General Comic News ( Industry / Retail / Artist / etc. )

Courtesy of ICv2

This should give a general idea of how the comics have been doing since it began to now. For the record, these don't count issues bought in the months after the initial release. (I.E. a July issue bought in October)

I would assume that variants are included in sales.

Rankings indicate how well they're doing in comparision to the other titles released that month. So one issue can have a higher ranking than a later month's, but still do worse. For example, the final issue of The Fall of Gilead had a higher sales ranking than the previous one, but still had fewer issues sold.

I'll be editing this post as updates occur.

Sale Estimates

Title | Rank (out of the top 300) | Est. Sales

The Gunslinger Born #1 | 2 | 172,147
The Gunslinger Born #2 | 5 | 136,338
The Gunslinger Born #3 | 4 | 132,481
The Gunslinger Born #4 | 2 | 131,753
The Gunslinger Born #5 | 5 | 132,090
The Gunslinger Born #6 | 5 | 128,336
The Gunslinger Born #7 | 3 | 124,609

Gunslinger's Guidebook | 54 | 48,806

The Long Road Home #1 | 1 | 123,839
The Long Road Home #2 | 3 | 103,008
The Long Road Home #3 | 12 | 87,605
The Long Road Home #4 | 14 | 79,240
The Long Road Home #5 | 15 | 74,965

End-World Almanac | 87 | 29,257

Treachery #1 | 9 | 82,517
Treachery #2 | 21 | 65,724
Treachery #3 | 18 | 58,268
Treachery #4 | 36 | 53,728
Treachery #5 | 22 | 50,668
Treachery #6 | 27 | 48,119

Guide to Gilead | 114 | 21,171

Sorcerer #1 | 50 | 39,207

The Fall of Gilead #1 | 31 | 43,580
The Fall of Gilead #2 | 50 | 39,978
The Fall of Gilead #3 | 57 | 36,982
The Fall of Gilead #4 | 63 | 35,607
The Fall of Gilead #5 | 64 | 34,522
The Fall of Gilead #6 | 57 | 32,531

The Battle of Jericho Hill #1 | 67 | 30,756
The Battle of Jericho Hill #2 | 77 | 28,350
The Battle of Jericho Hill #3 | 65 | 27,215
The Battle of Jericho Hill #4 | 69 | 26,336
The Battle of Jericho Hill #5 | 77 | 25,896

The Gunslinger #1 | 79 | 26,275
The Gunslinger #2 | 82 | 24,024
The Gunslinger #3 | 90 | 22,744
The Gunslinger #4 | 91 | 21,820
The Gunslinger #5 | 93 | 21,323

Very interesting! A REALLY definite drop in volume as the series continues.

John

Good stuff, Cyber. I'll merge this after a bit into the general thread.

The drop-off is scary. That's very significant.

I don't see any of the other one-shots listed, were those not available? ( ie - Gunslingers Guidebook, Guide to Gilead, etc )

What I find interesting is that the decreasing sales were attributed to the break between the first two arcs, which is why they're all coming out rapidly and Jae Lee's taking a breather for the current arc. But the list shows that the first two issues of Long Road Home sold pretty good and didn't peter off until later...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by turtlex

I don't see any of the other one-shots listed, were those not available? ( ie - Gunslingers Guidebook, Guide to Gilead, etc )

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I didn't look for those when I compiled the data but I'll go take a look now.

EDIT: I added them.

Nice. Great info. Thanks, Cyber.

This thread is for all NON-King related Comic News - industry, retail and artist.

Anything really.

Feel free to post stories and discuss same here.

Use spoilers if appropriate.

What an odd upcoming offering from Dark Horse. ~ turtlex

Morgan Spurlock ready to "Supersize" comics

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – "Super Size Me," the Oscar-nominated documentary that took the fast-food diet to extremes, is getting a companion piece in the form of a graphic novel.

The film's director, Morgan Spurlock, and his production company, Warrior Poets, are teaming with Dark Horse Comics for an original graphic novel, "Supersized: Strange Tales From a Fast Food Culture."

Conceived as an adjunct to the 2004 movie -- and aiming, like it, to make a point about health and nutrition -- the book will feature bizarre stories about the United States' obsession with fast food. Spurlock will write the stories, with a mix of established and up-and-coming artists scripting and drawing the book. It's set for publication in the spring.

Spurlock said that after his movie was released, he and Warrior Poets were inundated by calls from people who wanted to share their tales from the fast-food underbelly. Among them: the story of a fat man whose cremation made a mortuary smell like French fries and the man who built in his garage a museum of McDonald's food that never aged.

"As great as they were on paper, I think they'll be better told in a graphic-novel form," Spurlock said. "They're funny, they're gross, and hopefully they'll be informative too."

A clown character called MC Super-Size Me, created during the promotion of the movie, will act as the guide through the stories, in the same way the Crypt Keeper hosted the ghoulish stories in EC Comics' "Tales From the Crypt."

I added Fall of Gilead #2. It's just barely ahead of Sorcerer this time--interesting, given that Sorcerer was a one-shot with no variants...

This is all EXTREMELY helpful! No wonder the 1:75 sketch variants are so hard to come by for these later issues!

John

Thanks again, CG. I appreciate the updates.

John - Exactly, my friend! This explains the scarce variants!

The 2009 Eisner Awards were held Friday evening at Comc-Con International: San Diego. Here is a list of the winners.

2009 Eisner Winners

Best Short Story: "Murder He Wrote," by Ian Boothby, Nina Matsumoto, and Andrew Pepoy, in The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror #14 (Bongo)

Best Continuing Series: All Star Superman. by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (DC)

Best Limited Series: Hellboy: The Crooked Man, by Mike Mignola and Richard Corben (Dark Horse)

Best New Series: Invincible Iron Man, by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca (Marvel)

Best Publication for Kids: Tiny Titans, by Art Baltazar and Franco (DC)

Best Publication for Teens/Tweens: Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, adapted by P. Craig Russell (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Best Humor Publication: Herbie Archives, by "Shane O'Shea" (Richard E. Hughes) and Ogden Whitney (Dark Horse)

Best Anthology: Comic Book Tattoo: Narrative Art Inspired by the Lyrics and Music of Tori Amos, edited by Rantz Hoseley (Image)

Best Webcomic: Finder, by Carla Speed McNeil, www.shadowlinecomics.com/webcomics/#/finder/

Best Reality-Based Work: What It Is, by Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Graphic Album—New: Swallow Me Whole, by Nate Powell (Top Shelf)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint: Hellboy Library Edition, vols. 1 and 2, by Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips: Little Nemo in Slumberland, Many More Splendid Sundays, by Winsor McCay (Sunday Press Books)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books: Creepy Archives, by various (Dark Horse)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material: The Last Musketeer, by Jason (Fantagraphics)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan: Dororo, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)

Best Writer: Bill Willingham, Fables, House of Mystery (Vertigo/DC)

Best Writer/Artist: Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library (Acme)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team: Guy Davis, BPRD (Dark Horse)

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist: Jill Thompson, Magic Trixie, Magic Trixie Sleeps Over (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Best Cover Artist: James Jean, Fables (Vertigo/DC); The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse)

Best Coloring: Dave Stewart, Abe Sapien: The Drowning, BPRD, The Goon, Hellboy, Solomon Kane, The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse); Body Bags (Image); Captain America: White (Marvel)

Best Lettering: Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #19 (Acme)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism: Comic Book Resources, produced by Jonah Weiland (www.comicbookresources.com)

Best Comics-Related Book: Kirby: King of Comics, by Mark Evanier (Abrams)

Best Publication Design: Hellboy Library Editions, designed by Cary Grazzini and Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)

Hall of Fame:
Judges' choices: Harold Gray, Graham Ingels;
Voters' choices: Matt Baker, Reed Crandall, Russ Heath, Jerry Iger

I'm REALLY surprised All Star Superman won. I tried to read it and found the story very lacking.

McFarlane Back for Spawn # 200

"It's issue #200, a big anniversary book, so I thought I'd come in there," McFarlane told CBR News of his return to "Spawn's" pencil-based interiors. "I've got some ideas for the story where I might have some pages done by guest artists for some flashback sequences. I'd do the A-story, and then within the confines of that there would be three or four little B-snippet flashbacks. So it'd kind of put together an all-star team, but until I get them to fully commit, I'll hold off on the names."

turtlex comments - This could be intersting... bringing in other artists to work on flashback panels. :orely:

In a posting on his official site, Warren Ellis announced Monday that he is writing a film treatment for a story based on the Arthurian legends. Ellis has yet to determine a title for the project, which is known as “Excalibur” by its producers, Hollywood Gang, who also co-produced Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Frank Miller’s “300” and previously optioned Ellis and Chris Sprouse’s “Ocean.”

This “Excalibur” is not related to Ellis’ work on a Marvel comic book series of the same name.

Archaia Teams with Amazon to Produce OGNs for the Kindle

Meeting the growing demand for more digital content, Archaia announced that it would produce original graphic novels (OGNs) exclusively for the Amazon Kindle, which will include the Kindle’s iPhone and iPod touch apps.

Archaia will initially premiere four OGNs on the Kindle over the next 12 months. The new collaboration kicks off with Tumor, an original story from Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon, the creators of the Harvey Award-nominated Elk’s Run. Tumor, a Los Angeles noir about a private investigator with a terminal brain tumor trying to close one last case before the cancer kills him, will be released as eight individual chapters over the next six months, to then be collected into a hardcover edition. The first chapter of Tumor is available now on the Kindle for free, with subsequent chapters priced at 99 cents.

“TALES OF THE STARLIGHT DRIVE-IN” won the treasured BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE YEAR award in the 2009 Comics Buyer’s Guide Annual Fan Awards!

The book handily beat work by giants like Alan Moore and Brian Azzarello and garnered a whopping 53 percent of the vote.

The sales for Fall of Gilead #3 came in. It's #57 in the rankings, selling 36,982 copies.

In comparision, the Sorcerer one-shot came in at #50 and sold 39,207 copies.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CyberGhostface

The sales for Fall of Gilead #3 came in. It's #57 in the rankings, selling 36,982 copies.

In comparision, the Sorcerer one-shot came in at #50 and sold 39,207 copies.

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Ouch.
Is the new sales for Sorcerer? Or total since release, I wonder?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by turtlex

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CyberGhostface

The sales for Fall of Gilead #3 came in. It's #57 in the rankings, selling 36,982 copies.

In comparision, the Sorcerer one-shot came in at #50 and sold 39,207 copies.

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Ouch.
Is the new sales for Sorcerer? Or total since release, I wonder?

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The numbers for Sorcerer that I mentioned are from when it was first released.

turtlex comments - I will merge this with the General News Thread in a few days, but wondered about your thoughts everyone?!?

Disney to buy comic book powerhouse Marvel for $4B
By RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES – The Walt Disney Co. said Monday it is buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing such characters as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and WALL-E.

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters. Many of them, including the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, were co-created by the comic book legend Stan Lee.

Analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co. said the acquisition will help Disney appeal to young men who have flocked to theaters to see Marvel's superhero fare in recent years. That contrasts with Disney's recent successes among young women with such fare as "Hannah Montana" and the Jonas Brothers.

"It helps Disney add exposure to a young male demographic it had sort of lost some balance with," Joyce said, noting the $4 billion offer was at "full price."

Disney said Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash, plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own. That values each Marvel share at $50 based on Friday's closing stock prices.

Marvel shares jumped $10.17, or 26 percent, to $48.82 shortly after the market opened. Disney shares fell 47 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $26.37.

Disney said the boards of both companies have approved the transaction, but it will require an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.

Disney last made a big purchase in 2006 when it acquired Pixar Animation Studios Inc., the creator of the "Toy Story" franchise, for $7.4 billion in stock.

Disney CEO Robert Iger said the latest acquisition combines Marvel's "strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters" with Disney's "unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties" and ability to maximize value across multiple platforms and territories.

Marvel earned a net profit of $206 million last fiscal year, up 47 percent from a year earlier, on revenue of $676 million, as it took movie production in house instead of just cutting licensing deals.

....and, that's the death of Marvel.

Seriously, has Disney touched anything in the last several years and not fucked it up completely?

Seeing Marvel, Jonas Brothers, and Hannah Montana in the same body of writing is making my stomach turn. I hope this falls through, horribly.

Well, there goes the future.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daghain

....and, that's the death of Marvel.

Seriously, has Disney touched anything in the last several years and not fucked it up completely?

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Pixar?

This doesn't have to be a bad thing.

And it will make future trips to Disney a lot cooler. Wouldn't it be great if they made a whole theme park around Marvel superheroes? :excited: