Top 100 comics for April & Sales Estimates....

[Desaad]

Whenever i make an order from DCBS, the Image section would always be Invincible and Walking Dead, nothing else. Now i'm also ordering Fatale, Hell Yeah, Mind the Gap, Manhattan Projects, Mudman, Morning Glories, Saga, Secret, and Danger Club. I blame Marvel/DC continuity driving me towards trying new books and Image for delivering.

As I said above, I'm still finding a lot to love at DC and Marvel - More DC than Marvel - but Image is increasing every day.

[Rheged]

I was having this discussion the other day that if 3.99 books was driving people away why is 8 out the top ten 3.99 books and why are Marvel 3.99 always tops. Hell even two of the second wave books was 3.99. Earth 2 and G.I Combat.

Even if sales of the $3.99 books aren't affected by the price point, fans won't expand their comics budget to accommodate them, they just drop some of the marginal titles instead. Not to mention that the publishers will slap the higher price tag on precisely the titles they expect to lose the least sales on. Charging $3.99 would make sense if DC and Marvel were just selling to the hardcore fanboys, since that market doesn't expand or shrink easily, but since the actual content tries to be more new reader friendly a lower price point could help to hook more customers.

Exactly. You're not going to see the higher price point effect the higher priced books, because Marvel prices their most popular books higher. But budget constraints will make folks drop the less popular books all that much quicker. Ditto event books -- they'll push the sales of the less popular books down even further.

That's the thing the vocal minority on the message boards on the the net don't think of their opinions as the opinion of the few they like to think they speak for the majority. This makes the internet funny to me.

I figured this out, when Loeb's Red Hulk sold like hotcakes and Agents of Atlas did not.

[Cavemold]

http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2012/05...ighth-printing

Justice league goes for a 8th printing

[Xarcon]

Saga issue 1 was over shipped but still had to go to a second and third printing because retailers didn't order enough.

Eric Stephenson pretty much said that Image's titles are being under-ordered simply because retailers "don't feel" they will sell. Its sad really, that's why I'm going all digital with my comics.

Yeah, it really sucks. I decided to pick up Saga last minute, but when I called the nearest comic book store, they said they didn't have any. The guy said that he doesn't usually order a lot of Image books, or a whole lot of indie books in general for that matter, because they don't sell well. It was a small store, but still.

Personally, I'm only getting Saga and No Place Like Home, but I've also got Jupiter's Children and Bedlam on the horizon, plus The Beauty whenever it comes out. I was getting Walking Dead, but I dropped it to make room for other stuff.

It would be great if Image was able to grow as a publisher to rival DC and Marvel in terms of sales. Variety is usually a good thing in my book, and Image definitely has a pretty diverse line of books. I think most comic book fans could probably find at least one good Image book that suits their interests. DC still makes up the majority of my pull list by far, but I'm always on the lookout for new Image series.

[Iangould]

Image is the real story, here. Look at that increase in market share and, more, just look at the quality of what they're putting out, and what they plan to put out.

I would bet money that the increase in market share is solely attributable to the realease of Walking Dead vol 16 and will be reversed next month.

[Iangould]

Eric Stephenson pretty much said that Image's titles are being under-ordered simply because retailers "don't feel" they will sell. Its sad really, that's why I'm going all digital with my comics.

So the guy whose job is to sell more Image comics thinks it's somebody else's fault Image comics don't sell better.

There's a shock.

[Parch]

Yeah, it really sucks. I decide to pick up Saga last minute, but when I called the nearest comic book store, they said they didn't have any. The guy said that he doesn't usually order a lot of Image books, or a whole lot of indie books in general for that matter, because they don't sell well. It was a small store, but still.

Similar situation for me. Limited shelf space means 95% DC and Marvel. Great for those companies, bad for indies. Good thing for review sites and boards because comic book stores are bad places to actually see and learn about these quality titles. Distribution is an industry problem, especially if you're not DC or Marvel.