Unnecessary slams against Marvel, the cruelty of Evanier, and Mike holds something big in his hands.
1. Mark Evanier is a cruel, cruel man.
2. Reading up on the lowdown from the Wizard World convention here in slightly overcast Southern California…so apparently, the Marvel Comics panel was basically the editor-in-chief announcing a bunch of new titles designed to cannibalize sales from other Marvel titles?
Oh, and DC apparently announced some new Batman mini-series. Oh. Hey. What a surprise.
Check out The Pulse for several articles about Wizard World.
3. Some comic selling observations:
- Over the last couple years, at our store, Grant Morrison’s New X-Men has outsold Uncanny X-Men by about 2 to 1 and X-Treme X-Men by about 3 to 1. Also, Morrison’s X-Men is a huge back issue seller as well.
- By keeping full runs of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Lenore on a rack specifically devoted to gother-than-a-goth-thing-that’s-goth comics, I’ve probably sold hundreds of copies over the last few years…lots of them to that near-mythical comic shop clientele, teenage girls. I’ve sold lots of the “Spooky, The Thing What Squeeks” toys, too.
- Street Angel sold fairly well. Even had a couple people add it to their pull lists after I recommended the first issue to them.
- Spider-man sales are slowly eroding. I wonder if it has anything to do with too many Spider-man titles on the stands?
- For all the grief people give Rob Liefeld over his art, he can still sell comics…well, as long as they’re Marvel comics. Remember those Wolverines he did a couple years back? Sold like crazy. They still sell like crazy, whenever we can get them back in stock. Moral of the story? People say they don’t like it…but they’ll buy it anyway.
4. I think it was pal Dorian who pointed out an article on ICV2 that stated, for the month of January 2004, DC Comics’ Watchmen had already sold 800 copies in bookstores. This is for a graphic novel well over 15 years old. These are probably better numbers than some Marvel trades get brand new.
5. I came across this Time Online article about graphic novels where Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns is correctly described as a “black comedy.” Finally somebody gets it. I’ve been saying that Dark Knight Returns is a “comic” book (in every sense of the term) for years. It’s a parody that too many writers afterward took at face value.
6. Comic Treadmill is treading through the 1970s run of All-Star Comics…good stuff!
7. I held one of these in my hands today. Ooooh, it was neat.
8. Today’s Dave Cockrum link: an interview conducted for Comic Book Artist magazine.
