In its sixth week on USA Today’s bestseller list, the Watchmen trade paperback slips just one spot to No. 14 as the “trailer effect” continues to fuel interest in the 1986 miniseries.
Here’s the real surprise, though: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley, leaps onto the chart at No. 107.
I might’ve understood if the collection of the 1986 miniseries had appeared on the USA Today list last month, after the release of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight; the movie spurred increased sales of several Batman trade paperbacks.
But six weeks removed, this seems to come out of nowhere. We can’t even point to that Cher casting rumor as the cause, as the book chart is based on sales through Aug. 24.
USA Today’s list tracks all genres and formats of books sold in some 4,700 brick-and-mortar and online stores.
August 28th, 2008 at 8:50 am
With a little research you’ll see that the Dark Knight Returns is matched up with Watchmen as a “buy more and save” package…
http://www.amazon.com/Watchmen-Alan-Moore/dp/0930289234/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219927966&sr=8-1
Simple explanation.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I’m don’t know whether it’s that simple. Is the Amazon promotional deal enough to push The Dark Knight Returns onto a general book chart like USA Today’s? Even with the Watchmen pairing, The Dark Knight Returns is only at 93 on Amazon’s bestseller list.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:46 am
It’s simple. People want more Batman, and since Miller is a recognizable name, his stuff will sell.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Plus there’s the fact that amazon generally makes up a small portion of a book’s total sales.
August 28th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Besides Amazon.com, I think a lot of comic book stores recommend The Dark Knight Returns to new comic book buyers — especially as a follow-up to Watchmen.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:09 am
I’m sure the conversation goes something like this:
Mary: “So, I read Watchmen. Now what?”
Her comic book savvy friend, Jeff: “Dark Knight Returns!”
Mary: “Cool, what do I read after that?”
Jeff: “Uh, I dunno. Long Halloween! I heard that was good.”
And that is the last comic book Mary ever reads. The end.
Is that too cynical?
August 28th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Yeah, that’s a whopping 45 cent discount (at least today) on Amazon, and it doesn’t even get you past $25 for super-saver shipping. It doesn’t seem like Batman: Year One or Batman: The Long Halloween are following along with the Dark Knight Returns, though.
August 28th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Kevin-
Here’s a piece of pertinent info that you might not have considered.
The week after Dark Knight opened, DC and Diamond sold out of copies of Dark Knight Returns. I’m sure most retailers around the country sold out of any in store stock within the following week when demand was very high. All those retailers placed back-orders for DKR, and DC went back to press on a new printing.
All the back orders were filled at once, last week. The new printing was announced, and anyone who didn’t have copies (or copies on back order) also reordered stock.
Thereby creating the mysterious “bump” in sales.
All of the normally small weekly reorders of DKR added up over the five weeks the book was missing to create one big bounce.
And all the other Bat books were in print, so, while continuing to sell, they didn’t record a large spike in sales.
Make sense?
August 28th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
But the USA Today list is based on actual sales, not orders.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Tim; Only if she’s noncommitally directed toward Long Hallowe’en. If somebody points her at a gateway book like Civil War (featuring almost all of the Marvel Universe at each others throats) or Preacher (both highly accessible and unlike anything she might have come across before in terms of prolonged story and character development) then she might stay in. It’s like cigarettes. You’re addicted before you know it.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
My feeling is that the Watchmen trailer and surrounding buzz caused a stampede for that book, and when people finished it they went back to the bookstores and comic shops and asked for more.
Since Watchmen and DKR came out around the same time and had a similar impact on really changing the comics industry, DKR was next logical suggestion for interested readers. The fact that all these same people saw TDK, loved it, and saw it again, didn’t hurt. Likewise, a lot of people who bought The Killing Joke in recent weeks probably want more Batman to read, and again DKR is a pretty natural next step.
Hopefully other great Batman books from years past, stuff like Year One, Arkham Asylum, The Cult, The Man Who Laughs, The Long Halloween/Dark Victory (to name a few), will see increased sales too. Except for those last few, those are all late 80′s/early 90′s titles. And none of them are all that recent. I gotta say, it makes me kind of sad that there aren’t, IMO, many great Batman stories like those being written anymore.
August 30th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Based on actual sales TO retailers, not BY retailers.
August 30th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Gateway book = Civil War = Oxymoron.
August 30th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
“Is that too cynical?”
Maybe if you assume that everybody who reads comics has as narrow a reading diet as that portrayed by poor Jeff, assuming he’s been reading comics for awhile.
Sometimes I feel like a used car salesmen trying to pair up appropriate material with friends who aren’t into comics. I recently got a Buffy Omnibus trade for a friend for her birthday. I knew she wasn’t really into comics but I did know she was a huge Buffy fan, and was even aware of the Season 8 series, and she loved it. Even if she doesn’t read anything else in comic book land, some casual sales are still better than no sales at all.
@shaun
That’s not just a feeling. My local shop said that they sold 100 copies in a month after the trailer came out. And that’s just the first trailer.
January 17th, 2011 at 9:26 pm
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January 24th, 2012 at 3:07 am
This “free sharing” of infmroation seems too good to be true. Like communism.
January 25th, 2012 at 2:52 am
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