Mikester

Now, onto the rest of that June 1983 order recommendation sheet!

The interesting thing about the Ka-Zar entry is noting the possible impact of competing newsstand sales. I can’t recall that being much of an issue for us back in the day when “comics selling on newsstands” were a thing. If anything, they might get people interested in comics and lookin’ for more, eventually leading them to a dedicated funnybook store. Which is a heck of a business model, I realize, but it did happen at least a few times. I mean, that’s more or less how I ended up going to comic book stores.

The note that Daredevil sales were going to slump after 200…well, considering I recently acquired seven copies of #201 in a collection, somebody was still buying the book. But with nice covers an’ stuff, I imagine sales probably stayed more or less stable until the eventual, if brief, returns of Frank Miller to the series.

Doing these two tipsheets I have in reverse chronological order is a little revealing about how fast things can change. Last time in the entry for New Mutants #11, our Tipstar was recommending dropping orders. This time, for New Mutants #10, we’re being told it’s still a strong title, order big! Not sure what happened exactly to cause the change in attitude here, as just content-wise the comics don’t appear to have had any kind of serious content change (not like a few months later when Sienkiewicz comes on). Just maybe a natural correction from retailers cutting orders to have less stock for back issues? Readers deciding 9 or 10 issues were enough? I don’t know.

Still consistent, however, is the “NOT PAUL SMITH” warning that we got for the later issue of Falcon last time. I think “NOT PAUL SMITH” should just be appended to all comics not actually by Paul Smith. Oddly, doesn’t turn up later in this sheet….

There’s no real explicit recommendation in the Captain America #288 entry, aside from an implied “(shrug) just order what you’ve been ordering, I guess.” Odd that they wouldn’t mention “AWESOME MIKE ZECK/JOHN BEATTY COVER,” because, c’mon:

Also, part one of the story had this cover:

“This story should be flying off the shelves. ORDER LOTS”

Now, Star Wars Annual #3 was a standalone story drawn by Klaus Janson and, if you haven’t read it, is pretty good. Plus, it had this Darth Vader cover, one of the few to nicely exploit that year’s annual “image framed in black” format:

…it doesn’t surprise me that orders would be bumped up for this. No idea if it actually sold that much more, if at all, than the regular series, but I certainly can’t keep them in stock.

Forgot how Magik (called “Illyana and Storm,” actually “Storm and Illyana” on the cover) was a “HOT” book at the time. In 1983, we weren’t yet quite overwhelmed with X-Men tie-ins, so a mini like this has more of a chance to catch on. Also, this was in the days before every title was essentially a mini-series, an actual mini was still a novelty.

I presume the S.H.I.E.L.D. comic referred to here is the Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD mini reprinting Steranko comics. And the Warlock #6 is from this reprint series of the (mostly) Jim Starlin material. As it turned out, there was enough demand for those Warlock reprints to be reissued a decade later. I can’t get a sense that similar demand is rising for the Nick Fury series, but if you’re having a hard finding ’em, blame the Tipster!

Oddly, the note for Uncanny X-Men #176 doesn’t say “NOT PAUL SMITH,” but I assume Smith leaving the book with #175 got enough attention at the time. And was it true that sales went up every time the artist changed? Weren’t sales just generally increasing as the series went on and grabbed more and more readers? Or did retailers bump up orders specifically on issues with new artists just in case it became “hot?” In the latter case, that would read as an aberration, a small spike in numbers before settling back to the typical overall increase in numbers. Anyway, our Tipster was right to note that John Romita Jr.’s popularity was about to change.

Cloak and Dagger – still hot! They’ll always be popular!

Mixed messages on the Krull #2 suggestion, saying order like any #2 (same or lower as #1, presumably), but then saying “hey #1’s beginning to sell!” Especially to whoever this guy was that bought 83 copies of the damned thing:

(Sorry, early pic from the site, I know it’s too small.)

I do get occasional demand for Marvel’s 1980s movie adaptations, including Krull, but more for Labyrinth and Dark Crystal, movies that still have followings, versus Krull and 2010. Though to be fair 2010 did have a peak in interest about, oh, 12 years ago.

Well, you folks seem to like these distributor order-uggestion fliers, and I only wish I had more than the two I’ve got.

First of all, in regards to that mystery Mantis #1 listing noted by The Tipster, it’s Daniel T to the rescue with this entry in Marvel Age #7 (October 1983):

Denny O’Neil and Val Mayerik, eh? That would’ve been something. Note there’s no inker listed, which certainly makes it sound like whatever they were working on here wasn’t ready to go. Not quite like the books that have “TBD” [“To Be Determined”] listed all over the credits, but at the very least the entire creative team hadn’t been put together yet.

Now we need to find any art/mock-up covers that may have been produced.

Anyway, at least Marvel gave themselves an out here:

And Matthew Murray had a couple of notes to add:

“took the note on the issue of Peter Parker to be that it should sell for 25% more as a back issue. (So price it at $0.80 instead of $0.60?)

“Though looking at that issue, it was drawn by Fred Hembeck for Assistant Editor’s Month. Clearly that’s the real draw for that issue!”

I don’t get the feeling that our Tipster is talking about secondary market prices on any these. I think s/he’s strictly discussing initial order numbers.

And I keep forgetting the Marvels for the period under discussion are mostly Assistant Editor Month titles! For those who don’t know, “Assistant Editor Month” supposedly involved the Assistant Editors taking over the titles and doing wild things with them while the folks in charge were away at convention, or something like that. The results were mostly entertaining, none more so than Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man #86, drawn by the legendary Fred Hembeck:

It seems weird that the Tipster would note “Black Cat appearance” and not say “oh, also it’s drawn by Hembeck,” as I feel it may have been noted as “it’s a goofy gag comic, not a ‘real’ issue, don’t raise orders.” Which would be foolish, because as can plainly be seen, this issue is awesome.

Okay, let’s move on to the other Tip Sheet I have here, this one dated June 1984 for books cover-dated…well, looks like between December 1983 to February 1984, based on the few I spot-checked here. You get another cool logo:

“Remember kids, be cool and smoke like Wolverine!”

It looks like the Tipster here is referred to as “our phantom writer,” which isn’t capitalized or anything so I don’t think that’s his intended nomme de distributing, so “Tipster” it remains here in this blog, nigh four decades later.

And dipping into the cover price thing…Batman went to 75 cents cover date November 1983. Uncanny X-Men went to 65 cents cover date April 1985, and 75 cents cover date October 1985. So Marvel held the line at “cheaper than DC” for a little while, anyway.

It feels a tad amusing to see the worry over comics going all the way up to 75 cents, in this time of everyone cranking out $5.99 books at the drop of a hat, but I’m sure it was still a matter of concern. My old boss Ralph likes to tell the story of going to the market with a dime to buy a new comic, only to discover they were 12 cents now. He had to root around in the vacant lot nearby to find a bottle or three to recycle to make up the difference. I don’t think too many people buying their comics in late ’83 were quite as inconvenienced, but I’m sure at the very least it was a little annoying.

And for the first batch of listings I’m presenting today:

…it’s not quite as info-packed as the last couple of entries, but that Batman and the Outsiders bit does remind us of what an influential sales giant New Teen Titans was at the time.

Looks like big dips recommended on DC’s two fancier-format, mature audiences titles Vigilante and Thriller. A tiny bit of a surprise here as I thought the Vigilante was something of a hot character then, having spun out of the aforementioned New Teen Titans book. Order drops on second issues are par for the course, but back then a 40% reduction probably meant cutting dozens of copies. Nowadays it’d be more like, I don’t know, 4 copies on some of Marvel’s slower movers.

And this Detective Comics listing finally makes it clear where The Tipster stands on the art of Gene Colan. Honestly, in that other flier I just couldn’t put my nickel down on what was being said.

That’s enough typing for now…come back Friday for the rest of this flier!

I did you folks a disservice last time when I started talking about this sheet of distributor ordering suggestions by not presenting the logo:

Very charming!

Anyway, before we get into part two, let me address this note from DonaldG:

“Avengers Annual #7 came out years earlier than the other comics on this list. The real Avengers Annual for 1983 was Avengers Annual #12.”

True facts, #12 was the one due out in January 1984. Well, despite all appearances I didn’t invent typos, and this anonymous tipster obviously was afflicted with brainfartitis and mixed up the Avengers Annual number with the X-Men Annual #7 on the very next line. Ah, well, worse things happen at sea.

And Matthew Murray had some questions about comic sales of yesterday as compared to today, plus ordering strategies and cutting/raising orders at the time, and I feel like that’s a longer post than just a quick response here. Let me ponder it a bit.

So here’s part two, with some straggling Marvels and the notes on DC boks:

Okay, first off, let me skip ahead just a tiny bit and say “um, Mantis #1?” Far as I know, Marvel didn’t release a solo title for (presumably) the Avengers/Guardians of the Galaxy character. I presume one was apparently announced and on the schedule but pulled at the last moment. I checked through the “Coming Comics” sections of Amazing Heroes from that period and didn’t spot it in the listings, but maybe it was mentioned in one of the news sections? Something to check when I have more time. Or maybe somebody with the first year of Marvel Age can check for references to the title there?

Backing up a bit, I guess Black Cat was popular enough to be a sales incentive to bump orders up 25%. The character had only been around for about four years at that point, so, you know, I guess? This seems to suggest she was a hot commodity, which I didn’t remember but certainly not out of the question.

I wonder if there was a specific reason for The Defenders to suddenly bump up in sales this late in the run. Maybe the cover on #125 attracted new readers and they stuck around a bit?

Also, definitely pick up Dreadstar #7 and #6, as they had Bernie Wrightson back-ups. Also, #6 (which I bought because of that back-up) is a good jumping-on point for Dreadstar as a whole, apparently, since I read the lead story and had to read more.

Okay, to the DCs!

“Atari Force: Aimed at kids. Order like G.I. Joe #1 sold.” I’m having trouble parsing this, because in usual comic shop parlance of the time (and sadly even today), “aimed at kids” means “ain’t gonna sell to your regular customers to don’t order a lot. But…G.I. Joe #1 did well, didn’t it? Also, Atari Force wasn’t necessarily “aimed at kids” as such. It was a solid science fiction adventure book with great writing and that wonderful, wonderful Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez art saddled with a baggage-laden name.

The advice for DC Comics Presents #65 may be why I used to find this issue in bargain boxes all the time. That’s how I got mine. Also, good issue. That Gray Morrow art is beautiful.

The “NOT [Pat] BRODERICK!” warning on Firestorm was sort of unnecessary, as the artist who took over, Rafael Kayanan, was honestly close enough. Book was still good, hadn’t hit the doldrums of the saggy middle of this 100 issue run yet, and it also had this striking cover.

Batman #367 did have a nice cover, and also it’s Poison Ivy. I don’t know if Ivy was much of a sales-bumper then but boy, given the number of requests I get for Ivy comics now, ordering up on the issue would be a no-brainer.

The reprint warning on Flash is definitely a sign of the times. That sure seemed to happen a lot, and I hated when I got hit with one of those. There was an issue of Green Lantern around this time that kind of annoyed me. Anyhoo, in this case the Comics Tipster may have gotten his/her wires crossed, as the previous month’s issue was the one with the reprint with the new framing story. #329, the one with the January 1984 cover date like the rest of the books listed here, is all new. Or maybe it was another last second schedule change swapping the order of release on these.

The Omega Men entry reminds us that this was once A Hot Title, particularly early on when it was somewhat controversial for its violent content (which I think would barely be noticed today, frankly).

Now I don’t recall lateness with the Green Lantern/Green Arrow reprints, as I was buying it at the time. In fact, checking the Grand Comic Database listings, the release dates for each issue were consistently a month part. Are those dates wrong, or did everyone just assume Adams was going to be late?

Harsh words for Power Lords from our tipster friend. I was going to say “and nobody still cares” but I looked on the eBays and someone managed to sell a set for $20, which is about $25 more than I expected. So what do I know?

I believe most retailers did indeed “GET THIS!” when it came to Thriller #3, as it was one of them newfangled “Comics Aren’t Just for Kids!” titles from DC on the nicer paper and also it was getting some play in the ‘zines. …Unless the store was one of those that didn’t order DCs, which, I don’t know, I kept hearing about stores like that but have never actually seen one in practice.

New Talent Showcase I have to admit, that’s a toughie to order. Even when DC did it again not so long ago that was tricky to order, even with loading them with regular DC Universe characters.

“[Gil] Kane is not the artist for Superman.” Oh, how very dare you, sir or ma’am. Don’t forget those issues of Action. Revel in them, SING THEIR PRAISES

“Pencils by [Gene] Colan” on this issue of Detective. “Need we say more?” Um, well, yes, I think so. I don’t know if you think that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I assume it’s good, but then I think about it a little longer and start to wonder “is s/he warning us?” Anyway, after the Kane comment, there’s no telling.

World’s Finest – “[Ross] Andru is a weak penciller. Keep it low.” Okay, now them’s fightin’ words.

Redeemer actually finally came out, kinda sorta, so I can’t bust out any gags on it being vaporware, I suppose. I don’t even know how to respond to the art comparison between Kubert and Byrne/Miller here, but I will say “DC hasn’t let us down yet!” — um, weren’t you just busting on Power Lords?

Okay, I found one more sheet of these tips to look at, so I’ll go through ’em later in the week. I’m glad you folks seem to be enjoying these as much as I do!

So here’s a thing I found in one of the many, many boxes of old promo material I inherited from the previous place of employment…a sheet of ordering suggestions sent out by a distributor:

These seem to be all for comics with a cover date of January 1984, which means they were released a couple of months before that, which means this sheet was sent out mid/late-ish 1983.

Now, I love stuff like this…I immediately scoured the boxes and found only one or two more of these. But it’s a great insight into what the comic market was like at the time, outside of just order and sales numbers. This is why I also like period fanzines, in that you get the opinions of the time, what people were anticipating, what reactions they had to new projects, that sort of thing.

Reading this now, we have the advantage of hindsight, like with the note that New Mutants was beginning to drop in sales. We know seven months later that the very artist this writer was ballyhooing in the Dazzler entry, Bill Sienkiewicz, would be taking over and revitalizing the book. Also, I may be reading a bit into this, but I feel like there’s an implied “GOOD” response to the dropping sales, as I seem to recall some resentment at the time from X-Men fans that the very idea of having to buy a second X-title was such a burden. Anyway, they didn’t know how lucky they had it.

Other observations:

I think time has shown that Machine Man was “the worst mini-series yet” is WRONG WRONG WRONG. Also, the idea that Hercules was a low-selling series surprises me, as I thought it’d been relatively popular. Or maybe it was, just graded on the Marvel sales curve it’s still way below X-Men. Anyway, both of these were good comics and strong back issue sellers for a long time.

The “woof woof” on the Marvel Fumetti comic was amusing. I suppose it must have seemed like just more Marvel rack-crowding by pumping out junk, but I bought a copy of that when it was new, and it’s cute and funny! Plus it’s nice to see even black-and-white photos on newsprint of the Marvel crew.

Uncanny X-Men Annual #7 sure seemed like a big deal to this writer, I guess, spurred on by the artwork of Mike Golden. This annual was the goofy Impossible Man story, and yeah, it’s a consistent seller today, only because demand is way up on X-Men as a whole.

The Cloak and Dagger entry is a nice reminder of how hot the comic once was.

I guess this writer’s dog shared the byline, as here we are in the Sub-Mariner #1 entry with an “Arf.” Truth be told, this is like one of the forgotten Sub-mariner titles.

I’m glad the Aunt May/Galactus team-up in Marvel Team-Up #137 got the positive nod. I presume fans were probably amused by the very idea, and I know I certainly bought one. It was also part of the “Assistant Editors Month” event, with crazy things happening in each comic. I’m sure the sales bump was a good idea.

Part two on Monday, where we look at what we should be ordering on DCs! Plus, a mystery title?