Perhaps it is that everyone has less cash to spend because they are buying holiday presents.
Perhaps it is that everyone has less money to put to floppies because they subscribed to the DCU streaming service.
But comics sales went down pretty badly last month. And the super titles were not immune. As always, head to ICv2 for coverage here: https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/42021/top-500-comics-november-2018
You might recall that sales on Supergirl #23 were ludicrously high, perhaps bolstered by a foil enhanced Artgerm cover.
I thought fan favorite Doc Shaner being on art for Supergirl #24 might keep the ball rolling.
Supergirl #24 not only sported that spiffy Shaner art but introduced a suave Coluan into the mix. It had some fun Kara/Krypto fighting sequences. And we even saw how quickly Supergirl can become non-super if she taxes her system and isn't bathing in yellow sun.
Overall, not a bad issue. And definitely easy on the eyes.
So how did it sell.
Well, at least I can say it cracked the top 100 comics, eeking in just at #100.
It was ordered at a clip of 21,295.
I will remind you that the foil covered issue sold 44,775 units. Now that was unprecedented. But a loss of 50%? That's an ouchie.
And once you start sniffing near 20,000 in sales, I get worried. Remember, this book wasn't on the shelf for months while Man of Steel came out. It wouldn't take much, I would imagine, for DC to pull the plug.
I was pleasantly surprised with the Supergirl story (really most of the stories) in the DC's Nuclear Winter Special #1. It had a very high price point of $9.99 and wasn't advertised beforehand. It took word of mouth to reach me to think about picking it up.
And I think that price point kept it off the shelves a bit. By the time I got to my store, 4 hours after opening on Wednesday, there was only one left (which I grabbed).
It was ordered more than I thought it would be.
!7253 for a $10 book out of continuity is a pretty good haul for DC. I wish things like this were more like $5 or $6. I would be far more apt to purchase at a better price.
Anyways, start praying for the Supergirl book's survival.
I'm indeed worried, although I notice ALL Superman books are down.
ReplyDeleteOddly, Supergirl usually makes it to Comixology Top 25 when it comes out, so maybe digital sales are good?
Regardless, I'm afraid Bendis' relaunch isn't working the way DC expected, and Supergirl's new direction hasn't been so well-received as Orlando's run's haters would you believe.
I'm afraid Supergirl fans are just tired of endless reboots, new different directions and "Dark Supergirl" stories which throw the prior continuity away. The majority of fanbase has moved on, and since there're hardly new, younger fans due to the direct market... Well, sales suffer.
It doesn't help that Superman isn't a best-selling character anymore, and Supergirl is perceived as a rip-off even for Superman fans. Being Superman's distaff counterpart has been always a double-edged sword for Supergirl: she is given greater visibility than most of female characters, but she is perceived as an inferior copy, including by Superman fans who don't want her to take Superman's status like Last Son and Mightiest Hero away.
It doesn't help either that DC hardly promotes Supergirl. Almost zero advertisement, she barely makes any appearances out of her own book and she has no team affiliation. Less chances to gain new fans and rebuild her fandom.
Fortunately, DC is more lenient with Supergirl's sales than with other characters', so I reckon they'll try several strategies before cancelling her book. Nonetheless, we should be worried.
By the way, "Other History of DC Universe" has been delayed indefinitely. At the beginning Supergirl's appearance had been advertised, but her name was out of the actual solicitation. I wonder what happened to it.
A 50% drop yikes! That doesn't bode well, it hardly seems like a one time thing either. The current storyline is a little berserk but readable, (unlike other sudden departures from continuity that were berserk but unreadable) but as cited above when you append it to a character with no team affiliation and no advertising you end up with a book with unreliable sales. Moreover I'm starting to wonder how long floppies really have in this market and which company will pull the trigger on them when the time comes?
ReplyDeleteJF
I'm really worried about what the sales will be for Supergirl #26.
ReplyDeleteSupergirl #25 was perhaps the worst comic I have read all year, and I'm a hardcore Supergirl fan who should be ecstatic about a large issue. The space adventure started alright but it has quickly turned to god awful. I don't know if they even know where they are going with the story at the moment. So many pages and nothing happened. The only redeeming story was the christmas story and it was painfully derivative.
I really need a new direction for Supergirl stat, or for Andreyko to get back on track again. I don't want to see Supergirl cancelled, it would just make me give up on comics.
I can understand why sales are dropping, one is because of the endless reboots as said above and secondly, the story isn't just as gripping. Superman fans aren't going to spend money on Supergirl comics, so why cater to them eh? Also andreyko has pretty much erased all of her supporting staff from the previous run and it's clear that he is building his own. But as much as I love brainiac5 and Kara, this isn't brainiac5 and Kara, and neither is this a good family story with her adoptive parents and her navigating life like Orlando did. I don't have much hope for andreyko and truth to be told, if it was for any other character apart from Supergirl, I would have given up. I hope digital sales are good and that the story is clicking with people because I don't know for how longer I can keep on reading garbage writing from andreyko.
ReplyDelete'Supergirl #25 was perhaps the worst comic I have read all year'
ReplyDeleteYup, I was reading it and rolling my eyes hard at the zor el bad part. That's what andreyko is gonna do, that's the best mystery setup? Something which has been done gazillion times before? I thought he was gonna do something groundbreaking. But the story is just so meandering and I can see the signs it is going to be like the wonder woman run with her brother getting the spotlight. Andreyko is here to sell the brainic5 rip off and by God will he sell him straight up instead of keeping him as a mystery. As I said above, gotta catch those Superman fans someway or the other.
This was quite a sales plunge.
ReplyDeleteBefore monthly numbers are available, comichron spends weeks posting about advance re-orders of books, and Supergirl #23 was the biggest advance re-order at least one week.
I guess retailers saw the Artgerm cover, or they saw that he was going to be drawing it, and put in their advance re-orders, without modifying the basic number they were going to order, which is a number based on how well the prior books (#21 and #22) actually sold in the stores.
So #24 orders would have been down if #21 and #22 hadn't sold that well. For all we know, #23 didn't even actually sell that well despite the high number of retailer orders.
I may have observed this recently, but wouldn't ranking at or near the bottom of the weekly Comixology Top 25 put a book near the bottom of the monthly Top 100?
How could it not? Most books come out once a month. Each week there will be a different number 1, and the odds are good that they will be ranked 1st through 4th in the monthly sales. The four number 2s are going to be 5th through 8th in the monthly sales, more or less.
Of course with week-to-week variations there can be significant exceptions - the best selling book one week may only be, say, the 5th best selling of the month if all of the best selling titles came out in some other week(s).
I never studied statistics and am decades away from high school math so my logic may be very, very wrong.
I'll wait for the post about Supergirl #25 to offer thoughts about that book.
T.N.
"'Supergirl #25 was perhaps the worst comic I have read all year'"
ReplyDeleteI didn't think it was so bad... Do I guess you haven't read Heroes In Crisis?
I'll agree not much happened, though.
Still yet I find amusing how certain Superman fans praise this run. Over CBR and Superman Homepage some of them hailed it as a success compared with Orlando's run. And there's a guy over twitter who thinks this is the best what Supergirl has been and she has really never worked as a Earth-based hero.
Thanks for comments.
ReplyDeleteI think people know that I prefer Supergirl on Earth, with a supporting cast, learning how to be a hero.
A vengeance drive, angry Kara never works for me.
While I appreciate the effort to link her more with the Superman arc, I just keep hoping this is a 9-12 month arc and she ends up back on Earth, back with the Danvers, and established. Because this space-faring loner Kara can't be a long-term viable approach.
People need to remember that the sales numbers we see are distributor sales to stores, not sales of books to readers in stores. Because of that they represent what the stores thinks they can sell well before the book ships, not how well that month’s title actually sold to readers. Store sales affect the next order cycle, so when we see a drop it’s because the store orders to the distributor dropped the previous month, or even the one before that.
ReplyDeleteIf sales are down it’s because orders for that month are down, not interest in the book. It’s why drawing conclusions about the sales health of a book can be made from those numbers, but not how popular the book was with readers.