September 2012's Zero Month was an interesting gamble by DC, a sort of second publicity event around the DCnU. When I heard it announced, I was skeptical. Wasn't a bit early for such a broad event? Shouldn't the energy of the reboot last more than a year before pulling out a zero month? And what does it mean if every title, only a year in, needs an origin issue?
But the month itself and the issues tended to allay my fears. Most of the books I bought were great and some of them really shined, including Supergirl, Action Comics, and Worlds' Finest. Moreover, the concept worked in being a jump-on point as I sampled Earth 2 and Sword of Sorcery.
So from a creative point of view I thought the month was a hit. And from a sales point of view? Well, here is the link to ICv2's excellent review of sales: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/24072.html
Sales were down from last September (the inferno like sales of the first month of the DCnU). But DC controlled the market share and sales seemed to be up in most of the major titles.
Supergirl #0 was truly an origin issue, revealing much of the mystery surrounding Supergirl's trip from Krypton including the much anticipated 'Who Shot Zor-El?' reveal. And, unlike some of the other books' zero issues, Supergirl #0's story seemed to grow organically from the earlier issues.
And, as with many of the zero issues, Supergirl enjoyed a nice bump in sales. Supergirl #0 sold 34,457, up 11% from Supergirl #12.
Will there be new readers who will stick around?
As I said, DC really grabbed a nice market share during the zero month event, grabbing 11 of the 12 top-selling titles. That's crazy.
It seems like I missed the boat with Scott Snyder's Batman book.
Of note, Sword of Sorcery #0, which certainly had a pretty good publicity push with writer Christy Marx being interviewed just about everywhere, sold just under 27K. I don't think that is great news for a new book, especially one where there was something of a negative backlash.
I thought Sword & Sorcery was a decent book myself, weighing it up I think 27'000 isn't a bad opener for such a book given there is no 'hook' to grab publicity.
ReplyDeleteSupergirl #0 managing 34'000 is a bit worrying in the sense that it's only a slight improvment over where sales were previously, the message is definitly there that 30'000 is about the best this book can hope for as an average, that's it's audience and it has to try and hold onto it as it very likely isn't going to grow it.
Depending which way you look at it that's a worrying indictment on where todays comics industry is, we're only 12 issues in and the book is settling at 30'000, perhaps slowly trending downward...