Happy Thanksgiving Again! Sales Review: October 2018

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.

Review: Supergirl #23

Supergirl #23 came out this week and was another interesting chapter in this new direction for the title. I know that interesting is an odd choice, a damning with faint praise sort of word. But the truth is I enjoyed this issue. There are plot points that feel a bit forced. There is one magical moment that felt off. Kara's emotions continue to run a bit rampant, a sort of step backwards. And much of the turmoil seems overly forced.

Writer Marc Andreyko builds the mystery of 'The Circle' and their role in Rogol Zaar's plan to destroy Krypton. We get to finally see the mystery man who has been in shadows on the cliffhanger pages and he looks familiar. Kara gets lucky and is given the next crumb in her trail. There is a lot of fighting that, in theory, could have been avoided. Perhaps the thing I am having a hard time wrapping my head around is Kara's labile emotions. I get that she is reeling from the Zaar reveal. But her angry reactions and lack of trust feel more like the Kara of 2011, not 2018.

What truly elevates and saves the issue is the art by Kevin Maguire. No big surprise that Maguire injects so much emotion into the scenes. Kara looks fantastic. And I love his Krypto. The book really sparkles. Seriously. If this issue had less spectacular art, I think I wouldn't be so forgiving. Add to that the shiny, foil cover by Artgerm and the fun Supergirl rocket-surfing variant by Amanda Conner and the book just looks stunning.

Onto the book!

October 2018 Solicits

The October solicits for DC Comics came out this week and there are a couple of things which sound good, a couple of things which sound bad, and something that sounds like THE EXTREME 90s !!!

Here is a link to Newsarama's coverage if you want to look at all the solicits for the month:
https://www.newsarama.com/41056-dc-comics-october-2018-solicitations.html

One thing that stuck out immediately is Newsarama picking the Supergirl cover to spotlight the article. And no mistaking that that is Artgerm back on this cover. You might recall my postulating that Artgerm's variants for the book made it sell and extra 10K a month.

On to the relevant books and material.