As Supergirl fans, I think we should probably give thanks to Stanley 'Artgerm' Lau, someone who seems to be able to wave a magic wand over Supergirl sales. Amazing! So raise a glass of mulled cider or have an extra slice of leftover pumpkin pie today in his honor.
And why am I saying all this today?
Well the comic sales for October 2018 were recently posted. As always head to ICv2 for great coverage: https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/41809/top-500-comics-october-2018
Now October had DC roll out special foil cover variants. So some of what I am about to discuss might be collector zeal for fancy, shiny covers.
Still the numbers are jaw-dropping!
Supergirl #23 was the third issue of the new direction by Marc Andreyko and Kevin Maguire.
Sales weren't exactly brisk with the bold, new direction. And one thing that had changed was that the Artgerm variant covers ended with Supergirl #20. Amanda Conner took over the variant job with the changeover. And hey ... Amanda Conner ain't a slouch. I love her work and her Supergirl work in particular.
Still, Artgerm gave us the above variant, the foil cover.
But Supergirl #22 had 22,115 units ordered through Diamond. This was a bit of an eye opener. We were two issues into a new run and sales had dropped 20% from Supergirl #21. I was waiting to see if the book was in free fall.
Supergirl #23 was ranked 37th in sales, with 44775 units.
You don't need to be good in math to see that is a 100% increase in sales.
Could it be that word on the street about the new direction was so good that new readers flooded to the title?
Could it be that the foil cover alone made people buy it?
Or could the equation of (foil cover + Artgerm) lead to this bonanza?
It has to be the last. But other titles didn't jump this much. So I think Artgerm is the biggest factor.
As always, I hope people who buy for the cover will read the book and learn to love Kara.
But DC, as a business, should read the tea leaves and count their profits and put Artgerm back on covers here.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!
As always, thank you all for coming here and hanging out with me!
13 comments:
You're welcome, Anj. Thank you for your site.
My reaction when I first found out about Supergirl ranking #37 after leaving the Top 100 the previous month was surprise and then disbelief.
I don't think I'll ever understand this fickle market.
Nevertheless, I also think Artgem's cover is indeed the answer (Catwoman also came with an Artgem cover and it beat Superman). Funny, because I think several of his previous covers were way better. Anyway I hope Supergirl keeps above the danger line.
Sadly, Super Sons have dropped off the Top Ten. Maybe it's because people think Bendis' plans mean that book is irrelevant. Anyway, a bad sign.
I think its Artgem, the cover variants must have some buzz as a collectible. Either that or Krypto's fanbase have quietly migrated to the book :)
JF
The Artgerm foil cover really popped in ways that many of the others just didn't. Jim Lee complimented it in DC Nation #4 as one of his four favorites.
(At one point you refer to this as an Artgerm variant, but like all the foil covers, it was the main cover for the month.)
I love Connor's covers, but are they big sellers? My LCS doesn't think so. They probably only buy 1 copy of that variant, for me. (My only gripe is I wish she would stop drawing Supergirl sort of cross-eyed!)
DC does seem to rotate its prestige variant artists, though who knows why.
Alex Garner has been doing extraordinary work on Teen Titans.
Artgerm won't be doing Catwoman #7 or #8, but will be doing Batgirl #31, as well as Wonder Woman #64 and #65.
Joshua Middleton will be doing Martian Manhunter variants. Not sure what else.
Derrick Chew will be doing Batgirl #32 - has he done much comic cover work? A search for him leads to some portfolios where he shows anime-style eye-popping work, reminiscent to my untrained eye of Artgerm. Apparently he's also doing the Harley Quinn #58 variant. And, he drew Flash #60, solicited for sale on Dec 12, and it -- is unusual!
T.N.
Artgerm's Supergirl is one of the definitive visual renderings in her long history. He makes her simultaneously powerful and sweet, angelically beautiful and girl-next-door approachable. He has separated me from a lot of money with his depictions of her, via pricey retailer-exclusive variants, trade collections, posters, prints -- basically, Artgerm draws Kara and my wallet falls open in surrender. So it's no surprise to me that his gorgeous covers spike sales.
I maybe the only one here but I don't really like Amanda Conner's art. I liked the first one she did but there is something very amateurish in her art. I love seeing kryto and Kara together being cute but that isn't enough to buy it, when I will be getting more of the same right in the book itself too. I honestly think that they should change the variant artist. If artgerm can't be a regular variant then maybe Joshua and others can give it a try too. People with this kind of 3d effect should definitely be in charge of the covers.
I think of Conner's work here as cartoonish, playful. Maybe that's what you are getting at.
At least her drawings are creatively composed rather than pure pin-ups as many variants are these days, and much appreciated. She's done cute work on Supergirl before. Like her work on the Wednesday Comics from 2009 - it's a bit less cartoonish but still playful, a Silver Age Supergirl in a red skirt.
Anyway, per previewsworld.com, the Conner run on the variants appears to be ending soon, and there's going to be a period of changing pencillers and cover artists.
The artwork has really been going through changes, and will continue to do so:
#23 was finished by 2 pairs of inkers and colorists - suggesting the pencils were late?
Coupled with the #24 fill-in by Doc Shaner, I wonder what's up.
#25 Lupacchino, Thompson, Walker, and Hennessy; covers by Mahneke and Conner. I guess that means 2 sets of inkers and colorists again.
#26 Parsons and Maguire, covers by Paquette and Arterm
#27 Pansica (who is currently working on Brimstone), covers by Paquette and Lupaccino
Pansica's work looks good, but with that DC House Style of weathered feathered lined aged faces on anyone over 25. Glancing now at Brimstone #7 - many of the faces are truly grotesque. Is that realism, or just plain ugly? Has anyone taken a poll?
Of course Lupaccino, usually inked by Ray McCarthy, draws quite the opposite. Does anyone draw better looking people?
I'd also like to see Amy Reeder do some Supergirl covers again.
T.N.
Wow! An increase of 22,660! Even if those numbers are based on comic shop orders and not cash register sales, it's still impressive. It looks like dealers anticipated this being a big seller and ordered accordingly. And customers may have requested the book in advance, prompting dealers to up their orders.
However...I don't want to spoil the party, but before we start breaking out the champagne, orders for issue 24 are bound to be at more "normal" levels. It'll be interesting to see what happens when Artgerm returns for issue 26.
The upcoming parade of artists as listed by T.N. makes me think that Maguire is running behind and needs some help catching up. Issue 25 will have two back up stories, one featuring Krypto and one featuring Z'ndr Khol, so this is where the extra artists come in there.
Speaking of Supergirl 25, did you notice that it's not listed in DC Nation #6? It IS listed in the October Previews, so what goes on? Has it been delayed or is this an oversight on DC's part?
Ah, thanks for the reminder about #25.
I also noticed it wasn't listed in DC Nation.
There are some titles that would ordinarily go on sale Dec 26, which will be available on Jan 2 instead - those will have 2 issues in January. Maybe DC got mixed up and clumped Supergirl (and maybe some others) in that batch.
Or maybe at the time DC Nation #6 was sent to the printer, they thought #25 would be delayed.
Probably it's just an oversight.
T.N.
If nothing else shows how broken and detached from good taste the direct market is, it's those gross Artgerm covers generating sales boosts. Everything looks like overly airbrushed pinups, and Supergirl always looks like a gross cross between a blow-up doll & a zombie. There's no life to them, the anatomy is janky at best, but it looks "painted" & has her making perpetual "do-me" eyes at the cover's viewers, so the DM eats it up. I actually stopped buying the title when he became the cover artist - it was almost as embarrassing to be seen with as a Greg Land cover. The only real difference is that Artgerm seemingly doesn't trace.
'I actually stopped buying the title when he became the cover artist'
He does only variant covers. His art style is more pin up like, its 3d effect is what draws people and I think he draws her kind of at peace and calm. Have you seen his Catwoman cover, it's gorgeous!! His cover was what was made into a Prime1 statue.
Also, you stopped buying the issue because of a variant cover. That sentence just blew my mind, I sincerely hope you are not the troll who comes to comment on every episode review post of the tvshow
"I think he draws her kind of at peace and calm."
Or roofied. There's no life to his art, and the expressions are ALWAYS come hither. It's all just a hair away from kiddie porn. If that's what you want, fine, but keep in mind that it's putting a sizable chunk of the audience who don't buy with their boners off from the titles they grace. And it says a LOT about you, none of it too good.
"Also, you stopped buying the issue because of a variant cover. That sentence just blew my mind,"
Yes. Because when you buy a book, you're giving the signal that you're okay with the creative team. That includes line editors who are sex offenders like Berganza (who is thankfully gone but only after YEARS of doing damage) and DeviantART rejects like Artgerm.
"I sincerely hope you are not the troll who comes to comment on every episode review post of the tvshow"
Do you mean the one who is okay with hate crimes or the one who calls out the guy who is okay with hate crimes? Or is "duhhhh, troll" your response to anyone who calls you out for gross taste? How do we know it's not you doing an act?
Can you actually look roofied and "come hither" at the same time? How does that work, exactly?
Personally I love Artgerm's Kara, but I gotta say your moralistic rants make for pretty entertaining reading.
"Or roofied. There's no life to his art, and the expressions are ALWAYS come hither."
Like the other anonymous pointed out, those two sentences rule each other out. You're making no sense.
"It's all just a hair away from kiddie porn. If that's what you want, fine, but keep in mind that it's putting a sizable chunk of the audience who don't buy with their boners off from the titles they grace. And it says a LOT about you, none of it too good."
I doesn't look kiddie porn AT ALL. The fact YOU see a image of a teenager smiling and THINK it looks kiddie porn says a lot about YOU.
"Yes. Because when you buy a book, you're giving the signal that you're okay with the creative team."
No. Because it's a VARIANT cover. It isn't the whole book. If you don't like the variant cover, you buy the book with the regular cover. This way you're sending the message you like the book but you don't like that artist.
"Do you mean the one who is okay with hate crimes or the one who calls out the guy who is okay with hate crimes?"
No one in this blog is okay with hate crimes. And you KNOW it.
"Or is "duhhhh, troll" your response to anyone who calls you out for gross taste?"
So whoever doesn't agree with your taste or doesn't think "smiling girl=porn" has gross taste? Riiight.
I would call troll someone who baits other people and throws personal attacks over a mere drawing. In other words, you.
Post a Comment