Hellblazer Cancelled?

[Libaax]

How does them enjoying it help us?

Also he thinking strictly Superhero fans will suddenly become huge horror,Vertigo fans because of new ongoing. There are many of those who hate Ennis because he doesnt like Superhero, you think they will read Hellblazer where arguably the best run are by Ennis...

If the superhero readership could suddenly change their taste, HB,other vertigo would sell 50 000+ every month.

[Darrell D.]

Also he thinking strictly Superhero fans will suddenly become huge horror,Vertigo fans because of new ongoing. There are many of those who hate Ennis because he doesnt like Superhero, you think they will read Hellblazer where arguably the best run are by Ennis...

If the superhero readership could suddenly change their taste, HB,other vertigo would sell 50 000+ every month.

That will never happen.

[Darrell D.]

Then DC will be in a spot...because they cancelled a strong TPB seller. Its said that is what kept Hellblazer running even with a low 10,000+ a month pull. The TPB sales kept it around. I get the sense this cash grab will see readers pick the 1st issue up in the 30,000 range and it will sink quick. I give it 18-24 issues and you will see the company likely discuss ways of bringing back the Vertigo Constantine at some point. Whether readers come back to it after being ticked off ...remains to be seen. They may have alienated that fanbase with this move.

And, as Ellis stated, it was the only book in the American comic market for British horror stories. 300 issues or not, the book rarely had a less than good run..and even the 'bad' runs were 100 times better than the average super-hero book.

[Dizzy D]

Vertigo titles do attract a different public than DC titles, so people who pick up TPBs at a bookstore might check the Vertigo section, but look over the DC section thinking it's just standard superhero comics.

Wondering about the numbers on TPBs though, the only thing I could find so quickly was Hellblazer: Phantom Pains charting 12th on Diamond's TPB and GN list of February 2012, which doesn't seem bad at all. Then again TPBs have a longer shelf-life than single issues, so a single month is not saying that much either.

[Libaax]

That will never happen.

Yeah i know and thats what i tried to say to that poster. That is not gonna happen.

Different fanbases you have to keep both.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

And, as Ellis stated, it was the only book in the American comic market for British horror stories. 300 issues or not, the book rarely had a less than good run..and even the 'bad' runs were 100 times better than the average super-hero book.

Pretty true man. DC doesn't realize the cultural impact they are losing and its gonna hit once the 52 Constantine series doesn't work. You will see them scramble to land a Cornell or someone on the 52 series to try and get people to pull it.

[Superdog]

After sleeping on it... this makes PERFECT business sense. Take a < 10k selling book and make it a 30k+ selling book. Gain new readers, leading into increased sales of old Hellblazer trades as those new fans want more Constantine.

Those new readers are more important to DC than us old-timer Hellblazer readers.

But you know what? We got 300 issues. If it's true that the "new" Constantine fans get turned onto Hellblazer trades then maybe we'll have more Hellblazer readers than we've had in a long time and then they can enjoy those 300 issues.

In the meantime, I'm dropping JL Dark and not going to pick up Constantine unless I hear VERY good things about it.

I don't see the business sense of it. A new constantine series will inevitably bump Hellblazer sales. HB may not have been setting the charts on fire, but giving an ok selling book a bump and having a new good selling book would make sense. If the new book fails, you still have the old book. Cancelling the old one is a big risk, now, if the new book fails, they have squat. I think this has more to do with some marketing/rebranding nonsense.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Pretty true man. DC doesn't realize the cultural impact they are losing and its gonna hit once the 52 Constantine series doesn't work. You will see them scramble to land a Cornell or someone on the 52 series to try and get people to pull it.

I expect they know, but they don't care, simply because a) they don't give a crap about cultural impact if they can make more money by ignoring it, and b) they figure that if the DCU Constanting book does tank, they can just relaunch the Vertigo book with a new #1 and nobody will care. Maybe they'll even have Geoff Johns write it!

What they perhaps don't realize is that this choice poisons that well, for both the readers and the potential creators. Relaunches work differently for something like HELLBLAZER than for something like GREEN LANTERN.

[MajorHoy]

it needs star creative team to do 30k i think.

No, it needs a great creative team. A star/name creative team would help, but even if you get unknowns who suddenly become "hot", it would have a chance. (All those stars had to start somewhere . . . they didn't just suddenly spring up as big names without writing something first.)

[passer-by]

I can't see Constantine doing 30k in sales.
I could be wrong, though. I imagine it will limp along for 2 years and then quietly be cancelled.

Yes, I see it cancelled in one of the next Waves.

And Hellblazer was attracting people who wouldn't read a PC John Constantine evolving in a superhero universe, so not sure about the customer overlap between the two series, much less bumping the sales of either one. Different target groups.

I rather think that Warner/DC prefer a neutered John Constantine, and if it doesn't sell, well, there are always the cameos and guest-starring in other books...

[Superdog]

I couldn't see much spill-over from Hellblazer to Constantine, but I could see Constantine people picking up the R-rated version in Hellblazer.

[NinjaMic]

At what point do fans take responsibility for low sales?

It's one thing if the book did decent numbers and still got cancelled but.....

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I expect they know, but they don't care, simply because a) they don't give a crap about cultural impact if they can make more money by ignoring it, and b) they figure that if the DCU Constanting book does tank, they can just relaunch the Vertigo book with a new #1 and nobody will care. Maybe they'll even have Geoff Johns write it!

What they perhaps don't realize is that this choice poisons that well, for both the readers and the potential creators. Relaunches work differently for something like HELLBLAZER than for something like GREEN LANTERN.

Which is true JWK. They don't realize the fragile ground they are on. Because cancelling it alienates some pros from working with the company and some fans who will never pick up a New 52 John Constantine.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

At what point do fans take responsibility for low sales?

It's one thing if the book did decent numbers and still got cancelled but.....

At what point does not reading the thread and seeing that yes...Hellblazer sold 10,000 copies a month for sure. But TPB sales were good for it. Because if it wasn't...Hellblazer would have never made it this far honestly.

The TPB sales is what DC is in danger of losing here. Because fans of the series basically collected it like that over time. They could just say fuck it to a new Constantine series.

[Darrell D.]

At what point do fans take responsibility for low sales?

It's one thing if the book did decent numbers and still got cancelled but.....

The book survived through the TPBs, like the majority of Vertigo titles.
That's been made pretty clear.