CBR: Sales Estimates for October, 2009

[CBR News]

Inside you'll find the sales estimates for comics and trade paperbacks in October, 2009. Total sales are up from last month, with DC Comics in the top comic spot with "Blackest Night" and "Old Man Logan" leading the TPB charts.


Full article here.

[Vic De Zen]

Wow. This is the first time I've looked at comic sales numbers in a long time and I had no idea DC was dominating the top 10 they way they are right now. Way to go Blackest Night!

[raskal66]

Wow! DC with the top 6 places and narrowed the market share gap. Way to stick it to the House of Greed this month.

[Ari Gold]

It kills me though that DC has THE top 6 selling books of the month but still lags behind Marvel . . . Booooooooo.

[americocaine]

Spider-Woman #2 at 49. Bahaha.

So much for a "superstar book". More or less proves the main drivers behind New Avengers ain't Bendis, but Spider-Man and Wolverine.

[bandoogiemanz]

I gotta say I'm happy for DC even though I'm a Marvel fan mostly. Competition is good for business. Maybe healthy competition will force both sides to step their games up, and keep things going at a high level.

[Ronald Bryan]

Spider-Woman #2 at 49. Bahaha.

So much for a "superstar book". More or less proves the main drivers behind New Avengers ain't Bendis, but Spider-Man and Wolverine.

Or everyone who wanted it already bought it on iTunes.


But that would mean Bendis might be selling it.



(Hint: you can use Powers as an anti-Bendis being a top seller if you want. It's an easier target.)

[ANewHope]

Great news. Looks like the $3.99 price hike for Marvel is finally starting to show. Less for more. Sadly, I was one of the people who kept on reading. Hopefully more Marvel books will go down to $2.99 again.

[Blade X]

Spider-Woman #2 at 49. Bahaha.

So much for a "superstar book". More or less proves the main drivers behind New Avengers ain't Bendis, but Spider-Man and Wolverine.

Spidey and Wolverine aren't the main sales drivers behind NEW AVENGERS, gimmicks like variant covers and crossovers are. The same is also true of the top 6 DC books on the chart as well.

[Blade X]

Or everyone who wanted it already bought it on iTunes.


But that would mean Bendis might be selling it.

But apparently that's not the case. Which might be the reason why Bendis said their won't be any more SPIDER-WOMAN motion comics done.

[Iangould]

I agree that DC is doing well with Blackest Night but the real reason DC is catching up with Marvel is that Dark Reign is doing really poorly for Marvel.

Not a single Marvel title is selling over 80,000.

A year or so back they would have regulalrly had several titles selling over 100,000.

[ANewHope]

It's not complicated. Marvel introduced $3.99 with no added pages or stories.

Less for More. It's just finally showing. Marvel consistently had 9 books in the top 10 about 6 months ago, easily beating DC.

But Marvel lost their market advantage, and DC gladly stepped up and said thank you very much ! We're going to do even better and still offer it at the same price. It's not complicated lol.

[CYOTI]

I agree that DC is doing well with Blackest Night but the real reason DC is catching up with Marvel is that Dark Reign is doing really poorly for Marvel.

I find that that rather strange since Dark Reign as an ongoing event and as a dramatic device to be far stronger and more interconnected than its predecessor (the Intiative storyline that followed CW).

[Iangould]

It's not complicated. Marvel introduced $3.99 with no added pages or stories.

Less for More. It's just finally showing. Marvel consistently had 9 books in the top 10 about 6 months ago, easily beating DC.

But Marvel lost their market advantage, and DC gladly stepped up and said thank you very much ! We're going to do even better and still offer it at the same price. It's not complicated lol.

I'm no sure it's that simple either - Blackest Night at $3.99 outsells all DC's $2.99 titles and two of the four Marvel titles in the Top 10 are $2.99 titles.

[raskal66]

I'm no sure it's that simple either - Blackest Night at $3.99 outsells all DC's $2.99 titles and two of the four Marvel titles in the Top 10 are $2.99 titles.

Blackest Night is a definite event book though. Genuine Event titles can fare well at a higher price because of their finite number of issues and higher marketing value (and cost) as significant to the universe it takes place in and it involves a large number of major characters.

If Blackest Night was an ongoing series, it would not justify having that price and it appears that New Avengers is learning that lesson.

Dark Reign is merely a trade dress that says "This ongoing monthly book is expensive and has Norman Osbourne in it. You like Norman, don't you? He's kerrr-azy! Can we have an extra dollar? We know it's a recession, we just don't care. We'll draw some hot women for you in the $3.99 Marvel Divas, and Models, Inc. if you do. We can also do more expensive minis if you still have anything left over" What started out as a cool idea, has gone on too long, gotten stale, gotten expensive,and gives no added value for the 33% extra price. I remember Joe Q. saying that the price on ASM wouldn't go up because "Spidey wouldn't do that." I guess he changed his mind on the 4 Spider Man minis in the February solicits and the new Web of Spider Man. Either Joe Q. doesn't know Spider Man, or Spider Man is actually a corporate Yes-Man.

$3.99 is not acceptable for ongoing monthly series. New Avengers has shed a large number of readers based on these numbers. What also is worth a look is Detective Comics. It has two bona fide stars on it (one of which being arguably the best artist in the industry), as well as the co-feature gimmick that's also acknowledged as well done and it's not in the top 10 either.

Simply put $3.99 is too much, especially for an ongoing superhero book. What I'd be interested in knowing is how many people switched the expensive titles to read others, or if they took Marvel and (to a much lesser extent) DC's shameless price hike for ongoings as a big FU as a reward for years of loyalty and just dropped the hobby letting the vultures in the boardrooms pick the carcass of a once thriving industry. I'll let the addicts pay through the nose, I'll go rent a movie or buy a game.