walking Dead #163 will show up on the list because of the promotional pricing but we'll know for sure when we get the next set up data. I might show up on the list but I'm not expecting it to based on how items like it have been reported in the past.

Is that inconsistent with how subscription box items are reported? Yeah.
Are the rules around this a little unclear? Yeah.

Items in subscription boxes come with the box and don't equate to units of the comic be specifically purchased. Lumping in the copies which are essentially blind purchases with the rest of the numbers is misleading.

With promotional pricing, the financial barrier to entry is effectively removed which also distorts the sales.

If they want to report either bulk purchases and/or promotional priced items then those items should be clearly marked on the list as such and probably not be ranked.

I'm not sure there is a way that would be completely fair to everyone.

[erickowabunga]

John - Related to the Walking Dead 25 cent issue, I assume the same is true with the Vampirella and Red Sonja 25 cent issues?

[JohnMayo]

John - Related to the Walking Dead 25 cent issue, I assume the same is true with the Vampirella and Red Sonja 25 cent issues?

I believe so. That having been said, the rules for how Diamond reports things has evolved over time. Often in response to the various promotional tactics the publishers introduce or abuse.

[victorvondoom]

Top notch Mayo Report this month! Really interesting conversation.
When you look at this U.S. Avengers 60 different variant cover thing that basically automatically pushed the book to the top of the charts for the month, the thing that gets overlooked is that this was not even a particularly good issue in the first place. It was, for all intents and purposes, the next issue of the sub par New Avengers title. By having a plethora of variants and slapping a number one on the cover it becomes the top book for the month. By the second issue the numbers have dropped into the 29,000 sales range. More than likely it will continue to drop, probably down to around 20,000 or so by issue four. If this volume goes beyond twelve issues it will be a surprise.
With all that being said, in Marvel's eyes will this be considered a success? Do they sit in a conference room somewhere actually believing that they are doing good work when they pump out stuff like this? High fiving each other around the water cooler? I'm not even being sarcastic when I ask this question. At times it honestly feels like they aren't even trying to grow readership of their books. I just don't get it.

[drew]

John - Related to the Walking Dead 25 cent issue, I assume the same is true with the Vampirella and Red Sonja 25 cent issues?

image said it sold like 750,000 so should be #1 by a heckuva wide margin...

[MichaelCastle]

John stated that The Walking Dead 163 will not show up on the February numbers because of promotional pricing. How does this make sense when stuff that was heavily discounted to get in Loot Crates or other boxes show up on the list I.e. Big Trouble in Little China #1 a few months ago. It seems unfair to The Walking Dead considering that 163 had 730,000 preorders through Diamond and wasn't shoved into one of those boxes

I don't think it Walking Dead #163 will show up on the list because of the promotional pricing but we'll know for sure when we get the next set up data. I might show up on the list but I'm not expecting it to based on how items like it have been reported in the past.

Is that inconsistent with how subscription box items are reported? Yeah.
Are the rules around this a little unclear? Yeah.

Items in subscription boxes come with the box and don't equate to units of the comic be specifically purchased. Lumping in the copies which are essentially blind purchases with the rest of the numbers is misleading.

With promotional pricing, the financial barrier to entry is effectively removed which also distorts the sales.

If they want to report either bulk purchases and/or promotional priced items then those items should be clearly marked on the list as such and probably not be ranked.

I'm not sure there is a way that would be completely fair to everyone.

That does make sense. It's just frustrating for a huge Walking Dead fan like myself to see the shenanigans the other publishers pull to get whatever book to top the list on a yearly basis and was hoping this would be a month for The Walking Dead to shine up on top the list. I guess though promotional pricing your book down to 25 cents is technically a shenanigan to arbitrarily boost sales. I saw Saga #43 in May will be discounted to 25 cents also so I assume will suffer the same fate. Although I'm sure Image would say it's worth not appearing on the top 300 to get the book into more shops.

[Rabbitrabbit]

Good episode especially the discussion about the challenges facing Marvel and DC.
DC and Marvel seem to be taking opposite approaches. Marvel is trying to raise the profile of second tier characters at the expense of the established characters; while
DC seems to be uninterested of going beyond the tried and true characters.

[Rabbitrabbit]

With all that being said, in Marvel's eyes will this be considered a success? Do they sit in a conference room somewhere actually believing that they are doing good work when they pump out stuff like this? High fiving each other around the water cooler? I'm not even being sarcastic when I ask this question. At times it honestly feels like they aren't even trying to grow readership of their books. I just don't get it.

Well, to quote Alan Moore (speaking about Marvel and DC), "because it seems to me comics have kind of gotten themselves in a position where they cannot imagine a future, and are endlessly trying to retreat back to a past where they felt more comfortable."

[drew]

Diamond does not include comics cover-priced under a dollar in its Top Sellers lists, a move made after Batman: The Ten-Cent Adventure, a nine-cent issue of Fantastic Four and a 13-cent Gen13 topped the charts in 2002, along with all the original Free Comic Book Day issues. So while Diamond acknowledged the performance of the Walking Dead issue in its press release, it ranked Marvel's Star Wars: Darth Maul #1 as the top-seller for February.

so i guess image should have charged a buck for it and just overshipped 500,000 copies - then it would have counted them - diamond is so inconsistent its a joke

[MisterFerro]

Diamond must have been playing around in the Speed Force because they released the Top 10 products for February earlier today.

Notable:
Total Shipped

• Marvel - 140
• DC - 116

Retail Dollar Share

• Marvel - 37.46%
• DC - 30.23%
• Image -9.58%

Unit Share

• Marvel - 33.64%
• DC - 33.47%
• Image - 18.13%

[JohnMayo]

Diamond must have been playing around in the Speed Force because they released the Top 10 products for February earlier today.

Yeah. This is the fastest Diamond has ever released the top seller lists. I wasn't expecting them until next week.