Publishers

In May, DC reminded us that the old sales-boosting tricks still work. In June, we're reminded how short-lived those sales increases are. Coming out of the "Night of the Owls" crossover, the Batman line basically dropped right back to its previous levels, and the same applies to other titles participating in other crossovers in May; second, DC cut many of its variant-cover editions in June, with predictable results; third, the six replacement "New 52" titles all show second-issue drops between 20% and 44% in June; finally, a range of "New 52" titles display bigger-than-usual drops for no readily available reason in June, so it seems retailers weren't done yet trying to catch up with actual demand, after all. As a result of all this, DC's numbers were actually slightly down in June, despite the Before Watchmen launch and despite the fact that DC published two more DC Universe (and one more Vertigo) titles than they did in May. The DC Universe imprint's estimated average comic-book unit sales dropped from 39,179 units in May to 37,599, total unit sales from 2.69 million to 2.67 million, and total dollar sales from $9.05 million to $8.98 million. On the up side, though, the numbers are still golden overall, thanks, of course, to the four juggernaut debut issues of the Before Watchmen line, all of which made the Top 10 and cleared between 110,000 and 120,000 units each. Consequently, average DC Universe unit sales were still the 25th highest ever since March 2003, total DC Universe unit sales the 8th highest, and total DC Universe dollar sales the 6th highest. While it seems unlikely that DC will be able to sustain these types of sales levels through the rest of the year, it's well worth mentioning: They're doing very well right now.

More teasers for Marvel NOW! Suggesting Rick Remender and John Romita Jr will be in charge of Captain America, and Si Spurrier and Tan Eng Huat on what may be a new X-Men title.

Mystery of the week: Literary comics mainstay D&Q is suddenly getting into prose with 15-year-old Tavi Gevinson’s ‘Rookie Yearbook One’ , a collection of the popular online magazine for teenage girls? With a company-high 40k first printing? Who? How? Why? All this is shocking enough. But here's the stunning drawing room reveal: it was Chris Ware's idea! What th--? Will Ware's unnamed one-legged protagonist suddenly be modeling Fit-Flops?

Stately Beat Manor approves of David Aja art. Click for larger images. HAWKEYE #2, written by Matt Fraction with art and cover by Aja, goes on sale September 5.

by Paul O'Brien

The AVENGERS VS X-MEN crossover continued to dominate Marvel's schedule in June, but the month also saw another high profile release - the SPIDER-MEN miniseries, in which the original Spider-Man meets the new Ultimate Universe version of the character. The Icon imprint also launches a HIT-GIRL miniseries. And other than that, it's a pretty quiet month for new releases, as often tends to be the case in the height of major crossovers. Despite the sales boost from the summer crossover, it was a very close month in terms of market share in the North American direct market, with DC leading Marvel in unit terms by 38.2% to 37.8%, but Marvel leading in retail share by 33.8% to 33.0%. Effectively a tie, then. DC's performance can be attributed in large part to all four BEFORE WATCHMEN titles landing in the top 10 with estimated sales of over 100K each.

Thor has found a villain and he's the king of the elves! What is this mysterious Avengers spin-off that Disney is kicking around? And what's this about a Prometheus SEQUEL?

With the new surprise in this week's issue of Avengers Vs X-Men now revealed, I offer a look at Black Panther's history, and why Marvel chose to go in this direction with him

Luckily for the world Alan Moore is nearly as productive as he is cantankerous, and he has interesting stuff coming out at regular intervals. UNEARTHING, a biography of Moore's close friend and mentor Steve "No Relation" Moore, was originally published in 2010 as a prose book but Top Shelf is publishing a NEW edition with photos by Mitch Jenkins that have turned it into a narrative art book. A special limited edition goes on sale today.

We're told that today, August 1st, 2012 marks DC Senior Vice President, Sales of DC Comics Bob Wayne's 25th anniversary at DC, that's a pretty astonishingly long run and there aren't too many people who have been at the same place in the industry for longer.

Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu are the creative team for what is probably going to be Marvel's new Incredible Hulk series. Anyone betting we'll see 'Fantastic' appear tomorrow?

I've been handed a preview for Harbinger #3 by Joshua Dysart, Khari Evans and Lewis LaRosa, due out on August 15th. In this chapter, our hero finally lands at the Harbinger Foundation. As I've said before, and probably will be saying for the foreseeable future, this is a comic that does not flinch at embracing the dark side of super powers. It looks like the slow build towards a particularly twisted conflict of moral agendas is picking up a little momentum.

Does the first issue of Matt Fraction and David Aja's new Hawkeye series... sigh.... hit the target?