New Wonder Woman and Secret Six. Nine months of Graphic Novel sales.
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Direct Market Sales Watch – Graphic Novels
Trades, hardcovers and assorted miscellany. Nine months of numbers from ICv2. July ’09. August ’09. September ’09. October ’09. November ’09. December ’09. January ’10. February ’10. March ’10.
The best-selling GN in July was the thirteenth and final volume of 100 Bullets, clocking in at 8,680 copies. DC grabbed four of the top five spots, with Dynamite’s The Boys Vol. 4 stealing #2. Batman, GL and Superman rounded it out. The next two spots went to critically-acclaimed small press titles, Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 and Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter, both in HC. They sold 4,836 and 4,964 copies, respectively.
Naruto topped the manga entries at #9 overall with 4,293 copies of its 45th $8 digest.
Full Metal Alchemist – One of my favorite manga series, now nearing its conclusion. Since I’ve never covered it before, let’s go back to the start. Way back in May ’05, it debuted in the US at #9, the third-highest selling manga title that month. Every digest has kept to the same $10 price point.
#1 – 4,372
#2 – 3,691 (July ’05; 16th best seller)
#3 – 3,426 (August ’05; 12th)
#4 – 3,966 (November ’05; 35th before reorders)
#5 – 3,942 (January ’06; 16th)
#6 – 3,811 (March ’06; 15th)
#7 – 3,716 (May ’06; 12th)
#8 – 4,077 (July ’06; 14th)
#9 – 3,988 (August ’06; 63rd before reorders)
#10 – 3,849 (November ’06; 14th)
#11 – 3,915 (January ’07; 16th)
#12 – 3,981 (March ’07; 53rd before reorders)
#13 – 3,827 (April ’07; 23rd)
#14 – 3,694 (August ’07; 12th)
#15 – 3,353 (December ’07; 15th)
#16 – 3,015 (March ’08; 22nd)
#17 – 2,882 (October ’08; 87th before reorders)
#18 – 2,271 (May ’09; 30th)
#19 – 2,216 (July ’09; 32nd)
#20 – 2,042 (October ’09; 256th before reorders)
#21 – 2,075 (November ’09; 127th before reorders)
#22 – 2,150 (January ’10; 18th)
I suppose that sort of slide is to be expected with an ongoing, plot heavy series. For comparison, Naruto sold 6,287 copies of its 13th volume back in March ’07. As popular as it is, it still shed a third of its readers in two years. Not as bad as FMA, though.
Madame Xanadu – DC’s insane value of ten issues for $13 moved 4,074 copies of the first trade. The second volume, half as many issues for the same price, sold 2,962 copies.
Justice League International – The second trade sold 1,765 copies. The third, despite offering issues 14-22 for the first time in trade (albeit after the HC collection had come out), dropped to 1,451 units. Volume four saw a more modest drop, down to 1,397.
Flight – Mentioning this because the Eisner-nominated sixth volume came in right below JLI on the July charts with 1,760 copies ordered. As yet, there have been no significant reorders. Maybe if it wins…
Superman & Batman vs. Vampires & Werewolves – I’m not sure what it says when retailers have more confidence in this than another title, enough that it ranked 63rd with 1,564 orders. Whatever it says, they are unkind words.
TMNT Collected Vol. 1 – The infamous $30 TPB collecting 608 pages of material undershot demand with 2,765 copies, most of those in its second month.
Wonder Woman – Let’s line them up and see what sense we can imagine.
Amazons Attack (TPB) – 1,343
The Circle (TPB) – 1,795
Rise of the Olympian (TPB) – 1,911
Rise of the Olympian (HC) – 751
Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman Vol. 3 (TPB) – 1,965
Wonder Woman Chronicles Vol. 1 (TPB) – 2,219
Ends of the Earth (TPB) – 1,590
No surprises. Sales went up from The Circle to RotO, but that’s wholly due to the soft and hardcover editions shipping simultaneously. The SC cannibalized the HC’s sales. The Circle sold 1,864 in HC. Ends of the Earth was much worse at 1,352, bizarrely outsold by the SC. Presumably, retailers based those orders on orders for the past two trade releases, unless sales were surprisingly good on those and/or the EofE HC. At any rate, RotO suffered mightily for the change in tactics. I suspect they’ll shift back to the old system, possibly with a less infuriating wait between releases, when they start collecting Straczynski’s run. I see now that, when taken together, the new stuff outsells the old, though Wonder Woman still performs poorly compared to her peers.
The HC market seems to survive almost entirely by forcing tradewaiters to buy the luxury edition to avoid waiting another six months. It’s a flawed system. You have a group who want to buy the HC, a group who’ll keep waiting, and a group paying more than they’d like. It’s easier to keep waiting when you’ve already watched six months of issues ship and sat by another two months or more so the publisher could get around to issuing a collection, and the numbers indicate there’s not a large market of hardcore hardcover enthusiasts. What I don’t understand is how both editions can have such similar sales numbers. I guess if the system’s working at all, there are enough people buying early to keep the HC sales from being anemic, while stores wait for the trade before making reorders, keeping HCs from dominating the market. If RotO‘s getting reorders in the low hundreds – too low to make Diamond’s charts – it could eventually come close to the sales of other volumes. If so, there’s little reason for DC to continue with HC editions. If not, they’ve hurt themselves by doing fans a kindness.
Walking Dead topped the charts with its tenth and eleventh trades in August and January, respectively selling 15,643 and 16,914 copies before reorders, and there were/are/will be quite a few for Image’s cash cow.
Fables came in second with Vol. 12 in August, then #1 in February with Vol. 13, respectively selling 12,491 and 11,892 copies before massive reorders. The first HC, Fables Deluxe Edition, sold 3,343 copies in September, ranking 8th. It hasn’t made the charts once since then, while the first trade has racked up enough reorders in that time alone to outsell it. Jack of Fables Vol. 6 nabbed the #2 spot in October with 5,268 copies.
Secret Six – The first trade for the regular series, Unhinged, got 2,330 orders, ranking 22nd in August. Not bad. 478 more copies were ordered in September. Unfortunately, that’s still down a ways from the 2,801 copies the miniseries’ trade shifted in March ’07.
Locke & Key – The first trade sold 1,799 copies, down from the hardcover’s 2,902. The second HC sold 2,061 copies.
Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen – The $20 HC from Oni sold 1,013 copies.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight – The fifth trade topped the September chart and has sold 9,721 copies to date. Vol. 6 started off with 7,029 copies in March, ranking 2nd.
Gotham Central – A rare case where the HCs are vastly superior to the trades because DC screwed up the initial collecting of the series by leaving issues out. The HCs have everything, and with a series this good, you don’t want to miss anything. Vol. 2 had 2,306 orders.
Yotsuba&! – Now being imported by Hachette Book Group’s Yen Press and a dollar more expensive, comic stores ordered 2,123 copies of Vol. 6 and scattered hundreds of the previous volumes in September. Vol. 7 sold 1,849 in December. Hachette is now Marvel’s bookstore distributor, as they recently dropped Diamond for that area of the market, so you can be sure this series is doing much better outside of comic shops.
Hold on, I just noticed ICv2 have limited sales data for bookstores. It’s only a Top 20 and there are no numbers, but looking at rankings beats guessing at performance. As expected, manga dominates. Full Metal Alchemist regularly makes the chart with new volumes. Vol. 16 debuted at 8th. Vol. 17 ranked 5th in its first month, 14th in its second. Vol. 18 was 4th in its first month, 9th in its second. 19 was the same as 18, except for being 5th in its first month. Vol. 20 reached #3 before matching the previous two volumes at #9 in month two. 21 debuted at 9th, then held the spot for another month. The series bounced back with Vol. 22 reaching 4th in its first month, though it broke the streak by only hitting 11th in its second. As for Yotsuba&!…
Vol. 6 (7th in first month, 20th in second)
Vol. 7 (13th)
Vol. 8 (5th in April, the latest chart)
Chew – the first trade of the quirky detective series topped the November chart with 6,336 copies, adding an astounding 6,342 in the four months since.
Atomic Robo – Last seen in March ’09, Vol. 2 returned to the Top 300 in November with 361 orders. December saw the release of Vol. 3 and a new printing of Vol. 1. Total reported sales as of March ’10:
Vol. 1 – 3,289
Vol. 2 – 2,205
Vol. 3 – 1,733
Actual sales are likely a good bit higher, as you need three or four hundred copies to make the chart most months and this is one of those titles that tend to hover around that point. It’s also a trade-oriented book; single issues only sell in the 4k range, so it’s doing relatively well in collected form.
Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade – The trade sold 1,747 copies.
Unwritten – The first trade sold 5,836 copies in its first month, good enough for #2. In the two months since then, it’s shot up to 7,913. Another hit for Vertigo.
The Losers – The deluxe Vol. 1 & 2 trade has sold 2,993 copies in three months. It also grabbed 15th on the bookstore chart for April, helped along by the movie.
R.E.B.E.L.S. – The first trade sold 1,382 copies, below the SBVW line.
Starman Omnibus – The fourth hardcover, the last one worth buying, put 2,607 copies on shelves, down from Vol. 3’s 2,908.
Oracle: The Cure – 1,467 copies. Not a great seller, but I wouldn’t expect much more from the title regardless of content. Considering this was an irrelevant miniseries, I’d be very interested to see how sales compared to orders, though that data would be of little use without context. Although all three single issues sold about the same, I expect interest took a nosedive once it was clear that nothing happened. Depends on how many tradewaiters read reviews or spoilers before buying.
Reviews
New-Type Books
[DC] Wonder Woman Vol. 3 #42
Writer: Gail Simone
Pencilers: Nicola Scott, Fernando Dagnino
Snake wranglers attack. Rather than struggle to discuss the plot in detail, I’d like to look at truth in advertising. Now, I don’t think DC deliberately set out to mislead anyone – most likely, something came up and their plans went awry – but the solicitations for this arc all listed Nicola Scott as the penciler and Doug Hazlewood as the inker. The first two issues mention “fan-favorite” Scott either by name or as part of the “team behind Secret Six.” The art’s a big part of the draw. I doubt it affected sales much – I know I would’ve bought all three issues with any half-decent artist on board – but there’s still that anticipation. Scott’s been missing from Secret Six for too long, and the middling Blackest Night: Wonder Woman mini was no fit use of her talent. Now, Wonder Woman‘s lost Aaron Lopresti and will soon lose its writer of three years, but- But! It gets to borrow Scott. To paraphrase the solicits, here we have the reunion of the team that struck lightning with Birds of Prey and Secret Six, who seem to bring the best out in each other. Fan favorites indeed.
Until page eight. Then it’s Dagnino, inked by someone called “Bit” instead of Hazlewood, for the rest of the issue, everything with Wonder Woman herself. Scott doesn’t get to draw Diana till next issue, unless you count the lovely cover. The cover is good to us, it tells us everything up front, hiding nothing. Scott and Dagnino are both credited and there’s a big to do about the Green Lantern Corps guest starring. In case you were wondering whether anyone from the GLC comic appears, the cover helpfully includes two faces that will only be familiar to longtime readers of Simone’s WW run. You might say they’re her own personal GLs. Procanon Kaa has appeared elsewhere, briefly, but he’s about as fringe as it gets. His trainee, Kho Kharhi, was introduced earlier in Simone’s run, and their third, Thulka Re, makes his debut here. So, yeah, not exactly a crossover. It’s like when Batman showed up in Secret Six to eat a burrito and spar with Catman. He’s on the cover, he’s in the issue, but he’s not very important. You expect that from Bat-Guest-Appearances, and anymore, you expect that from the GLC. They’re everywhere, and unlike the Batmans and Wolverines of the world, they have the manpower to cover as much ground as they like.
So, yeah, we get seven pages of Nicola Scott drawing Z-list Lanterns. It’s beautiful and the writing’s more engaging there than in the Wondy parts. Still disappointing. The whole issue’s a series of disappointments. Nothing crushing, just a bunch of meh.
[DC] Secret Six Vol. 4 #20
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Jim Calafiore
With this issue, part two of four, it is now clear that Fear of a World to Come is the third great story arc of this series. Shorter than Unhinged or Depths, but no less powerful. The Six reach a crossroads, particularly Catman, who risks losing all pretense of heroism and nobility in a quest for vengeance. You hardly ever hear it when it’s true, but this story will change Catman forever.
Deadshot saying Catman isn’t as far gone as the rest of the Six isn’t convincing until we see what that means, how much further a man can fall when he already walks in darkness. Deadshot himself is so far gone that it’s all he can do not to give himself over completely to his murderous urges. Jeannette’s attracted to him because of that. Scandal isn’t far off from Deadshot; human enough to care about others, but lacking any compunction against killing or torturing enemies. Ragdoll is Ragdoll. Bane is wrapped in self-loathing, probably harder on himself than he deserves, but his code of honor doesn’t make him a hero and deluding himself wouldn’t change that.
Catman’s the most innocent member short of Black Alice, though his rehabilitation has never been likely. He’d have to leave the Six, and quick, fall in with a better crowd. Even then, it’s possible that he’s fundamentally flawed, incapable of functioning in society… or what passes for it in superheroland. If you want to be a great hero, to iron out your flaws and grow as a person, you join the Birds of Prey. If you want to sink into a morass of neuroses and psychoses, cutting away the strands of your humanity until you can grip them all with one hand, you join the Secret Six.
Truncation
Wonder Woman – Not half as good as I expected.
Secret Six – Catman staring into the abyss is more uplifting than Brightest Day.
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