Doctor Goblipus said:
Then why are the HoM tie ins selling so well, huh smart guy? Every time Marvel does anything, people jump down there throats and call them money grubbing ****es who cant sell comics and dont care about fans. Clearly they can sell comics, being the #1 comic company on earth, but if I had fans lke you, I wouldnt give a **** either. Theres no pleasing you whiny bastards.
The sales of HOM are not in yet, especially since ANY crossover usually increases sales in the short run because there is more urgency, plus that simply means stores will order more copies because they anticipate sales.
Sales figures of comics are calculated oddly. Most companies ship comics to order through a middleman, in Marvel's case, Diamond. What happens is so many stores order so many copies across the globe, and then Marvel prints out that X amount of copies. They commonly also print out some extras in case some get damaged, and depending on the company/series, maybe some more extra. When a book "sells out", that simply means that every copy of it that had been ordered by shops previously was already ordered. The only way sales count would be if they told you how many "extras" they printed, and that's often omitted. When a book "sells out", that only means shops ordered a lot of them. How fast they move them is variable.
Easy example? ALL-STAR BATMAN & ROBIN #1 was supposedly the #1 seller. Yet every shop I go to has at least 2 dozen or more still gathering dust on the shelves. Same for LEGEND #1 or umpteen copies of AGE OF APOCALYPSE.
Mega-Events are done because, yes, they do sell well. But confusing HOM, a company spanning event, with a spin-off from 3 issues of Ultimate Fan Four is another.
Roach feels it's a Halloween thing, and I tend to agree; they sometimes do things like that. Like having a lot of monster books shipping out that likely won't move.
Marvel's hoping that Zombies, Kirkman, and an Ultimate spin-off can make a hit. Don't take me wrong; I LOVED the "Crossover" arc from UFF. I just didn't like it enough to snatch up a spin-off, or feel it will sell strongly. What does it bring to the Marvel Universe line. If Marvel thought about what all of their books are meant to accomplish in the line, they might have fewer titles, yes. But those fewer titles would allow for tighter continuity and stronger sales. It's easier to sell 10 of something than 100. Instead of, maybe, 5-7 X-Books, just concentrate on making 3-4 the best they can be becuse they have a set purpose. This sort of thinking happened when Joe Q was "fresh" and Marvel had to restore confidence after bankruptcy in the early 00's, but seems to be gone now in favor of reverting to 1994-esque logic. Of couse, they're #1, but keep in mind that failing Malibu comics in 1997 sold better than many comics in the Top 100 in 2005. Both companies need to find a way to come back to that peak versus going, "well, this is what we got, let's milk the hardcores who buy anything" over and over.
Besides entertaining the reader, what's the purpose of any comic?
p )
