by Xavier Lancel The Beat rendez-vous at Angouleme FIBD (January 25-28th) The Beat will be at full throttle during the festival, proposing to you several encounters: – The whole duration of the festival, come to the SCARCE magazine booth (in the alternative area, next to the LGBT-BD Booth at F39) and meet sarcastic Xavier Lancel […]
Marvel Month-to-Month Sales Oct. 2017: “To Sell Or Not To Sell To Customers”
Xavier’s on fire this month, so just read it.
Month-to-Month Marvel Sales Aug-Sept 2017: A Generation of Venoms and Viruses
by Xavier Lancel [Editor’s note: we’ve fallen a bit behind with the sales charts but will be catchin up in the next few weeks for this crucial period for comics sales. Hang in there!] Welcome to a new analysis of the Marvel sales. Reminder: I’m French, that’s why I’m talking funny. Please address your complaints […]
Marvel Month-to-Month Sales July 2017: Another Nail in the Coffin
by Xavier Lancel Welcome to a new analysis of the Marvel sales. Reminder: I’m French, that’s why I’m talking funny. Please address your complaints to my “come on, that Valerian movie wasn’t that bad” country. For any information about the French magazine on US comics I’m editing, please send me a message using my e-mail […]
Marvel Month-to-Month Sales June 2017: Meet Me Just Under The Guillotine
Between the angry fanboys, complaining about those women and minority characters usurpating “their” heroes names, and people fed up with Marvel repetitive use of commercial trends promising once again the creation of a black hole, it seems that nobody is pleased anymore by what Marvel is currently offering.
Marvel Month-to-Month Sales May 2016: To Be Able To Count Past Issue 12 Or Not? That’s The Question.
by Xavier Lancel Welcome to a new analysis of the Marvel sales. Reminder: I’m French, that’s why I’m talking funny. Please adress your complaints to my «it’s-always-weird-for-most-french-people-to-see-that-many-US-flags-when-we-travel-because-we-are-ashamed-of-our-own, mostly-a-symbol-of-racism-and-intolerance» country. First, please excuse me again for the lateness of this column. As it was finished, a leak of the Marvel line-up post Civil War 2 appeared. […]
Four French women cartoonists turn down knighthoods to protest poor treatment
by Xavier Lancel [Editor’s note: our French correspondent Xavier Lancel turned in a more knowledgeable view of the ongoing controversy surrounding Angouleme, but the minute he turned it in, a NEW phase of the controversy arose: four female cartoonists turning down their selection as Knights of Letters. Male winner Riad Sattouf has accepted his but […]
The Beat Annual Creator Survey Part 4: With a special preview or two
And here’s the final part of our annual creator survey. It seems people are really looking forward to Rom if you read all of these. Also, thanks to such a wide ranging cross section of this amazing industry we live and work in for taking to time to share their thoughts with us all. Save […]
Marvel Month-to-Month Sales – July 2015: A Cavalcade of Mini-Wars!
by Xavier Lancel Welcome to a new analysis of the Marvel sales. Reminder: I’m French, and that’s why I’m talking funny. Please address your complaints to my French-people-are-never-happy country. Reminder: the sales data referenced below is an estimate of sales to comics shops located in North America. American comics do get sold elsewhere in their original floppy […]
Marvel Month-to-Month Sales–June 2015: Too Much Choice On The Menu!
by Xavier Lancel
Welcome to a new analysis of the Marvel sales. Reminder: I’m French, that’s why I’m talking funny. Please address your complaints to my over-drugged cyclists country.
Reminder: those sales are estimates, sales to comics shops located in North America. American comics do get sold somewhere else in their original floppy edition. Keep also in mind that just because a copy is sold to a shop doesn’t mean it’s sold to a customer. This would be way too easy. Digital sales are not taken into account.
This month, a horde of mini-series (or ongoing, who knows, Marvel hasn’t been very clear on that) is invading the Marvel chart. Only one thing is sure: everything will be relaunched (or should I say renumbered) past Secret Wars (SW). The Last Days banner, supposed to frighten customers (“Oh, look, that’s his last adventure in the old MU! “), is working like a charm for titles who were struggling to stay alive.
As always, tons of Star Wars franchise comics are sold, reordered, repackaged. The $5 price tag is less predominant this month but the test worked: customers are ready to pay $5 for, not caviar in a nice box, but paté wrapped in journal paper: you’ll have to do your own cover, cut the ads and add the still missing 2 pages that were lost “to keep the prices low “…