Well, that’s kind of depressing for DC. Marc Oliver-Frisch looks at DC’s January sales figures:
With Justice League of America, DC Comics only had one book selling above 70,000 units in January. As a consequence, the publisher’s average periodical sales saw a steep drop, falling to around 27,000, their lowest level since January 2005. Similarly, average sales of the company’s DC Universe line, which makes up the bulk of their releases, dropped to around 33,000, also the lowest they’ve been in three years.
Things are equally bleak for Vertigo, depressingly. Meanwhile, Paul O’Brien looks at January’s Marvel numbers.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:33 am
They got the worst of it, but it looks like it was a bad month overall.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:49 am
Oooooooooooooo… bad news.
I’m still supporting the underdog company.
Marvel has enough fans.
March 13th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Hmm… Not looking good for Didio, is it? Love him or hate him, in the end he’s gotta answer to the sales, doesn’t he? I’m kinda surprised… I buy far more DC titles than I do Marvel. DC’s got plenty of crap, and I’m no fan of their big crossover events, but there’s still a lot of great titles from DC every month.
Then again, I have dropped several titles of late. I’m even giving Batman (proper) a rest for a while because I’m just not that enthralled with Morrison’s direction with the book. And that’s something I never thought I’d do.
Kinda scary to hear that a lot may hinge on how well Final Crisis does… I haven’t bought Countdown and I’m not even remotely interested Final Crisis.
Maybe they oughta reconsider keeping All Star Superman (the only Supes title I regularly buy) going… Turn it over to a new writer who can start an all new, continuity free, run of his own imagining.
March 13th, 2008 at 9:24 am
I think with Final Crisis, Batman RIP, Trinity, the lead-up to Blackest Night in the GL books, what I see as a positive recent turnaround in Action Comics, whatever Dini’s got planned for Detective Comics, a new writer on Superman, Gail Simone on Wonder Woman, a new Flash writer, whatever craziness is dreamed up for Booster Gold, the always great Justice Society, Shooter’s Legion (which I’m really digging and will have 50th anniversary support this year), the end of a lot of mini-series that haven’t really caught on, Rick Remender now on All-New Atom, the fact that Vertigo does well in trades, a Friday the 13th remake in 2009 (will help Wildstorm’s series a little), The Dark Knight film this year, not to mention what could happen after Final Crisis (reboot?)… I’m just not too worried about DC’s January performance.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Do you think Batman RIP looks good? As I already said, Morrison’s run on Batman has left me underwhelmed. Waiting for the trade of the Resurrection of Ra’s (I didn’t want to have to buy the Nightwing and Robin crossover titles) gave me the perfect excuse to give it a break for awhile. Nothing since then (Bat-Mite? Honestly?) has given me a reason to come back.
Batman RIP might (might) have been interesting to me, but as I understand it the story arc involves Jason Todd. I liked Jason when he was dead and buried. Bringing him back was one of the worst things that DC’s ever done IMO, so I’m probably going to skip that too. Not sure what the long-term ramifications of RIP will be. I’m skeptical. Seems odd to make big changes with the Dark Knight movie coming out… Not a good way to attract new readers.
I’m still loving Dini’s run on Detective though, and even most of the fill-in stories in ‘Tec have been great. Enjoying Batman & The Outsiders too, so I get my Bat-fix there. The first two arcs in Batman Confidential were crap, but I’m hoping the current arc will be better. Haven’t read this week’s yet, so I don’t know.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:57 am
The problem with the DCU books is that they’ve committed themselves to building the line around COUNTDOWN and now they’ve got to see it through, even though it hasn’t really worked - or at least, not well enough to carry the line. Readers are bored of this story, and FINAL CRISIS needs above all else to draw a line under it so that they can move on. The sales pitch for post-FC DCU stories has to be “something different.” The story must end, and end definitively. If it does, they should be okay.
The problem with the WildStorm imprint is that nobody really cares about the characters. At first the line sold to Jim Lee fans, and then it was the Thinking Man’s Superhero Imprint for a while. And now it’s just an attempt to sell yet more Authority comics to people who stopped caring five years ago. The whole approach is totally wrongheaded, and at this stage I’d look seriously at closing down the whole thing, or turning it into a boutique for non-superhero genre titles (horror, fantasy and so forth).
March 13th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Countdown is garbage that I regret paying for. I really gave them the benefit of the doubt that it would turn into something. The art has been pretty much rotten too - it’s mind-boggling that flawed new artists such as Carlos Magno, Manuel Garcia, etc., worked on this supposedly high-profile book while dozens of polished professionals with track records of success and fan followings are without regular work. My guess is the money they paid to have 2 writers (Dini + the assorted less than stellar co-writers) meant less to pay the pencillers, and hence, the subpar quality of 90 percent of the artwork on this series.
I think the constant fill-ins on high-profile titles have really hurt readers’ enthusiasm for DC. It’s pretty lame when they don’t even change the names on the cover to indicate that for instance, Ron Randall drew half an issue of Wonder Woman.
And the lateness. … That “Superman Confidential” situation, where the last part of a 6-issue story came out about 7 months after the fifth, was a big FU to single-issue buyers.
Feh!
March 13th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I’m one of those folks leaving DC right now. Last week I dropped about 10 DC titles from my holds list (there were no marvel titles to begin with). I’m down to about 10 books, and many of those are minis or are wrapping up.
It was a matter of Countdown overkill that did it for me, combined with some not-up-to-par, unannounced fill-in art in other books. Many DC books just aren’t moving forward (and too many of the ones that are trying have gone backwards — Nightwing, Robin, etc — in an effort to reconnect to older fans by recapturing old magic). But DC books have been spinning their wheels for almost a year now. Sure, the ride’s (hopefully) about over, but I’ve already gotten sick from riding this crappy ride too long and just want off.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
matchesmalone said:
“it’s mind-boggling that flawed new artists such as Carlos Magno, Manuel Garcia, etc., worked on this supposedly high-profile book while dozens of polished professionals with track records of success and fan followings are without regular work.”
-=-=-=-
I agree that there are many experienced artists who aren’t getting work, but that is not going to change. Marvel is having a contest to bring in at least another dozen artists to the industry. When that happens, even more of the established artists will be out of work.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Mr. Coil,
Why do you suppose that’s not going to change? Is it the pay rate?
If the pay is equal, I think that hearing from many fans “I am buying fewer of your books because you are using not-quite-professional artists rather than established, capable artists whose work I’ve appreciated before” would be of some help.
Look how quickly Marvel changed the cover to that New Avengers book, they do pay attention to what is said in this type of forum.
March 13th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
This is terrific news. Karma’s a bitch!
March 13th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Just read the interview with Didio (linked on the main page) regarding Final Crisis. I might be interested in the Brainiac storyline coming in Superman, but I’m honestly excited to learn that Hush is returning in the pages of Detective. Dini writing Hush could be a great thing. Especially if it picks up where Loeb’s Hush left off, and ignores the Gotham Knights crap.