Comics as a whole continue to do well from a sales point of view, perhaps buoyed by two excellent comic book movies in the theater this summer. August was another month of extremely solid sales. And, things look much better than they were in 2011 at this time. And as always, ICv2 has my favorite coverage of this topic. Here is a link to their site and a review of last month's sales: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/23854.html
Now it is funny to look at this list of comics because it seems like last month a lot of Marvel comics shipped twice ( 2 X-Forces, 2 X-Men, 2 Iron Men, etc etc). It also was another Avengers vs. Xmen heavy month. And on top of that there were the continuing Before Watchmen minis and a number of DC annuals. So would a heavy month of 'added comics' take people away from their usual pull lists?
Supergirl #12 slipped 11 notches, down to the number 77 of the top 300. That most likely is more representative of the annuals and double issues.
Sales slipped about 5% which seems to be (unfortunately) the month-to-month erosion off the sales of this title.
So I guess this leaves me with a couple of nagging questions.
One, what is the ultimate final destination of sales on Supergirl? Where will sales settle out at? Again, I think this book remains a solid seller and a winner overall in the New 52. But I would like to see things a bit more stable.
Two, what will the Zero issue sales be like. Again, sales don't necessarily mean readers. But I wonder if stores will pick up more given the 'jumping on point' nature of the issue. I suppose I am expecting some minor blip up in September's numbers.
Three, what will the trade sales be like. I keep reading on multiple sites how people dropped the book early on thinking the decompressed style was more befitting a read as a trade. Will those people come back for the trade?
Lastly, while digital sales don't figure into these numbers, I wonder where Supergirl lands on the downloaded sales.
Anyways, we have Supergirl #0 coming up, answering some origin questions. And that is followed by the H'El super-book crossover. So things remain healthy and might even look better soon.
Don't forget the crossover with Superboy, Superman and Action in a couple months. Thatll definately bump sales up!
ReplyDeleteOne, what is the ultimate final destination of sales on Supergirl? Where will sales settle out at? Again, I think this book remains a solid seller and a winner overall in the New 52. But I would like to see things a bit more stable.
ReplyDeleteI've pointed this out before but the previous series of Supergirl was getting nearly 30'000 even after its 50th issue!
I think this figure is therefore just a measure of her relative popularity. The current creative team is doing fine, they're delivering a strong and distinctive book and I don't think you could do much better. But as you pointed out there is such a lot of pressure on consumers pockets and time, plus the franchise titles and event books like Avengers/X-Men work to suck most of the attention away from books like Supergirl.
If you study that chart and put 30'000 into its context then it's a really good strong figure, I think with he state of the market and the way of trends Supergirl will continue a slight deterioration, hopefully a slow one, but it's a fact that books on her level need help now and again with getting attention and exposure. Maybe joining a team would be a good move in this regard.
Thanks for the comments.
ReplyDeleteH'El should give a bump (just like New Krypton gave a bump).
And a team affiliation always helps.
But I wish DC would showcase the book on its own too.
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