Marvel's Business

[DBM]

From ICv2

Interview with Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley 2005, Part 3
Videogames and Variants
August 22, 2005

We recently conducted our annual interview with Marvel publisher Dan Buckley about the state of the comics business and Marvel's place in it. In Part 3, we talk about whether videogame licenses help or hurt comic sales and the risks and rewards of variant covers and reprints. In Part 1, we talk about the over-all market conditions for comics and graphic novels in comic stores, bookstores, mass merchants, and newsstand outlets. In Part 2, we discuss the way Marvel approaches its mass market outlets as ways to reach new consumers, the relationship between movies and graphic novel sales, and Marvel's graphic novel share and investment in inventory. And in Part 4, we talk about whether Marvel would ever license its comics (like it does toy manufacturing), whether comic-based movies are a bubble, how Marvel is approaching the female young adult market, and the challenges and opportunities for the coming year.


After movies, videogames are among Marvel's biggest licensing sources. We're curious as the publisher whether you think videogames help or hurt the sales of the paper product?

I think it helps. We might be competing with the dollars to a certain degree, but anything to get people that feverishly in support of the characters is a good thing. Our videogame partners have been great partners for the comic book publishing division. We've done co-marketing; we've worked on co-development of characters; we've shared designs. Anything that rounds out the experience of the characters is a great thing, and they do a great job supporting the characters. So hands down it enhances our sales, our perception, and our chance to make another sale. It's up to us to execute and get the product in front of them. It's not up to the videogame companies to do that for us.



The only place we've heard it as a negative is in the online games (and Marvel's massively multi-player stuff isn't really geared up yet). In the last year there have been two new online games, World of Warcraft and City of Heroes, which are a significant level stickier than the previous generation of those games. We've heard retailers say they have customers they haven't seen for three or four months coming in looking all haggard and tired. "Where've you been?" And they answer, "Building my characters." I think there's competition for time, but I haven't heard it of the Marvel games per se.

There is going to be a competition for time. But it makes that person dedicated to the character, and makes them that much more involved. It gives us more of a connection point to communicate with that consumer and get them excited about other products they can get. It's going to be awhile before our massively multi-player game comes out. The announcement for that was made in San Diego. But if it gets people more involved with the characters it's nothing but a good thing.



Turning to the heart of the direct market, one of the things Marvel has changed over the last couple of years is being willing on occasion to reprint books that sell out in their original configuration, and a lot of times you've been doing that with a new cover of some kind. There's a perception that is probably accurate to some degree that some of those second edition books go to satisfy demand that was unfilled by the first one. But some of them are purchased by people who already have the first one who want the additional cover, just so they have that additional piece of art and the collectable. Some people see a risk in that second group in that you're pushing the envelope in terms of how much money they spend on that character or book, and ultimately you hit a limit on what they can spend. What we've seen in this industry in the past is that sometimes when you hit that limit people just throw up their hands and walk away as opposed to cutting back and limiting the number of books they buy. How do you feel about the risk of alienating consumers by giving them more opportunities to buy the same product with slightly varied covers?

Good question. There's no hard and fast rule on how we approach our reprint policy, or even our reorder policies. It really comes down to what kinds of level of support we think we're doing for the product, how big a product do we think it is, so it comes down to a couple of different variables. Most of our variant programs are not that deep in volume. We do target the collector to a certain degree. The collector is very much a big part of our industry, and it's always going to be a part of our industry. That part needs to be satiated. It's my responsibility to provide that for the consumer and also provide it for the retailer to make some money on it. Do we have a scientific formula for what is that edge? I don't have it right now.



I know a lot of people are harkening back to the mid-nineties, to what was going on then, but that was a very different dynamic than what we're seeing here. If the collector wants to get another piece of art, that's fine for the collector. But the volumes associated with that, and the things that are up-priced as far as what kind of product it is, are different. Our bailiwick back in the mid-nineties, as you know, was doing special covers and not providing any extra story, and up-charging the hell out of it. The monthly numbers were much bigger as far as what we were putting out there, and the product we were making wasn't nearly as good either, from a story-telling standpoint.



Yes, they are marketing tools. I won't deny we use it as a marketing tool to generate excitement either around our big programs or books we think deserve more attention. But, for the most part, we're not using it as a big flood for our product. The variant covers we design are very much used to enhance volume of the core group and to drive volume of that core book. If there's a collector group that wants to get hold of something else that's fine. That market is out there. Other people are going after it and using it. Could it be affecting lower tier books for everybody across the board? It could be. I don't know the answer yet and we probably won't have the answer for another six months, seven months, eight months. The demand for it's been pretty good, we've been asked to go after it and support it; but we do bite our lips sometimes and say, 'No, that doesn't fit the number for that book very well. The volume for that against that doesn't make sense, and it isn't going to move out. The more precarious question we do need to ask is making sure we don't screw around with cash-flow for the retailers, because if they get locked up with a certain amount of inventory that's where a real effect can happen.



But that occurs when it stops selling. You don't know when that's going to be until it happens.

That's where we do bite our lips on some books and say, 'No, we've got enough out there for that book.' Some books we expect more volume and we know they should be doing more volume. It's probably more intimidating with the bigger books or mid-tier books that somebody might be promoting the hell out of, but you can tell by the second or third issue if it really helped hold the book up. It's worked several times. Runaways, it worked for us; it's worked well for Astonishing..., it worked well for things like that. You have to use it judiciously, but it is a marketing tool that people pay attention to. It does generate excitement for the product from both the trade and consumer level.

 

[DBM]

From ICv2.

Interview with Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley 2005, Part 4
Reaching Girls; A Comic Movie Bubble?
August 22, 2005

We recently conducted our annual interview with Marvel publisher Dan Buckley about the state of the comics business and Marvel's place in it. In Part 4, we talk about whether Marvel would ever license its comics (like it does toy manufacturing), whether comic-based movies are a bubble, how Marvel is approaching the female young adult market, and the challenges and opportunities for the coming year. In Part 1, we talk about the over-all market conditions for comics and graphic novels in comic stores, bookstores, mass merchants, and newsstand outlets. In Part 2, we discuss the way Marvel approaches its mass market outlets as ways to reach new consumers, the relationship between movies and graphic novel sales, and Marvel's graphic novel share and investment in inventory. In Part 3, we talk about whether videogame licenses help or hurt comic sales, and the risks and rewards of variant covers and reprints.



We had a discussion on our site a couple of months back prompted by speculation that since Marvel had oriented its business much more toward being a licensing company in the last few years that you might take the same approach to comics and license out your properties to be published by other publishers. What's your response to that?

From a business theorem I can understand why it's discussed, but it's just not something Marvel would explore because this is where we create the properties. This is the core area where the heartbeat is. Movies are driving them through the roof, don't get me wrong, and when we get animation up and going, TV. But this is where things are created and played with and presented and come out. It's not something I would foresee happening...at all!



So the difference between comics and movies or videogames or toys is that comics are where the IP comes from.

Yeah, it's where we manage the IP.



In other words, those are the style guides.

For the most part. It allows us to play with the style guides a little bit too.



Comics and movies have become so intertwined in all directions. In San Diego you can see that connection at so many levels, on the floor, and in panels. What do you think about that phenomenon in potential for further growth? Are we maxed out, is it a bubble, are we ever going to hit a wall where as fast as over the last few years comics have become a key source of IP for Hollywood that changes and turns back away from comics?

I don't foresee that happening (I hate giving such a simple answer to this). Once we're making good movies, and it's coming from good source material, the source material is solid for those people to make good decisions on their own with their own properties. Is it going to be explosive growth continuously? I don't think so, but I still see some growth. Do I see a bubble bursting on it real soon? No. Because we're in year five for this, and it's Sin City, Fantastic Four, Batman. They've all done relatively well, if not really well! People might put different expectations on these products at certain levels, but they're delivering from a box office standpoint and we haven't even got into the DVD part of the world. And then you're looking at sequels, at least on our side, for X-Men and Spider-Man. And then you're going to be looking at DC opening up the chest with Superman. So I don't see it falling off the charts. And then you still have these really cool things sitting on the side like a Sin City, an American Splendor, a Ghost World. It's a rich place for IP development. I don't see the bubble bursting. Some of the properties and movies haven't done that well and some have done well, and it's gone through that OK over the last couple of years; that's why I don't see it as bursting.



Otherwise after a movie like Elektra, which was quite a bit under expectations, people would have thrown up their hands and said, "This is over."

Then you go back and look at FF and Sin City, two very different movies, and Batman, and they've all done well. You're going to have hits and misses; that happens in any genre. Especially when you see what's coming down the pipe, I don't see anything exploding in the future.



We asked your Distinguished Competition this in a recent interview, and we want to ask you also: you mentioned Runaways as one way you're reaching out to what we think is the fastest growing part of the comics market, teen girls. How can Marvel attract that audience or help it grow?

The most important thing we need to do right now is to develop product that works there. Runaways is a good example, Spellbinders, and Machine Teen are products that we definitely feel if you look at it you're going to realize that's what they're designed for. I know I'm missing one...Mary Jane... We need to develop some depth, a backlist, something where we can develop some presence. A year ago we didn't have anything that we could walk into anybody to develop any kind of presence. I think we have enough product now that we can go in and start talking to people about developing a presence where it's not just one-off books off to the left or to the right. And one of the richest categories for us to date is still X-Men, how we tap into that. So we just need to keep designing the product. Then the next step is talking to the retail outlets where we think that will work and developing the marketing plan. You can develop marketing and awareness for a product to say 'Come try this,' but if we don't have the right product design for them to pick up it isn't going to go very far.



I know we can't impersonate manga. That's not going to be the answer to this question. Because manga's manga. Marvel makes Marvel books. We can play with the storytelling a little bit, but those girls that are reading manga have a very definitive understanding of what they feel manga is. I think it's something between manga and chapter books. We need to keep on playing with the product (and now I think we have enough to develop a presence), and now we just have to communicate directly with the end user and promote it and work with the distribution sources for it. We definitely need to work very closely with the bookstores to make that work.



Where do you see the key challenges and opportunities for Marvel over the next twelve months in growing the market?

Continued support firming up the newsstand business. Continually trying to develop that product that can catch some buzz with the YA female market. Runaways is a good example. I know it's not huge but it's a step in the right direction. Runaways made the Top Ten for Teen People's Buzz List. We never had anything there (laughs). So that's big news for us, and we just need to continue to build on that success. For our core business, for the direct market, we need to try to continue to put the best creators working with our best characters and get some really cool stories and deliver them on time so our biggest partners, the direct market retailers, have something to provide to their core and the new readers who come in. So [to summarize], continued support and growth in newsstand--just make sure it sticks; developing product with the book markets for YA market and market expansion (and not just for the YA market, but something that can reach out farther to the masses and expose people to graphic fiction); and for the direct market, just develop the best creators and the best characters.

 

[DBM]

This is part 1 of an interview with Devin Grayson from Comics Foundry. Honestly, it doesn't have much of anything to do with Marvel, but it does give a fantastic look at what it's like being a freelancer in the comics industry and what the process/effects of upper management can be at a comic company. I thought it'd be good to put in here.

Devin Grayson has been around the industry long enough to know how it works. She’s had a strong presence in the Bat titles (Nightwing) for some time now and has her a creator-owned series, Matador, on shelves. Now, in this exclusive Comic Foundry interview, Grayson talks about what she’s learned from her time in the comic industry and gives insight to what’s it’s like to be a freelance writer.

Note: This is part one of Devin Grayson’s CF interview. Part two will run Friday, Sept. 2

How have the idiosyncrasies of the comic industry changed in the past few years?
There are a couple of noticeable shifts that seem to work cyclically. The industry goes back and forth between featuring more literate, less mainstream work that is often able to attract new readers to the medium, and more bombastic, continuity-heavy work that keeps the long-term readers invested. There’s no inherent reason that any given company couldn’t do both, and, indeed, Marvel had that going for a little while with the Ultimate line running side by side with the regular series titles, but usually the person in charge of a publishing company’s marketing objectives will have a strong preference in one direction or another.

Likewise [there’s] a constantly seesawing emphasis on either characters and story content or high profile, creator “stars.” Again, there’s no reason a high-profile writer can’t create a great story that honors and promotes the characters, but usually the emphasis ends up being more on their celebrity than on the development and marketing of the character with whom they find themselves working.

Maybe because the people who end up running the major mainstream publishing houses are usually grown-up fans themselves with obvious and reinforced preferences for stories like the ones they grew up reading, or maybe because the industry as a whole seems always to be just on the brink of financial collapse, the product often has a hard time settling into a reliable identity. Just in one year of reading a single Batman title, for example, you could find yourself starting with a reasonably universe-integrated story line created by and playing to the strengths of a seasoned comic writer for three months, then find that the book has been swept into a much larger crossover story “event” with new writers rotating through. And then four months later, the book is under the control of a really exciting movie/TV/fiction best seller “auteur” who creates tremendous buzz and kind of reinvents everything from scratch with total carte blanche from the editors, but the year finishes out under a new editor and a “stable” writer who work together to try to pull it back into the continuity of the previous year, which is the last time either of them had any idea what was going on. If someone who didn’t read comics then asked you to say what that series was like, you’d be kind of at a loss for words. And an ill-defined product is deathly in marketing. I think many of the higher-ups in the industry understand this, but financially, there often isn’t enough time to set out on a venture and stick with it until it finds its audience and begins to generate consistent sales, so instead there’s a lot of panicking, a lot of perpetual reinvention, and a lot of “No, no, wait – this is gonna be SO cool!” bravado that pans out well slightly less than half the time.

I broke into the industry in the late ’90s when college students and twenty-somethings were breathlessly discussing Vertigo comics and the average reader was happy to put down money for small, independent titles and mainstream titles alike. DC was publishing mini-series, specials and anthologies featuring new talent and experimental ideas, and the big offices (i.e., “The Bat-Office,” “The Superman Office,” “The JLA Office,”) were by-and-large run as independent fiefdoms, each producing different and usually nonassociative, but also highly identifiable character-related content.

Today, I work for the same company, but I’m getting very different directives. I wish I could freely discuss the specifics because I think they’re illuminating, but part of the change is the tremendous level of continuity tie-in and the vast amount of secrecy this generates. The team responsible for choosing direction is much smaller, yet they’re making much more broadly reaching decisions. New guidelines and old events alike are being applied to books regardless of office of origin. Will the fans enjoy a universe with tighter continuity? Almost certainly. Will they be disappointed by how much the quality of writing suffers when four people are laying down the marching orders for forty? We’ll see. There are good and bad qualities in both models, but there’s no denying that they’re really, really, really different models. It will be interesting to see whether or not most readers even notice the change. I think externally those kind of changes feel to the reader like a slow evolution that maybe has as much to do with one’s own (theoretically maturing) taste in comics as anything else, but in reality, they can usually be traced to a single person in a prominent position in one of the two major publishing houses.

What is the most important thing you've learned since joining the comics industry?
That there’s a huge difference between working in the comics medium and working in the comics industry. The medium, when you begin to explore it, quickly reveals itself to be capable of handling almost any kind of storytelling. It’s great for pulling readers into the emotional life of a story and has a powerful, interactive aspect not precisely mirrored in any other type of fiction. I really feel like it’s still evolving as an art form and is open to a tremendous amount of redefinition and growth.

The industry, on the other hand – by which, by the way, I always mean the mainstream industry, since that’s where my experience lies – is one of the most limiting and circumscribed producers of fiction going. Though richly layered with decades of creator contributions and sometimes so archetypally pure as to survive almost any embarrassing mutilation, most mainstream superhero characters work not at crime-fighting or entertainment so much as at marketing. At the end of the day, Superman has to go sell Underoos and Batman gets his head planted on the top of a Pez dispenser. It is difficult to even begin to explain the ways in which this fundamental truth necessarily dominates and regulates character and story development. No one ever mentions it, but it is the financial driving force of the industry and ultimately influences every decision ever made about a superhero comic book. The next time you catch yourself balling your fists in frustration over a story line and yelling “Why don’t they just – ” I can almost guarantee you that the answer is “toothpaste.”

Second most important fact: there’s a huge difference between knowing everything about a comic character and knowing how to tell a story about that character.



How does working for a large corporation like Marvel or DC affect your job as a writer?
Um … you mean as opposed to working independently or for a smaller company? I actually find both companies fairly pleasant entities to work for most of the time, though certainly, in all industries, the larger the company the more virulent the bureaucracy. These are comic book people, though, and it doesn’t really take that long, once you’re in the industry, to have access to and get to know the major players, which can be very rewarding. Someone like Paul Levitz, for example, is not just the publisher, he’s also an extremely talented writer and a brilliant guy. I love talking to him just to glean wisdom. When I was working on The Titans I asked him how he plotted out his Legion story arcs and he drew me this great chart and really took the time to talk to me about subplots and the importance of individual characterization in team books. It was so generous of him and so inspiring for me. And Joe Quesada, of course, is “one of us.” Most of us “knew him when” and he remains one of the nicest, realest, most approachable guys in the industry. He’s also an artist, so just as Levitz really does know what it’s like to be a freelancer, Joe was one, figuratively speaking, yesterday. He totally gets it and is a tremendous asset to the industry balancing both those roles.

No matter which company you’re working for, comic-book writing is not an office job. We’re technically independent contractors, paid by completed project and working independently from home offices or studios. The only exception to that rule that I can think of is CrossGen, where creators were asked to actually report to an office and sit there every day, and although I imagine that worked reasonably well for certain types of creators, by and large I think it’s a crummy idea as, apparently, does providence (for those of you who don’t follow industry politics, CrossGen was a vanity publishing company in Florida that tanked after three years of operation). What that means in terms of your question is that even though I’m working for a very large company, I’m sitting here in my pajamas blasting the Eels and drinking home-brewed ice tea. On a day-to-day basis, the corporate culture doesn’t affect me very much. But it does come into play in terms of both the initial conversations about and clearance checks on the work I do, and then again during the final acceptance and marketing stages of that work.

For example, doing a Batman script for DC means that:


- My initial idea has to be cleared by my editor who may, if it’s controversial enough, have to get it cleared by the Batman Group Editor (Bob Schreck) who may, in turn, have to get it cleared by the VP (Dan Didio), the legal department, and/or the publisher (Paul Levitz).
- This means that, though I’m all excited and ready to work, I cannot start that script until all those people chime in and agree. Sometimes that’s a matter of three minutes worth of e-mailing, and sometimes it takes four months (during which, if that’s the only project I’m working on, I receive no pay, even if I’m rewriting the idea – or pitch – every week to address various concerns).
- It’s even possible that, after four months of trying to get this idea to work, someone decides it just won’t. Bam! I’m out four months pay and have to start at square one (unless the company agrees to a project “kill fee,” which is a way of paying me for my time even though there will be no published project).
- Assuming everyone does finally agree and I get the green light, the project can still be torpedoed in progress (i.e., while I’m writing it) by any of the following: a) another writer initiates a continuity status quo change that affects my story line (the editors are supposed to stay on top of this and usually do, but things do fall through the cracks sometimes), b) a crossover event begins, either derailing or postponing my story arc, c) an artist either makes a mistake or decides to change something in the script (again, this isn’t supposed to happen, but sometimes does), resulting in the editor calling me apologetically to tell me that it’s faster for me to change the dialogue than for the artist to redraw the page, d) a major motion picture and/or licensing deal is announced that somehow changes the requirements of what I’m doing (for example, when Greg Rucka and I were working on the ending of No Man’s Land, we at one point received a list of characters we couldn’t kill, no matter how much sense it made for the story, because they were either marketable action figures, appearing on a cartoon regularly, or were in some way considered essential to the Batman “franchise”; e.g., anything that can be sold. That left us, as I recall, with two viable choices out of something like seventeen).
- If I finish the product and someone in the hierarchy objects to it, it can still be pulled (or “shredded” as we like to say at that point).
- If I finish the script and turn it in and voucher (request payment for it) but then the artist draws something totally different than what I asked for and/or the editor changes dialogue, etc … I have no recourse to get my name removed from the final product even if I hate it, because it was created for DC under contract and becomes their property the moment I turn it in. I have at least one book I can think of that came out with my name on it that retains maybe two of my original sentences, tops. That feels pretty awful when it happens, but it’s part of the reality of freelancing. The same thing can happen to the penciler if he doesn’t like the inker’s work – his work is compromised, very few people know the difference between what he did originally and what appears on the page, but he’s going to shoulder the blame because the book will come out with his name on it.
- Even if I have strong ideas about how the story should be marketed, chances are I won’t even be consulted about copy for Previews and/or “house ads” (advertisements for DC Comics that appear within DC Comics). The nightmare example of this is the crucial plot twist that you’ve worked so hard to keep secret ending up printed in Previews or Wizard because someone in marketing has never spoken to you and didn’t understand that it was a reveal.


Those are some of the realities of working on a contractual basis with franchise characters for a major publishing house. The flip side is that your product is usually quite well-funded (which means it will come out nicely packaged and strongly marketed with no effort on your part), you get to work with other professionals at the top of their game without having to go searching for them (the editor is usually in charge of assembling the creative team for any given project), the product is published at no financial risk to you (meaning you make your page rate even if only two copies sell), and, of course, you have the amazing honor of receiving access to some of the most dynamic, iconic fictional characters in the history of literature.

What role does an editor play? How much influence does an editor have on the work? In the end, who wins the argument?
The editor is extremely important in mainstream superhero comics. He or she is responsible for assembling the team (pairing writers and artists who will work well together, finding an inker that will complement the penciler, getting the right colorist, and figuring out how to get all of those people on the same schedule), “traffic copping” (which sounds menial but is actually the terrifically important job of making sure that the assembly line work flow keeps moving … if I’m late with a script, for example, the artist can’t start, and the inker can’t do anything until the artist turns in his or her pencils, and of course the colorist is waiting on the inker, etc.), troubleshooting (which can include anything from getting art references for a penciler to talking a writer off a ledge to fixing something that has already gone horrifically awry), continuity-proofing (which entails knowing what’s going on in every other book that’s being produced and being able and willing to communicate with other offices to, for example, make sure Ra’s Al Ghul isn’t dead in one book and paddling down the Suwannee River in another, or to make arrangements for a Bat-writer to use Superman or the Flash in a story, etc.). He or she is also the creative team’s advocate (“What!? Why can’t I show condoms on Dick’s bedside table!? We’re not supposed to advocate safe sex!? Dammit, go talk to Paul!”) and, most importantly, the corporate guardian of the characters (“Okay, here’s the deal. I spoke with Paul, and he talked to Burbank, and you can show crumpled foil near the bed, but that’s it. The Warner Bros. office is concerned about explicit sexual content in a Bat-related book that could conceivably be picked up by a 10-year-old in Utah … etc”).

Cont'd in next post.

 

[DBM]

Continuation.

Generally, a good editor’s work is invisible. He or she has put together a strong creative team, helped clear the way for them to get where they wanted to go corporately, assisted them in getting there creatively if necessary, delivered the product to the company on time and helped to make everyone feel relaxed and happy (and/or excited and pumped up) about what they were doing. There are, of course, bad editors who put together ill-suited teams (which usually results in said editor then having to field a lot of calls from unhappy freelancers), won’t go to bat for their freelancers (“Let’s just not make any waves, OK?”), and/or, most egregiously of all in my opinion, feel the need to “put their mark” on everything that comes out of their office, either over-steering projects or indulging in heavy-handed editing (personally, I think an editor should never change a writer’s dialogue without first asking the writer if he or she would like a crack at it, but it happens). There are also great editors who occasionally fall into one of these holes.

The cream of the crop operate like muses for their freelancers, laboring with creative talent to get the very best work out of them and inspiring the creators to strive for and achieve greater goals than they could or would have without the encouragement. Creating can be lonely work, and sometimes the editor’s job is really to function as a cheerleader, touching in by phone or e-mail just to stroke a little ego or make sure the creator feels like they’re part of a team instead of an isolated workhorse. Though this may feel undignified or banal to the editor, it’s actually hugely important. I once had an editor show me the list of artists he called every single day just to say “hi,” because that’s what they needed to keep going. And damn if he didn’t get great work out of them.

The final say is always the editor’s (or, truthfully, the editor’s boss’), except on a creator-owned projects where the writer does have the option of pulling the project to shop it elsewhere. If a Batman editor and I are arguing about a Batman story, though, I’m allowed and even encouraged to present my case, but we both know that at the end of the day, what editorial says, goes. This is a basic function of ownership. Who owns the character? They have the final say.

What about the publishers and upper management? How do their roles affect you as a writer?
They set the general tone, both in terms of workplace culture and creative direction. And, of course, they vary tremendously in terms of how hands-on they are – Mike Carlin was the head of editorial at DC for years when I was first working for the company, and although big, new projects had to get his OK before they could be pitched to the publisher, in general my sense was that he encouraged the group editors (i.e. Batman group, Superman group, JLA group) to follow their own hearts and set their own tones, the result being diverse, and to some extent separatist, material. In comparison, current VP Dan Didio is extremely involved on the creative level, working with a (very) small group of writers to create binding continuity events for the entire DCU, the result being tight continuity, but much less autonomy for individual creators and far less product diversity.

Upper management (VPs or editors in chief) also has a lot of influence on hiring practices, so when you see, for instance, a lot of fresh, new talent, that’s a new editor or an edict from upper management. Similarly, when you see a trend towards, to put it bluntly, “star ****ing,” when every book is suddenly being assigned to someone outside the industry who has some kind of major pop culture cred, that’s usually the result of upper management wanting to attract a certain kind of publicity and cache.

Can you take us through the life of a script? What happens after you write it and turn it in? What are the steps?
An editor would be even clearer on this than I am, but here’s my understanding of what happens. I send my script in to the book editor as a Word file attached to an e-mail. For a regular series, like Nightwing, often no one else needs to look at it, but for a larger project, like the Ra’s Al Ghul “Year One” thing (or during a crossover event), the script itself may also have to be approved by the other editors in the editorial group, and possibly even by upper management and/or the company publisher. During crossovers, they also get sent to other writers working on the same event. If any of those people have a problem with it, a good editor calls or e-mails the writer and talks him or her through the changes they want. The writer then has a day or two to make those changes and turn the script back in. A bad editor just changes stuff without calling the freelancer. The only thing I hate more than being asked to change things is not being asked to change things.

Once the company has a script they’re happy with, the editor sends a copy to the penciler. Very new pencilers will be asked to send in a breakdown, or “spring board,” of what they intend to do; a regular series artist may do that for him or herself but will otherwise pretty much just dive in. If reference material is needed, the artists may call the scriptwriter or the editor (whichever he or she tends to get faster responses from), ditto questions (it frequently happens that you’re working on the sixth script for a series and the artists calls with questions about the second or third issue, which can be a little disorienting for a second).

As the penciler finishes batches of pages (the standard comic book is 22 pages of art), he sends them in to the editor, who indicates where the balloon placements for the dialogue are going to be if the penciler hasn’t already done this, and then forwards the pages on to the inker. The inker goes over the penciler’s work, refining it and adding weight and texture to the lines.

From the inker, I believe the art pages go back to the editor and then out to the letterer, who also receives a copy of the script from the editor and gets the proper text into the captions and balloons, sometimes by hand but with increasing frequency by computer. When all the pages have been penciled, inked, and lettered, the editor sends a copy back to the writer, called the issue “black-and-white.” This is usually the first time the writer has seen the art work, and it’s usually a month or two after having finished the script – the good news is that the writer now has time to correct any mistakes in the text – either typos or dialogue corrections that help the text work better with the art. The bad news is that it’s usually way too late at this point to change any of the art, so if something has gone wrong – say the penciler has strayed way off the original script and the editor didn’t check the art pages against the script, so now there’s a major missing element in the story or and unexpected, extra beat – it’s up to the writer to fix it. That, as you can imagine, has been known to cause some tension between writers and artists – there’s nothing like turning in a really tight script that achieves everything you want it to only to get back art two months letter that bears no resemblance to what was requested and then be asked by your editor to change the dialogue to match the artwork instead of the other way around. So much for auteurism! But as much of a pain in the neck as this is, the reasoning for it is obvious – it takes the penciler and inker easily twice as much time to patch a finished art page as it takes the writer and letterer to change some dialogue, and any business that puts out monthly products isn’t about perfection, it’s about getting something – sometimes anything! – out onto those shelves.

The writer sends in any text and very minor art corrections back to the editor, who forwards those changes to the letterer and inker, and then the black and white gets sent to the colorist.

As the writer, I don’t see or hear anything about the book again until it shows up in my comp box, but after it gets colored, it gets resized, printed, shipped, and distributed.

How does the relationship work between the writer/penciler/colorist? Does anyone have veto power over anyone else's work?
Technically, the editor has veto power over everyone’s work, but beyond refusing to work with each other, freelancers don’t have much say once a project’s rolling. There’s just no time. Vetoing something would mean it would have to get done over again, and that practically never happens – the book would miss the ship date, which would lose the publisher money, and no one cares about anyone’s ego enough to let that happen. Now, I’m talking about mainstream DC and Marvel comics – it’s a little different if the project is creator-owned and potentially quite different if the project is self-published. But if you’re working for The Man, you learn real quickly how you fit into the assembly line. That the quality of most comic books is as high as they are is actually something of a miracle, and part of what I love about the business. Knowing what everyone goes through and how frustrated everyone sometimes gets, it’s amazing how well things work out so much of the time.

And think about this too for a minute in terms of artistic ego: The writer puts their all into a script, which then can be literally rewritten by an editor or figuratively reinterpreted by an artist, and as freelancers, we don’t have the legal right to get our name off of the book even if we loathe the final project. The penciler puts a whole month or more into these 22 pages … and then literally has someone draw over his or her work. God help you if you don’t like your inker, you’re totally screwed. By the same token, the inker usually never even sees the script and has no say in the penciled pages that arrive, but he or she has to make them work. And all three of these people have to ask how high if the editor, at any point in the project, says jump. And the editor, to be fair, is answering to God knows how many higher-ups, trying to keep both the company and the freelancers happy. It utterly astounds me when people talk about wanting to break into comics to be recognized or to “finally have control over the characters.” I think this is part of the reason why comic creators get as defensive as they sometimes do about virulent criticism – I certainly don’t feel, and I know that few of my colleagues do, that most readers truly understand what goes into the creation of these products and how much compromising we’ve already had to do before anyone even opens the book. That’s just the price for working with such high-level characters and, as far as that’s concerned, it is, ultimately, worth it. It’s an incredibly cool job, but it is a job, complete with bosses, co-workers, company policies and all kind of other things that can be either blessings or curses on any given day.

How does your job work with a letterer? Can you ask to go back in and change a line break?
I don’t tend to speak directly to the letterer (though I’m always happy to), but after I see the black-and-white, I can contact the editor and ask for changes, and they’ll get made if they’re reasonable and not too time-consuming. Generally, a line break is not something you’d make a letterer go back in and fix, but a misspelled word (even if it’s my fault from the original script) or a serious punctuation error is, assuming that we catch it in time. Every now and then a line that worked great in the script reads off on the page, and again, if there’s time, we’ll change it. But by the time the writer receives the issue black-and-white, express shipped from the editor, there’s usually less than eight hours to indicate those changes.

—Interview by Tim Leong

Make sure you check back on Friday, Sept. 2 for the conclusion of CF’s exclusive interview with Devin Grayson.

 

[iloveclones]

Great article, DBM. Probably makes you like the independents even more! I wonder who she was talking about with this:

Similarly, when you see a trend towards, to put it bluntly, “star ****ing,” when every book is suddenly being assigned to someone outside the industry who has some kind of major pop culture cred, that’s usually the result of upper management wanting to attract a certain kind of publicity and cache.

 

[rubio]

Nice article, too bad Grayson herself is one of the crappiest writers in the biz.

 

[DBM]

Here's the second half of the Grayson interview. Again, no so much about Marvel, but gives more of a look into the industry.

This is part of Devin Grayson’s exclusive interview with Comic Foundry. For part one, please click here.

How are politics prevalent in the comic industry? What are the slips a new artist or writer should avoid doing/saying?
The more money that’s involved, the thinner the political tightrope you can expect to be walking. I think there are three very important things to remember.

The first is: BE WILLING TO LEARN. As much as you may know about your own skill and the characters and what you do or do not like in a comic, the people you start working for will invariably know more about the business of making comics than you will. You must be willing to listen to them and treat them with respect. They are responsible for answering to business higher-ups and putting out X amount of comics every single month and believe me, they don’t care nearly as much about “fixing” that one continuity mistake that’s been driving you crazy since 1987 as you do. You are there, ultimately, to make someone else money. That sounds harsh, but it’s just a bottom line of business that you have to keep in mind. It doesn’t mean that you can’t do work that you find meaningful or that no one cares about your passion – they do. It just means that unless you’re willing to dig into your own wallet to produce your own vision, you’re going to have to cooperate with the people who are. And by “cooperate” I mean “do what they say.” You can always argue, you can make your case, you can quit, you can refuse to work with certain editors or freelancers … but at some point if you’re doing a lot of this you need to recognize that you may be in the wrong line of work. Being an independent contractor means using your skill to deliver your client something made to his or her specifications.

The second is: BE FLEXIBLE. Comics are a serialized medium that demand fresh product every month. You may have the best idea in the history of fiction, but if you can't immediately change 14 things about it on request (such and such character is unavailable, so-and-so can't do that because we have him selling toothpaste in a major national campaign next month, this-or-that was destroyed in the last big event and can't be used now, or – I swear to god, the worst one I ever heard about – “This doesn't seem very visual, but what if they were all cats?”) and develop it into 12 other ongoing story arcs, your one story is, quite frankly, not going to be worth an editor's time. They're not going to develop you as a writer because of one great idea when they could instead put their effort into someone who consistently coughs up 20 OK ideas. Comics are about flexibility and quantity, not continuity and quality. To be successful, you have to be someone who loves the process of writing — the thinking and the starting over and being all alone in front of a keyboard and sweating it out part — not just someone who loves comics. I'm sure you guys already know not to get into comics for fame (if you need a reminder of how nice readers are to comic writers, type my name into any comics-related BBS search engine and enjoy the love), and I can tell you right now that there hasn't been money involved in it since that last X-Men boom in the ’80s. And I wish I could tell you that it's worthwhile to go into it for love of the characters, which is what I tried to do, but the truth is, even that ends up pretty badly: the characters are corporate-owned entities designed for marketing deals, and chances are good that there's a reason no one has ever yet tried your One Great Idea. Chances are, we're not allowed to. The only reason to work in comics as a writer is because you love writing. Any other motivation will bring you grief.

Last but not least: BE NICE. As outlined above, a lot of people are involved in constructing a comic. It’s a team effort. You’re not going to like everyone, and you don’t have to. But you really do have to be professional and polite. There are a few heavyweight, well-established talents who get pretty vocal when they’re unhappy and I guess it works for them, but I really don’t recommend it for those just starting out. This doesn’t mean you have to be obsequious, just that you need to recognize that everyone is there because someone believes they have something to offer. And actually, there are an unusually high number of extremely talented people in this industry and there’s probably something you can learn from almost every single one of them.

So that new writers don't get shortchanged — What can a new writer expect as a salary range?
With DC and Marvel, you receive a starting page rate (receivable in full when the project is completed and accepted), which is increased slowly over time (unless you’re doing a prose project – the novels are generally 75K words for a set price). Beginning page rates, last time I checked (which was quite a while ago) are around $70 per. It tops out around $120, unless you have a special deal (like an exclusive contract with a special page rate or bonus). The big companies are not going to shortchange you, it’s not in their best interest. The smaller companies often pay less because they have less capital to play with, but sometimes you can get more autonomy on a project or have more say in picking your team.

And remember, too, that it’s not salary. It’s contractual pay. Even if you are working on an exclusive contract with a guarantee of X amount of work over the course of a year, you do not get paid until that work is completed, and you cannot complete that work until those projects are cleared. There is never a guarantee that the next check is coming. Your series can be canceled. You can be replaced. You can removed from a book for a few months while something else happens. You can be stuck in clearance limbo for months at a time. Freelancing, by definition, is not a secure line of work.

The other tricky thing to remember is that this is untaxed income. The companies keep track of what they pay you in any given year, but they do not withhold tax money. Full-time freelancers (in the U.S.) pay quarterly taxes, including self-employment tax. The minute you get paid, put 40 percent of it away for the government and try not to cry.

Terry Moore said it's harder to stay in the business than it is to break in. What should writers do after they finish their first gigs?
BEFORE you finish your first assignment, you need to be networking with the editors and drumming up new work. Unfortunately, self-marketing and artistic skills don’t often go hand and hand, but you have to learn both to survive. A common mistake is to wait until something’s finished to start looking for your next project – if at all possible, you want it lined up well before you voucher (turn in and request payment for) your previous project. Lulls can be perceived as a “loss of heat” (“You were so hot last month but now I’m not hearing anything about you …” – “Uh, well, you would if you’d let me do this next project.” – “Well, I’d let you do that project if you were generating heat.” – the old Catch-22). As I think I said earlier, the editor is the only one who can assign work to you (though if you only know one editor, you do want to turn in the work you owe him or her before asking for more – the hope is that you’ve managed to meet more than one).


You also need to build up a reputation … for almost anything. Just something that distinguishes you from the pack. I’m known among the editors, for instance, as being good with characterization, so I tend to be one of the first freelancers they think of when they have a very character-driven story they want to assign. Other writers are known for being great with action or crime drama or team dynamics or even just for being reliable and fast. Usually, the guy known for action can also do characterization and the chick known for characterization can also do action, but that doesn’t matter (you’ll get a chance to prove that once you’re actually working), what matters is that you’re associated with something. Same goes for artists.

There’s an old adage in the business: “A perfect freelancer is talented, fast, and easy to work with. But two out of three will do.” Early on, you really need to hit all three.

And Terry Moore, by the way, is one of the genuinely nicest and smartest guys you’ll ever get a chance to talk to.

cont'd in next post.

 

[DBM]

cont'd from previous post

On Writing:

What is a theme and why is it important to a comic story? Is it necessary?
Theme is one of several key elements involved in story structure. I’m happy to discuss it here, but be aware that we’re doing so out of context. To really explore theme, you need to look at where it fits in the complete structure of a story. For that I recommend formal story-structure training, either via a fiction class, a seminar (Robert McKee’s “Story Structure” is a famous and high-quality workshop you can often find offered in L.A. and New York), or some good, old-fashioned reading (there are tons of books available on story structure these days, but a few I can personally recommend are: Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey, Bonnet’s Stealing Fire from the Gods, and McKee’s Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting).

The theme is the value the story is exploring on an emotional level. This is different from what’s actually happening in the story (the action), who or what is being operated upon in the story (the protagonist, closely tied into the story point of view), and also different from the world the story covers (the subject). Though obviously Batman stories cover many different themes, in general I’d say by way of example that the over-arching legend of Batman is a story about a tragic hero (Bruce, our protagonist) struggling to become and remain a hero (the action) dark and powerful enough to defend virtue (the dominant plot) in a threatening, violent urbanscape (Gotham, our subject). The theme of the Batman legend is vengeance (and by extension, its opposite, forgiveness).

Theme is important in any story – comic book or otherwise – because it is the essence of what the story is communicating. It is the why of the story, the essential truth behind the allegory. To make up a spur-of-the-moment allegory to explain this, imagine that we’re sailing. The plot is our boat. Without that, we’re going nowhere. The subject is our ocean – everything we might include or refer to during our journey, the world in which our travels take place. Theme is our destination. Without it, we might have a really cool boat and a beautiful (or turbulent) sea to ride, but we’ll never get anywhere. We’d have nowhere to go.

Now, it is possible to write a story without intentionally having a theme, but usually one will suggest itself to you along the way, or be evident to your reader even if it’s eluded you. And usually the parts of the story not directly commenting in some way on the theme will feel superfluous and out of synch with the rest of the story. You can see this sometimes in a monthly comic that’s been interrupted by a crossover event – the writer’s exploring a theme in the series, and then there will be two to four pages introducing or commenting on a new action that just seem incredibly out of place. That’s ’cause they are. They’re part of another, larger story, with, more often not, a completely different theme.

Where do I get themes? Do I just make them up or is there a list I should choose from?
There’s no list. You get it from your head (or, if you’ll allow some sentimentality, your heart). The theme is what you’re talking about, what you’re sharing. If you don’t have anything you want to talk about, it’s going to be difficult to convince other people to care about your story.

Superhero comics are interesting in this regard because there’s already a default theme in place, like vengeance for Batman or altruism for Superman. But to really make your mark – to get readers excited about your story – you’d probably better find something new to talk about. My main theme for the Batman stories in Gotham Knights, for example, was sacrifice – the stories were about Batman and his family and they were exploring the nature of sacrifice – what you have to give up (and, by extension, what you can keep) to be effective in that particular mission. Vengeance is still present as an undercurrent, but those stories aren’t exploring that particular theme in any depth. Though there are lots of different characters and story lines, thematically what tied my run on that book together was an exploration of personal sacrifice.

Can I have more than one? How many is too many?
You can explore different themes in a story, but then you’re splitting your focus. I guess the answer to how many is too many is: one more than how many you can keep track of and articulately comment on or authentically explore. But I think unless the themes are wedded somehow – jealously and revenge, for example, or altruism and self-sacrifice, you’re making the story unnecessarily complicated for your readers and yourself. That’s a tricky questions though, I’d have to think of a few more examples. My hunch is that looking at too many themes means that none of them get explored very deeply, and it’s more powerful to stick with one and really delve into the true nature of it. If you have a story thematically exploring love and jealousy and sacrifice and ambition and grief and betrayal and passion and pride, for example, I think nine times out of 10, you’ll end up with histrionic mud. In fiction, too, you don’t state the nature of a theme – if you want to tell me what love is, then write an essay. In fiction we explore what things can and might mean. And to do that with any honesty, I think you need to commit yourself story by story to specific explorations. Otherwise, every time you got close to a thematic value that surprised or confused you, you could just shift thematic focus, and nobody would learn anything.

How do thematic development and character development work together?
Well, there’s two separate levels of character development. The initial character development happens independent of theme, it’s the deepening and fleshing out of character creation. At least the way I write, the characters come first, and they get to be pretty whole and three-dimensional well before I even start thinking about what I want to explore with them and then what that means will have to happen.

But then yes, there is character development that happens during the course of the story, and there will be a thematic parallel. To oversimplify (and still be completely incomprehensible), you are attempting, in a story, to have your protagonist integrate the lessons of the nature of the theme into his being. Going back to our Batman example, then, if our theme is vengeance, Batman’s character begins developing as someone in pursuit of this rather nebulous concept. His defeats and victories continually teach him more about the true nature of vengeance – that, for example, it will not heal the pain of his grief, but that the continuing desire for vengeance will be a quality from which he can continue to draw strength. As he integrates these lessons, he develops as a character. Eventually, depending on which version of the story you like, he either finds the man who murdered his parents, or realizes that he probably never will find him – and in both stories, he nonetheless goes out again the very next night, and all the nights thereafter. He has at this point integrated vengeance into his character and, essentially, transcended it. And here we explore another important quality of vengeance – it is fiery and taxing and not endlessly sustainable. Batman, our hero, continues on.

Character development, by the way, is one of the trickiest things to tackle in serialized drama, because if a book is running for 60-odd years, there’s a status quo that the character will have to be returned to. With an ongoing project like Nightwing, the story has no clear beginning or end, so it’s not just a matter of getting Dick from Point A to Point Z and then ending the story. In ongoing comics we have to work with story arcs and the “illusion of change.” To actually have a character grow is very tricky, and must be approached with great subtlety and patience.

What if the reader doesn't pickup on the theme?
Then they probably will say something like “I didn’t get the story” – it won’t connect for them or mean anything to them. That may be a matter of individual taste, or it may be that you as the writer weren’t clear or focused enough (or, as we’ve explored earlier, that you were knocked off course by an element beyond your control). Theme is a difficult thing to work with clearly and it takes continual practice. When it does work, it’s very rewarding and when it doesn’t, well, you have an opportunity then to play with that theme again and see if you can go deeper.


It’s also possible that your reader will respond to the story and think it’s powerful even if they can’t consciously identify or summarize the theme. That’s OK. That means that thematic value was present for them in some way, and that’s good enough. Not everyone knows how to deconstruct a story, and that’s fine, that’s not a requirement. What’s more problematic is when people don’t know how to read a basic story structure, and that happens in comics quite a bit. The clearest example of this I can personally relate concerns Relative Heroes. The theme of that story is grief (and, by extension, denial). That’s what’s being explored. But one of the most common criticisms I heard about the story, in the words, even, of one professional reviewer who should have known better was that, to paraphrase, he didn’t like the story because the kids weren’t dealing with their grief. Well … that’s what the story was about; the journey from denial to expression. The reason the reader expected the characters to be grieving was because I had put that on stage and identified it as the problem. Now, it’s certainly possible that I didn’t resolve the issue satisfyingly or well, but this was a six-part story, and if you read to the end, you would see the issue addressed. These complaints and this review were based on the second or third issue. It’s completely legitimate to criticize a writer for not handling a theme well, but to read half of a story and criticize them, essentially, for presenting a conflict that hasn’t yet been resolved is a little odd and shows ignorance of basic story structure (of course it’s not resolved in Act II, it’s not supposed to be!).

I actually ended up contacting that reviewer and asking him if DC had mentioned, when they sent him those issues to review, that it was only a six-part story (with, then presumably, a beginning, middle and end) and he admitted that he hadn’t even realized that. He had reviewed it as if it were a continuing serial. He might still have not liked the story, which is fine, but in no other kind of writing that I’ve been involved with do readers point out story conflict – the key component of drama and rising action – as the element they want removed from the story. Conflict is set up and put on stage in stories to be resolved. A reader who panics the minute they see conflict in a story and assumes that it will never be addressed simply does not have experience with reading structured fiction (which may be a criticism of the comics industry as much as any individual reader). You may not like the way a writer solves a problem, but you have to understand that when they put a problem on the page, they are doing so in order to address it. To assume they’re unaware of the conflict (that they themselves have set up) is a kind of dramatic structure illiteracy that I find both very interesting and very frustrating. I’ve really started to wonder if this points to a larger structural failure in serialized fiction, but so far, I haven’t seen that.

Is there any practice you can suggest for working on thematic development?
As mentioned above, it’s critical to study story structure in its entirety. There’s no point in mastering theme if you don’t understand rising action and archetypes and dramatic conflict and story wheels. If it sounds intimidating, don’t worry. The cool thing is, once you absorb all of it, you kind of get to put it aside – it’s the technique you fall back on, not the unbreakable law. And, of course, there are probably plenty of great writers who never studied formally, but why not avail yourself of the knowledge of those who did? Better to know and choose to disregard (or use) than not to know.

Also, read! Not just comics – read novels and poetry and short stories and movie scripts and song lyrics and essays, both to develop vocabulary and awareness of structure. Find out what moves you, what you’re interested in – not just in terms of subjects, but in terms of themes. What are the themes currently dominating your own life? Can you identify them? Are there themes you find yourself drawn to over and over again in songs or movies or TV shows? What do you most want to talk to the world about? What do you really wish you understood? What are you most afraid of? What are your own core values and have you explored them? Talk to everyone. Try to resist judging people, or when you do judge them, try to imagine what series of events might have created them, try to find something about them you can respect, even love. Invite questions and uncertainty and exploration. Learn to live with flux.

And write! Every day. About anything. Just keep doing it. It is, at the end of the day, the one thing that absolutely all successful writers do.

And last but not least, live! You won’t be able to explore themes very deeply if you don’t have authentic experiences to draw from. The best thing about being a writer is that absolutely everything is relevant – every friend you speak to, every place you visit, every bit of technical jargon you memorize, every skill you master, every event you attend, every food you taste, every mistake you make, every emotion you feel – all of it is usable. And don’t make up your mind about anything. Fiction is about truth, not reality. To explore truth we need to be open-minded and experimental and fearless. We need to understand how many different ways there are to live one’s life, how many choices we make every day, how we come to be who we believe we are. Everything is germane, from the smallest detail to the broadest generality. When you put writing out into the world, you’re asking for people to listen to you.

Have something to say.

—Interview by Tim Leong

 

[iloveclones]

Nice article, too bad Grayson herself is one of the crappiest writers in the biz.

I'm sure you guys already know not to get into comics for fame (if you need a reminder of how nice readers are to comic writers, type my name into any comics-related BBS search engine and enjoy the love),

That was kind of funny to me.

A lot of insightful things in here that fans should keep in mind when they go off on rants and boycotts about Pet Peeve #2634.

I like what she said about the problems of character development in serialized fiction. Because what fans say they want is growth, but they also want the status quo. So writers sort of have to give the illusion of growth.

 

[DBM]

From The Motley Fool.

Will Licensing Doom Marvel?

By Nathan Alderman (TMF Nato)
September 19, 2005

Steve is 7 years old, and he's a fan of Marvel Entertainment's (NYSE: MVL) Spider-Man, right down to his Spidey sneakers. He watches the movies and the cartoons, and he plays the video game -- but he has no interest whatsoever in the wondrous web-slinger's comic books.

That can't have come as good news to writer Peter David, who met Steve the other week while taking his young daughter to the playground. (David happens to be the writer of the Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick's new Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man comic, which makes its debut in October.) In the long run, it's probably not good news for Marvel, either.

Don't get me wrong -- Marvel's doing well now, and it will probably continue to do so for years to come. With the popular characters it can export to Hollywood, TV, and toy store aisles, it hasn't even exhausted its A-list. But we Fools are taught to buy and hold investments for the really long run -- and in my opinion, Marvel will make a poor prospect in the future unless it revitalizes its publishing efforts today.

The comic books that gave birth to Marvel's current prosperity are increasingly overshadowed by the company's licensing efforts. Marvel is currently gorging on the fruits of 40 years' worth of writers' and artists' creativity. But it's not adding epic new stories and top-notch characters to accompany those properties as quickly as it's wearing out the old ones. What happens when the fabled House of Ideas runs out?

Golden oldies
Nearly all of the famous characters that define Marvel today were created between 1963 and 1965. The majority of them -- including the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Hulk, and the X-Men -- sprang from the pen of the late Jack Kirby. (Neither Kirby nor Steve Ditko, who co-created Spider-Man with Stan Lee, ever saw significant royalties from their creations.)

Marvel hasn't created an enduring hit character since 1974, when the improbably coiffed mutant Wolverine turned up in an issue of The Incredible Hulk. Even among the 10 big screen-bound properties Marvel recently announced as part of its production deal with Paramount, only two -- C-list teams Cloak & Dagger and Power Pack -- date past that period, and they launched back in 1983 and 1984, respectively.

A secret vulnerability
In its most recent quarter, Marvel's publishing arm tallied $20.9 million in net sales, comparing respectably with its licensing ($43.9 million) and toy ($23.4 million) ventures. But remove that mask and look at the operating income: While licensing brought in $28.2 million and toys commanded $13.2 million, publishing brought in only $7.89 million -- down more than 12% year over year.

Though the comic book industry moves in boom and bust cycles, the average circulation for even the most popular comic books has gone nowhere but down over the past four decades. Comic book readers -- at least the ones in which superhero comics like Marvel's are concerned -- are a dying breed.

Pandering to the fanboys
Superhero comics are largely a boys' club. That's why the latest incarnation of Supergirl -- from DC Comics, Marvel's Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) competitor -- dresses like Britney Spears, and it's also why the recently revived Spider-Woman leaves little to the imagination. The obvious attitude toward women, along with superhero comics' frequent focus on conflict over character, can limit the appeal of Marvel and DC's comics for girls, and that cuts the companies' potential audience in half. In all fairness, though -- and to its credit -- Marvel has recently launched a slate of titles featuring strong, smart, realistically dressed and anatomically feasible young heroines. However, all but one of those titles is written by men, and none is selling particularly well in comic book stores.

In addition, both companies' continuity -- the ever-expanding record of who did what in their fictional universes -- has grown increasingly convoluted and dark. DC's ongoing "Infinite Crisis" storyline kicked off with a second-tier hero getting his brains graphically blown out by a former friend; it's so complicated that DC has to publish guides to all the various tie-ins. Marvel's own big event, "House of M," has served largely to resurrect a secondary character who was killed off in last year's big event.

No wonder young Steve would rather stick with video games.

Here comes Godzilla
None of this means that kids have abandoned comic books -- in fact, they're reading more of them than ever. But most of those comics aren't coming from Marvel or DC -- or even the from U.S. at all. The flourishing popularity of Japanese manga digests has turned the American comics market upside-down.

In direct-market comic shops, Marvel and DC are nearly neck-and-neck as the top dogs of market share. Marvel commanded more than 41% in June 2005, with DC right behind at just over 36%. But in big chain bookstores like Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS), manga is eating the mainstream publishers' lunch. According to the Nielsen BookScan ratings of bookstore sales, in early August 45 of the top 50 sellers in the graphic-novel category were manga. In the first half of 2005, DC's graphic-novel sales grew by 13%, and Marvel's increased by 9%, while manga publisher Tokyopop notched 40% sales growth, including 81% growth in the first quarter.

Marvel has made some halfhearted, occasionally disastrous efforts to adapt to the new medium, mostly by aping manga's look and digest-sized format. Its few successes thus far tend to feature Japanese-influenced art, high school romance, rebellious teens, and giant robots.

The real reason Marvel should fear manga is that it's becoming the primary influence on a rising generation of young male and female creators. Manga comes with an entirely new visual vocabulary and its own way of telling stories. It's as different from traditional American comics today as Marvel's flawed heroes and snappy dialogue were from DC's stodgy offerings back in the '60s.

Don't believe me? Check out this blog post from Rivkah Greulich, the 24-year-old writer/artist of Tokyopop's new American manga, Steady Beat.

The work-for-hire problem
When Marvel and DC were the biggest (and nearly the only) game in town for comics publishing, they naturally snared all the brightest and most ambitious young writers and artists. It's probably not a coincidence that popular new Marvel and DC characters largely stopped showing up around the same time that comic book writers and artists grew more aware of how much more money their employers made from their creations.

The comic book industry has long thrived on exploiting creators' ideas for maximum profit. Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, the teens who created Superman back in 1938, infamously sold the Man of Steel to DC for $135, and they eventually died in near-poverty. Any work done for DC or Marvel is work for hire -- the company owns all rights to it, lock, stock, and barrel.

Today's most talented and popular comics pros do work for Marvel or DC, often for the security of a steady paycheck and benefits or a nostalgic fondness for the characters of their youth. (Both companies now offer creators extremely limited royalties for book reprints, merchandising, and media licensing.) But those creators often publish the projects they're most passionate about through smaller companies that let them retain ownership. Mike Mignola's Hellboy and Frank Miller's Sin City are two recent examples of independently owned comics that have enjoyed significant successes in Hollywood.

Work for hire may be lucrative for Marvel in the short term, but in the long term, it's stifling the development of new characters that could earn big bucks for decades to come. Why should a writer or artist pour his heart into a fantastic new creation if someone else is going to own it and dictate its storyline?

If this be doomsday ...
The kids who were reading comic books decades ago have grown up to become the same writers and directors who've made the best Marvel movies such rousing successes. And those movies have drawn inspiration from the great Marvel storylines of the '60s, '70s, and '80s: Frank Miller's groundbreaking run on Daredevil, Chris Claremont and John Byrne's "Dark Phoenix Saga" in X-Men, or Spider-Man's duel with the Green Goblin atop the Brooklyn Bridge in Amazing Spider-Man, among others.

With a few notable exceptions, Marvel isn't publishing those kinds of stories anymore. The '90s was a wasteland of big guns, tight spandex, and the notoriously convoluted "Clone Saga," in which Spider-Man confronted his long-lost clone. Most of Marvel's recent storylines have been little better, mucking with the events of previous tales or focusing on big, cataclysmic, confusing "events."

Lo, there shall come a reckoning!
If Marvel wants to stay relevant to readers young and old, and ensure that there will still be an audience for its licensed products in the decades to come, it can't afford to let its publishing efforts wither. It needs to create comics that are just as risky and genre-busting today as Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four were back in the '60s. And it needs to encourage its writers' and artists' best efforts by sacrificing at least a trickle of its current revenue streams to give them a bigger financial stake in their creations.

Marvel has begun to show the faintest glimmers of working toward those goals, testing the waters of crime, romance, sci-fi, and Western comics, in addition to its staple superheroes. Its Marvel Adventures comics offer entertaining, kid-friendly tales of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. Marvel has also launched a new version of Amazing Fantasy, the comic that originally introduced Spidey, to try out new characters and concepts. And the creators of its Icon line, a showcase for its most prized writers and artists, fully own their work. That's a good start -- but it's not enough.

Face front, Mighty Marvel: The young Steves of the world may seem like your trusted allies today, but if you're not careful, one day they'll become your arch-nemeses.

 

[iloveclones]

DBM, why is it do you think that Marvel or DC can't seem to make any kind of dent in the manga market? I know a pre-teen girl who was big-time into them, and I've managed to turn her to traditional comics. My big problem is that she wants to start at the beginning. She specifically looks for #1's (she even talked me into buying Green Lantern #1 for her. I knew she wouldn't like it, but I hate to quash her enthusiam.)

I feel like Marvel misunderstood why manga was popular with kids. For one, I feel like they thought that if they duplicated the look of manga, that's all they would have to do. And I seriously doubt that if given a wide choice, kids would naturally gravitate torwards that. Secondly, they're affordable. I cringe at the extra titles I've added to my pull list for my "leetle friend." Thirdly, the manga that I've paged through has one thing that "our" comics don't: nudity. (It's a big problem according to my librarian. A story starts out in the pre-teen section, and six volumes later is almost in the adult section ) Now, I'm not advocating having spidey turn x-rated to draw in the kiddies (says the dirty old man), but kids see through attempts like Marvel Age or Spidey Super Stories.

Personally, I think they should take a publishing chance on all of these minis, even the ones that aren't selling all that well- Gravity, Machine Teen, Arana, Livewires, Spellbinders- and continue with the digests. i would even have a tight continuity between them while making passing references to the rest of the MU, with the intention of integrating them in the future. I don't think you have to "dumb down" the existing characters then, just put a little down payment on some new characters. Even if they don't pay off right away, you'll have potential customers down the line, not just for those lines, but the existing ones as well.

 

[Lackey]

How's DC doing with CMX? Anyone know?

 

[Kevin]

It's Not Possible For Comics To Be Any Type Of Risky Because, With All Do Respect, Most Fans ***** And Moan When Something New Comes Along.

 

[Lackey]

I don't know... Identity Crisis was pretty risky and that's been a major success.


but yeah, fans complained about that too... still it was successful

 

[iloveclones]

Haven't seen any numbers in a while, so I thought I'd post these.

AUGUST 2005
===========


No big new launches from Marvel in August, but HOUSE OF M goes into its
third month, and continues to raise sales on all the titles involved.
Meanwhile, the Ultimate books get their first annuals.


Before getting into specifics, though, a brief word about prices. Marvel
took only four slots in the top ten in August. And by their standards,
that's not a particularly good performance, particularly considering
that there's a big event on. But on the other hand, Marvel's top
sellers tend to be more expensive than DCs, with a $2.99 price point
compared to DC's $2.50. The Ultimate Annuals were priced at $3.99. The
upshot of all this is that Marvel still took six slots in the top ten on
the dollar charts - one of them with ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1, a
book that didn't even make the top twenty on the unit chart.


Overall, Marvel marginally beat DC again in both dollar and unit share,
with 36.4% dollar share (to DC's 34.69%), and 41.16% unit share (to DC's
38.63%).


As always, thanks to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their
figures for these calculations.


On with the charts. DC take the number one position with JUSTICE #1,
but the next two slots go to Marvel.


2,3. NEW AVENGERS
Aug 01 Avengers #45 - 61,572
Aug 02 Avengers #57 - 55,931
Aug 03 Avengers #69 - 57,850
======
Aug 04 n/a
Sep 04 Avengers #501 - 91,054 ( -35.0%)
Sep 04 Avengers #502 - 93,105 ( +2.3%)
Oct 04 n/a
Nov 04 Avengers #503 - 105,761 ( +13.6%)
Nov 04 Avengers Finale - 101,431 ( -4.1%)
Dec 05 New Avengers #1 - 280,286 (+176.3%)
Jan 05 New Avengers #2 - 155,742 ( -44.3%)
Feb 05 New Avengers #3 - 148,973 ( -4.3%)
Mar 05 New Avengers #4 - 158,303 ( +6.3%)
Apr 05 New Avengers #5 - 168,556 ( +6.5%)
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 New Avengers #6 - 164,592 ( -2.4%)
Jul 05 New Avengers #7 - 158,693 ( -3.6%)
Aug 05 New Avengers #8 - 156,037 ( -1.7%)
Aug 05 New Avengers #9 - 145,673 ( -6.6%)
6 mnth ( -2.2%)
1 year ( +60.0%)
2 year (+151.8%)


Two issues in August, but that's just the book getting back on schedule
after skipping May. The drop for issue #9 is rather sharper than you
might expect, especially considering that it's part three of a four-part
Sentry storyline. But these things are relative, and NEW AVENGERS
remains a consistent top performer, miles ahead of the book's previous
incarnation.


4. HOUSE OF M
Jun 05 House of M #1 (of 8) - 269,702
Jun 05 House of M #2 (of 8) - 178,030 (-34.0%)
Jul 05 House of M #3 (of 8) - 154,938 (-13.0%)
Jul 05 House of M #4 (of 8) - 150,495 ( -2.9%)
Aug 05 House of M #5 (of 8) - 140,680 ( -6.5%)


Despite a rather mixed reaction, HOUSE OF M holds up fairly well. The
decline isn't actually as steep as the numbers make it look, because the
earlier issues continue to rack up extra sales through re-orders and
variant covers. Issue #4 only shipped 146,259 in its first month, and
if you take that as your base figure, the month-to-month drop is only
4%.


In any event, the numbers remain pleasingly high, and thanks to its
$2.99 price tag, HOUSE OF M is actually number two on the dollar charts
this month. NEW AVENGERS is one of the Marvel books still priced at
$2.50.


The numbers above include re-orders, and boy, there are a lot of them
this month. Issue #1 ships yet another variant cover, this time the Joe
Madureira convention edition, featuring a seemingly random piece of
Madureira art with no discernible relationship to the story. Anyone who
went to the convention and thought they had a rarity will be thrilled to
learn that Marvel shipped 15,039 of the things in August, to chart at
number 138, outperforming several Marvel Universe titles.


Terry Dodson's variant cover of issue #2 is at number 277, with orders
of 2,656, and John Cassaday's variant cover for issue #3 charts at
number 253, with orders of 3,194. And issue #4 just gets 4,236
straightforward re-orders, placing at number 231.


5. ASTONISHING X-MEN
Aug 04 Astonishing X-Men #4 - 148,209 (+14.6%)
Sep 04 Astonishing X-Men #5 - 134,154 ( -9.5%)
Oct 04 n/a
Nov 04 Astonishing X-Men #6 - 134,840 ( +0.5%)
Dec 04 Astonishing X-Men #7 - 153,516 (+13.9%)
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 Astonishing X-Men #8 - 153,395 ( -0.0%)
Mar 05 Astonishing X-Men #9 - 135,325 (-11.8%)
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 Astonishing X-Men #10 - 156,298 (+15.5%)
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 Astonishing X-Men #11 - 127,768 (-18.3%)
Aug 05 Astonishing X-Men #12 - 125,834 ( -1.5%)
6 mnth (-18.0%)
1 year (-15.1%)


Back in more conventional territory, ASTONISHING X-MEN continues to
slide. The drop is a little smoother when you ignore all the issues
whose sales were artificially boosted by variant covers - they're easy
to spot. After this, ASTONISHING goes on hiatus until next year.


11. UNCANNY X-MEN
Aug 01 Uncanny X-Men #397 - 116,247
Aug 02 Uncanny X-Men #411 - 86,875
Aug 03 Uncanny X-Men #429 - 93,866
======
Aug 04 Uncanny X-Men #447 - 95,838 ( -1.2%)
Sep 04 Uncanny X-Men #448 - 95,908 ( +0.1%)
Sep 04 Uncanny X-Men #449 - 93,839 ( -2.2%)
Oct 04 Uncanny X-Men #450 - 101,506 ( +8.2%)
Oct 04 Uncanny X-Men #451 - 99,411 ( -2.1%)
Nov 04 Uncanny X-Men #452 - 92,051 ( -7.4%)
Dec 04 Uncanny X-Men #453 - 89,952 ( -2.3%)
Jan 05 Uncanny X-Men #454 - 87,411 ( -2.8%)
Feb 05 Uncanny X-Men #455 - 88,920 ( +1.7%)
Feb 05 Uncanny X-Men #456 - 86,767 ( -2.4%)
Mar 05 Uncanny X-Men #457 - 86,365 ( -0.5%)
Apr 05 Uncanny X-Men #458 - 85,299 ( -1.2%)
May 05 Uncanny X-Men #459 - 83,547 ( -2.1%)
Jun 05 Uncanny X-Men #460 - 82,457 ( -1.3%)
Jun 05 Uncanny X-Men #461 - 91,221 (+10.6%)
Jul 05 Uncanny X-Men #462 - 91,125 ( -0.1%)
Aug 05 Uncanny X-Men #463 - 87,610 ( -3.9%)
6 mnth ( +1.0%)
1 year ( -8.6%)
2 year ( -6.7%)


Continuing a HOUSE OF M crossover arc which began back in issue #461.
While most HOUSE OF M books have seen significant sales increases,
UNCANNY has only gone up by a few thousand. On the other hand, it was
also the highest selling crossover book to start with, so there's less
scope to increase. Nonetheless, it's hard to avoid noticing that even
with the crossover behind it, UNCANNY is still below where it was a year
ago.


This is as good a place as any to mention MARVEL MILESTONES, which
charts at number 217 with reprinted stories starring Captain Britain and
Psylocke (both of whom are in this issue) and the Golden Age Sub-Mariner
(who isn't). It had orders of 5,232.


13,24,25. ULTIMATE ANNUALS
Aug 05 Ultimates Annual #1 - 82,690
Aug 05 Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1 - 70,811
Aug 05 Ultimate X-Men Annual #1 - 67,910


Marvel stopped publishing annuals during the Bill Jemas era, on the
basis that they didn't sell very well, and it would make more sense just
to publish an extra issue of the regular title. The counter-argument is
that the problem wasn't with the concept of annuals, but with the
material that was appearing in them - generally glorified fill-in
stories, in the last few years. The Ultimate Annuals have the same
writers as the regular titles and have been presented as more
significant. And they're duly rewarded with very respectable sales.
Thanks to their high price point, these three books are at numbers 7, 10
and 11 on the dollar chart.


14. ULTIMATE IRON MAN
Mar 05 Ultimate Iron Man #1 (of 5) - 150,869
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 Ultimate Iron Man #2 (of 5) - 90,197 (-40.2%)
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 Ultimate Iron Man #3 (of 5) - 77,378 (-14.2%)


Hmm. I hesitate to say that a book with sales over 75,000 is doing
badly, but after a very strong start, this is shedding readers awfully
quickly. I suspect this isn't really the sort of story that a lot of
readers were looking for from an ULTIMATE IRON MAN miniseries.


15. X-MEN
Aug 01 New X-Men #117 - 120,414
Aug 02 New X-Men #131 - 98,805
Aug 03 New X-Men #144 - 99,737
======
Aug 04 X-Men #160 - 91,790 ( -1.5%)
Sep 04 X-Men #161 - 90,591 ( -1.3%)
Sep 04 X-Men #162 - 90,752 ( +0.2%)
Oct 04 X-Men #163 - 88,615 ( -2.4%)
Nov 04 X-Men #164 - 88,620 ( +0.0%)
Dec 04 X-Men #165 - 86,633 ( -2.2%)
Jan 05 X-Men #166 - 85,934 ( -0.8%)
Feb 05 X-Men #167 - 84,155 ( -2.1%)
Mar 05 X-Men #168 - 83,979 ( -0.2%)
Apr 05 X-Men #169 - 82,793 ( -1.4%)
May 05 X-Men #170 - 81,048 ( -2.1%)
Jun 05 X-Men #171 - 80,307 ( -0.9%)
Jun 05 X-Men #172 - 78,889 ( -1.8%)
Jul 05 X-Men #173 - 77,154 ( -2.2%)
Aug 05 X-Men #174 - 76,342 ( -1.1%)
6 mnth ( -9.3%)
1 year (-16.8%)
2 year (-23.5%)


Still drifting downwards. I rather doubt that next month's crossover
with BLACK PANTHER is going to make any difference - well, not to X-MEN
sales, anyway.


16. ULTIMATE X-MEN
Aug 01 Ultimate X-Men #9 - 100,109
Aug 02 Ultimate X-Men #21 - 93,216
Aug 03 Ultimate X-Men #36 - 110,492
======
Aug 04 Ultimate X-Men #50 - 103,154 (+10.2%)
Sep 04 Ultimate X-Men #51 - 94,965 ( -7.9%)
Oct 04 Ultimate X-Men #52 - 93,833 ( -1.2%)
Nov 04 Ultimate X-Men #53 - 92,133 ( -1.8%)
Dec 04 n/a
Jan 05 Ultimate X-Men #54 - 90,619 ( -1.6%)
Jan 05 Ultimate X-Men #55 - 87,447 ( -3.5%)
Feb 05 Ultimate X-Men #56 - 86,130 ( -1.5%)
Mar 05 Ultimate X-Men #57 - 83,835 ( -2.7%)
Apr 05 Ultimate X-Men #58 - 82,606 ( -1.5%)
May 05 Ultimate X-Men #59 - 81,321 ( -1.6%)
Jun 05 Ultimate X-Men #60 - 78,613 ( -3.3%)
Jul 05 Ultimate X-Men #61 - 87,094 (+10.8%)
Aug 05 Ultimate X-Men #62 - 76,229 (-12.5%)
6 mnth (-11.5%)
1 year (-26.1%)
2 year (-31.0%)


Returning to normal sales after a variant cover blip last month. And,
of course, the general trend remains downhill. Like ULTIMATE
SPIDER-MAN, this book has shed an awful lot of readers since its glory
days. The Bryan Singer run is, in theory, just around the corner -
although the book is missing from December's solicitations, suggesting
that matters may not be so straightforward.


17. WOLVERINE
Aug 01 Wolverine #167 - 70,238
Aug 02 Wolverine #180 - 67,892
Aug 03 Wolverine #4 - 68,472
======
Aug 04 Wolverine #18 - 65,304 ( -1.9%)
Sep 04 Wolverine #19 - 65,046 ( -0.4%)
Oct 04 Wolverine #20 - 118,553 (+82.3%)
Oct 04 Wolverine #21 - 85,760 (-27.7%)
Nov 04 Wolverine #22 - 81,841 ( -4.6%)
Dec 04 Wolverine #23 - 82,525 ( +0.8%)
Jan 04 Wolverine #24 - 81,618 ( -1.1%)
Feb 05 Wolverine #25 - 83,180 ( +1.9%)
Mar 05 Wolverine #26 - 108,677 (+30.7%)
Apr 05 Wolverine #27 - 101,228 ( -6.9%)
May 05 Wolverine #28 - 80,961 (-20.0%)
Jun 05 Wolverine #29 - 79,951 ( -1.2%)
Jul 05 Wolverine #30 - 76,651 ( -4.1%)
Aug 05 Wolverine #31 - 75,618 ( -1.3%)
6 mnth ( -9.1%)
1 year (+15.8%)
2 year (+10.4%)


The final issue of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr's storyline, which
wraps up at a very satisfactory level of sales. Next issue is a one-off
story by Millar, after which there's a three-issue HOUSE OF M crossover.


18. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN
Aug 01 Ultimate Spider-Man #12 - 78,407
Aug 02 Ultimate Spider-Man #25 - 96,382
Aug 03 Ultimate Spider-Man #45 - 100,619
======
Aug 04 Ultimate Spider-Man #63 - 96,279 ( -2.7%)
Aug 04 Ultimate Spider-Man #64 - 94,682 ( -1.7%)
Sep 04 Ultimate Spider-Man #65 - 94,174 ( -0.5%)
Oct 04 Ultimate Spider-Man #66 - 95,917 ( +1.9%)
Oct 04 Ultimate Spider-Man #67 - 95,071 ( -0.9%)
Nov 04 Ultimate Spider-Man #68 - 91,075 ( -4.2%)
Nov 04 Ultimate Spider-Man #69 - 90,010 ( -1.2%)
Dec 04 Ultimate Spider-Man #70 - 88,960 ( -1.2%)
Jan 05 Ultimate Spider-Man #71 - 83,987 ( -5.6%)
Feb 05 Ultimate Spider-Man #72 - 86,685 ( +3.2%)
Mar 05 Ultimate Spider-Man #73 - 83,943 ( -3.2%)
Mar 05 Ultimate Spider-Man #74 - 83,817 ( -0.2%)
Apr 05 Ultimate Spider-Man #75 - 83,940 ( +0.1%)
Apr 05 Ultimate Spider-Man #76 - 82,244 ( -2.0%)
May 05 Ultimate Spider-Man #77 - 81,034 ( -1.5%)
Jun 05 Ultimate Spider-Man #78 - 79,420 ( -2.0%)
Jul 05 Ultimate Spider-Man #79 - 78,404 ( -1.3%)
Jul 05 Ultimate Spider-Man #80 - 76,906 ( -1.9%)
Aug 05 Ultimate Spider-Man #81 - 75,572 ( -1.7%)
6 mnth (-12.8%)
1 year (-21.5%)
2 year (-24.9%)


Like ULTIMATE X-MEN, the drops are really starting to mount up here.
From month to month they're not so bad, but the book's lost 20,000
readers in the last year. That's surely a little worrying.


21. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
Aug 01 Amazing Spider-Man #34 - 79,588
Aug 02 Amazing Spider-Man #44 - 100,070
Aug 03 Amazing Spider-Man #57 - 93,469
======
Aug 04 Amazing Spider-Man #511 - 88,118 ( +2.2%)
Sep 04 Amazing Spider-Man #512 - 88,628 ( +0.6%)
Oct 04 Amazing Spider-Man #513 - 89,615 ( +1.1%)
Nov 04 Amazing Spider-Man #514 - 87,121 ( -2.8%)
Dec 04 Amazing Spider-Man #515 - 83,637 ( -4.0%)
Jan 05 Amazing Spider-Man #516 - 79,842 ( -4.5%)
Feb 05 Amazing Spider-Man #517 - 78,584 ( -1.6%)
Mar 05 Amazing Spider-Man #518 - 77,025 ( -2.0%)
Apr 05 Amazing Spider-Man #519 - 79,668 ( +3.4%)
May 05 Amazing Spider-Man #520 - 76,143 ( -4.4%)
Jun 05 Amazing Spider-Man #521 - 74,117 ( -2.7%)
Jul 05 Amazing Spider-Man #522 - 73,130 ( -1.3%)
Aug 05 Amazing Spider-Man #523 - 72,046 ( -1.5%)
6 mnth ( -8.3%)
1 year (-18.2%)
2 year (-22.9%)


Continuing the gentle decline.

 

[iloveclones]

And the fun continues...

23. ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR
Aug 04 Ultimate Fantastic Four #10 - 90,670 ( -3.6%)
Sep 04 Ultimate Fantastic Four #11 - 87,620 ( -3.4%)
Oct 04 n/a
Nov 04 Ultimate Fantastic Four #12 - 84,417 ( -3.7%)
Nov 04 Ultimate Fantastic Four #13 - 109,997 (+30.3%)
Dec 04 Ultimate Fantastic Four #14 - 78,717 (-28.4%)
Jan 05 Ultimate Fantastic Four #15 - 74,501 ( -5.4%)
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 Ultimate Fantastic Four #16 - 73,987 ( -0.7%)
Apr 05 Ultimate Fantastic Four #17 - 72,207 ( -2.4%)
May 05 Ultimate Fantastic Four #18 - 71,478 ( -1.0%)
Jun 05 Ultimate Fantastic Four #19 - 70,300 ( -1.6%)
Jun 05 Ultimate Fantastic Four #20 - 69,097 ( -1.7%)
Jul 05 Ultimate Fantastic Four #21 - 91,321 (+32.2%)
Aug 05 Ultimate Fantastic Four #22 - 71,767 (-21.4%)
6 mnth ( -3.0%)
1 year (-20.8%)


Straight back to regular sales levels after last month's variant cover
(which was also the debut of the new creative team).


26. YOUNG AVENGERS
Feb 05 Young Avengers #1 - 112,803
Mar 05 Young Avengers #2 - 79,952 (-29.1%)
Apr 05 Young Avengers #3 - 75,015 ( -6.2%)
May 05 Young Avengers #4 - 69,925 ( -6.8%)
Jun 05 Young Avengers #5 - 69,956 ( +0.0%)
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 Young Avengers #6 - 67,545 ( -3.4%)
6 mnth (-40.1%)


Holding up well.


27. SPIDER-MAN: HOUSE OF M
Jun 05 Spider-Man: House of M #1 (of 5) - 93,301
Jul 05 Spider-Man: House of M #2 (of 5) - 71,586 (-23.3%)
Aug 05 Spider-Man: House of M #3 (of 5) - 67,199 ( -6.1%)


30. FANTASTIC FOUR: HOUSE OF M
Jul 05 Fantastic Four: House of M #1 (of 3) - 79,120
Aug 05 Fantastic Four: House of M #2 (of 3) - 61,542 (-22.2%)


33. IRON MAN: HOUSE OF M
Jul 05 Iron Man: House of M #1 (of 3) - 77,228
Aug 05 Iron Man: House of M #2 (of 3) - 57,804 (-25.2%)


The three HOUSE OF M tie-in miniseries all cluster together, which
shouldn't come as a surprise. Meanwhile, variant covers about, as a
sketch version of SPIDER-MAN: HOUSE OF M #1 picks up 4,249 copies at
number 230. FANTASTIC FOUR: HOUSE OF M #1's variant cover contributes
to re-orders of 8,293, charting at number 188; and IRON MAN: HOUSE OF M
#1 picks up 5,969 re-orders through the same route, charting at number
209.


The second issue drop-offs are a bit steep, but basically these are
solid numbers for short tie-in minis.


34. INCREDIBLE HULK
Aug 01 Incredible Hulk #31 - 33,683
Aug 02 Incredible Hulk #44 - 49,184
Aug 03 Incredible Hulk #59 - 59,336
======
Aug 04 Incredible Hulk #75 - 44,066 ( +1.6%)
Aug 04 Incredible Hulk #76 - 42,298 ( -4.0%)
Sep 04 Hulk & Thing: Hard Knocks #1 (of 4) - 44,302 ( +4.7%)
Oct 04 Hulk & Thing: Hard Knocks #2 (of 4) - 37,519 (-15.3%)
Nov 04 Hulk & Thing: Hard Knocks #3 (of 4) - 34,129 ( -9.0%)
Dec 04 Hulk & Thing: Hard Knocks #4 (of 4) - 31,003 ( -9.2%)
Jan 05 Incredible Hulk #77 - 47,180 (+52.2%)
Feb 05 Incredible Hulk #78 - 44,721 ( -5.2%)
Mar 05 Incredible Hulk #79 - 43,508 ( -2.7%)
Apr 05 Incredible Hulk #80 - 48,404 (+11.3%)
May 05 Incredible Hulk #81 - 43,822 (-10.5%)
Jun 05 Incredible Hulk #82 - 43,248 ( -1.3%)
Jul 05 Incredible Hulk #83 - 63,881 (+47.7%)
Jul 05 Incredible Hulk #84 - 53,905 (-15.6%)
Aug 05 Incredible Hulk #85 - 53,177 ( -1.4%)
6 mnth (+18.9%)
1 year (+20.7%)
2 year (-10.4%)


And here's another HOUSE OF M tie-in, running from issues #83-86.
Comfortably ahead of the book's normal level these days, which is the
general pattern for these things. Issue #83 - the first part of the
tie-in - gets 7,941 re-orders and charts at number 191. A variant cover
contributes to that.


36,51. CAPTAIN AMERICA
Aug 01 Captain America #46 - 36,080
Aug 02 Captain America #5 - 64,695
Aug 03 Captain America #16 - 43,123
======
Aug 04 Captain America #30 - 38,464 ( -4.4%)
Sep 04 Captain America #31 - 37,128 ( -3.5%)
Oct 04 Captain America #32 - 37,309 ( +0.5%)
Nov 04 Captain America #1 - 67,225 (+80.2%)
Dec 04 n/a
Jan 05 Captain America #2 - 53,306 (-20.7%)
Feb 05 Captain America #3 - 48,104 ( -9.8%)
Mar 05 Captain America #4 - 46,654 ( -3.0%)
Apr 05 Captain America #5 - 46,976 ( +0.7%)
May 05 Captain America #6 - 58,660 (+24.9%)
Jun 05 Captain America #7 - 47,160 (-19.6%)
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 Captain America #8 - 51,842 ( +9.9%)
Aug 05 Captain America #9 - 44,638 (-13.9%)
6 mnth ( -7.2%)
1 year (+16.1%)
2 year ( +3.5%)


Two issues, and again, that's simply because July's issue shipped late.
You won't be shocked to learn that issue #8, with its upward blip, had a
variant cover. Otherwise, the book is hovering around the mid-40K
range.


37. FANTASTIC FOUR
Aug 01 Fantastic Four #46 - 50,773
Aug 02 Fantastic Four #60 - 705,109
Aug 03 Fantastic Four #503 - 53,789
======
Aug 04 Fantastic Four #517 - 50,247 ( +3.4%)
Sep 04 Fantastic Four #518 - 48,939 ( -2.6%)
Oct 04 Fantastic Four #519 - 47,969 ( -2.0%)
Nov 04 Fantastic Four #520 - 51,685 ( +7.7%)
Dec 04 Fantastic Four #521 - 47,634 ( -7.8%)
Jan 05 Fantastic Four #522 - 46,335 ( -2.7%)
Feb 05 Fantastic Four #523 - 46,276 ( -0.1%)
Mar 05 Fantastic FOur #524 - 46,660 ( +0.8%)
Apr 05 Fantastic Four #525 - 45,561 ( -2.4%)
May 05 Fantastic Four #526 - 44,935 ( -1.4%)
May 05 Fantastic Four #527 - 75,525 (+68.1%)
Jun 05 Fantastic Four #528 - 55,937 (-25.9%)
Jul 05 Fantastic Four #529 - 52,963 ( -5.3%)
Aug 05 Fantastic FOur #530 - 51,782 ( -2.2%)
6 mnth (+11.9%)
1 year ( +3.1%)
2 year ( -3.7%)


Ignore the ludicrous number for issue #60 back in August 2002 - it was
priced at nine cents, and appeared during the brief window when Diamond
included these de facto giveaways in the charts. Mind you, it's
interesting to note that in the long run, giving away almost three
quarters of a million copies seems to have done absolutely nothing to
dislodge FANTASTIC FOUR from its habitual 50K range.


38. SUPREME POWER
Aug 03 Supreme Power #1 - 69,914
======
Aug 04 Supreme Power #12 - 61,798 ( -1.9%)
Sep 04 n/a
Oct 04 n/a
Nov 04 Supreme Power #13 - 61,556 ( -0.4%)
Dec 04 Supreme Power #14 - 58,843 ( -4.4%)
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 Supreme Power #15 - 55,510 ( -5.7%)
Mar 05 n/a
Apr 05 Supreme Power #16 - 55,068 ( -0.8%)
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 Supreme Power #17 - 52,288 ( -5.0%)
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 Supreme Power #18 - 50,594 ( -3.2%)
6 mnth ( -8.9%)
1 year (-18.1%)
2 year (-27.6%)


Cancelled, to be followed by HYPERION and NIGHTHAWK miniseries, and then
a new volume under the Marvel Knights banner in 2006.


40. X-MEN: THE END
Aug 04 X-Men: The End, Book One #1 (of 6) - 109,587
Aug 04 X-Men: The End, Book One #2 (of 6) - 98,578 (-10.0%)
Sep 04 X-Men: The End, Book One #3 (of 6) - 84,001 (-14.8%)
Oct 04 X-Men: The End, Book One #4 (of 6) - 75,073 (-10.6%)
Nov 04 X-Men: The End, Book One #5 (of 6) - 69,642 ( -7.2%)
Dec 04 X-Men: The End, Book One #6 (of 6) - 66,220 ( -4.9%)
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 X-Men: The End, Book Two #1 (of 6) - 71,230 ( +7.6%)
Apr 05 X-Men: The End, Book Two #2 (of 6) - 63,005 (-11.5%)
May 05 X-Men: The End, Book Two #3 (of 6) - 58,870 ( -6.6%)
Jun 05 X-Men: The End, Book Two #4 (of 6) - 54,875 ( -6.8%)
Jul 05 X-Men: The End, Book Two #5 (of 6) - 51,949 ( -5.3%)
Aug 05 X-Men: The End, Book Two #6 (of 6) - 49,565 ( -4.6%)
6 mnth ( n/a )
1 year (-54.8%)


Continuing its gentle slide. There's another six issue miniseries still
to come.


42. MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN
Aug 04 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #5 - 75,562 ( +0.1%)
Sep 04 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #6 - 71,492 ( -5.4%)
Oct 04 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #7 - 69,918 ( -2.2%)
Nov 04 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #8 - 68,290 ( -2.3%)
Dec 04 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #9 - 64,461 ( -5.6%)
Jan 05 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #10 - 61,831 ( -4.1%)
Feb 05 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #11 - 60,460 ( -2.2%)
Mar 05 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #12 - 59,983 ( -0.8%)
Apr 05 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #13 - 60,542 ( +0.9%)
May 05 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #14 - 57,270 ( -5.4%)
Jun 05 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #15 - 54,102 ( -5.5%)
Jul 05 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #16 - 50,876 ( -6.0%)
Aug 05 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #17 - 48,555 ( -4.6%)
6 mnth (-19.7%)
1 year (-35.7%)


Dropping a little too quickly for comfort. Of course, the big
Spider-Man crossover, "The Other", is just around the corner.


44. IRON MAN
Aug 01 Iron Man #45 - 36,754
Aug 02 Iron Man #58 - 36,051
Aug 03 Iron Man #71 - 30,823
======
Aug 04 Iron Man #87 - 33,512 ( -2.9%)
Sep 04 Iron Man #88 - 32,932 ( -1.7%)
Oct 04 Iron Man #89 - 33,483 ( +1.7%)
Nov 04 Iron Man #1 - 68,992 (+106.1%)
Dec 04 Iron Man #2 - 55,051 ( -20.2%)
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 n/a
Apr 05 Iron Man #3 - 51,390 ( -6.7%)
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 Iron Man #4 - 48,403 ( -5.8%)
6 mnth ( n/a )
1 year ( +44.4%)
2 year ( +57.0%)


Despite the excruciating delays, these are pretty much the sort of sales
you'd expect to have seen on a monthly schedule.


46,58. MARVEL 1602
Aug 03 Marvel 1602 #1 (of 8) - 150,569
======
Aug 05 Marvel 1602: New World #1 (of 5) - 48,190
Aug 05 Marvel 1602: New World #2 (of 5) - 40,488 (-16.0%)
6 mnth ( n/a )
1 year ( n/a )
2 year (-73.1%)


Okay, perhaps it's a little unfair to compare NEW WORLD to the original
MARVEL 1602 book from 2003, which was sold largely on the name value of
Neil Gaiman. On the other hand, why bother doing a MARVEL 1602
miniseries if you look at things that way...? Compared with the huge
sales of the original book, these aren't good numbers, and a 16% drop is
especially bad considering that both issues shipped in the same month -
something that normally seems to moderate the second-issue drop.


49. DAREDEVIL
Aug 01 Daredevil #23 - 52,642
Aug 02 Daredevil #36 - 50,210
Aug 03 Daredevil #50 - 65,398
======
Aug 04 Daredevil #63 - 52,090 ( -1.6%)
Sep 04 Daredevil #64 - 52,259 ( +0.3%)
Sep 04 Daredevil #65 - 57,841 (+10.7%)
Oct 04 Daredevil #66 - 53,138 ( -8.1%)
Nov 04 Daredevil #67 - 51,347 ( -3.4%)
Dec 04 Daredevil #68 - 50,491 ( -1.7%)
Jan 05 Daredevil #69 - 48,727 ( -3.5%)
Feb 05 Daredevil #70 - 48,702 ( -0.0%)
Mar 05 Daredevil #71 - 49,715 ( +2.1%)
Apr 05 Daredevil #72 - 48,803 ( -1.8%)
May 05 Daredevil #73 - 48,681 ( -0.2%)
Jun 05 Daredevil #74 - 48,175 ( -1.0%)
Jul 05 Daredevil #75 - 47,800 ( -0.8%)
Aug 05 Daredevil #76 - 46,424 ( -2.9%)
6 mnth ( -4.7%)
1 year (-10.9%)
2 year (-29.0%)


Sliding very slowly down. A change of creative team is imminent.


54. NEW X-MEN
Aug 03 New Mutants #4 - 41,448
======
Aug 04 New X-Men #4 - 51,902 ( -6.2%)
Sep 04 New X-Men #5 - 48,526 ( -6.5%)
Oct 04 New X-Men #6 - 45,647 ( -5.9%)
Nov 04 n/a
Dec 04 New X-Men #7 - 43,024 ( -5.7%)
Jan 05 New X-Men #8 - 40,179 ( -6.6%)
Jan 05 New X-Men #9 - 38,197 ( -4.9%)
Feb 05 New X-Men #10 - 36,910 ( -3.4%)
Mar 05 New X-Men #11 - 35,549 ( -3.7%)
Apr 05 New X-Men #12 - 35,779 ( +0.6%)
May 05 New X-Men #13 - 35,033 ( -2.1%)
May 05 New X-Men #14 - 34,579 ( -1.3%)
Jun 05 New X-Men #15 - 34,007 ( -1.7%)
Jul 05 New X-Men #16 - 44,836 (+31.8%)
Aug 05 New X-Men #17 - 43,908 ( -2.1%)
6 mnth (+19.0%)
1 year (-15.4%)
2 year ( +5.9%)


Another HOUSE OF M crossover storyline, and once again, it's way above
normal levels for this title. On the other hand, it still doesn't bring
the book back up to its levels from a year ago. A new creative team is
just around the corner, along with what sounds like an overhaul of the
concept.


56. BLACK PANTHER
Aug 01 Black Panther #35 - 19,465
Aug 02 Black Panther #48 - 19,496
======
Feb 05 Black Panther #1 - 69,930
Mar 05 Black Panther #2 - 47,533 ( -32.0%)
Apr 05 Black Panther #3 - 44,925 ( -5.5%)
May 05 Black Panther #4 - 40,804 ( -9.2%)
Jun 05 Black Panther #5 - 37,401 ( -8.1%)
Jul 05 Black Panther #6 - 35,256 ( -5.7%)
Aug 05 Black Panther #7 - 42,905 ( +21.7%)
6 mnth ( -38.6%)


HOUSE OF M, and another big jump. Next month, a crossover with X-MEN -
which should be interesting, since it sells much better than BLACK
PANTHER, but it also has the weakest sales of the four monthly X-Men
titles.


57. MUTOPIA X
Aug 04 District X #4 - 30,816 ( -7.3%)
Sep 04 District X #5 - 28,979 ( -6.0%)
Oct 04 District X #6 - 27,097 ( -6.5%)
Nov 04 District X #7 - 25,488 ( -6.0%)
Dec 04 District X #8 - 23,683 ( -7.1%)
Jan 05 District X #9 - 22,244 ( -6.1%)
Feb 05 District X #10 - 21,252 ( -4.5%)
Mar 05 District X #11 - 20,546 ( -3.3%)
Apr 05 District X #12 - 20,218 ( -1.6%)
May 05 District X #13 - 19,459 ( -3.8%)
Jun 05 District X #14 - 18,798 ( -3.4%)
Jul 05 Mutopia X #1 (of 5) - 53,379 (+184.0%)
Aug 05 Mutopia X #2 (of 5) - 40,893 ( -23.4%)
6 mnth ( +92.4%)
1 year ( +32.7%)


HOUSE OF M yet again. Issue #1 racks up 7,038 re-orders to chart at
number 199, and yes, there's a variant cover. Obviously, the book is
now selling in a completely different league.


59. DAREDEVIL: FATHER
Apr 04 Daredevil: Father #1 (of 5) - 69,487
May 04 n/a
Jun 04 n/a
Jul 04 n/a
Aug 04 n/a
Sep 04 n/a
Nov 04 n/a
Dec 04 n/a
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 n/a
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 Daredevil: Father #2 (of 5) - 39,745 (-42.8%)


Generally, big delays haven't had much of an impact on books like
ULTIMATES or even NYX. But apparently there are limits, as DAREDEVIL:
FATHER posts a precipitous 42.8% drop from its first issue, sixteen
months previously.


There's also a director's cut of issue #1 at number 143, which picked up
sales of 14,607. I haven't added them into the numbers above, because
it's not really a re-order - it's a reprint, 16 months down the line. If
you do want to add in those sales, though, it would give issue #1 a
total of 84,094, and a second issue drop of 52.7%.


It is reassuring to see that issue #3 shipped in September. If
DAREDEVIL: FATHER had maintained the remarkable schedule shown above, it
wouldn't have finished until 2009.

 

[iloveclones]

MTU's at the bottom (literally and figuratively)

64. NEW THUNDERBOLTS
Aug 01 Thunderbolts #55 - 33,747
Aug 02 Thunderbolts #70 - 28,092
======
Nov 04 New Thunderbolts #1 - 45,793
Nov 04 New Thunderbolts #2 - 40,104 (-12.4%)
Dec 04 New Thunderbolts #3 - 32,720 (-18.4%)
Jan 05 New Thunderbolts #4 - 31,725 ( -3.0%)
Feb 05 New Thunderbolts #5 - 29,377 ( -7.4%)
Mar 05 New Thunderbolts #6 - 29,103 ( -0.9%)
Apr 05 New Thunderbolts #7 - 28,977 ( -0.4%)
May 05 New Thunderbolts #8 - 27,769 ( -4.2%)
Jun 05 New Thunderbolts #9 - 27,300 ( -1.7%)
Jul 05 New Thunderbolts #10 - 25,978 ( -4.8%)
Aug 05 New Thunderbolts #11 - 37,036 (+42.6%)
6 mnth (-19.1%)
1 year ( n/a )


Yet another HOUSE OF M crossover - this time a single issue. Rather
boldly, it's also part two of a three-part story, although more in name
than in substance. Anyhow, the crossover delivers a healthy boost to
sales.


65. PUNISHER
Aug 01 Punisher #3 - 70,017
Aug 02 Punisher #16 - 44,501
Aug 03 Punisher #30 - 37,870
======
Aug 04 Punisher #10 - 45,396 ( -3.2%)
Sep 04 Punisher #11 - 44,038 ( -3.0%)
Oct 04 Punisher #12 - 42,072 ( -4.5%)
Nov 04 Punisher #13 - 42,088 ( +0.0%)
Nov 04 Punisher #14 - 41,514 ( -1.4%)
Dec 04 Punisher #15 - 40,357 ( -2.8%)
Jan 05 Punisher #16 - 39,341 ( -2.5%)
Feb 05 Punisher #17 - 38,714 ( -1.6%)
Mar 05 Punisher #18 - 38,348 ( -0.9%)
Apr 05 Punisher #19 - 38,753 ( +1.1%)
Apr 05 Punisher #20 - 38,130 ( -1.6%)
May 05 Punisher #21 - 37,998 ( -0.3%)
Jun 05 Punisher #22 - 37,811 ( -0.5%)
Jul 05 Punisher #23 - 37,376 ( -1.2%)
Aug 05 Punisher #24 - 37,022 ( -0.9%)
6 mnth ( -4.4%)
1 year (-18.4%)
2 year ( -2.2%)


Rock solid.


66. WEAPON X
Aug 02 Weapon X: Wild Child - 38,797
Aug 03 Weapon X #12 - 26,908
======
Aug 04 Weapon X #27 - 25,604 ( -0.8%)
Sep 04 Weapon X #28 - 25,196 ( -1.6%)
Oct 04 n/a
Nov 04 n/a
Dec 04 n/a
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 n/a
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 Weapon X: Days of Future Now #1 (of 5) - 43,881
Aug 05 Weapon X: Days of Future Now #2 (of 5) - 36,272 (-17.3%)
1 year (+41.7%)
2 year (+34.8%)


Actually, there were a ton of WEAPON X one-shots in August 2002, of
which WILD CHILD was the highest selling. But you get the idea. The
DAYS OF FUTURE NOW miniseries has a fairly standard drop for its second
issue, and continues to sell far better than the ongoing title did -
despite being a resolution to that book's storylines, largely set in an
alternate timeline. I'd have thought that it wouldn't have much appeal
ouside the 26,000-odd people who were buying WEAPON X, but evidently the
retailers disagree with me.


71. EXILES
Aug 01 Exiles #3 - 48,259
Aug 02 Exiles #16 - 39,133
Aug 03 Exiles #32 - 40,548
======
Aug 04 Exiles #50 - 37,958 ( +2.1%)
Aug 04 Exiles #51 - 36,946 ( -2.7%)
Sep 04 Exiles #52 - 36,245 ( -1.9%)
Oct 04 Exiles #53 - 35,323 ( -2.5%)
Nov 04 Exiles #54 - 34,180 ( -3.2%)
Dec 04 Exiles #55 - 33,744 ( -1.3%)
Dec 04 Exiles #56 - 33,396 ( -1.0%)
Dec 04 Exiles #57 - 33,183 ( -0.6%)
Jan 05 Exiles #58 - 32,129 ( -3.2%)
Feb 05 Exiles #59 - 32,337 ( +0.6%)
Mar 05 Exiles #60 - 42,898 (+32.7%)
Mar 05 Exiles #61 - 42,217 ( -1.6%)
Apr 05 Exiles #62 - 33,965 (-19.5%)
Apr 05 Exiles #63 - 33,728 ( -0.7%)
May 05 Exiles #64 - 34,033 ( +0.9%)
Jun 05 Exiles #65 - 34,484 ( +1.3%)
Jul 05 Exiles #66 - 34,092 ( -1.1%)
Jul 05 Exiles #67 - 33,751 ( -1.0%)
Aug 05 Exiles #68 - 33,815 ( +0.2%)
6 mnth ( +4.6%)
1 year (-10.9%)
2 year (-16.6%)


Still hovering around its usual area. A HOUSE OF M crossover begins
next issue.


72. SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL
Feb 05 Shanna the She-Devil #1 (of 7) - 47,953
Mar 05 Shanna the She-Devil #2 (of 7) - 40,877 (-14.8%)
Apr 05 Shanna the She-Devil #3 (of 7) - 38,678 ( -5.4%)
May 05 Shanna the She-Devil #4 (of 7) - 37,212 ( -3.8%)
Jun 05 Shanna the She-Devil #5 (of 7) - 35,412 ( -4.8%)
Jul 05 Shanna the She-Devil #6 (of 7) - 34,445 ( -2.7%)
Aug 05 Shanna the She-Devil #7 (of 7) - 32,932 ( -4.7%)
6 mnth (-31.3%)


Wrapping up the miniseries with very comfortable sales.


73. DEFENDERS
Jul 05 Defenders #1 (of 5) - 39,510
Aug 05 Defenders #2 (of 5) - 32,853 (-16.8%)


About normal for a second issue drop. DEFENDERS is being lost in the
crowd, with all the attention on the big events.


79. POWERS
Aug 01 Powers #½ - 22,507
Aug 02 Powers #24 - 26,544
Aug 03 Powers #33 - 26,174
======
Aug 04 Powers #3 - 33,628 ( -8.0%)
Sep 04 Powers #4 - 33,046 ( -1.7%)
Oct 04 Powers #5 - 32,504 ( -1.6%)
Nov 04 Powers #6 - 30,431 ( -6.4%)
Dec 04 Powers #7 - 30,687 ( +0.8%)
Jan 05 Powers #8 - 29,438 ( -4.1%)
Feb 05 Powers #9 - 28,512 ( -3.1%)
Mar 05 n/a
Apr 05 Powers #10 - 28,360 ( -0.5%)
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 Powers #11 - 27,703 ( -2.3%)
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 Powers #12 - 30,290 ( +9.3%)
6 mnth ( +6.2%)
1 year ( -9.9%)
2 year (+15.7%)


An anniversary issue, with a $3.95 price tag. Consequently, it does
much better on the dollar chart, where it makes number 56.


81. DAREDEVIL VS PUNISHER
Jul 05 Daredevil vs Punisher #1 (of 6) - 38,306
Jul 05 Daredevil vs Punisher #2 (of 6) - 35,073 ( -8.4%)
Aug 05 Daredevil vs Punisher #3 (of 6) - 29,772 (-15.1%)


An example of the first two issues being solicited in the same month,
and the second-issue drop being deferred to issue #3 as a result.
Nothing to worry about yet.


83. SPIDER-MAN: BREAKOUT
Apr 05 Spider-Man: Breakout #1 (of 5) - 44,353
May 05 Spider-Man: Breakout #2 (of 5) - 35,476 (-20.0%)
Jun 05 Spider-Man: Breakout #3 (of 5) - 32,596 ( -8.1%)
Jul 05 Spider-Man: Breakout #4 (of 5) - 29,243 (-10.3%)
Aug 05 Spider-Man: Breakout #5 (of 5) - 28,411 ( -2.8%)


A token drop for the final issue of the miniseries.


88. RUNAWAYS
Aug 03 Runaways #5 - 19,332
======
Aug 04 Runaways #17 - 18,563 ( -2.6%)
Sep 04 Runaways #18 - 18,614 ( +0.3%)
Oct 04 n/a
Nov 04 n/a
Dec 04 n/a
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 Runaways #1 - 43,128 (+131.7%)
Mar 05 Runaways #2 - 31,330 ( -27.4%)
Apr 05 Runaways #3 - 30,332 ( -3.2%)
May 05 Runaways #4 - 28,968 ( -4.5%)
Jun 05 Runaways #5 - 28,409 ( -1.9%)
Jul 05 Runaways #6 - 27,365 ( -3.7%)
Aug 05 Runaways #7 - 27,063 ( -1.1%)
6 mnth ( -37.2%)
1 year ( +45.8%)
2 year ( +40.0%)


Virtually no change, and still way ahead of sales on the previous run.
The relaunch has to be considered a success, on that basis.


89. MARVEL KNIGHTS 4
Aug 04 Marvel Knights 4 #9 - 39,743 ( -3.8%)
Sep 04 Marvel Knights 4 #10 - 38,318 ( -3.6%)
Oct 04 Marvel Knights 4 #11 - 36,820 ( -3.9%)
Nov 04 Marvel Knights 4 #12 - 34,525 ( -6.2%)
Dec 04 Marvel Knights 4 #13 - 32,623 ( -5.5%)
Jan 05 Marvel Knights 4 #14 - 31,291 ( -4.1%)
Feb 05 Marvel Knights 4 #15 - 30,230 ( -3.4%)
Mar 05 Marvel Knights 4 #16 - 29,600 ( -2.1%)
Apr 05 Marvel Knights 4 #17 - 29,189 ( -1.4%)
May 05 Marvel Knights 4 #18 - 28,649 ( -1.9%)
Jun 05 Marvel Knights 4 #19 - 28,153 ( -1.7%)
Jul 05 Marvel Knights 4 #20 - 27,548 ( -2.1%)
Aug 05 Marvel Knights 4 #21 - 27,023 ( -1.9%)
6 mnth (-10.6%)
1 year (-32.0%)


Again, virtually no change from the previous issue. The book is still
sliding very slowly, but seems to have more or less found its range now.


91. NEW X-MEN: HELLIONS
May 05 New X-Men: Hellions #1 (of 4) - 33,193
Jun 05 New X-Men: Hellions #2 (of 4) - 28,563 (-13.9%)
Jul 05 New X-Men: Hellions #3 (of 4) - 26,501 ( -7.2%)
Aug 05 New X-Men: Hellions #4 (of 4) - 25,974 ( -2.0%)


Another token drop for a final issue.


92. WHAT IF...?
Dec 04 Magneto Had Formed The X-Men With Professor X - 37,879
Dec 04 Karen Page Had Lived - 32,312
Dec 04 Aunt May Had Died Instead Of Uncle Ben - 31,783
Dec 04 Dr Doom Had Become The Thing - 30,930
Dec 04 Jessica Jones Had Joined The Avengers - 30,839
Dec 04 General Ross had Become The Hulk - 29,785
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 n/a
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 Wha...Huh? - 25,755


The final book from last December's WHAT IF? event belatedly reaches the
shelves. Obviously we'll never know for certain, but going by the
orders for the other books, I'd say it would probably have done about
the same number even if it had come out on schedule.


93. OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
Aug 04 Hulk 2004 - 22,011 ( -23.5%)
Sep 04 Daredevil/Elektra 2004 - 22,781 ( +3.5%)
Oct 04 Wolverine 2004 - 32,553 ( +42.9%)
Nov 04 Book of the Dead 2004 - 25,131 ( -22.8%)
Dec 04 Golden Age 2004 - 17,356 ( -30.9%)
Jan 05 Women of Marvel 2005 - 20,837 ( +20.1%)
Feb 05 Marvel Knights 2005 - 18,182 ( -12.7%)
Mar 05 X-Men: Age of Apocalypse 2005 - 37,056 (+103.8%)
Apr 05 Spider-Man 2005 - 25,530 ( -31.1%)
May 05 Teams 2005 - 22,564 ( -11.6%)
Jun 05 Fantastic Four 2005 - 21,970 ( -2.6%)
Jul 05 Avengers 2005 - 23,668 ( +7.7%)
Aug 05 Ultimate Universe 2005 - 25,436 ( +7.5%)
6 mnth ( +39.9%)
1 year ( +15.6%)


As usual, a big-name theme means a sales jump.


94. CABLE & DEADPOOL
Aug 04 Cable & Deadpool #6 - 31,033 ( -4.8%)
Sep 04 Cable & Deadpool #7 - 30,325 ( -2.3%)
Oct 04 Cable & Deadpool #8 - 28,986 ( -4.4%)
Nov 04 Cable & Deadpool #9 - 27,612 ( -4.7%)
Dec 04 Cable & Deadpool #10 - 26,911 ( -2.5%)
Jan 05 Cable & Deadpool #11 - 25,844 ( -4.0%)
Feb 05 Cable & Deadpool #12 - 25,349 ( -1.9%)
Mar 05 Cable & Deadpool #13 - 25,551 ( +0.8%)
Apr 05 Cable & Deadpool #14 - 24,994 ( -2.2%)
May 05 Cable & Deadpool #15 - 24,837 ( -0.6%)
Jun 05 Cable & Deadpool #16 - 24,612 ( -0.9%)
Jul 05 Cable & Deadpool #17 - 34,393 (+39.7%)
Aug 05 Cable & Deadpool #18 - 25,304 (-26.4%)
6 mnth ( -0.2%)
1 year (-18.5%)


Straight back to the usual range after the HOUSE OF M tie-in last month,
albeit with a slight increase.


97. HULK: DESTRUCTION
Jul 05 Hulk: Destruction #1 (of 4) - 29,459
Aug 05 Hulk: Destruction #2 (of 4) - 24,075 (-18.3%)


Fairly standard drop for the second issue of a miniseries.


98. TOXIN
Apr 05 Toxin #1 (of 6) - 42,138
May 05 Toxin #2 (of 6) - 34,093 (-19.1%)
Jun 05 Toxin #3 (of 6) - 29,249 (-14.2%)
Jul 05 Toxin #4 (of 6) - 25,585 (-12.5%)
Aug 05 Toxin #5 (of 6) - 23,982 ( -6.3%)


As usual, the drops slow down as the miniseries goes on.


99. X-MEN UNLIMITED
Aug 04 X-Men Unlimited #4 - 33,895 ( -7.7%)
Sep 04 n/a
Oct 04 X-Men Unlimited #5 - 32,910 ( -2.9%)
Nov 04 n/a
Dec 04 X-Men Unlimited #6 - 30,138 ( -8.4%)
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 X-Men Unlimited #7 - 27,009 (-10.4%)
Mar 05 n/a
Apr 05 X-Men Unlimited #8 - 25,686 ( -4.9%)
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 X-Men Unlimited #9 - 25,398 ( -1.1%)
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 X-Men Unlimited #10 - 23,717 ( -6.6%)
6 mnth (-12.2%)
1 year (-30.0%)


Continuing its inexorable decline, but despite their poor sales, the
UNLIMITED titles seem to be bulletproof. Marvel seem to value them as
try-out books.


103. MARVEL TEAM-UP
Nov 04 Marvel Team-Up #1 - 44,530
Nov 04 Marvel Team-Up #2 - 37,515 (-15.7%)
Dec 04 Marvel Team-Up #3 - 29,085 (-22.5%)
Jan 05 Marvel Team-Up #4 - 27,216 ( -6.4%)
Feb 05 Marvel Team-Up #5 - 28,141 ( +3.4%)
Mar 05 Marvel Team-Up #6 - 24,762 (-12.0%)
Apr 05 Marvel Team-Up #7 - 24,800 ( +0.2%)
May 05 Marvel Team-Up #8 - 24,270 ( -2.1%)
Jun 05 Marvel Team-Up #9 - 23,530 ( -3.0%)
Jul 05 Marvel Team-Up #10 - 22,549 ( -4.2%)
Aug 05 Marvel Team-Up #11 - 22,150 ( -1.8%)
6 mnth (-21.3%)


Well, at least it's stabilising. The problem is that it's stabilising
at a low level.

 

[iloveclones]

And rounding it all out:

105. X-MEN: KITTY PRYDE - SHADOW & FLAME
Jun 05 Kitty Pryde #1 (of 5) - 33,785
Jul 05 Kitty Pryde #2 (of 5) - 25,814 (-23.6%)
Aug 05 Kitty Pryde #3 (of 5) - 22,143 (-14.2%)


Dropping rather quickly for a third issue. As I've noted in the past,
the X-books no longer have the power to automatically sell decent
numbers of their satellite books.


116. NIGHTCRAWLER
Sep 04 Nightcrawler #1 - 46,547
Oct 04 n/a
Nov 04 Nightcrawler #2 - 36,533 (-21.5%)
Dec 04 Nightcrawler #3 - 31,436 (-14.0%)
Dec 04 Nightcrawler #4 - 29,292 ( -6.8%)
Jan 05 Nightcrawler #5 - 26,442 ( -9.7%)
Feb 05 Nightcrawler #6 - 24,641 ( -6.8%)
Mar 05 n/a
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 Nightcrawler #7 - 22,400 ( -9.1%)
Jul 05 Nightcrawler #8 - 21,011 ( -6.2%)
Aug 05 Nightcrawler #9 - 20,052 ( -4.6%)
6 mnth (-18.6%)


Missing from the December solicitations, so presumably cancelled with
November's issue #12.


120. DAREDEVIL: REDEMPTION
Feb 05 Daredevil: Redemption #1 (of 6) - 33,091
Feb 05 Daredevil: Redemption #2 (of 6) - 30,137 ( -8.9%)
Mar 05 Daredevil: Redemption #3 (of 6) - 24,810 (-17.7%)
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 Daredevil: Redemption #4 (of 6) - 21,118 (-14.9%)
Jun 05 Daredevil: Redemption #5 (of 6) - 19,658 ( -6.9%)
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 Daredevil: Redemption #6 (of 6) - 18,790 ( -4.4%)


Well, this disappeared off the radar in a hurry, didn't it?


121. SPIDER-GIRL
Aug 01 Spider-Girl #37 - 24,177
Aug 02 Spider-Girl #50 - 26,420
Aug 03 Spider-Girl #63 - 22,584
======
Aug 04 Spider-Girl #77 - 21,758 ( -1.8%)
Sep 04 Spider-Girl #78 - 22,076 ( +1.5%)
Oct 04 Spider-Girl #79 - 21,893 ( -0.8%)
Nov 04 Spider-Girl #80 - 21,146 ( -3.4%)
Dec 04 Spider-Girl #81 - 20,419 ( -3.4%)
Jan 05 Spider-Girl #82 - 20,005 ( -2.0%)
Feb 05 Spider-Girl #83 - 20,382 ( +1.9%)
Mar 05 Spider-Girl #84 - 20,050 ( -1.6%)
Apr 05 Spider-Girl #85 - 19,682 ( -1.8%)
May 05 Spider-Girl #86 - 19,452 ( -1.2%)
Jun 05 Spider-Girl #87 - 19,605 ( +0.8%)
Jul 05 Spider-Girl #88 - 18,983 ( -3.2%)
Aug 05 Spider-Girl #89 - 18,538 ( -2.3%)
6 mnth ( -9.0%)
1 year (-14.8%)
2 year (-17.9%)


Sliding slowly, but sales on the digests are reputedly excellent, in
which case SPIDER-GIRL has nothing to worry about.


126. MARVEL NEMESIS: THE IMPERFECTS
May 05 Marvel Nemesis #1 (of 6) - 32,600
Jun 05 Marvel Nemesis #2 (of 6) - 22,407 (-31.3%)
Jul 05 Marvel Nemesis #3 (of 6) - 18,433 (-17.7%)
Aug 05 Marvel Nemesis #4 (of 6) - 17,329 ( -6.0%)


Complete lack of interest.


131. ORORO: BEFORE THE STORM
Jun 05 Ororo #1 (of 4) - 26,372
Jul 05 Ororo #2 (of 4) - 18,898 (-28.3%)
Aug 05 Ororo #3 (of 4) - 15,995 (-15.4%)


Again, virtually no interest in the direct market, but Marvel have it
earmarked for a digest, which means that the DM sales are only part of
the equation.


136,142. ARAÑA: HEART OF THE SPIDER
Aug 04 Amazing Fantasy #2 - 37,047 (-40.3%)
Aug 04 Amazing Fantasy #3 - 33,917 ( -8.4%)
Sep 04 Amazing Fantasy #4 - 30,325 (-10.6%)
Oct 04 Amazing Fantasy #5 - 26,349 (-13.1%)
Nov 04 Amazing Fantasy #6 - 23,913 ( -9.2%)
Dec 04 n/a
Jan 05 Araña #1 - 29,843 (+24.8%)
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 Araña #2 - 22,131 (-25.8%)
Mar 05 Araña #3 - 20,002 ( -9.6%)
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 Araña #4 - 18,752 ( -6.2%)
Jun 05 Araña #5 - 16,379 (-12.7%)
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 Araña #6 - 15,258 ( -6.8%)
Aug 05 Araña #7 - 14,627 ( -4.1%)
6 mnth (-33.9%)
1 year (-60.5%)


Persistently horrible sales in the direct market, but presumably the
digests are doing better.


139,150. MEGA MORPHS
Aug 05 Mega Morphs #1 (of 4) - 14,952
Aug 05 Mega Morphs #2 (of 4) - 12,974 (-13.2%)


Absolutely horrid numbers, but presumably the real target audience is
the kids who buy the toys, and they'll be getting the digest version.
Let's take a moment to acclaim the cynicism of shipping a first issue
that reveals that, in order to find out why everyone's running around in
a giant robot, you need to read the MEGA MORPHS minicomics, which are
only available by... buying the toys.


147. NEW WARRIORS
Jun 05 New Warriors #1 (of 6) - 20,841
Jul 05 New Warriors #2 (of 6) - 15,449 (-25.9%)
Aug 05 New Warriors #3 (of 6) - 13,485 (-12.7%)


Dreadful numbers, and this one surely can't be aimed at the digest
audience. A shame, because it's really quite good.


152. AMAZING FANTASY
Aug 04 Amazing Fantasy #2 - 37,047 (-40.3%)
Aug 04 Amazing Fantasy #3 - 33,917 ( -8.4%)
Sep 04 Amazing Fantasy #4 - 30,325 (-10.6%)
Oct 04 Amazing Fantasy #5 - 26,349 (-13.1%)
Nov 04 Amazing Fantasy #6 - 23,913 ( -9.2%)
Dec 04 n/a
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 n/a
Apr 05 Amazing Fantasy #7 - 21,802 ( -8.9%)
May 05 Amazing Fantasy #8 - 17,773 (-18.5%)
Jun 05 Amazing Fantasy #9 - 15,606 (-12.2%)
Jul 05 Amazing Fantasy #10 - 14,729 ( -5.6%)
Aug 05 Amazing Fantasy #11 - 12,788 (-13.2%)
6 mnth ( n/a )
1 year (-65.5%)


Crashing ever downwards. Marvel apparently want to keep this book
around as a venue for trying out new characters, which is laudable, but
they really need to do something to attract readers to it.


169. GRAVITY
Jun 05 Gravity #1 (of 5) - 20,304
Jul 05 Gravity #2 (of 5) - 13,342 (-34.3%)
Aug 05 Gravity #3 (of 5) - 10,311 (-22.7%)


Dire sales, despite generally positive reviews. Well, there's always
the digest.


177. LIVEWIRES
Feb 05 Livewires #1 (of 6) - 20,944
Mar 05 Livewires #2 (of 6) - 14,688 (-29.9%)
Apr 05 Livewires #3 (of 6) - 12,581 (-14.3%)
May 05 Livewires #4 (of 6) - 11,089 (-11.9%)
Jun 05 Livewires #5 (of 6) - 9,960 (-10.2%)
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 Livewires #6 (of 6) - 9,123 ( -8.4%)
6 mnth (-56.4%)


184. SPELLBINDERS
Mar 05 Spellbinders #1 (of 6) - 20,995
Apr 05 Spellbinders #2 (of 6) - 14,632 (-30.3%)
May 05 Spellbinders #3 (of 6) - 12,069 (-17.5%)
Jun 05 Spellbinders #4 (of 6) - 10,189 (-15.6%)
Jul 05 Spellbinders #5 (of 6) - 9,050 (-11.2%)
Aug 05 Spellbinders #6 (of 6) - 8,578 ( -5.2%)


Two miniseries which completely tanked in the direct market - hardly
surprising considering that they were barely publicised. But, repeat
after me, "there's always the digest."


195. MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN
Mar 05 Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #1 - 14,351
Apr 05 Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #2 - 10,305 (-28.2%)
May 05 Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #3 - 9,110 (-11.6%)
Jun 05 Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #4 - 8,878 ( -2.5%)
Jul 05 Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #5 - 8,075 ( -9.0%)
Aug 05 Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #6 - 7,636 ( -5.4%)


Aimed at the digest audience, so the direct market sales are pretty much
irrelevant.


201. KABUKI
Aug 04 n/a
Sep 04 Kabuki #2 - 16,705 (-34.0%)
Oct 04 n/a
Nov 04 n/a
Dec 04 Kabuki #3 - 13,885 (-16.9%)
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 n/a
Apr 05 Kabuki #4 - 14,327 ( +3.2%)
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 n/a
Aug 05 Kabuki #5 - 6,460 (-54.9%)


KABUKI changes format to a 48-page squarebound book with a $4.99 price
tag. Sales duly crash through the floor.


202. MARVEL ADVENTURES: FANTASTIC FOUR
May 05 Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #0 - 9,723
Jun 05 Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #1 - 9,617 ( -1.1%)
Jul 05 Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #2 - 6,864 (-28.6%)
Aug 05 Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #3 - 6,447 ( -6.1%)


Another book aimed at the digest market.


208. MACHINE TEEN
May 05 Machine Teen #1 (of 5) - 16,527
Jun 05 Machine Teen #2 (of 5) - 9,812 (-40.6%)
Jul 05 Machine Teen #3 (of 5) - 7,499 (-23.6%)
Aug 05 Machine Teen #4 (of 5) - 6,042 (-19.4%)


Oww. This is another one aimed at the digest audience, but even by
those standards, it's selling appallingly in the direct market. At this
rate, there's a serious risk of the final issue selling fewer than 5,000
copies.


273. GIANT-SIZE SPIDER-WOMAN
Jul 05 Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1 - 17,327


Picks up 2,676 reorders and charts at number 273. The number still
doesn't look great.


And that's it for the Marvel books that made the charts. None of the
numerous flipbooks charted in August. That's hardly surprising, because
the number 300 book - ZORRO #3 - had orders of 2,098, and most of them
didn't even reach that level last month. It's possible that these
titles will waver in and out of the charts from month to month,
depending on how the rest of the market's doing, but whatever happens,
it's clear that their direct market sales are going to be insignificant
compared to their sales in other venues. For that reason, I'm not going
to bother tracking them further even if they do manage to make it onto
the charts again.


Skip months
===========


ULTIMATES
Aug 02 Ultimates #8 - 112,570
Aug 03 n/a
======
Dec 05 Ultimates 2 #1 - 146,271 (+42.0%)
Jan 05 Ultimates 2 #2 - 114,963 (-21.4%)
Feb 05 Ultimates 2 #3 - 108,378 ( -5.7%)
Mar 05 Ultimates 2 #4 - 105,255 ( -2.9%)
Apr 05 Ultimates 2 #5 - 104,971 ( -0.3%)
May 05 Ultimates 2 #6 - 102,026 ( -2.8%)
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 Ultimates 2 #7 - 99,134 ( -2.8%)
Aug 05 n/a


Late, although at least they managed to get the annual out.


SECRET WAR
Aug 04 n/a
Sep 04 n/a
Oct 04 Secret War #3 (of 5) - 109,745 (-17.4%)
Nov 04 n/a
Dec 04 n/a
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 Secret War #4 (of 5) - 94,893 (-13.5%)
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 n/a


Late.


ULTIMATE GALACTUS TRILOGY
Sep 04 Ultimate Nightmare #2 (of 5) - 88,088 (-14.2%)
Oct 04 Ultimate Nightmare #3 (of 5) - 83,208 ( -5.5%)
Nov 04 n/a
Dec 04 Ultimate Nightmare #4 (of 5) - 76,658 ( -7.9%)
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 Ultimate Nightmare #5 (of 5) - 73,082 ( -4.6%)
Mar 05 Ultimate Secret #1 (of 4) - 89,132 (+22.0%)
Apr 05 Ultimate Secret #2 (of 4) - 77,914 (-12.6%)
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 n/a


On hiatus while artist Steve McNiven draws a NEW AVENGERS arc. Due to
resume in September.


PULSE
Aug 02 Alias #13 - 29,546
Aug 03 Alias #25 - 27,674
======
Aug 04 n/a
Sep 04 Pulse #5 - 37,812 ( -5.2%)
Oct 04 n/a
Nov 04 Pulse #6 - 40,895 ( +8.2%)
Dec 04 n/a
Jan 05 Pulse #7 - 34,779 (-15.0%)
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 Pulse #8 - 33,367 ( -4.1%)
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 Pulse #9 - 32,771 ( -1.8%)
Jul 05 Pulse #10 - 52,438 (+60.0%)
Aug 05 n/a


Bimonthly. Issue #10, the HOUSE OF M crossover, picks up re-orders of
2,204.


NYX
Aug 04 n/a
Sep 04 n/a
Oct 04 NYX #5 - 35,749 ( -3.5%)
Nov 04 n/a
Dec 04 n/a
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 n/a
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 NYX #6 - 36,892 ( +3.2%)
Aug 05 n/a


Axed with issue #7.


SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED
Aug 04 n/a
Sep 04 Spider-Man Unlimited #5 - 24,156 ( -8.9%)
Oct 04 n/a
Nov 04 Spider-Man Unlimited #6 - 20,974 (-13.2%)
Dec 04 n/a
Jan 05 Spider-Man Unlimited #7 - 18,316 (-12.7%)
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 Spider-Man Unlimited #8 - 17,640 ( -3.7%)
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 Spider-Man Unlimited #9 - 16,953 ( -3.9%)
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 Spider-Man Unlimited #10 - 16,104 ( -5.0%)
Aug 05 n/a


Bimonthly.


6 month comparisons
===================


+92.4% - Mutopia X / District X
+39.9% - Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe
+19.0% - New X-Men
+18.9% - Incredible Hulk
+11.9% - Fantastic Four
+ 6.2% - Powers
+ 4.6% - Exiles
+ 1.0% - Uncanny X-Men
- 0.2% - Cable & Deadpool
- 2.2% - New Avengers
- 3.0% - Ultimate Fantastic Four
- 4.4% - Punisher
- 4.7% - Daredevil
- 7.2% - Captain America
- 8.3% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 8.9% - Supreme Power
- 9.0% - Spider-Girl
- 9.1% - Wolverine
- 9.3% - X-Men
-10.6% - Marvel Knights 4
-11.5% - Ultimate X-Men
-12.2% - X-Men Unlimited
-12.8% - Ultimate Spider-Man
-18.0% - Astonishing X-Men
-18.6% - Nightcrawler
-19.1% - New Thunderbolts
-19.7% - Marvel Knights Spider-Man
-21.3% - Marvel Team-Up
-31.3% - Shanna the She-Devil
-33.9% - Araña: Heart of the Spider
-37.2% - Runaways
-38.6% - Black Panther
-40.1% - Young Avengers
-56.4% - Livewires


1 year comparisons
==================


+60.0% - New Avengers / Avengers
+45.8% - Runaways
+44.4% - Iron Man
+41.7% - Weapon X
+32.7% - Mutopia X / District X
+20.7% - Incredible Hulk
+16.1% - Captain America
+15.8% - Wolverine
+15.6% - Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe
+ 3.1% - Fantastic Four
- 8.6% - Uncanny X-Men
- 9.9% - Powers
-10.9% - Daredevil
-10.9% - Exiles
-14.8% - Spider-Girl
-15.1% - Astonishing X-Men
-15.4% - New X-men
-16.8% - X-Men
-18.1% - Supreme Power
-18.2% - Amazing Spider-Man
-18.4% - Punisher
-18.5% - Cable & Deadpool
-20.8% - Ultimate Fantastic Four
-21.5% - Ultimate Spider-Man
-26.1% - Ultimate X-Men
-30.0% - X-Men Unlimited
-32.0% - Marvel Knights 4
-35.7% - Marvel Knights Spider-Man
-54.8% - X-Men: The End
-60.5% - Araña / Amazing Fantasy
-65.5% - Amazing Fantasy


2 year comparisons
==================


+151.8% - New Avengers / Avengers
+ 57.0% - Iron Man
+ 40.0% - Runaways
+ 34.8% - Weapon X
+ 15.7% - Powers
+ 10.4% - Wolverine
+ 5.9% - New X-Men / New Mutants
+ 3.5% - Captain America
- 2.2% - Punisher
- 3.7% - Fantastic Four
- 6.7% - Uncanny X-Men
- 10.4% - Incredible Hulk
- 16.6% - Exiles
- 17.9% - Spider-Girl
- 22.9% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 23.5% - X-Men
- 24.9% - Ultimate Spider-Man
- 27.6% - Supreme Power
- 29.0% - Daredevil
- 31.0% - Ultimate X-Men
- 73.1% - Marvel 1602


--
Paul O'Brien

 

[iloveclones]

I'll be back in a little while to ***** and moan about MTU.

 

[iloveclones]

Don't get me wrong. I collect a lot of these titles, and like some of them, but do these mediocre titles......

Aug 05 New Avengers #9 - 145,673
Aug 05 House of M #5 (of 8) - 140,680

...and these excruciatingly late titles.....

Aug 04 n/a
Sep 04 n/a
Oct 04 Secret War #3 (of 5) - 109,745 (-17.4%)
Nov 04 n/a
Dec 04 n/a
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 Secret War #4 (of 5) - 94,893 (-13.5%)
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 n/a

Mar 05 Ultimate Iron Man #1 (of 5) - 150,869
Apr 05 n/a
May 05 Ultimate Iron Man #2 (of 5) - 90,197 (-40.2%)
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 Ultimate Iron Man #3 (of 5) - 77,378 (-14.2%)

Nov 04 Iron Man #1 - 68,992 (+106.1%)
Dec 04 Iron Man #2 - 55,051 ( -20.2%)
Jan 05 n/a
Feb 05 n/a
Mar 05 n/a
Apr 05 Iron Man #3 - 51,390 ( -6.7%)
May 05 n/a
Jun 05 n/a
Jul 05 n/a
Aug 05 Iron Man #4 - 48,403 ( -5.8%)

...deserve more of a fan following than these? :

Aug 05 Exiles #68 - 33,815
Aug 05 Runaways #7 - 27,063
Aug 05 Marvel Team-Up #11 - 22,150
Aug 05 Spider-Girl #89 - 18,538

 

[DBM]

Wow. I've never really looked at the numbers for the consistently late titles. Doesn't Marvel pay attention to this stuff?

They've dropped by 73,491 on Ultimate Iron Man, 14,852 on Secret War and 20,589 on Iron Man. That's a decrease total of 108,932 issues.

Considering SW cost $3.99 each and the other two are $2.99 that means a potential lost revenue of $340,000. 340 ****ing thousand dollars.

That doesn't even include any of the losses in potential revenues that may have happened because of the tie-ins to other titles (like Secret War and the Pulse).

That's just ****ty business sense right there. I'm not one for a lot of name calling but whoever's in charge of scheduling and deadlines (whether that be Joey Q or someone on the business side) must be a complete ****tard.

If I had someone in my staff who, due to their inability to keep other people working and on deadlines, cost our company $340,000 in potential revenue, I'd fire him immediately. Someone at Marvel needs to take a hardline on this **** and get in under control.

 

[Dread]

I agree completely. Consistantly, unapologetically late books are not what a professional company should be projecting, and I actually think it's good that it's costing them money. Maybe they'll learn.

On the other hand, in the last issue of WIZARD, Kevin Smith, whose BLACK CAT mini is now running on THREE YEARS behind schedule, claimed that even as he was turning in late scripts, editors at Marvel were STILL asking him to write more books. His response was a humorous "what are you thinking!? You know I'm late as hell on just this one!" or words to that effect, but isn't that mind-boggling? Because it was to me.

 

[Themanofbat]

Wow. I've never really looked at the numbers for the consistently late titles. Doesn't Marvel pay attention to this stuff?

They've dropped by 73,491 on Ultimate Iron Man, 14,852 on Secret War and 20,589 on Iron Man. That's a decrease total of 108,932 issues.

Considering SW cost $3.99 each and the other two are $2.99 that means a potential lost revenue of $340,000. 340 ****ing thousand dollars.

That doesn't even include any of the losses in potential revenues that may have happened because of the tie-ins to other titles (like Secret War and the Pulse).

That's just ****ty business sense right there. I'm not one for a lot of name calling but whoever's in charge of scheduling and deadlines (whether that be Joey Q or someone on the business side) must be a complete ****tard.

If I had someone in my staff who, due to their inability to keep other people working and on deadlines, cost our company $340,000 in potential revenue, I'd fire him immediately. Someone at Marvel needs to take a hardline on this **** and get in under control.

While I don't disagree with your numbers, let's not forget that Marvel doesn't get 100% of that price tag on the cover. But even if they only get 2/3's (and I think I'm being generous here), that's still a loss of a quarter of a million dollars, which would still warrant your "hanging somebody's nuts by piano wire" theme.

 

[DBM]

While I don't disagree with your numbers, let's not forget that Marvel doesn't get 100% of that price tag on the cover. But even if they only get 2/3's (and I think I'm being generous here), that's still a loss of a quarter of a million dollars, which would still warrant your "hanging somebody's nuts by piano wire" theme.

Excellent point. One I didn't take into account as I quick-figured this in my head.

Marvel actually gets about 60% of cover price with the other 40% split more or less evenly between Diamond and the retailers. Which honestly should make it even worse. Why aren't Diamond and the retailors pitching a fit too? They're losing tens of thousands of dollars in potential revenues too.

Now that I think about it I'm pretty sure a class action lawsuit (with Brian Hibbs in the lead) was just won against Marvel because of lost revenues due to late books from several years ago.

 

[iloveclones]

I was looking through those numbers just to see if anything else interesting stuck out and I saw this-

147. NEW WARRIORS
Jun 05 New Warriors #1 (of 6) - 20,841
Jul 05 New Warriors #2 (of 6) - 15,449 (-25.9%)
Aug 05 New Warriors #3 (of 6) - 13,485 (-12.7%)


Dreadful numbers, and this one surely can't be aimed at the digest
audience. A shame, because it's really quite good.

-which may be the ONLY place to put forth that opinion.