Comments on: Movies Can Bump Comic Sales, After All

By: what?

what? — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 13:44:19 +0000

Was this ever in question? I mean Morrison’s Arkham Asylum, the best-selling OGN of all time came out on the same day as Burton’s film and sold over 100,000 copies for example.

By: Dan Coyle

Dan Coyle — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 04:56:10 +0000

People say irony isn’t dead, but Tom Brevoort accusing others of having a limited vantage point just put it on life support.

By: Ziggy

Ziggy — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 00:34:05 +0000

You guys are really overestimating the difficulty of walking into a comic store and saying, “Do you guys have a book with the guy from the end of Avengers?” And yes, new readers do occasionally venture into comic stores.

You also overestimating the ability to Google the information. Googling just the words “avengers credits”, the 3rd listing is called “OK, Who Is That Guy After ‘The Avengers’ Credits?” which tells you everything you need to know about Thanos. I then when to Amazon and typed in just “Thanos” into the search and the top 2 listings are Thanos Imperative and Infinity Gauntlet.

It’s just that easy. “avengers credits” into google gets you the name, “thanos” into amazon gets you the book. Is it really that surprising sales rose on this book? (Thanos Imperative is probably getting a bump to, for that matter.)

By: silvanthalas

silvanthalas — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 22:16:10 +0000

Odds are it was an influx of existing comic readers who simply hadn’t read that story yet who decided to pick it up.

Thanos is no Spider-Man or many other characters, where you can go to a shop and actually find something current with those characters. One really would have to go out of their way to find out who Thanos is, THEN they’d have to go out of their way to pick up a story about him.

I’m not buying it (or the trade).

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 20:53:59 +0000

And what’s ALSO interesting… is that I need to find a new word for interesting:)

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 20:53:24 +0000

What’s interesting is that after seeing the movie, people knew that Infinity Gauntlet was the book to pick up. Does that mean these are lapsed readers returning to the fold? Or are these new readers that did alot of research before buying the book?

And Ziggy, interesting point about the sales of GL. DC did a BIG marketing push last summer, advertising the GL by Geoff Johns trades nearly everywhere. They made it very clear that these were the books to read. With Marvel, their Avengers push was a bit more scattershot – Kree/Skrull War, Mythos/Origins, Children’s Crusade, Heroice Age by Bendis, The Crossing Omnibus… Most are good in their own right, not none of them have a connecting narrative to each other. None of them are the logical answer to “What do I need to get next” when a reader finishes the book.

By: Ziggy

Ziggy — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:51:40 +0000

Ironic that your comment has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the premise of this post.

To put it simply, YES. Too much choice makes people walk away. Watchmen movie increased sales because there was ONE book. Walking Dead TV show increases sales because there’s only ONE volume 1 (the only choice the buyer has to make is how big they want their volume 1 to be). Even the Green Lantern movie, as mediocre as it was, saw a small increase in trade sales with Rebirth being a very clear starting point.

As huge as any Marvel movies has been, from Spider-Man or X-Men, to Iron Man and The Avengers, There is no clear definitive book for new readers to pick up. But with the inclusion of Thanos I can see where Infinity Gauntlet filled that role.

By: Richard Harrow

Richard Harrow — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 17:59:44 +0000

Ironic in that the Avengers movie is everything people claim to hate about comics; a giant crossover built around mashing all of the most commercially recognizable characters together. Action and spectacle take precedence over storytelling. Nothing happens in terms of progessing the characters or the overall storyline; the status quo has to be preserved for the various sequels. And let’s not forget, reliance on references to obscure characters and storylines from decades past(as one of my friends asked: ‘who’s that purple Hulk guy at the end?’)