Publishers Weekly’s Comics Week looks at Image Comics’ growing stable of trade paperbacks and original graphic novels, and its crown jewel The Walking Dead:
The first volume debuted at number nine on Diamond’s Top 100 Graphic Novels sales chart for May 2004, selling 5,374 copies. Since then it has stayed on the charts, selling 2,079 copies in May 2005 and 1,630 in May 2006. The book sells about 1,500 copies sold every month. The fourth and latest volume was released in November 2005, and sold 7,892 copies that month. The next volume will be released in December of this year.
After the success of Walking Dead, Image was quick to collect other continuing titles. The first six issues of Godland, Joe Casey and Tom Scioli’s re-creation of the Lee/Kirby cosmic superhero comic book, was released as a trade paperback in January of this year. While the book has not racked up Walking Dead numbers, it sold 1,684 in its first month; [publisher Erik] Larsen says it’s “a newer book but it’s picking up steam. The books become advertisements for the monthly titles. They can support each other.”
Also in PW Comics Week: An interview with Terry Moore, and a Q&A with Judd Winick about The Trials of Shazam
