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WHAT THE HELL, PEOPLE. Sigh.

12/15 Weirdworld #1 – 30,288
01/16 Weirdworld #2 – 17,759 (-41.4%)

This book is so excellent. It’s honestly better than a zillion tons of the other crap Marvel is putting out right now, but alas, that never seems to matter. It isn’t an event title (wait, aren’t fans tired of those?! Until there isn’t one, then they whine they need one!) and no one dies (only to return six months later) so I guess there are no reason to buy it. Great art, wow story? Eh, I’ll wait for Civil War 3, please.

Fans are a fickle lot. They complain about event books, but hate when they don’t have one to complain about. They hate cheesy death announcements, and then help sell the book into the six figures! And do we need to at least give Marvel some props for attempting to put out niche books and see what would stick? Apparently, nothing. For that, again, I blame the fanboys (and girls.) I mean, how many times does everyone also complain about all the Spider/Bat/Super/Wonder books out there in comics land? But whenever the big two attempt something new, no one buys them. I’ve heard this complaint so many times it makes my ears bleed. It’s like we all literally ignore the complaining we aim towards comics on a daily basis. It’s maddening! I want something diverse, unique, cool! But when I’m given it, I’m gonna whine and want the same tried and true I’ve gotten the last umpteen years! No one wins, no one wins…

Spidey/Deadpool is ongoing? Okay. Looking forward to seeing what the sales drop to when Kelly and McGuiness leave the book within six issues.

@Nathan Aaron – one thing to bear in mind is that the people who say they want things probably really do want them and buy them – it’s just that there are a whole lot more people who aren’t saying anything at all but they are buying the opposite of what the first group wants.

Nathan Aaron, what did you think of G0dland, and Bitch Planet? Have you read Shark-Man? What about Bendis/Gaydos’s Alias? Have heard of Joe Sacco? Or that run by Lutes, Unstable Molecules? What do you think SLAM!-c’mere, do you want to see me make this pencil disappear….? Just only spend on the stuff that counts; stop buying the repetitive crap, unless you are at a used book store, or a flea market, or at a serious discount.

‘Comic Books’ are too small, and flimsy, and look like they are strictly for kids any way -it would be cool if there were more ‘Rollingstone’ sized magazine like sequential anthologies. People would spend on that as much as they wait in lines for a cheap Tshirt from China that has a trendy brand name on it. Americans love to be pretentious, spending, bigots that would love to show off their Punisher *magbook* if it was done right, if it looked cool, and functioned sequentially in a way that was bad ass… for example.

Hey Nathan Aaron, FYI:

It Will Never Love You Back: Marvel Entertainment, Ike Perlmutter, and Why the Corporation Cannot Be Your Friend
by Charlotte Finn February 1, 2016 12:00 PM
http://comicsalliance.com/ike-perlmutter-marvel-entertainment-consumers-and-corporations/

Read More: Marvel, Perlmutter, And Why Corporations Aren’t Your Friend | http://comicsalliance.com/ike-perlmutter-marvel-entertainment-consumers-and-corporations/?trackback=tsmclip

Why I’m Boycotting Marvel Comics
by J.A. Micheline August 4, 2015 2:00 PM
http://comicsalliance.com/marvel-boycott-axel-alonso/

Read More: “Why I’m Boycotting Marvel Comics” | http://comicsalliance.com/marvel-boycott-axel-alonso/?trackback=tsmclip

Nathan, perhaps start a petition to boycott -what do you want to boycott today, NAy? NAy?

Hey Nathan Aaron, FYI:

It Will Never Love You Back: Marvel Entertainment, Ike Perlmutter, and Why the Corporation Cannot Be Your Friend
by Charlotte Finn February 1, 2016 12:00 PM

Why I’m Boycotting Marvel Comics
by J.A. Micheline August 4, 2015 2:00 PM

Nathan, perhaps start a petition to boycott -what do you want to boycott today, NAy? NAy?

Marvel makes comics starring Marvel characters. People who read Marvel Comics usually want to read about Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, etc… A lot of what they are publishing nowadays is chasing away the loyal fan who just wants to read about their favorite characters. Yeah there’s room for Weirdworld but if fan’s aren’t buying the A-List books (excluding Star Wars) you can’t expect sales for B and C level titles to be great. Marvel, for the last decade, have invested more on the names under the title than the title itself. That makes for creator loyalty, not brand loyalty. Why read a Marvel book trying to be an Image book when you can just read an Image book?

FWIW, with DC and Marvel both putting out so many new series all the time (including renumbered ones), I’m not sure it’s possible for any series to “stabilize” for long.

About Star Wars sales, maybe we should also consider that the book started with John Cassaday on art and covers, and now it’s Deoadato or Leinil Yu. All of them are A list artists sure, but well, some are more A than others. I personally stopped after Immonen’s arc, maybe some other readers did. Looking forward to know who will be the next artist. Maybe they’ll be back on major ones, or slightly slipping on the B list ones.

Also, the fact the comics didn’t gain any new buyers (and worse, lost buyers) since the movie is out is not a good sign. Maybe the star wars mania is a already a bit passé, Marvel was definitely wise to launch the book nearly two years before the movie, but they’ve got to find another big hit now. It won’t be Star Wars for a while, at least not before the next movie – so a long while – and even then, it will never come back to those first issues sales.

@Nathan
The way I see it, Events and big names are creating a lot of static through which even very good titles have a hard time emerging. Maybe Marvel ought to create a Vertigo-like imprint for all the odd ones out to find a nest.

“but the series (secret wars) has been hit with massive delays. in spite of this, marvel has decided to continue the publisher’s plan to re-launch the entire universe with all-new , all-different marvel.”

considering how every time we turn around it seems that the secret wars series keeps getting pushed back, i’m curious, what other options did they have? were they gonna stop putting out new books until the secret wars series finally finished? maybe just put out reprint books until the secret wars finale, or just release any finished pages of the series, a few pages at a time until it’s all done. i guess they could have mad scrambled some more battleworld and warzone books, but would that have made the fans happy or just piss them off? a massive , company wide, game changing, mega event, and the flagship book of the entire enterprise is no where to be found. that’s gotta be embarrassing.
i wonder if the massive delays are holding up any plans or release dates for stories or books that would spill the beans of the secret wars finale if they come out before the finale.

“What other options did they have?”

Well, there was always “behave like a professional publishing company, don’t indulge in editorially-mandated mid-series rewrites, and schedule enough lead time to produce the comics on the solicited dates”, of course. But that would imply a level of competence and planning that seems sadly lacking in the modern comics industry. I imagine that Sol Brodsky and John Verpoorten are turning in their graves…

Any thoughts on the Perlmutting of Squirrel Girl into a non-mutant?

Tim Seeley is perfect for Blade.

All they need now is a Pixie ongoing series

Pixie & Dazzler by Walt and Louise Simonson okay logging off now.

You are my hero

Sad that we still get announcements of a new series featuring a character, and neither the original announcement from the publisher or the news article from the site passing it along think to mention the name(s) of the original creator(s) of the character.

This is wonderful, surprising news. The audience for this book, with these creators, is now visibly at shops buying in enough quantity for this to work… but only if Marvel hits the marketing cues just right. For my part, I’m going to float this past my Adventure Time customers, as well as anyone really picking up Ms. Marvel, the Boom! Box line and Gotham Academy. Seems like a nice overlap in the Venn diagram.

SamC:

Agreed. Steve Ditko and Will Murray.