Yesterday, Big Bang Comics in Dublin, Ireland had a truly epic tweet thread about the state of the comics market in 2017. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but if you don’t have that kind of time on your hands, here are the annotated highlights:
- As with almost every other retailer who’s been talking about the market, their Marvel sales are way down. How down? They don’t have the same POS software as US stores do, so they don’t have an exact percentage, but it’s pretty significant.
- When Marvel sales are down like this, they feel it causes some Marvel fans to come into the store less often, which in turn lowers sales on comics from other publisher that might be seen if those fans were shopping more regularly, so the sales problem trickles down and spills over.
- Some of the newer writers at Marvel are starting to get a little traction, particularly Donny Cates.
- Big Bang, like most other retailers they’ve talked to, think Marvel has to have a proper relaunch if they’re going to regain consumer confidence.
- Big Bang is another store seeing Image titles having good sales on first issues and then sales dropping off quickly. Big Bang, however, is seeing people come back for the tpbs, so perhaps those first issues are effectively samplers in this store? (Not all stores report people coming back for the tpbs as actively.)
- There’s a problem with smaller publisher not getting issues out on a regular schedule and that’s hurting sales on some titles.
- DC was their big mover for single issues and they sell a LOT of Batman.
- Their single issue sales were down 7% for the year.
And the quote of thread:
This is not an endorsement of the current Direct Market and its… weird quirks.
I strongly believe that retailers and publishers and Diamond can sit down and work out something better and fairer for everyone.
A lot of what they’re saying is consistent with what other retailers have been saying about 2017 sales, so we definitely are seeing some trends here.
And now the Epic Twitter Thread
Hello, Internet! My name is Bruno and tonight (or today depending where you are) we’ll be talking about our store’s top selling single issues of 2017!
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
First, let me stress this out: These are the top sellers in OUR STORE. In DUBLIN, IRELAND! Yes, they might reflect some bigger market tendencies but this is what works (and doesn’t) for us.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Your local store might see completely different results. Books that move crazy here might have no traction in, I dunno, Corpus Christi, Texas
(which is a random example but man the name is just so cool)— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
(what are people from Corpus Christi called anyway?)
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Anyway, we’ll be talking about single issues today. John already did a breakdown of our Graphic Novel sales last week. If you missed it, you can find it here!https://t.co/z4RQHtXkLh
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
We’ll put up the top 10 per Month (so top 10 for January, February, etc), with a picture of the top selling comic. Afterwards we’ll talk about THE top selling comic (or comics?) for the year and about more stuff and question and all that jazz.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Now, we here in this side of the Atlantic don’t have any fancy point of sale software that collates this for us. It has to be done manually via excel.
Some of these numbers might be wrong because I screwed up somewhere so there’s that.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
We are also only tallying up first week sell-through. Meaning, the comics that actually sold to customers/went into pre-orders in the first week of release.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
If a comic had cover price variants, they are counted as one comic for this list’s purposes.
E.g. MR MIRACLE #1 CVR A and MR MIRACLE #1 CVR B count as one comic.
Higher than cover price variants do not count for these.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
DOOMSDAY CLOCK #1 was €4.99 with a lenticular variant for €5.99. I’ve amalgamated those into one entry due to the sheer (stupid) amount of people buying both covers).
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
No reprints are included in these counts. We will touch on those briefly after the results for a clarification but DOOMSDAY CLOCK #1 2ND PTG was not amalgamated into DOOMSDAY CLOCK #1, for example.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
So let’s kick this and hope it doesn’t take too long because life is fleeting, y’all.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
JANUARY 2017:
1-BATMAN #14
2-BATMAN #15
3-ALL STAR BATMAN #6
4-CLONE CONSPIRACY #4
5-FLASH #14
6-AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #23 CC
7-JUSTICE LEAGUE POWER RANGERS #1
8-FLASH #15
9-JUSTICE LEAGUE #12 (JL SS)
10-JUSTICE LEAGUE #13 (JL SS) pic.twitter.com/lD7Svwonnd— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
FEBRUARY 2017:
1-BATMAN #16
2-BATMAN #17
3-ALL STAR BATMAN #7
4-CLONE CONSPIRACY #5
5-AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #24 CC
6-FLASH #17
7-FLASH #16
8-JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1
9-STAR WARS #28
10-SUPERMAN #16 pic.twitter.com/gLeOzapQcV— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
MARCH 2017:
1-BATMAN #18
2-BATMAN #19
3-ALL STAR BATMAN #8
4-2000 AD 40TH ANNIVERSARY 2ND PRINT BB VARIANT
5-DARK KNIGHT III MASTER RACE #8
6-CLONE CONSPIRACY OMEGA
7-AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #25
8-INJECTION #11
9-FLASH #19
10-FLASH #18 pic.twitter.com/fmqQfwTwrQ— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
APRIL 2017:
1-BATMAN #21 (BUTTON)
2-FLASH #21 (BUTTON)
3-BATMAN #20
4-ALL STAR BATMAN #9
5-AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #26
6-INJECTION #12
7-FLASH #20
8-SUPERMAN #20
9-SUPERMAN #21
10-STAR WARS #30 pic.twitter.com/zciRLxhFvt— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
MAY 2017:
1-BATMAN #22 (BUTTON)
2-BATMAN #23
3-ALL STAR BATMAN #10
4-FLASH #22 (BUTTON)
5-AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #27
6-FLASH #23
7-SUPERMAN #22
8-SUPERMAN #23
9-STAR WARS #31
10-PAPER GIRLS #14 pic.twitter.com/yeYofzSKQj— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
JUNE 2017:
1-BATMAN #24
2-BATMAN #25
3-DARK DAYS THE FORGE #1
4-DARK KNIGHT III MASTER RACE #9
5-ALL STAR BATMAN #11
6-INJECTION #13
7-AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #28
8-AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #29 SE
9-FLASH #25
10-FLASH #24 pic.twitter.com/ggPYfJaNOc— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
(look, this is a whole lot of Batman, just get used to it)
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
JULY 2017:
1-BATMAN #26
2-BATMAN #27
3-ALL STAR BATMAN #12
4-DARK DAYS THE CASTING #1
5-AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #30 SE
6-FLASH #26
7-FLASH #27
8-SUPERMAN #27
9-SUPERMAN #26
10-STAR WARS #33 pic.twitter.com/qPFXEtqOQg— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
AUGUST 2017:
1-DARK NIGHTS METAL #1
2-BATMAN #28
3-BATMAN #29
4-ALL STAR BATMAN #13
5-INJECTION #14
6-MISTER MIRACLE #1
7-AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #31 SE
8-REDLANDS #1
9-FLASH #28
10-FLASH #29 pic.twitter.com/NIaBlWlXkv— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
SEPTEMBER 2017:
1-BATMAN #31
2-BATMAN #30
3-DARK NIGHTS METAL #2
4-HALF PAST DANGER II DEAD TO REICHS #1
5-BATMAN THE RED DEATH #1 (METAL)
6-BATMAN THE MURDER MACHINE #1 (METAL)
7-MISTER MIRACLE #2
8-MARVEL LEGACY #1
9-NIGHTWING #29 (METAL)
10-REDLANDS #2 pic.twitter.com/OWix5YUzr3— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
OCTOBER 2017:
1-BATMAN WHITE KNIGHT #1
2-BATMAN #32
3-BATMAN #33
4-DARK NIGHTS METAL #3
5-ALL STAR BATMAN #14
6-BATMAN THE DAWNBREAKER #1 (METAL)
7-BATMAN THE DROWNED #1 (METAL)
8-FLASH #33 (METAL)
9-BATMAN THE MERCILESS #1 (METAL)
10-MISTER MIRACLE #3 pic.twitter.com/Gu5nDki9jt— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
NOVEMBER 2017:
1-DOOMSDAY CLOCK #1
2-BATMAN #35
3-BATMAN WHITE KNIGHT #2
4-BATMAN ANNUAL #2
5-BATMAN #34
6-BATMAN WHO LAUGHS #1 (METAL)
7-BATMAN LOST #1 (METAL)
8-BATMAN THE DEVASTATOR #1 (METAL)
9-MISTER MIRACLE #3
10-VOID TRIP #1 WHITE NOISE VARIANT pic.twitter.com/xwo3dWD0Ay— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
DECEMBER 2017:
1-BATMAN #37
2-DARK NIGHTS METAL #4
3-BATMAN #36
4-DOOMSDAY CLOCK #2
5-BATMAN WHITE KNIGHT #3
6-MISTER MIRACLE #4
7-AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #792 LEG
8-AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #793 LEG
9-PARADISO #1 WHITE NOISE VARIANT
10-FLASH #37 pic.twitter.com/YrZC2eW2WV— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Moral of the story, our customers LOVE BATMAN!
(again, your local comic bookstore might have a different experience and they actually prefer Spawn there. These things happen)— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
It’s fun to see the outliers and what happened to make them come out where they did in the top.
JUSTICE LEAGUE POWER RANGERS #1 charted at 7 in January because we had the artist in store for a signing, for example.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
In March, our Jock variant for the 2000AD 40TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL sold like crazy both in store and online, so there it is at the #4 position.
First time something like this ever happened with 2000AD but customers reacted REALLY positively to the variant.— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
FLASH #21 (THE BUTTON) was #2 in April but only #4 in May for #22.
Why, less interest?
Nope, by the time we tried to get more advance reorders, there were simply none to be had.
If we had gotten our way, #22 would be up there, but we couldn’t get the stock that week!— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Interesting to see how DARK DAYS FORGE and DARK DAYS CASTING hovered around the top 3 in their months, but DARK NIGHTS METAL shot straight to #1.
People were thirsty for METAL already, but those prequels didn’t have as much recognition.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
(again, this is only for first week sales. As people realised these were important books we quickly sold out in the following weeks)
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Also in August, REDLANDS #1 charted high for us (at #8) one of the few Image debuts to make a proper splash for us.
No doubt the fact that everyone here loves Jordie and were waiting to see what she’d do next helped!— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Literally, at times the difference between a book at #10 and a book at #15 in the top was like, 3 copies.
The FLASH is a phenomenal, consistent seller for us. https://t.co/v0oFhUvoSl— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Also in August, I think I mentioned here how amazing it was that MISTER MIRACLE outsold AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.
Well, ASM is consistently our top Marvel book and MM beat it in the top every single month afterward!What a world we live in!#KingGerads
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
In September HALF PAST DANGER II DEAD TO REICHS #1 charted in #4 (ahead of the Metal one-shots!) and some of you might be going what? We had a signing here in store for that and turns out people here really like Mooney for whatever reason?
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Also in September, our only Marvel book that wasn’t Dan Slott or Star Wars charted at #8 with MARVEL LEGACY #1.
We did not have a good Marvel year, but we’ll talk about that later.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
(dunno if you noticed, but none of the issues of this year’s Marvel big event SECRET EMPIRE even broke the monthly Top 10s)
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
In October, a different Batman book took the #1 spot. People here were hankering for some Sean Murphy Batman and by Jove, they bought it by the handful.
BATMAN WHITE KNIGHT #1 was one of the top sellers of the year, easily!
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
In November, DOOMSDAY CLOCK #1 came in like a wrecking ball.
We had a midnight opening and like 40/50 people turned up on a cold, rainy night and almost everyone bought multiple covers.
We knew then this was going to be a winner
(we suspected it would be, but you never know!)— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Also in November, I swear to god that if we could have gotten more copies of BATMAN ANNUAL #2 we would have handsold it to everyone coming in that door and make it outsell even DOOMSDAY CLOCK #1
You’ve read it, yeah?
If not, GO GET IT!
(we have a 2nd Ptg in, just saying)— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
In November/December we saw the White Noise Variants for VOID TRIP #1 and PARADISO #1 do really well for us.
it’s rare we do single issue variants these days but sometimes you just see some special books you want to support and this was definitely the case!— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Numbers for December are always weird as a lot of people aren’t coming in until AFTER Christmas for r€a$ons. But the difference between #2 and #5 in December was less than 10 copies. Really close numbers for METAL/BATMAN/DOOMSDAY CLOCK/WHITE KNIGHT!
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Couple minutes break now to go set up a cuppa.
When we’re back, what was the highest selling comic of the year… and what would it have been if we accounted for reprints?— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
So the number 1 seller for us in 2017 was..
*drumroll.wav*
DOOMSDAY CLOCK #1!Man, the sheer amount of units this moved in the first week was insane! pic.twitter.com/RJfFE3aShY
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
But if we accounted for new printings and reorders, there is one comic that outsold even DOOMSDAY CLOCK in 2017
And that is BATMAN WHITE KNIGHT #1! pic.twitter.com/SnnWz8mVoY
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
We went in BIG on this and turns out, we were totally right. As the weeks went by and more people heard about Sean’s Batman book, people would be coming in going DO YOU HAVE THIS IN STOCK EVERYONE ELSE IS SOLD OUT! and we’d be like chill fam, we have it.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
So as you might imagine, DC pretty much owed the year for us. But let’s make that more visual, shall we?
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Let’s first of all compare sales to 2016.
Colour code:
DC – Blue
Marvel – Red
Others – Yellow pic.twitter.com/kd4ieWZI5Z— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
(again, sorry for the Excelness of it all, no one ever taught me to do fancy graphics alright)
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Look at how 2016 shifted when Rebirth started.
See why we kept saying Rebirth was awesome?It’s because it freaking was.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Now 2017:
Colour code:
DC – Blue
Marvel – Red
Others – Yellow pic.twitter.com/Sn2VvJ7A7s— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
It’s… it’s a whole lot of DC, innit?
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Let’s break this down.
Out of 120 titles (Top 10 per month for 12 months), in 2016:
DC – 61
MARVEL – 49
IMAGE – 10Out of 120 titles, in 2017:
DC – 90
Marvel – 19
Image – 9
2000 AD – 1
IDW – 1— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Marvel went from having 40% of our Top 120 to *15%* in the space of an year.
I wish I had time to look at the other titles that make up the mid/lower sellers, but like I said before, this is all kept track of by hand and I don’t get paid enough for the eye strain
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
I *suspect* that Marvel’s single issues decline in our store would be even more pronounced if we looked down enough on the list.
And I see you guys retweeting all of this and going YEAH, DC RULES but no, this is not a good thing.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Let me go off internet-of-comics script here and say that as bad as the Direct Market is, it’s the best thing we have to work with RIGHT NOW.
Is it perfect? Tarnations no it isn’t!
But it’s the basis that we have now so we can build something better in the future.— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Comic book stores are vital to promote all kinds of comics, to raise awareness of new creators, to get new people into comics.
And yes, I know that you might know of a store that sucks and does nothing of the sort, but think of the other ones that DO do their best here.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
(yes, I am aware of how this sounds after I presented the BIG BANG COMICS TOP SALES FEATURING BATMAN)
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
What you didn’t see in those Top 10s are all the other comics that we might sell 3, 5, 10, 20 copies of but we keep up awareness for them and then end up doing extremely well when the collections come out.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Even big books don’t make it to our top 10. We do really well with SAGA and WICKED + THE DIVINE, for example, (they outsell pretty much anything Marvel that is not ASM or Star Wars) and THEN we sell a ton of their collections!
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
But books like that benefited from a healthier market when they first came out. And that isn’t happening now.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
The decline of Marvel sales in our store is bad.
Theoretically that would mean there’s more money to around for an indie comic, right?
Wrong.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
What we’ve seen time and time again is that customers either shift their money to:
A) More DC books
B) Trades down the line
C) Stop coming in altogether— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
The majority of times they at least stop coming into the store as often.
And that means that when that cool new Boom or Black Mask comic is out, there are less people around to see it, let alone buy it.— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
This is why need the Big 2 to be firing on all cylinders.
Because excited customers spend more money on ALL COMICS!
(trust me, I’ve done the math here in store)— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
This is not an endorsement of the current Direct Market and its… weird quirks.
I strongly believe that retailers and publishers and Diamond can sit down and work out something better and fairer for everyone.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
But right now, this is what we have. And what we have here in store is an underperforming Marvel bringing down everyone else.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
We’re starting to see a tiny bit more enthusiasm for Marvel in the last month. Guys like Matthew Rosenberg, Ed Brisson and Donny Cates are starting to get people back.
They are new and exciting (and damn good)!— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
We hope Marvel are smart enough to keep betting on new talent as it is sorely needed.
We’re definitely keeping our eyes on certain creators and raising our orders cautiously.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Will that solve Marvel’s issues? God no. I wish the best of luck to CB on this, it’s going to be a hard one.
There is ONE thing our customers keep asking about Marvel…
“When are they doing their Rebirth?”— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
In the end, it might be ironic that what sets Marvel in the right direction going forward is the one thing people kept complaining about them for years.
A relaunch— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
And that’s Marvel for us in 2017. It hit some loooows but we live in hope that it will improve and will do our best here in store to push the best creators they have!
(just don’t ask us to buy more variant covers, Marvel, we’re good)
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Honestly, we’ve talked to so many retailers and no one can see anything they do that isn’t a line wide relaunch going anywhere! https://t.co/kJrDiR3eET
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Maybe. Even the fact that $3.50 books are all pretty much gone by now (raised to $3.99 most of them) makes a difference.
At the end of the day, money is still the number one thing! https://t.co/EhvUfQa1LK— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Part of it, yeah.
A lot of hardcore fans just tapered off in the last couple of years.We certainly lost loads of customers that were down for 30 or 40 marvel titles and pretty much nothing else. https://t.co/JBpIhh59TG
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Funny fact about 2000 AD, we are actually up 5% this year on 2016.
Better sell through in the first week than the previous year, less people waiting weeks to come in! https://t.co/QUkIwJJRrN
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
What about other publishers that aren’t DC or Marvel?
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Image! Image has had a weird year for us
They have been putting out lots of new series with amazingly talented new creators, but the public ain’t biting.— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
The SAGAs and WALKING DEADs of before still keep selling big numbers in singles, but except for a few exceptions, the new series quickly go down after #1.
BUT it seems like a lot of customers that do buy #1s of the new Image comics are treating them as pilots.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
So we sell reasonably well of Image #1s, it then goes doooown but people come back for the collections.
It’s an interesting trend to keep an eye on and see where this goes.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Other things that customers have said is that a) there are too many new Image comics to keep track of and so they feel less special and b) where are all the big creators?
Let’s see if next month’s Image Expo will shed more light on this!
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Dark Horse and IDW keep doing their thing. Dark Horse had a pleasant surprise with Gaiman’s American Gods, but they’re all regular consistent publishers, not many highs there (or lows!)
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Boom is a publisher that does ok’ish with us in singles but much better in collections. Catering to a different audience, awesome, we need that!
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Vault and Black Mask suffer from the same problem. We and our customers are hyped for their new stuff, #1 does great, then… #2 comes out #4 months afterward, maybe? https://t.co/DypX3bUJxS
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
They are such great publishers but their scheduling issues are hurting them with our customers. It’s hard to keep awareness up for a series if it doesn’t come out!
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Low numbers on singles except stuff here and there (mostly what involves local creators), alright numbers on some series as collections.
So many of the licensed stuff just doesn’t move for us, we’re not that kind of shop. https://t.co/IyT0zbBMxy— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Valiant worked with us to give away copies of X-O MANOWAR #1 to our customers.
Funnily enough, that didn’t raise orders on X-O singles BUT all the new series from them that came out after the giveaway saw good bumps and we are finally breaking the Valiant ceiling here!
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
One of the things that we don’t get much traction here with our first-week customers are lower priced items.
So for example we don’t move many of Alterna’s comics at $1.50 to our regular customers in the first week but…
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
They’re a steady seller from back issue shelves.
Lower than normal priced comics are really popular with kids, for example, that only have a certain amount of pocket money.I reckon these work in shops that see a lot of kids around (like us) but they’re not for everyone.
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Digital will always be a factor, but how much of a factor? We don’t know as there are no actual numbers.
But if anything, it will impact single issues more than collections, and that will be a trend going forward. https://t.co/N18UR1NWYR
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
(god I’m tired of typing)
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
You know, despite all the doom and gloom, our single issue sales were only down 7% last year.
Yes, it’s the first time they’re down since we opened in 2011 but they’re not hecatombly down.
(is hecatombly a word?)
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
(our sales certainly aren’t down by 100 oxen)
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
But when we said earlier in the year “thank god for DC otherwise we wouldn’t know where comic shops would be” this is what we meant. If DC didn’t go as it as hard as they did this year, where would we be?
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
There’s always a risk that DC will rest on their laurels and stop pushing themselves as hard.
But… we’ve talked to these guys. Publishers, creators, editors, and they are all stoked!It is going to be very hard to steal DC’s crown but dammit, we want to see you trying it!
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Any more questions before we wrap this up?
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
( I just realised most people are still like 300 tweets behind this one)
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
These days? Donny Cates. That guy is so hot right now. https://t.co/8rr5ZuqZsM
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
We kid, we kid!
(no, but seriously, get Donny Cates writing more books, Marvel)
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
The most basic thing (yes, besides spending money) is to let your shop know what you are excited for coming out.
Pre-orders are awesome but even asking about a title’s release date shows that there’s interest! https://t.co/GeFTsG5Z8T
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
That means we have better awareness of what customers are/might be interested in and that’s so valuable when it comes to order dem’ comics!
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Batman.
(but seriously, I’m not allowed to reply to a Giant Days question, that is JP’s baby) https://t.co/TgWfUYl6Wd
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Absolutely!
Doesn’t work for everyone, of course, but we’ve built such a rapport with our customers that they trust us.Also, we only recommend items we think a customer would genuinely enjoy based on our knowledge of them and their likes.
We don’t mess around with YOUR money. https://t.co/AnGEt5lGRC
— Big Bang Comics (@TheBigBang_) January 15, 2018
Want to learn more about how comics publishing and digital comics work? Try Todd’s book, Economics of Digital Comics
Usually the “Top 10 of each month” doesn’t *actually* map correctly to the “top 120 of the year”, unless BBC has an unusually flat sales curve. I also find that, historically, the “best selling” comics selling each week can have amazingly significant sales after week 1. On a BATMAN, we might see 20%-ish more copies sold over the next six months, but on something like DOOMSDAY CLOCK its entirely possible for it to be 250% or more.
Doing ordering/sales tracking by hand… whoof, I can’t even *imagine* running a store like that any longer. Far FAR too many SKUs, too many man-hours tracking stuff that isn’t directly profitable. As far as I am aware there’s no reason they can’t purchase a copy of MOBY or ComicsHUB (dunno about ComicsSuite) ? Seriously, we gained back 10+ hours of labor each week, super super conservatively. I’d make that 2018’s top plan, if they’re listening to advice from outside (they don’t need to)
Marvel had their chance to do a reboot after SECRET WARS. I’m not convinced that that would be anything but a short-term band-aid. They mostly need to address over-production and over-priced comics with thin content first, IMO.
-B
As a prospective reader of any new Marvel series (I try quite a bit, and consider even more), I’m most scared off by high entry cost ($4.99 first issues and tendency to go twice monthly at $3.99). On the monthly cycle, I just don’t get an extra $2 of enjoyment from their biweekly series compared to one from DC. And after getting wrapped up in Secret Wars and all the tie in series, I thought the convenience of “8 months later” to completely alter status quo but then not really change much was just weak. Whole series became placeholders between events. I got bored, and DC filled that boredom with compelling (usually cheaper) stories that didn’t get tossed out 3 months later.
As for Image, etc., there is a tendency for new titles to be used as pilots for television or movie scripts. The creators put out one okay arc and call it quits. It’s hard to get excited for another post apocalyptic fantasy series pitch stretched out over a whole year. At least with publishers like BOOM! or AfterShock, there is reasonable belief that a miniseries will have a conclusion or be sold mostly on time.
“Big Bang, like most other retailers they’ve talked to, think Marvel has to have a proper relaunch if they’re going to regain consumer confidence.”
Oh, god, please, not another fucking relaunch.
Heard a retailer say he was making more profit selling Valiant vs. Marvel. Which was ironic because he was actually spending many times more dollars buying and stocking Marvel books – – just not making much money off the Marvels.
partly from the tricks, gimmicks and hoops they’d force the retailer to go thru, to get the few comics (or covers) that would sell.
And he couldn’t stock only Valiant though, as there’s a limit to how many of those are gonna sell, regardless.
Purely from a customer standpoint. As a lapsed reader who started 10 years ago, “graduating” from library trades in high school to weekly runs in college, Marvel Legacy got me excited again for reading Marvel single issues, and I spent probably a month or two back in the habit of visiting my local comic shop to follow my favorite title, and try out new ones.
Marvel’s subscription service is way cheaper than buying the weeklies from my shop. So I’ve basically converted 4 titles that I know I’ll follow, into subscriptions through their service, and occasionally stop by the shop when I can, to pick up my DC titles (not very many, certainly less than 4) and titles I want to try out.
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