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John & Sam,

Just finished the August comics Mayo Report and it was outstanding. Great conversation about selling in the big box stores versus comic shops, editors at the big 2, and what it takes for a comic to sell (I'm looking for that Peter David article you mentioned).

huge 20% drop in sept sales vs 2014 with no 3d cover/event, I am wondering is that large of a drop month versus month of year previously happens that frequently?

image released more single issue comic titles than DC, 73 to 70, I have never noticed this before, is it a common occurrence?

drew102e wrote:image released more single issue comic titles than DC, 73 to 70, I have never noticed this before, is it a common occurrence?

Where are you seeing this? I've only got 51 comics from Image in the top 300 data I'm looking at.

Comicron http://comichron.com/
its total comics shipped not just within the top 300

Publisher Comics shipped Graphic novels shipped Magazines shipped Total shipped
Marvel 80 23 0 103
DC 70 25 0 95
Image 73 18 0 91
IDW 42 20 0 62
Dark Horse 29 26 0 55
Boom 30 9 0 39
Dynamite 20 7 0 27
Titan 11 12 3 26
Valiant 10 5 0 15
Oni 7 2 0 9
Other 118 190 49 357
Total 490 337 52 879

I rarely look at those figures since I don't have the details to back them up.

Without those details, it is impossible to know how many of those items were actual new material. No detailed data means no solid explanations, just conjecture. As such, it may not be that Image actually release more new comics than DC. All we know it Image had more items on the list than DC which isn't the same thing.

For instance, if the 80 Marvel items, at least ten of them were "True Believers" issues which are "new" comics which reprint recent first issues. That puts the 80 comics for Marvel versus the 70 for DC in a different context than if all 80 from Marvel were new material.

Sadly most of this is conjecture and partial information only the publishers have any legit info

drew102e wrote:Sadly most of this is conjecture and partial information only the publishers have any legit info

Diamond releases the top 300 comics and trades sold to comic book retailers every month. It is complete information for what it is (direct sales to retailers). While I'd certainly like more data, there is a lot that can be done with the data that is available.

Yep I'm familiar with the list

After looking over the September numbers, I noticed the difference of sales between two DC annuals - Batman and Green Lantern. Batman's annual stayed consistent with last year's but Green Lantern took a nose dive. Looking a little further back, Batgirl stayed consistent where the Flash dropped.

Can annuals be used to identify the strengths or weaknesses of a book? For example, Batman's annual sold 80k consistently over two years. Does this mean there are 80k pull list customers for Batman? Green Lantern's annual's plunging numbers would identify the opposite effect of customers abandoning the title.

Trades Episode ?s

Does Crossed sell well in trade historically (single issues do not)

what is the title's TPB high point?

How does Avatar Press titles do in trade?

My poor beloved Gotham By Midnight sitting at #154 with only 13,968. It's probably gonna end up under 10K by the time it finishes up. Too bad nothing "Dark" ever has staying power.

SpideySavestheDay wrote:
Can annuals be used to identify the strengths or weaknesses of a book? .

I'd go with no. Personally, I buy a lot of Annuals of titles I'm not reading. To me it's a good way of checking out new stuff in a one-&-done format. But who knows, maybe I'm in the minority?

RowdyFromScrubs wrote:

SpideySavestheDay wrote:
Can annuals be used to identify the strengths or weaknesses of a book? .

I'd go with no. Personally, I buy a lot of Annuals of titles I'm not reading. To me it's a good way of checking out new stuff in a one-&-done format. But who knows, maybe I'm in the minority?

I'm the complete opposite with annuals; I only buy them for books on my pull list. I assumed most readers behaved similarly and avoided books they enjoy that have different creative teams than normal.

SpideySavestheDay wrote:

RowdyFromScrubs wrote:

SpideySavestheDay wrote:
Can annuals be used to identify the strengths or weaknesses of a book? .

I'd go with no. Personally, I buy a lot of Annuals of titles I'm not reading. To me it's a good way of checking out new stuff in a one-&-done format. But who knows, maybe I'm in the minority?

I'm the complete opposite with annuals; I only buy them for books on my pull list. I assumed most readers behaved similarly and avoided books they enjoy that have different creative teams than normal.

yeah - I used to buy ALL those on my pull list (until I got burned by some bad Injustice Annuals) now I tend to use it (sometimes) as a sampler of other titles I may not be reading

Eric Stephenson of Image Comics is interviewed by Rich Johnson at Bleeding Cool - http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/10/22/ ... -edmonson/. Rich and Eric talk about variant covers and the impact of Star Wars titles, especially Star Wars and Vader because they are written by two of Image Creators: Jason Aaron and Kieron Gillen.