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Post by lordyam on Aug 23, 2017 11:26:17 GMT -5
God Damn It. I hope things pick up at least a little.
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Post by arcadian on Aug 28, 2017 22:16:26 GMT -5
Things have gotten worse since last I looked at these numbers. IDW announced last month that it cut 25% of its product line, promising retailers that "less is more." Bleeding Cool commented that DC, Marvel and Dark Horse had already done the same, just not turned it into a press release. I'm a big fan of Cullen Bunn, and think he's a good fit for Conan, but he didn't bring readers that stayed. It looks like the retailers increased their orders of Slayer #1 anticipating that he would, but customers didn't buy, so the orders quickly dropped to around the pre-Slayer levels. It might be that he has too many titles going (at least seven), so his fans select things closer to what they've liked from him in the past. And then I see this chart of independents (non-Marvel, DC and Image), and the best sellers doesn't clear 30,000 sales to retailers: www.comicsbeat.com/image-independent-publisher-sales-distribution-chart-for-july-2017-lady-mechanika-returns/This is a hostile environment.
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Post by Jason Aiken on Aug 29, 2017 4:35:46 GMT -5
It's a dying market. Marvel and DC will be around since Disney and Warner Brothers see them as R&D write-offs for their films, but we're not far from the superhero film going the way of the western either.
I can see Image surviving since they've basically become the new Vertigo, but I don't think the future looks bright for the rest of the publishers.
Anyone even thinking of opening a comic shop in this environment is nuts.
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Post by lordyam on Aug 29, 2017 16:48:11 GMT -5
It's a dying market. Marvel and DC will be around since Disney and Warner Brothers see them as R&D write-offs for their films, but we're not far from the superhero film going the way of the western either. I can see Image surviving since they've basically become the new Vertigo, but I don't think the future looks bright for the rest of the publishers. Anyone even thinking of opening a comic shop in this environment is nuts. Superhero movies probably aren't going away yet. I'd give them another two years at least. The retailer I spoke to said that sales as a whole are worse than even the 90s
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Post by mrp on Aug 29, 2017 17:05:46 GMT -5
Let's put things in a little perspective. About a year ago, ICV2 published an article celebrating the fact that revenue from comic sales finally regained the levels they had in the 1990s. Sounds like good news right? Except revenue measures dollars sold not units. An average comic in 1990 had a $1 cover price, in 1999 it was about $2, and there were far fewer high dollar products like trades, statues etc. on the market. Comics today have an average cover price of $4. I have to sell 4 times as many $1 items to get the same revenue as I would selling $4 items, so when ICV2 says celebrates matching revenue form 20 years ago, it's telling because you are selling probably 1/2 to 1/4 of the units you were 20 years ago to match that revenue level from 20 years ago. To me that a cause for alarm, not celebration. But ICV2 is a trade mag for retailers, it wants to paint a rosy picture so retailers order more products and customers have more confidence in the industry and will buy more products. But it is a deceptive claim at heart. Unit sales are down no matter what dollar sales say. Rising cover prices keep dollar sales up, but unit sales keep shrinking and nothing is arresting that path to entropy.
-M
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Post by mrp on Aug 30, 2017 23:06:20 GMT -5
If you were wondering about the health of the industry right now, you might be interested in this...a new charity was launched today...Issues Inc. Helping Comics Retailers with Issues. You can find out more at their Facebook pageHere's their initial press release... While it's good to see people taking initiative like this, it is sad to think that it has come to this. There have been reports of a slew of shops across the US shuttering their doors because slumping sales and non-returnable stock have made it impossible to keep enough operating capital available to stay in business. It's a challenge all small businesses face, but the direct market model and Diamond policies make it particularly difficult for small comics shops to meet the challenge in a sluggish market. -M
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Post by johnnypt on Sept 11, 2017 11:55:18 GMT -5
OK, there were a certain amount of folks who threw up their hands last month, but not as many as I would have thought:
256 CONAN THE SLAYER #12 7,230 (#11 7500, -270, -3.6%
Could've been worse, we'll see what a team up with a big movie star does for him next month. He's still ahead of the James Bond titles at Dynamite for whatever that's worth (these days, probably not much).
Trade:
174 CONAN OMNIBUS TP VOL 03 ANCIENT GODS AND SORCERERS 679
I was in Gaithersberg MD over the weekend at the Rio mall and the B&N there were a bunch of Volume 2 & 3s, 4 or 5 each (no Vol 1s though). Not sure if it's good news or bad news that there were that many on the shelves. As far as I'm concerned, if it's there someone might see it and buy it.
To compare to evergreen titles, Watchmen and Infinity Gauntlet can still have months where they're in the top 50, pulling around 1700 each last month.
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Post by Jason Aiken on Sept 11, 2017 12:32:10 GMT -5
OK, there were a certain amount of folks who threw up their hands last month, but not as many as I would have thought: 256 CONAN THE SLAYER #12 7,230 (#11 7500, -270, -3.6% Could've been worse, we'll see what a team up with a big movie star does for him next month. He's still ahead of the James Bond titles at Dynamite for whatever that's worth (these days, probably not much). Trade: 174 CONAN OMNIBUS TP VOL 03 ANCIENT GODS AND SORCERERS 679 I was in Gaithersberg MD over the weekend at the Rio mall and the B&N there were a bunch of Volume 2 & 3s, 4 or 5 each (no Vol 1s though). Not sure if it's good news or bad news that there were that many on the shelves. As far as I'm concerned, if it's there someone might see it and buy it. To compare to evergreen titles, Watchmen and Infinity Gauntlet can still have months where they're in the top 50, pulling around 1700 each last month. Wow, the same seven thousand Conan comic fans are keeping this thing alive. We should organize like those Nightwing chicks did a few years back and put pressure on editorial on how we want our Conan. At what Volume in the trades does Brian Wood's run show up? They should save some trees and skip Barbarian and maybe even Avenger. Ching's art ruined that title.
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Post by johnnypt on Sept 11, 2017 13:08:12 GMT -5
I think they're doing these in 18-24 issue clips. Volume 3 takes us through Black Colossus, so the next Omnibus would likely have the 2nd half of Cimmerian and Roy's mini(s). Wood's run could have a volume all to itself, then Avenger & Slayer would make up the final(?)
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2017 13:49:30 GMT -5
I think the problem is that we don't really know if or when Dark Horse intend to publish a fourth volume. They published the first 3 omnibus volumes between December 2016 and August 2017. By January a thread was already started on the 3rd volume, several months ahead of publication.
The lack of information concerning the future of the Conan titles is unusual to say the least. It's increasingly looking like they don't know what to do with the Conan books.
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Post by mrp on Sept 11, 2017 16:02:10 GMT -5
I think the problem is that we don't really know if or when Dark Horse intend to publish a fourth volume. They published the first 3 omnibus volumes between December 2016 and August 2017. By January a thread was already started on the 3rd volume, several months ahead of publication. The lack of information concerning the future of the Conan titles is unusual to say the least. It's increasingly looking like they don't know what to do with the Conan books. A lot of times in today's market, future volumes depend on the sales of current and past problems. Sure Diamond reports numbers every month, but the book trade doesn't. Book trade numbers are usually quarterly, and since those are sold on a returnable basis, they need to see sell throughs on print runs before they know for certain how well a given volume did in the book trade. They don't want to announce a volume and then cancel it, so they will wait to see how the book market numbers are for trades and omnibus before announcing another volume, especially on higher price point items like the omnibus. It may mean longer gaps between volumes to allow for a higher sell through, or it may mean they are waiting to see if they sold enough in the book trade to make another volume viable before announcing it. Trades and hardcovers don't sell enough in the Diamond direct market to be really viable, they are dependent on book trade sales, especially things like Amazon and Barnes & Noble to generate enough sales revenue to keep those lines going, which means waiting longer for the actual data to come in form those markets before proceeding or making announcements. My guess is that the numbers for each volume are hovering around the point of make or break, with volumes just selling enough to be profitable, so if one volume falls under that line it may mean future volumes will not happen, especially with omnibus. DC is notorious for doing this with some of their more obscure books or older books, series like Ostrander's Spectre run were cancelled two volumes in because sales on volume 2 didn't warrant a volume 3, and while volumes were supposed to be 2 a year, they waited almost a year to announce volume 2 because it took forever for volume 1 to make it over the break line for profitability. His Suicide Squad series was cancelled after 1 volume, then news of the movie hit and 2 1/2 years after Volume 1 was released, a new printing of number one was done and volume 2 was announced, and it has since done four or five more volumes because there was now enough sales in the book trade for a book like that to warrant further volumes. I wouldn't even bother looking at Diamond numbers for trades, they are pretty much irrelevant to the actual sales of those volumes as 3/4 or more of the sales volume of books like that are in the book trade, not the direct market. -M
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2017 17:39:28 GMT -5
The trend in London comic-book shops with the graphic novels is kinda strange. In Forbidden Planet the first 2 Conan Omnibus editions have sold out - the third seems to be doing well. The SSOC graphic novels have also sold well, they can only manage to re-stock 3 volumes (SSOC 12, 20 and 21).
The Chronicles of Conan, King Conan reprints and the DH Conan the Barbarian and Avenger volumes have been on the shelves for awhile, eventually they get damaged and end up selling for a fraction of the price.
The pattern appears to be the same in the other comic-book shops in Central London. SSOC and Conan Omnibus volumes are good value for money and sell. The reprints of the color Marvel Conan comics and the DH volumes starting from the Brian Wood run (the first volume did sell eventually) through to the Avenger series just do not sell.
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Post by mrp on Sept 11, 2017 17:55:57 GMT -5
The trend in London comic-book shops with the graphic novels is kinda strange. In Forbidden Planet the first 2 Conan Omnibus editions have sold out - the third seems to be doing well. The SSOC graphic novels have also sold well, they can only manage to re-stock 3 volumes (SSOC 12, 20 and 21). The Chronicles of Conan, King Conan reprints and the DH Conan the Barbarian and Avenger volumes have been on the shelves for awhile, eventually they get damaged and end up selling for a fraction of the price. The pattern appears to be the same in the other comic-book shops in Central London. SSOC and Conan Omnibus volumes are good value for money and sell. The reprints of the color Marvel Conan comics and the DH volumes starting from the Brian Wood run (the first volume did sell eventually) through to the Avenger series just do not sell. Sales in the direct market, i.e. comic shops are not going to vary from the sales patterns of the individual issues because it is the same customer base feeding on the same sources of information and fan buzz. They are irrelevant to the overall sales patterns of the trades and hardcovers in the overall market. They represent a small fraction of the copies sold and those sold in the larger book trade are not going to be helped or hindered by fan reactions to the individual issues in the direct market. A single Amazon review will have more influence on the sales of the trades in the larger book market than all the buzz about the comics themselves on comic fans sites and internet message boards overall combined because a) the review is where the customer purchases the book and will either inspire or hinder impulse purchases, and 2) customers in the mass audience rarely if ever visit comics fan sites and messageboards for the reaction there to have any influence on sales patterns in the larger market. The direct market and the larger book market are apples and oranges, they serve different customer bases and what happens in one has no relation to what is happening in the other. Whether a trade sells well in a comic shop or not means absolutely jack to how it will do in the larger book trade. -M
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2017 18:14:18 GMT -5
The trend in London comic-book shops with the graphic novels is kinda strange. In Forbidden Planet the first 2 Conan Omnibus editions have sold out - the third seems to be doing well. The SSOC graphic novels have also sold well, they can only manage to re-stock 3 volumes (SSOC 12, 20 and 21). The Chronicles of Conan, King Conan reprints and the DH Conan the Barbarian and Avenger volumes have been on the shelves for awhile, eventually they get damaged and end up selling for a fraction of the price. The pattern appears to be the same in the other comic-book shops in Central London. SSOC and Conan Omnibus volumes are good value for money and sell. The reprints of the color Marvel Conan comics and the DH volumes starting from the Brian Wood run (the first volume did sell eventually) through to the Avenger series just do not sell. Sales in the direct market, i.e. comic shops are not going to vary from the sales patterns of the individual issues because it is the same customer base feeding on the same sources of information and fan buzz. They are irrelevant to the overall sales patterns of the trades and hardcovers in the overall market. They represent a small fraction of the copies sold and those sold in the larger book trade are not going to be helped or hindered by fan reactions to the individual issues in the direct market. A single Amazon review will have more influence on the sales of the trades in the larger book market than all the buzz about the comics themselves on comic fans sites and internet message boards overall combined because a) the review is where the customer purchases the book and will either inspire or hinder impulse purchases, and 2) customers in the mass audience rarely if ever visit comics fan sites and messageboards for the reaction there to have any influence on sales patterns in the larger market. The direct market and the larger book market are apples and oranges, they serve different customer bases and what happens in one has no relation to what is happening in the other. Whether a trade sells well in a comic shop or not means absolutely jack to how it will do in the larger book trade. -M I did not try to establish a link between the sales in the direct market (comic shops) and sales in the overall market. Just a few observations about how the Conan Graphic novels have been selling (or sometimes not selling) at the local comic-book shops over the last five years or so, in the London area.
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Post by lordyam on Sept 12, 2017 21:19:06 GMT -5
I think they're doing these in 18-24 issue clips. Volume 3 takes us through Black Colossus, so the next Omnibus would likely have the 2nd half of Cimmerian and Roy's mini(s). Wood's run could have a volume all to itself, then Avenger & Slayer would make up the final(?) Omnibus 1 was Issues 0,8,15,23,32,45,46, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14. Basically everything up from Conan's birth to his first clash with Thoth: 21 issues total Omnibus 2 was Issues 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, and 44: 20 issues: Conan's trip to Zamora to him leaving Corinthia. Honestly Omnibus 3: 47-50; 1-13; 17 issues; Yaralet to black colossus
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