Looking at MARVEL ZOMBIES' sales; a.k.a, "WOW"

[Sean Walsh]

From Paul O'Brien's Usenet Marvel sales report - http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe/msg/0a7a8d91d3dbe93c :


47. MARVEL ZOMBIES
Dec 05 Marvel Zombies #1 (of 5) - 71,332
Jan 06 Marvel Zombies #2 (of 5) - 51,370 (-28.0%)
Feb 06 Marvel Zombies #3 (of 5) - 56,696 (+10.4%)
Mar 06 Marvel Zombies #4 (of 5) - 44,312 (-21.8%)

The remarkable performance of MARVEL ZOMBIES continues. Another variant
cover of issue #1 hits the charts with a further 19,050 sales, and the
second printing of issue #3 adds another 15,532. Meanwhile, issue #2
sells another 7,853 copies in conventional re-orders. Once all of those
extra sales are taken into account, the numbers start to look slightly
more normal, but the reality is that this is an exceptional case of a
series which is growing from month to month and doing massive business
in re-orders and second printings. It's a genuine hit from nowhere.

Issue #1 only sold 35,497 copies in its first month. That means it's
now doubled its sales through re-orders - something virtually unknown
for the major publishers. In contrast, this month MARVEL ZOMBIES
shipped 42,435 copies in re-orders alone. Once you take issue #4 into
account, that's 86,747 extra copies of MARVEL ZOMBIES #1-4 hitting the
shelves in March.


The variants of #1 have now effectively DOUBLED #1's original sales?! Good lord. Marvel'd be nuts not to do a sequel/follow-up series........and IIRC, Quesada's already said there likely will be...

[Expletive Deleted]

Kirkman and company really hit the zeitgeist on the nose with this one.

[Beast]

Wow, that's just crazyness. No wonder they're kicking around a sequel. :eek:

[divinebrown]

This series deserves this kind of success.

But does anyone else think it weird that there hasn't been a reprint of the second issue?

[Sean Walsh]

But does anyone else think it weird that there hasn't been a reprint of the second issue?

Wow, I never noticed that. I assumed it had (Lord knows there've been enough covers to assume one of the variants was of #2), and that its sales weren't exactly logged in this report.

[Beast]

Wow, I never noticed that. I assumed it had (Lord knows there've been enough covers to assume one of the variants was of #2), and that its sales weren't exactly logged in this report.
Nope, as far as I know.... Issue #2 hasn't recieved a variant yet.

[Doom Hammer]

Wow, that's just crazyness. No wonder they're kicking around a sequel. :eek:

Yeah, too bad it's going to star a bunch of sucky apes.:p

Seriously though, this is insane. How does that even work?

[milhouse123321]

Hasn't the Apes idea been put on hold for a second Zombie story?

[twilight]

Marvel Zombies 2:Night of The Living Dead Apes.

[streator]

glad to see o' brien's sales analysis again. i don't recall seeing it last month or maybe even the month before.
i was surprised by a lot of marvel figures, to be honest.
uncanny and x-men are pretty much even.
ares and daughters of the dragon bombed.
x-men: the 198 is outselling son of m, which i'd argue is vastly superior.
i'm one of some 20-30 thousand people reading mk 4 and nextwave.
x-factor is again outselling new excalibur despite certain poster's arguments stating otherwise.

along the lines of this thread, marvel zombies has done extremely well. congrats to kirkman and phillips.

[Mean Mr Mustard]

ares is doing badly?

Noooooo.
:(

[streator]

ares is doing badly?

Noooooo.
:(
143. ARES
Jan 06 Ares #1 (of 5) - 20,541
Feb 06 Ares #2 (of 5) - 16,884 (-17.8%)
Mar 06 Ares #3 (of 5) - 15,895 (-14.4%)

[StoneGold]

I'm not surprised Ares is doing badly. Nothing against the series, but it's an unknown product, coupled by a relatively unknown artist and a writer whose last couple of Marvel projects haven't exactly lit up the sales charts. And it's a miniseries, and everyone knows Marvel trade them up lickety split.


However, there is life after death for Ares. See, with Ares being hyped as being on a major team, if writer of Ares on said team keeps him as much of a badass as Oeming, it boosts sales on TPB. TPB sales get high enough, gets more Oeming greenlit, possibly another Oeming Ares series.


I will say this for Marvel, they seem to be figuring out how to do some level of cross promotion for at least some smaller projects in the new TPB economy.

[mandog]

Marvel Zombies is what brought me back to comics.

[Will.S]

I'm not surprised Ares is doing badly. Nothing against the series, but it's an unknown product, coupled by a relatively unknown artist and a writer whose last couple of Marvel projects haven't exactly lit up the sales charts. And it's a miniseries, and everyone knows Marvel trade them up lickety split.


However, there is life after death for Ares. See, with Ares being hyped as being on a major team, if writer of Ares on said team keeps him as much of a badass as Oeming, it boosts sales on TPB. TPB sales get high enough, gets more Oeming greenlit, possibly another Oeming Ares series.


I will say this for Marvel, they seem to be figuring out how to do some level of cross promotion for at least some smaller projects in the new TPB economy.
Yeah that's pretty much the perfect way to do it although I would have to really wonder why Ares would want to be on a team after seeing how he is on in his mini-series.

[Gargus]

I snatched em up like anyone else cause the concept was awesome and I couldnt wait as zombies are my favorite horror genre.

I finally read it and was very dissapointed in it. Aside from eating dead people and infecting them they had nothing to do with zombies. Even when stupified they were still smart. They didnt even eat brains like the standard zombie staples, they ate whatever they could. Just something about spiderman complaining about breaking his leg in half annoyed me and everything else like that.

Then it just got really stupid when they ate silver surfer and gained his cosmic powers and were flying around and crap. Then ate the big G and turned into mini versions of him.

By the end of the third issue I was reading it just to get it over with.

[Rutsah]

Waiting for the trade. Covers are hard to resist though, everytime I'm in the shop I am tempted. Especially this past week, I surprised myself by walking out of the place with only one book, FF537.

[bd2999]

I hated the ending but the series was pretty good.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Waiting for the trade. Covers are hard to resist though, everytime I'm in the shop I am tempted. Especially this past week, I surprised myself by walking out of the place with only one book, FF537.


Waiting on the TPB as well. I wanna see if its as awesome as everyones claiming.

[Weapon Ick]

I will be buying the trade. I was really skeptical about this book but reading the reviews on this board really suprised me. I'd think "omg they actually put that in a Marvel comic?!?" It sounds way gruesome. And I don't even like zombies. I'm very curious to see what the trade sales will be like.

[Captain Smith]

It was a great series. Nothing like the Red Skull finally dealing with no-skull Col. America as the ultimate spoof on zombies and Marvel icons.

[drwho]

After you look at the covers for awhile you start seeing how gorgeous the artwork really is even if its of zombies. I may buy all the issues including the variants just for the covers. They look so cool.

[agrich]

I think what I'm getting from some of the comments here is that a lot of us who loved it bought it from the beginning, had no major expectations, and were surprised by how much fun it was.

And some of those who didn't like it heard all the talk and hype about how great it was from people who enjoyed it, bought it expecting it to be the next Watchmen or something, and were disappointed because their expectations were so high. Happens to me with movies sometimes.

People who haven't read it yet, I recommend you scale back your expectations a bit. It won't change your lives, anymore than seeing a good zombie movie will change your lives. It was fun, entertaining, and really fairly slight. If you're looking for more than that, then yeah, there's a good chance you'll be disappointed.

[Frank]

Marvel Zombies > Chuck Norris

I must say Marvel should have taken this opportunity to reintroduce a character from their library from way back "The Living Zombie"(I think he has a name or something). So he could have been this huge hero coming from nowhere saving mankind and stuff.