Given the events of the month. I was very curious to see the comic sales information for January.
For this blog's focus, I wanted to see the sales for Supergirl #60, the first issue after Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle's run, the first month of the "Nick Spencer" story, written by James Peaty and drawn by Bernard Chang.
But I also wanted to see if the 'event' comic Fantastic Four #587 was going to garner big sales.
And unlike many, I actually liked the January 2011 DC Cover theme; the white background, character-driven covers grabbed my eye. Some of them were good enough to be pin-ups or posters.
As I do each month, I'll praise ICv2 for their in-depth sales coverage. Here is the link to last month's sales:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/19327.html As expected, FF#587 sold the most comics, breaking the 100K mark. But comics as a whole suffered another bad month, with sales down almost across the board.
And yet, I am pretty content.
Supergirl #60 sold 22,568, down an iota from Supergirl #59's 22,606. I have to admit that I was worried that the creative upheaval, including Nick Spencer's leaving the book after co-writing one issue, would drive people away. But sales were stable, and that is in the context of a horrible sales month overall.
I'll take it.
As for the underdogs, they continue to tread water. Doom Patrol #18 hovered around 9,300. That's worrisome.
R.E.B.E.L.S. #24 sold 10,354, a couple of hundred less than the prior issue.
I include this picture just to show that T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #3 is also down amongst the reeds. Although we obviously don't know the details, it still feels like Nick Spencer chose Agents over Supergirl, a fringe book selling 10K over a book with a solid fanbase.
The big question is going to be what will sales be like for Supergirl #61. Nick Spencer isn't in the credits. And people will have given the new storyline a chance. Will people jump ship?
5 comments:
I am willing to give James Peaty a real chance with Supergirl.
While he has done fill-in issues and is an excellent emergency pitch hitter for DC. From what I can tell he's very good on accepting and working with the characters past history in the Sterling Gates-type of model from what I have been able read so far.
Supergirl does appear to be his first long term series, at least with us DC Comics fans.
"Justice League," co-starring Supergirl, is at #17 (or "Dark Supergirl," I should say. Yuck, wake me up when that's over.) I am shocked that "Superman" is at #23. People must be buying into the hype and reading one of the most abysmal stories in Superman history (or, like me, they are buying out of habit more than anything else.) Still, "Superman" and "Action" seem to have rebounded from their New Krypton slump. It's interesting that both "Legion" and "Adventure" are down so low, considering the huge push that DC has given them of late. How interesting that "Power Girl" is languishing at #90. This is one of my favorite books, and last month tied in to the story happening in "Supergirl," with Cadmus creating a Krypto clone.
As for Spencer: the guy has too much work to focus on one title. It would have been more than likely that he would have been off "Supergirl" after one or two story arcs anyway. I have faith in Peaty, as you do.
Aaron
Well I can see DC's plan to boost sales by replacing Sterling Gates worked out great. *ROLLS EYES*
I'm looking forward to what James Peaty has to offer.
The thing about Superman is that I am also reading it when I could 'vote with my dollars' and drop it. So I guess I am part of the problem.
And I concur with everyone that I am completely looking forward to James Peaty's run while simultaneously still bummed that Sterling Gates is off the book.
I'm rooting for Peaty, he'll get a lot of rope from me. As ANJ has said here before, none of us knew Sterling Gates when he took over.
I'm part of the "problem" too, I continue to buy comics like Superman out of hope and inertia. I've bought it for so long I just can't imagine not doing so, and I keep hoping it'll get better because I want it to be better. It's not logical, but I guess being a fan isn't meant to be logical. I keep buying JLA in spite of Dark... Dark... sorry, I can't say it.
I keep buying because I know that eventually things will come around. The last couple years of Supergirl were something I would never have expected after the first 30 issues or so. Maybe that's why we keep buying, because we're rewarded often enough to make it worthwhile.
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