Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips Criminal sales?

[jonwithana]

I've been reading criminal since the first Trade Paperback came out and been picking up singles with the start of the Lawless arc , and with the news that in Feb. they will be restarting the numbering and comic out with the new #1 with Criminal 2 probably to try and get new readers to the book. I was wondering if anyone knows the sales figures for this book monthly and how many people on the board pickup to the comic. I know their are alot of Captain America /Daredevil and Marvel Zombies fans out their and many consider Brubaker the best writer right now so if you aren't picking up this book already everyone should. Everyone help keep one of the best comics around for a long time!

[Expletive Deleted]

You can find the sales numbers (as of September) here (http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2007/10/23/marvel-month-to-month-sales-september-2007/).

It's worth noting that those figures are only estimates of domestic, direct-market sales. And, notably, they don't take into account TPB sales.

[Mister Mets]

It is an excellent book.

From my understanding, sales are enough to keep it going.

[RowdyRodimus]

Wed. at the local comic shop someone said they were planning to add a Marvel logo to Criminal as a way to help boost it's sales and help the Marvel marketshare. Not to bring into the Marvel U, but just to try to boost sales.

[BeastieRunner]

Wed. at the local comic shop someone said they were planning to add a Marvel logo to Criminal as a way to help boost it's sales and help the Marvel marketshare. Not to bring into the Marvel U, but just to try to boost sales.

Please, Marvel don't f*** up a good comic. So the renumbering rumor is true?

[Crimson]

Please, Marvel don't f*** up a good comic. So the renumbering rumor is true?

But with the new #1 we get a new format. The comic is even bigger, with alot more of those back of the book extras.

Seeing as Criminal is selling well for a creator owned book, it looks to me like they are rebooting because of the new format and making sure people know these extras are only in the comic and not the TPB.

[rogerio]

I have the singles and the Coward tpb...great series, one of the best out there!:)

[BeastieRunner]

Seeing as Criminal is selling well for a creator owned book, it looks to me like they are rebooting because of the new format and making sure people know these extras are only in the comic and not the TPB.

Interesting. Just leave the Marvel logo off and I'll be happy.

[jonwithana]

From Newsarama:

NRAMA: Hey - one last one Ed, and I'm sure you won't mind the cross-pollination - with Marvel's February solicits, it shows Criminal to be re-starting. What gives? Just another season?

EB: Not exactly. We decided to change the format. We're going from a standard comic up to a 40 pager, and expanding both the comics section and the back pages. The noir articles have really become popular with the people who read the monthly issues, and I've been wanting to do some longer stories, so I figured this was a good time to change it around a bit. And since we were changing the format, after consulting with David Gabriel at Marvel about it, I decided to give it a new #1, too, for a few reasons. The main one being to boost sales, obviously.

Criminal has been doing really healthy numbers for a genre book, and actually selling better than I expected it to, honestly, but I still think we could sell more. I keep hearing from fans who can't find it, or whose store sells out on the first day every time. But at the same time I hear from a lot of retailers who do quite well with it, and are keeping it in stock. That's how the market is, it's completely all over the map, really, and each store is different. And the problem is, it's nearly impossible to attract new readers or new retailers once they've missed issue #1.

So, since we won a bunch of awards for Criminal, and are getting rave reviews all over the place, I'm hoping to take advantage of that with the new #1. Maybe some of the stores that barely carry it will up their orders, or maybe some of the ones that haven't tried it until now will finally give it a shot. And they can pick up the first two trades, at the same time.

Besides, ultimately, I don't think the readers who've been supporting the book so far will really care about the new numbering. It's not that kind of book. And if you're a fan, then knowing you'll be getting more pages each issue from now on should be really good news. And expanding the whole package really makes it feel more like what I always wanted it to be.

Plus, by expanding the noir articles, this gives people even more reason to support the single issues, because we're not reprinting those in any trades. They're just in Criminal.

NRAMA: Fair enough. Since we’re talking about that re-start…you've got the floor - want to give it a plug? What's the new arc about?

EB: The first three issues of the new volume will be stand-alone issues, all focusing on different characters. They all take place in the early ‘70s, and the first one is about Gnarly the bartender, and his final days as a boxer. It's got bits and pieces of his life in the ‘50s and the ‘60s, too, and details how he ended up owning the Undertow bar. It's a story I've been wanting to tell since the first time I wrote him, really. And the next issue stars Teeg Lawless, the man that Leo killed when he was a teenager, Tracy and Ricky's dad. It's about his first year home from Vietnam, and his return to the life of crime. And the third story is all told from the POV of a sort of Femme Fatale, but not exactly. She's the sympathetic lead.

And each of these issues can be read completely on their own, even though they'll sort of fit together like a puzzle in the end... at least, if I pull it off.