Ahead of Vertigo’s big launches this month – Four new series all debuting, in what feels like the biggest push the DC imprint has seen in some years – Marc-Oliver Frisch looks at January’s Diamond sales and points out why everyone at the imprint should be hoping that the push succeeds:
For Vertigo, it’s a particularly bad month. Viewed over the 107 months we have consistent data on, January 2012 brought both the lowest total unit sales and the lowest total dollar sales for the imprint. The previous low point was November 2003, with estimated total Vertigo comic-book sales of 108,050 in units and $297,858. In January 2012, it’s a total of 89,957 units and $268,971, respectively.
I’m one of those people who thinks that Vertigo is something to be protected and treasured within DC, with the material it publishes something with a longer shelf-life (and longer-tail when it comes to sales, too) than the New 52 line; Vertigo, increasingly, is where the new IP for DC comes from, and in order for DC to be anything more than an exercise in nostalgia to differing levels of success, I think the publisher needs Vertigo or something similar. But looking at those numbers, especially in comparison with the New 52 books, is just heartbreaking and tough to argue with from a business perspective should DC decide to put the resources elsewhere. In January, for example, Vertigo as a whole was outsold by any one of the top five superhero comics put out by DC. That’s just horrible.
March 1st, 2012 at 10:10 am
Is this just single issues or does it include trades? I think a lot of vertigo books are read in trade.
March 1st, 2012 at 10:21 am
Vertigo needs a buzz book bad. With the number of books that Image and Dark Horse are putting out with former Vertigo writers with a lot of press, they need something. Image and Dark Horse appears to be making a push for the current crop of creators who want to put out creator owned projects. Maybe Vertigo needs to find the new blood.
March 1st, 2012 at 10:24 am
I’ll second what Doug asked. I don’t understand why Vertigo just doesn’t go all trade.
March 1st, 2012 at 10:43 am
Too bad the New 52 essentially gutted some big Veritgo properties such as Swamp Thing and Constantine. JLDark has kinda taken some wind out of Vertigo too I’m guessing.
The only current Vertigo series i can think of is Fables – and not even sure if thats still published.
March 1st, 2012 at 10:56 am
It’s a shame. Scalped, Fables, Spaceman and Sweet Tooth are great ongoing books. Saucer Country looks promising. Here are the terrific stories (and one potential book!) that many complain DC is not publishing.
March 1st, 2012 at 11:21 am
Unwritten remains one of my top 5 books month in and month out, and I read most of Vetrigo’s output in singles (except Scalped, which I got inot late and have been collecting in trade), and will be buying all the new ongoings. But from a retailer standpoint, we sell more trades of most Vertigo books than we do single issues. There are a few books from Image (Invincible, Walking Dead, Chew, Morning Glories) and Dark Horse (Hellboy & Goon) that show a similar pattern, but Vertigo really sells in trade, and as you point out, it’s the trades that have a shelf life, so I don’t think DC even looks at those single numbers. The Vertigo books that have been cancelled in recent years, Unknown Soldier and Madame Xanadu come to mind, sold poorly as trades, and I think that is the death knell for a Vertgo title far more than low single issue sales.
March 1st, 2012 at 11:29 am
take the original article with a grain of salt the guy has been anti-DC/Vertigo for years spinning the slightest thing into a bad thing. His comments on the first month of the New 52 witch by all mean has been as success were very telling where his spin was directed…. even sucess to this guy is a bad thing…[he always has a negative response to any figures..] The fact is that the tail end Vertigo trades sell much more than the sungle issue and that helps keep the book afloat….. after 107 months you would think he would have figured that out.
[he forgets to mention that the DC backlist also had a record month with a huge section of those books being Vertigo backlist]
March 1st, 2012 at 11:46 am
“… but Vertigo really sells in trade, and as you point out, it’s the trades that have a shelf life, so I don’t think DC even looks at those single numbers.”
That’s a myth.
It’s true that collections are a big part of Vertigo’s business model. But that said, the Vertigo titles that sell well as trade paperbacks tend to be the same ones that sell well as periodical comic books. And in the last few years, nothing much sells well for them, other than the Fables and American Vampire franchises. In the bookstore market, the only Vertigo names that register at all are Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Brian K. Vaughan and Bill Willingham.
Brian Wood’s NORTHLANDERS, according to Wood himself, was cancelled specifically because the numbers for the collections weren’t there anymore. And Wood used to be one of the more bankable names for Vertigo four or five years back, as far as trade paperback sales are concerned.
In the last two to three years, Vertigo’s comic-book numbers have more or less stabilized, but it’s happened at a very low level — no higher than 11K on average, in a good month.
It’s a very fragile calculation for them right now between single issues and collections. They need both to make it, and neither format has been selling in particularly good quantities lately.
March 1st, 2012 at 11:49 am
Others have said this, but I’ll add my voice to the chorus. The two Vertigo titles I buy (Fables and Unwritten), I buy in trades. It’s a testament to their quality that these are titles I want in sturdy, re-readable, shelf-space-taking volumes.
March 1st, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Playing devil’s advocate, I wonder what would happen to sales if Fables and American Vampire wore DC’s logo? Could it be that retailers and readers automatically attach a negative stigma to the Vertigo brand.
March 1st, 2012 at 11:00 pm
I only buy Vertigo trades. Single issues make no sense. Why doesn’t Vertigo just go all trades? Why stick with the old outdated monthly comic book format.
March 2nd, 2012 at 8:46 am
marc oliver your anti DC bias is well known…..