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BobBretall wrote: I think it may have been (so far) the most effective Point 1 in giving a reader a true flavor of the on-going series, perhaps someone who's reading the series can confirm this. It seemed like it was.

JohnMayo wrote:

BobBretall wrote: I think it may have been (so far) the most effective Point 1 in giving a reader a true flavor of the on-going series, perhaps someone who's reading the series can confirm this. It seemed like it was.

I must be misreading or misunderstanding your post, Bob. If you aren't reading the series, how can you possibly judge if the #5.1 issue effectively reflects the flavor of the series?

JohnMayo wrote:No offense was meant, Bob. I was just confused how you could even hazard a guess as to how well it reflected the series.

BobBretall wrote:Someone at Newsarama shares my misgivings about the "Point 1" initiative:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/marvel- ... 10413.html

With the sole exception of Hulk, retailers ordered less copies of the “jump on” issue, than the regular series. If you figure people picking up the title would also pick up the “.1” introductory issue, this is a flaming disaster and there aren’t going to be a lot of these comics finding their way into the hands of new readers. It smacks of very low buy-in from the retail community.

Or, there’s the rose-colored glasses view that only new readers would pick up a “.1” issue and that the numbers of the regular title are higher because it reflects the belief that some of the new readers will pick up the next issue.

On the topic of #1 issues, I wanted to ask about the results of the Point One initiative. Sales estimates have been hitting the web for March books, and a few people have noted that the Point One comics haven't registered numbers as strong as the regular monthly titles. Does that mean the initiative didn't do what it was meant to – namely drawing in some new readers to the regular titles?

Brevoort: I’ve seen some of the internet chatter about this over the last few days—and honestly, these people don’t really know what they’re talking about. First of all, as I always say, as I always say, the numbers that you see released online are not accurate. They never have been, and they never are. The Point One books have done terrifically for us. Many of them have performed at a level slightly higher than the monthly issues, and even the weakest of them sold at around the level of the monthly book. That’s a massive success! And so we’re going to be continuing with that program – we’ve got another flight of Point One issues ramping up for later on in this year. I also have to say that I think our creators and editors really did a bang-up job on them – the quality level throughout was very high.

I’ve seen some people complaining about the "Amazing Spider-Man" Point One issue being about Venom, and I have to say, I think they’re missing the point a little bit. These were designed to be self-contained, stand-alone stories that give readers a sense of where the series is right now, and which drop hints or portents for the future. That "Amazing" issue did just that, at least in my opinion. And given that we’d just done a Spidey launch a few months earlier in Big Time, it made sense to us to focus on Venom, and putting him back on the canvas in a major way.

Plus, there’s a lot of promotion that comic fans may not notice, from the shelf talkers and point of purchase units, in addition to the marketing we did with mainstream outlets—heck, the Point One initiative was mentioned on USAToday.Com just this week.

Finally, speaking to retailers at the recent Diamond summit, our SVP of Sales, David Gabriel, received numerous requests to make the Point Ones a regular thing, so overall our retailers seem to both have liked them and been able to sell them. (And a DC Exec I won't name congratulated C.B. Cebulski on the program at WonderCon, and said that they wished they had thought of it.)