December Sales - Supergirl #36, Cosmic Adventures #1, Malestrom #3

It is that time of the month, when ICv2 posts sales from the month before. Here is the link: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/14111.html. December was an interesting month for sales. Despite the gloomy economic landscape in America, overall sales increased 12%.

Just a reminder about November sales for the main Supergirl title.


In November, Supergirl #35 sold 45,518 issues and ranked number 34 overall. This was, of course, the first Supergirl chapter of New Krypton and had a variant cover, all of which helped spur sales on.

Now on to December ...

Supergirl #36 also was a chapter in the New Krypton arc and also had a variant cover. This issue sold virtually the same number of issues as the last one (45,491 as opposed to 45,518). So everyone who bought in November came back in December. The overall rank dropped from 34 to 49 but that is not as important to me as units sold. Comic readers can be fickle; no one who read #35 found it so lacking as to leave. That is excellent news.

I am most intrigued in seeing how sales are this month. We are officially out of New Krypton. There is no variant cover. But everything going on in the title - the New Krypton planet, Superwoman, Alura's rule - all of it is born from the crossover. How many readers will stick around for the ride?

Cosmic Adventures #1 sold a solid 9281 which I think is relative gold for the Johnny DC line. The Billy Batson title sold 9800. The Super Friends sold 5500. Again, I think seeing how the title does next month will be important. I think the title has received a lot on on-line praise. Maybe 'word of mouth' will keep sales robust for an all ages title.

The middle chapter of Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom sold just under 18,000 issues, although that was done around 15% from the second book. I wonder if sales for this mini were good enough to warrant a trade down the line.

The bottom line is that the main Supergirl title and the Cosmic title both did very well in December. Hopefully all the character interest from the end of 2008 will continue through the new year.