Sales Review: August 2009

Despite the uneven economy, comic sales remained strong this last August with Blackest Night and Dark Avengers issues dominating the top spots ( http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/15822.html ). Blackest Night, Green Lantern, and Green Lantern Corps ranked #1, #4, and #12 respectively. As a true marker of the power of the crossover, Blackest Night:Superman sold almost twice as many issues as the nearest Superman comic (Superman: World of New Krypton). The Superman titles as a whole seem to have nestled into selling 30-40K sold each month.

I thought that the Codename:Patriot crossover might bring a bigger increase in sales to the super-titles as it seemed like a natural jumping on point for new readers. It seems as though there was only the most modest of boosts in all the titles.

As always, ICv2 does a great job of breaking down sales. Here is the list of the top 300 ( http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/15820.html).



I have talked in the past about the stable sales on Supergirl and Supergirl #44 continued that trend selling 33,819. In fact, sales were up a modest 3% from Supergirl #43 which sold 32,849. I know I dream of days when Supergirl will sell 50,000 issues a month but I am thrilled with the way this book is performing.

While the Codename:Patriot crossover might explain some of this bump in sales, as a Supergirl fan you have to like it whenever sales go up. With the crossover streak continuing through Hunt For Reactron, I hope sales will continue to rise. This is all great news.

And let's not forget that we are heading towards Supergirl #50 which I hear will be a double-sized issue.


And what about my personal cause celebre R.E.B.E.L.S. ?

Unfortunately, sales continue to drop.

It will be very interesting to see sales on the title in November. In that month, R.E.B.E.L.S. is a crossover issue with Blackest Night. Also, stores get promotional Indigo rings based on how many R.E.B.E.L.S. issues they order. I expect to see sales quadruple that month. Moreover, my local comic book store won't give out the promotional rings unless you buy the comic it is associated with. If all stores do that then people will need to buy R.E.B.E.L.S. to get their toy surprise. I can only hope people read the issue and latch onto the book.

I know I keep ringing the R.E.B.E.L.S. bell on this Supergirl blog. Thanks for bearing with me.