I have been eagerly waiting for the sales figures for February to come out. This was something of a big month for the Supergirl character and so I was very interested to see if there was a blip in sales.
Those sales numbers were posted earlier this week and as usual ICv2 has the best coverage. Here is a link to their list of the top 300 selling books: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/28148.html
I am pretty fascinated by the results we saw here. Overall, ICv2 says that sales were down in February. And the graphic novel sales might be a peek in to the future of the comic world as 10 of the top 11 trades were by independent companies. Only one Marvel or DC cracked the top 10.
Onto the sales.
Supergirl #28 was released in February and was the beginning of the Red Lantern Supergirl story.
This storyline got a tremendous amount of publicity. For many Supergirl fans it was considered one more insane maneuver to bring Supergirl lower. It showed just how dark the New 52 was. And it made Supergirl even more unlikable. Writer Tony Bedard has said that this is a transformative storyline, bringing Supergirl out of the angst and isolation and closer to the heroic light.
Well, people must have found this storyline appealing. Supergirl #28 jumped 14 slots in sales. And it sold 23,567, up 7%. A rise in sales!
Is this a double edged sword? Will DC think that an increase in sales means people want a brutal, angry, insane Supergirl? Will better sales prolong the Red Lantern period? Or will DC let Bedard do what he intends, making her a hero again. Will they trust that Supergirl's fans will stick around ... or come back ... when the ship is righted?
In the past, DC has been more interested in the short money.
I did want to comment that the Lois Lane special did quite well also. If you look above, you'll see it sold over 21K copies, not bad for a one-shot that cost $5. Will this entice DC to do more with Lois?? I hope so.
The opening salvo of the Red Daughter story was in the Green Lantern/Red Lantern flip book which I enjoyed. I thought Supergirl was treated with some respect in this issue and the art by Philip Tan and Alessandro Vitti was beautiful.
I can't comment on past sales, but that book sold a very respectable 49K.
At the very least, I have to say this Red Daughter storyline has grabbed the things I want Supergirl to get: headlines, publicity, and sales.
Be careful what you wish for.
The Lois Lane sales aren't bad I guess, as you say it did cost $5. However, so did Joker's Daughter, at the same price, with the same writer and starring a character hardly anyone admits to liking, and THAT sold more than twice as much! You can just about see it in your final image there, two places above the great Ms. Marvel #1 and three above Green Lantern. That makes Lois' sales seem a lot less impressive by comparison. I wonder how the Amanda Waller oneshot will fare - I predict not all that well.
ReplyDeleteGreen Lantern sold 49,000 ish in January so it went up too, albeit not by much. Presumably most people who buy Red Lanterns already buy Green Lantern! We'll have to wait until next month to see how many GL readers stick with RL, which had a mid 20,000s position in January.
As for Supergirl, that's a nice bump. I'll take it. I really hope at least some of these people keep reading. Still, the big winner last month was Worlds' Finest, which got a very generous boost from coming out on the same day as Batman/Superman #8 and following on from it.
I wonder what will happen this month when World's Finest comes out before Batman/Superman, creating a rift in the story's flow when part 4 comes out before part3?
ReplyDeleteThomas,
ReplyDeleteI think that all things Batman seem to be selling now. So I guess I am not surprised (although dismayed) that Joker's Daughter sold better.
And it will be interesting to see if there is some synergy between RL and Supergirl now that they star in each other's books. Both were selling 20K. Will they add to each other's total?
I saw the scheduling glitch with Batman/Superman and Worlds' Finest.
ReplyDeleteThat is crazy.