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I tried to give this book a try, but the art gave me a headache. I like the style, I like the attempt at experimental layouts, but I just can’t look at it without cringing. Maybe it’s the coloring. I dunno. It’s like a sadist JH Williams.

And of course: the series is now cancelled, as part of DC’s “Rebirth” event.

Too bad! But it’s been reincarnated once since Wildstorm! Maybe Vertigo next? Orlando ‘ s accurate narrative portrayal and ACO’S edged lines and panel split action stretches are a sight to behold! The grit in the emotional structure of this series has been what held me.

[…] The Beat’s Alexander Lu calls Midnighter “DC’s Answer to Ms. Marvel.” “He is the post-modern gay superhero we deserve—someone who isn’t isolated from the struggles … […]

Sad news! I followed the book, and was GLAD that Kory had had some happiness in her life! What DC needs to do is return to the classic design of Kory, massive auburn curls, and solid green eyes – and re-establish her with the classic New Teen Titans!

In their own super-group, of course….

Can I campaign for a Jimmy Olsen series by Palmiotti/Conner?

Arf, what a letdown. Super french talent Elsa Charretier just became its new penciller. Well, now DC has an opportunity to give the Legion to her!

[…] Palmiotti and Conner recently discussed DC’s decision to cancel this story, and apparently they had only been hired to take on these 12 issues. They are just ending things where they were always supposed to. This will still give us a full 12 issue run of Starfire by this brilliant team, to which they have just added the great penciller Elsa Charretier. I was so excited to see what this team would do with such a beautiful and talented character. This title is ending just as a reported big re-launch is supposed to take place in the DC comic universe. There is little information as to the nature of this “rebirth” but who’s to say that won’t include another Starfire solo book, or at least her return to the Teen Titans. I’m curious to see what DC has planed for our Tamareanian princess in the future. Would you want to see Starfire in a book of her own or team up with the Titans once again? What do you think of this decision to cancel a fairly successful book with a strong female lead character? […]

I Want The Present Starfire Comic Series To Continue With All The Same Characters.

Really? Starfire is one of the very few titles from DC in my store that is almost stable and actually sells. The incompetence at DC continues to astound!

For the first time since the Silver Age (when there were still many more mainstream publishers) DC & Marvel could go bust as comic publishers and the comic industry would do just fine. Graphic novels, alternative comics and the internet would continue to deliver the goods

For the first time since the Silver Age (when there were still many other mainstream publishers doing well) DC & Marvel could go bust as comic publishers and the industry would survive just fine.

With graphic novels, alternative publishers, the Image Comics partnership model and the internet there is no doubt comics would continue as entertainment and as an art form.

Is there an echo in here. If you so choose delete the first comment.

That industry would be hard to recognize. Most comics shops are operating on slim margins, and losing the weekly churn of spandex floppies would be fatal. Big cities and college towns might each have a single bookstore-style shop that could stay afloat, and maybe megacities would have a few, but that’s it. It’s conceivable that Diamond could downsize enough to keep at it, but doubtful, so any survivors would need to use book-trade distributors (whose returnability terms are not small-press-friendly).

That leaves digital delivery for single issues, and online-ordering for paperbacks. Amazon would control the lion’s share of this business, at both the distributor and retail levels (the same thing, for them). Digital delivery is growing, but it’s still a niche. The disappearance of paper monthlies would push some of that business to digital, but it would push a lot of paper-lovers to trade-waiting. However, Image creators often depend on those monthly sales to pay the rent, because it can take years after starting a project for income from paperback sales to reach them.

So, yes: there would still be an industry, and certainly an art form. But we’d lose more than just Marvel and DC if they imploded.

I tend to think the artform and industry would be in a much healthier place right now if Marvel and DC shut down in the late 70s.

Imagine the work the “class of 84” could have done if they weren’t tethered to mainstream superheroes.

84? 86?
You know what I mean.

My question:

A Multiversity Universe

Or

A Convergence Universe?

“After the DCYou proved to be a bust…” Yeah because they stuck awful creative teams on all the books, talked down to their viewership, infantilized the female characters, generally had mediocre to awful characterization and writing, and generally ignored what their readers actually wanted DC to do, which was create quality storylines with decent characterization for their established characters.

As long as DC keeps prioritizing short-term readers over creating long-term readers and keeping their existent fanbase, we’re going to keep seeing these gimmicks of the year and the majority of the reader base unhappy with the way DC is handling their books.

I wouldn’t mind going back to pre New 52 continuity, especially since they still can’t seem to keep current continuity straight anymore, but it seems like that would be a bad financial decision too, wouldn’t it? Throwing away all the money and energy spent trying to establish this new continuity? We’ll see I guess, but it’s been awhile since Didio and Lee made a decent decision so I’m not expecting much.

As i recall, GL:Rebirth was 6 issues not 8, And that was the first of 2 Rebirths: Flash: Rebirth brought back Barry Allen. Plus we have no clue if Rebirth Will be an event or more of an umbrella for the relaunch, like New 52 or All-new, all-different Marvel.

Better month than September, worse than last October. But the new release volumes were much, much lower than last October’s — even given the fifth week. Last October was a record month for both orders and the volume of new releases; 1,020 new comics, graphic novels, and magazines. The figure was 743 this time out. Marvel and DC had a third fewer new comics release in the month, while Dynamite, for example, had fewer than half the new comics out this October that it had last October.

So the slates are smaller — and may be punching their weights better. 28% fewer releases, but sales were only off less than 10%. Better than if it were the other way around…

http://blog.comichron.com/2015/11/marvel-sweeps-october-2015-top-10.html

And I looked back at the numbers on market share: Marvel’s is its highest since December 2009, when it posted 44.57%; and DC’s lowest dollar share since March 1998, which was 21.83% — its low water-mark for the Diamond Exclusive Era. Marvel’s high for the era was September 2008, and 45.31%.

With many key titles relaunching, Secret Wars still going on AND Star Wars doing its thing, it’s hardly a surprise Marvel killed it in October, especially with DC running out the status quo. If anything, this type of month will make DC feel like another relaunch is necessary, but I hope they let more than a month guide their way.

I’ll be really interested to see what happens once the relaunch hype wears out and Marvel’s in status quo again. I hope the ANAD books don’t fall off, but I feel like they will in a big way. Time will tell, I suppose.

I neglected to mention the other thing that’s going to start impacting the annual comparatives on the unit sales side — Loot Crate. Last October was the Walking Dead issue, around about the time the numbers on those really started impacting the charts. They don’t inflate things on the dollar side by nearly as much.

In specific response to Heidi’s other question above, the 20% gains were over last month, not last year — and Marvel’s slate wasn’t that much smaller in October than in September. Lower-selling offerings were replaced with higher-selling ones, hence the increase seen there.

DC shipped 10 more books than Marvel? Those numbers must really be soul crushing. If DC were doing 52 books instead of 78…yikes. There goes that whole ‘flooding the market’ argument.

“DC shipped 10 more books than Marvel? Those numbers must really be soul crushing. ”

Count the number of #1s that Marvel released. Though, well, it is kinda soul crushing that releasing tons of #1 books still sell.

More noteworthy… Unless I missed something and Batman didn’t ship in October, all titles in the top 10 sold more than 100k copies, and even some outside the top 10 did.

Congrats to Marvel

Batman #45 shipped 10/14

Oof, and then the sales for Iron Man #2 come in… http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/1/71/977?articleID=170881

[…] A Marvel Comics ficou com quase metade do mercado de quadrinhos dos EUA em outubro – com relançamento da linha e um monte de Star Wars – coisa que não se via há algumas décadas. […]

Just love this book- it’s brilliant and insightful. And Ben’s art is both gorgeous & fresh – as always.

Didn’t DC just spotlight the writer and artist for GL:TLA in their books this week?

GOTHAM ACADEMY TP sales (via ICv2) June, July, August 2015
13 2.51 GOTHAM ACADEMY TP VOL 01 (N52) $14.99 DC 3,561
138 0.83 GOTHAM ACADEMY TP VOL 01 (N52) $14.99 DC 980
178 0.56 GOTHAM ACADEMY TP VOL 01 (N52) $14.99 DC 701

Not bad… new titles rarely chart more than one month.
It’s currently #50 on Amazon’s DC list (between Justice League v3 and Sandman v.2). #70 in Superheroes.
For comparison: Ms. Marvel v.1 2,331, 2,033 , 1,534

There may be a need to do a correction here. Not sure if the free to order variants started with the first Bombshells run of covers. Because customers couldn’t order them that way. Retailers were all still selling them for increased prices.

The first time you actually could order the variants and pay the same price as the regular covers were the Batman 75 ones.

@Evan: June 2014, the Bombshells covers, was the first month that DC’s themed variants were open-to-order. See the June 2014 DC month-to-month column for the details.

Well darn, then retailers should have sold them that way. They were still overcharging them at the time. I would have ordered all of em myself.

People still believe this is a growth market? With these numbers? Here’s what really happened- the publishers decided to take over the back issue market with the trade program. There’s all your revenue growth of the past decade right there. That and the price point increases. Except back issues were an important part of retailers’ revenue stream and the whole idea behind non-returnability in the first place. Especially on hot books. Now retailers are stuck with unsaleable backstock on unsold monthlies AND have to carry trades, most of which they end blowing out below cost at cons or clearance sales. This is why the entire direct market is on the verge of collapsing, not because of variants. Why every retailer out there is carrying unsustainable debt. If we don’t see a serious turnaround on these monthlies you’re going to see another wave of store closings when this next recession hits. One thing we will see in the months to come is a lot of books you thought were hot taking huge plunges as retailers realize new readers aren’t coming for them.

These numbers only reflect the direct market in the US, not overseas, not book stores, and not digital. Any lack of growth here may or may not be made up for in those other markets.

Indeed Glenn. When I see how small those numbers are for the whole US, it baffles me. As those numbers get weaker and weaker, international sales are more and more taken into account, because those ones are not falling, I don’t think so. But it takes a quite a long time for them to reach the base, so it can’t really save second/tiers books -who, sadly, are often not translated anyway overseas.

It was mentioned that DC’s growing reliance on the $3.99 price point doesn’t make a difference in sales. Maybe so, but look at DC’s $4 titles vs their $3 books. The books featuring A-list characters are the more expensive ones. In the market these days, readers for the most part stick with the most familiar, iconic characters, and are reluctant to try out books (past issue #2 anyway) starring untested, less proven characters. If DC raised the price of Lobo, Doctor Fate, or Prez, those books would see a drastic drop in readership, whereas fans are perfectly willing to pay more for Batman, Harley Quinn, and the Justice League. Personally, I hope DC keeps the second/third string books at $2.99, because I enjoy them overall far more than the “iconic” characters.

“People still believe this is a growth market?”

Given that Star Wars #1 passed a million copies and Secret Wars #1 is well over 500k, yep.

That was…really too long an exchange of Twitters to digest for an article. I would have found a summary with one or two excerpted tweets more effective.

And, not to ignore the wider problem this article presents but enquiring minds (well, mine) want to know…will Batman ’66 and Sensation will continue to be released digitally, or will they be cancelled as well as the floppy reprints?

DC is still publishing comic books? ;)

Hi John,

Thanks for your comment. I got overzealous with the tweets– didn’t realize how long the conversation was because it seemed much shorter in my head! I’ve parred them down some.

According to solicits, the December issues for these titles will be the final issues for all formats. I will look into this further and clarify if I hear anything to the contrary.

I doubt that the Digital First comics will continue.
The numbers seem to have been calculated from “can we sell enough via digital + paper + graphic novel?”
If those numbers don’t add up to a profit, then it’s not going to continue with just one format.
In the old days, it was “newsstand + direct market + subscriptions”. Many marginal titles had better profits when newsstand copies were omitted (Ka-Zar, Micronauts, Moon Knight).

How well did DC market these new titles?
Why did Ms. Marvel become an overnight sensation, but not Prez?

I see the point TalesOfRacShade is making — I’m one of (I assume) many people who pick stuff up late, or purchase and then read late. I picked up a couple of the relaunched titles in June and didn’t get to reading any of them until Labor Day. (That’s what happens when your to-read pile is taller than the nightstand it sits on.) Now I’m going back to catch up on the ones I liked, but the damage has been done and the books that didn’t show strong interest by August will be canceled. Because most books simply don’t get a fighting chance, they’re often gone by the time their audience finds them.

It’s just the nature of the beast, though. I think it’s more of a general issue with monthly superhero comics and its sales channels than any bad decisions made at DC.

A lot of ground covered here:

Sad to see both Batman ’66 and Sensation Comics go. I bought both occasionally, but they were pretty confused packages.

The Batman book had the trappings of the TV show and good likenesses of the actors involved, but *unlike* the show it was played straight, not camp. So what audience was this for? I assume the nostalgia crowd (and in this day and age, that can’t be a very big crowd), but then it didn’t go all in. Sort of like putting on a production of Grease and taking out the songs. The stories were fine, but without the parody, it ended up being pretty mild (though the Kevin Smith/Ty Templeton mini with the Green Hornet was fun and the Len Wein/Harlan Ellison/Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez special was quite beautiful.)

Sensation Comics had a similar schizophrenic profile. Some of the best, accessible, all-ages Wonder Woman stories in a long time, unfortunately behind covers that often portrayed The Amazon Princess as a crazed warrior splattered with blood. I know covers in comics have a long history of not reflecting the exact contents, but I can’t imagine the audience for either one of those types of books being satisfied with that combination.

It makes me both sad and angry to hear these stories of sexual harassment behind the scenes. Especially when it involves people who are working on characters that are supposed to be heroes — examples of our best ideals, not our worst demons. DC, if this is going on, please get to the bottom of it and root it out. Not only for the sake of your workplace, but for Superman, Wonder Woman and all the other inspiring icons that the world looks up to.

And Torsten, I think Ms. Marvel had the advantage of a lot of media coverage outside of comics *and* being a superhero comic in the Marvel Universe. Prez is on its’ own in its’ own little corner of the world with no capes and tights.

The problem with DC is that they don’t give the smaller books a big marketing push. Although, I did notice that there was some attempt for The Omega Men with it having a big spread in the back pages for a month or two. Hopefully this is the kind of title that does alright in TPB and warrants a new miniseries in the not too distant future.

All of the Digital First titles have had limited lifespans, such as Adventures of Superman and Legends of the Dark Knight. Sensation had 48 digital weekly releases. That’s no small potatoes. After each one wraps up, a new one with a new character comes around the corner. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Flash or GL anthology Digital First series next up to bat.

For the record, Cullen Bunn confirmed on Twitter that “Lost Army” ends with issue six.

@Hardy: Ouch. So Lost Army wasn’t just cancelled; it was stealth cancelled. That must hit hard for the creators, to say nothing of readers who invested in the story.

Yeah, the Omega Men news hit me kind of hard, particularly after having been geared up for a twelve-issue run with a clearly laid out beginning, middle, and end. Add my voice to the choir of being cheated as a reader to be paying money for what will never be more than half a story.

And Alex DeCampi’s remarks just make me sad as a consumer. I loved Sensation Comics for its diverse storytelling, its introducing me to the work of a number of spectacular creators, and its being the iconic Wonder Woman book that I’ve felt had been missing from the stands since Gail Simone’s run on the title ended. (Azzarello and Chiang are a good “alternate” take, but separated from their storytelling, the N52 character is Generic Warrior Woman #49, not Wonder Woman.) Agreed with the poster who lamented the covers never matching the tone. That’s been a real sticking point for me with the book.

Basically, what made Sensation distinct is that between its covers, it was a feminist book. De Campi’s revelations about the Superman office at DC… I sincerely wish I could say I were surprised to hear her statements out loud. And it saddens me. The DiDio / Lee / Harras regime needs to topple. It feels to me like they set this new direction up for failure from the get-go, between the timing, the horrifyingly awful marketing, and now the company’s failure to see through on their own promises to their readers…

Is there any good news to come out of DC? I mean… Batgirl, Black Canary, and Doctor Fate are cool, and they’re still going. There’s that, right…?

In regard to Prez – you should read the comments on the Beat’s July DC sales analysis.

To quote myself:
“@Brian (and other guy!) – can i say a point about Prez? two points.

1) the preview to Prez in whatever Convergence book that was, – was very strong. The character was President, it had action, and she had agency. She was making decisions and being awesome.

2) IN the first issue of Prez (which I bought) – she had no agency. Not only was she not President, but she wasn’t taking steps to become president. Her Presidency isn’t a result of actions on her part, but of an accident with a fryer, and things being done TO her (dude uploads to youtube against her wishes, a different dude supports her for no reason) – She was NOT A PROTAGONIST.

Hibbs is right, that’s crap writing and crap editing. That’s why I didn’t come back for Issue 2.

Do you really really like Prez? – Buy 3 copies. It’s the only hope.”

to Quote Brian Hibbs:

“I find it pretty weird you’re using a DC comic to try to make a point about indy sales, BUT…. PREZ #1 featured 20 pages of story where the LEAD CHARACTER DID NOT MEET THE STATED PREMISE OF THE COMIC — she, in fact, doesn’t even come CLOSE to becoming President until issue #2. That, right there, is the sign of a writer (and much much more… an EDITOR!) who doesn’t know what he’s doing, and that’s why in my Indy-friendly store where we stumped hard for the book sales between issue #1 and #2 dropped by 60% or so. That’s like if BATMAN #1 ended with Bruce and his parents looking at the paper and talking about maybe seeing a movie over the weekend!”

Seriously. Prez is not a good book. It’s not a good book specifically because it does not do what it says on the tin. If you’re enjoying it – buy 3 copies.

http://www.comicsbeat.com/dc-comics-month-to-month-sales-july-2015-life-the-universe-and-everything/

To @AwesomeDude – First, thanks for your opinion of the book – I can definitely see how Prez #1 could read like that, and see how folks would be frustrated by the lead character not being president by the end of the first issue. I read the preview and first issue differently, with the preview showing intent, and the person Beth Ross would become. I also like how the first two issues are about her choosing what’s important to her, and shows her resolve in the face of what appears to be crushing and inevitable, which in turn informs her decisions and resolve once the plot moves her into position. In terms of becoming president, she is passive. In terms of being president, she is not.

But that said, that’s my reading. That’s the fun of comics, and entertainment in general. Prez is not a good comic for you. Or I guess for Brian Hibbs. And that’s fine. As a reader, it’s your right to enjoy the books you read and it’s frustrating when you don’t – especially if you wanted to like something. As a retailer, I don’t have that luxury. Given my personal tastes, there’s a few comics I wouldn’t be ordering. As a result, I don’t have those books in my personal collection. But as a retailer, it is my job to sell books to people who will connect with them, regardless of my opinion of them – and that’s what I do.

Currently, Prez is my second best selling DC book, next to Batman – which is saying something, because Batman is a dynamo. I’ve had to place re-orders for every issue at this point, and honestly, I probably lost a customer or two from not having an issue here or there at any given point in time. Obviously, my sales don’t reflect the larger market, or even what Hibbs is experiencing – but to that end, Hibbs’ experience don’t reflect the larger market either. He’d probably be the first to admit that his sales charts don’t look exactly like the top 300.

But anyway. I’m gonna keep selling the hell out of a book that my customers seem to enjoy quite a bit, and I’m going to allow my orders reflect that. And I’m also going to go ahead and not read comments sections (beyond, you know, the two days or so I check back on the articles I write) because fun fact: comment sections and opinions sure as heck do not accurately represent anything beyond singular opinion. So I dunno. Keep doing you, I guess, and I’ll continue to purchase far more than 3 copies of Prez because… well, I have a store to run and 3 isn’t even going to BEGIN covering what I need for files.

Sorry. I should make it clear.

The fact that myself, and Brian didn’t personally like Prez isn’t really the key point. The point is, from a neutral stand point, it’s extremely obvious why the book sold so poorly. The lead character does not have agency and the book does not do what it says on the tin. That’s bad writing and bad editing.

As for the DC-You. You’re right. Bad marketing, bad concept, bad execution. DC is in a much poorer position without Bob Wayne. I’m not sure what they need to differently, as not every book can be Batgirl, but they have to do something, and soon.

Marvel, smart but evil…DC, just plain dumb.

I should probably have led with this but – i liked your article. Great specific take from a retailer perspective on how the poorness of Convergence affected the ordering of the DC-You push.

For what it’s worth I’m glad Prez is selling well in your store. Comics that sell well keep the industry afloat, and I’m very much in support of keeping the industry going. And it’s especially encouraging when a book that’s selling well is not a super-hero book and is potentially bringing in new readers.

@AwesomeDude – I’m glad you liked the article – I think our break down is this – I suppose that books like Prez (and really, the whole current DC You initiative) isn’t selling well because of the marketing, and how retailers are ordering. I base that from the fact that these numbers are usually a reflection of initial orders with very little adjustment – because HOLY WOW, retailers are slow moving and a good chunk do not do FOC for whatever reason. I know the orders for issue one can ONLY be that – and while I agree that the drop might have been steeper due to content, I wouldn’t put that down to editorial or creative team.

We can both surely find examples to support our theories – it’s certainly easy to do and there’s a lot of specifics that can be pulled. But after working in comics retail for… man, nine years now? I can tell you how little customers care about not getting the whole story in the first issue – or at least in any form of actionable way. Regardless, I’m pretty sure we’re just going to end up agreeing to disagree. Thanks for reading and offering your opinion though! It’s appreciated.

How could Prez sell badly because she’s not president in the first issue? Wouldn’t that take people reading the first issue and then telling their retailers they don’t like it? So, the sales for like issue 4 would drop?

Prez looks awesome. It also looks like the only interesting DC You book. Superman in jeans isn’t really a strong sales hook.

There was a Prez preview? I’m a long-time comic fan very interested in DCYou, and I had no idea. They did a horrible job promoting these “free tastes”. Even when I knew there was one I wanted to see — for Starfire, and I found out there was a preview because I was confused by what was going on with the character and then reading a review column, good job, DC — I had a very hard time finding it online.

I share “AwesomeDude”‘s take on Prez. I tried the first issue, wondered where the President part was, and didn’t come back.

@AwesomeDude
PREZ isn’t a bad book because she wasn’t President by the end of issue one; it isn’t a DC book because she wasn’t President by the end of issue one. Which is kind of what Brandon seems to be talking about: DC was courting an audience with PREZ who probably doesn’t even look at the DC shelves in the store. Meanwhile, audiences whose bread-and-butter was typical New 52 DC stuff would almost certainly find the stylistic choices made here off-putting. That’s not bad, because DC wanted to court a new audience. They just courted very poorly.

It’s silly to pretend like you’re a ‘neutral observer’ just because you didn’t like a book. It’s well-crafted as hell, with phenomenal design and world-building and an emphasis on character instead of plot. It’s just not a DC book.

It seemed like it would’ve been a Vertigo title once upon a time–or at least the way I treat Vertigo books is how I went with Prez. I liked the first issue enough I’ll check out the collected edition(s) from the library when the series is completed…if I remember to. Just too many good books and prices are too high–standards get raised. If everything’s working right even good books don’t make the cut.

DC’s moves over the last 3-5 years have damaged the brand with me. I’m so far out of DC at this point it’s easier to just not bother with their output altogether and cherry-pick this era of DC in retrospect…once the verdict is in on what’s decent.

I think it’s pretty interesting that DC opted to restart the Superman volume numbering for the Yang/Romita run, but didn’t restart the numbering on the actual title (they did the same for the new Batgirl team). I wonder what the rationale is behind the decision to do one but not the other.

Two questions:
– Where’s the “8-page sneak peek chapter” in most of these books? Only Cyborg vol. 1 has it listed in its contents.
– Why is the Batman by Neal Adams Omnibus missing The Brave and the Bold #102? This story was missing from the 3-volume set and the DC Universe by Neal Adams collection, too.

“See why Lee is considered the greatest artist of his generation.” By whom? Who else is in that “generation”? This is a pretty outrageous claim to make.

So Wonder Woman: Earth One won’t be for sale in the U.K.? Why?

It’s hard to imagine sales for Vertigo series getting much better now that they’ve pushed the price of single issues up to $4. Who wouldn’t just wait for the trade of the first six issues of something like Art Ops when it’s priced at $15–and easy to order online at one third to one half off? That works out to about the retail price of two single issues. Sorry, comics shops!

Out of curiosity, do all of DC’s hardcovers, including the so-called deluxe editions, still have those cheaply glued, far too tight spines that make any full-bleed art, not to mention double-page spreads, a complete pain to read? That alone would put me off buying anything.

Mike: Brave and the Bold #102 is missing probably because Adams only illustrated the final seven pages of the story (finishing it up for regular artist Jim Aparo.)

The Hellblazer writeup is wrong- those issues were written by Warren Ellis, not Paul Jenkins. Paul’s run had just ended before it.

You’re right, Charlie (though it was actually 8 pages) – but considering how ridiculously complete the DC Adams collections have otherwise been, it seems an odd thing to leave out.

(Then again, the recent Deadman softcovers omitted the ’80s reprint covers and some text from the hardcover, and the early GL/GA collections overlooked Adams’ final Green Lantern short story from Flash #226. DC has a long history of overlooking noteworthy material in its collections of classic material.)

Still no Legion Archives volume 14? Boo.

Flash by Millar and Morrison but still no Flash by Mark Waid ?

That WW Earth One solicit doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Contributor bio doesn’t even mention Yanick and the summary is like HEY REMEMBER SUPERMAN AND BATMAN?

[…] listing under DC’s scheduled trade paperback and hardcover collections, as discovered by The Beat, is as […]

I think the main problem is simply the saturation of the market Marvel has done with Star Wars and Secret Wars. They’ve SOAKED the market with those books, which are also priced pretty high. Fans simply can’t afford to buy everything at $4, $5, and $6 a pop — and something has to give. Unfortunately for DC, it’s their books — because no one wants to miss out on the “event that changes everything” for Marvel or their new “canonical” Star Wars series. A bit of a shame, since DC has put out some good books with their DCYou initiative — but no real surprise.

“(And yes, DC did all of those free eight page previews, but did anyone outside of the regular comics community even know that they existed?)”
Probably not. I’m on the margins of the regular comics community, and I only knew about the previews from reading their reviews on The Beat. So, I went to the site, and looked each and every one of them myself. And then I bought none of those comics. I’m not sure what kind of crap shoot strategy is going on at DC these days, but none of the newest stuff makes me want to buy.

Agreed on all points about the failures of marketing and outreach, and DC’s burning readers and retailers alike repeatedly, not only with their waning annual non-events and seemingly neverending trudge of increasingly homogenized weeklies that don’t even tell bloody stories when they’re through, but with the utter disaster that was Convergence, effectively stopping stopping their line, among it several promising nascent titles, in its tracks for a full two months when the tepid Futures End month wasn’t even far back enough to be a distant memory. And I echo that it’s a shame, because there are legitimately good, interesting, and *fun* books on the stands. Check out Doctor Fate — Levitz is back in form, and Sonny Liew’s art is just to die for; there’s energy, a sense of danger, and an endearing uncertainty from the youthful lead, who I can’t wait to grow with from issue to issue! Fletcher and Wu’s Black Canary is just a crackling rock opera! And Prez is a roaring satire, blazing with invention and imagination! I honestly wish I had the cash to invest in some of these books from a creative standpoint myself, but I don’t. I’m just a reader, there’s a lot I want to read, and if DC decide that my money, attention, and good word of mouth that I’m trying to spread, not just to comics readers, but to people who might not be walking into a shop otherwise, aren’t worth my time, then that’s on them. I was excited, now as rumors fly about meat and potatoes, I’m wary; if they aren’t willing to see how this plays out in trade sales, I’ll happily leave too, because I’m obviously not the kind of reader they’d want.

Although I should add that part of the reason Star Trek/GL is selling the GL books is that it’s a number one issue. Hard to compare issue one of a book and issue 43 of a book.

Fables: Wolf Among Us is at least going to issue #16 as they’re soliciting 8 issues a trade and the Vol 2 trade was in the latest Edelweiss catalog. After that, I expect it to be done.

The most unfortunate thing, for me, is that DC continues to have no idea what to do with Superman. Why are Superman books selling in such lower numbers than they did a decade ago? Is he too old-hat? The elementary school kids I teach know who he is as well as they know Batman, Hulk, the Minions, the Ninja Turtles, Spongebob, etc… so he’s popular with kids. Of course, maybe two out of the thousand kids in my classes read comics. But the adult comic readers just aren’t into Superman comics, I guess?

Convergence – an odd case of the PUSHER forcibly breaking the ADDICT of the habit by eliminating the supply.

After two months of being clean, some addicts decide they don’t want to go back to being a junkie.

@Aaron: Ten years ago the Superman titles were crossing over in the “Sacrifice” storyline (Max Lord mind controls Superman, is killed by Wonder Woman) as part of the lead-up to Infinite Crisis. It was a surprise hit, with 2nd printings selling an additional 13K each for both Superman & Action (and a whopping additional 39K for Wonder Woman.)

Quick note to AwesomeDude : good analogy!
And I know it’s beyond the scope of this analysis- but I’d love to know (1) what other comics lapsed-DC fans are spending their money on and (2) does the $3.99 price point deter sales? Seems crazy to me that Image can offer so many cheaper books. And does that price threshold work differently for Marvel than it does for DC? I wonder if part of what we’re seeing is the emergence of Marvel & Image as the new big two…?
I’d also agree with your initial idea that new marketing was/is needed to attract new readers, Dave.

These steep drops even for something as guaranteed as Johns’ Justice League/Snyder’s Batman highly suggests to me that there is something fishy going on at the retailer level. I know DC has made some questionable moves in terms of returnability for DC books and it really sounds like retailers are ordering light on DC books in retaliation.

What a god damn shame.

Compare and contrast the Harley Quinn “We are Harleys” cover to the new “We Are…Robin” series.

Also, have you read any of the 8-page intros which were included in the second issues of Convergence? I think most are available online.

http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2015/05/27/dc-sneak-peeks-we-arerobin-cyborg-black-canary-batgirl-and-more

Here’s a better link: http://www.dccomics.com/search?keyword=dc%20sneak%20peek

Spot on man! I couldn’t agree more. I’m struggling to decide which Robin books to read, so I’ll be looking here for advise. I’d also recommend avoiding the lady with the lasso.

I loved the new suicide squad issue. I can’t wait to see Parasite come in and talon too. I found the splinter group pretty cool. I can understand if it rubs folks the wrong way cause if ISIS but it doesn’t bother me. Haven’t read detective comics yet but will this week.