Ultimate Comics Walk-Up Sales For Feb 18st, 2009

From Lee Newman of Ultimate Comics, the list of top-selling books at one of their locations in North Carolina for what was released on 2/18/09. Pull lists are not included, as this is meant to capture what is being bought off the shelf.

(Ed note: I know, this is real late. It's awful "Special Olympics" of me.)

1. Deadpool #8
2. Secret Warriors #2
3. Superman: World of New Krypton #1
4. Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead? #1
5. Black Panther #2
6. Batman Cacophony #3
7. Hulk: Broken Worlds #1
8. Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk #3
9. War of Kings #1
10. New Avengers: The Reunion #1

An all Big 2 week because well it was huge.
1. Jon, the company manager, loves this book and it is infecting all of us and our customers as well.
2. That Jonathan Hickman, we love him, so do our customers.

The rest of the list all smacks of Event (but then again so are Secret Warriors and Deadpool).

Employment circumstances have left my head spinning on a daily basis, leaving the blog to be not as high a priority as I'd like it to be. So this list wound up sitting in my inbox MUCH longer than it should (my apologies, Lee). 

Lee is right: a lot of that list (and the list I imagine we'd see for this week and weeks upcoming) can be classified as "event" related. But I don't know if I'd say they are all tied to the "four letter word" version of an event. Obviously, it is all in the eye of the beholder, but I believe most of the titles listed there are great concepts and stories first, event marketing second. 

Ultimate Comics Walk-Up Sales For Feb 18th, 2009

From Lee Newman of Ultimate Comics, the list of top-selling books at one of their locations in North Carolina for what was released on 2/18/09. Pull lists are not included, as this is meant to capture what is being bought off the shelf.

1. Dark Avengers #2
2. Uncanny X-Men #506
3. Robin #183
4. GI Joe Origins #1
5. Mysterious The Unknown #2
6. Justice League of America #30
7. Spider-Man Noir #3
8. Amazing Spider-Man #587
9. Supergirl #38
10. Ultimate Fantastic Four #60

1. So yeah this book is a juggernaut.  Maybe they should have changed the name of Thunderbolts ages ago.
2 & 10. Last issue bump, even if it is meaningless in both cases.
4. Strong word of mouth for the core title translated into a strong debut for the first spin-off.
5. Honest recommendation in action.

2. I imagine that was supposed to be an Ultimate X-Men issue, not Uncanny.
6. Someone please alert me when McDuffie is either off the title or starts writing stories that are of the same quality as the JLU episodes he was involved with. I can't understand how that many people are sticking with the title or picking it up for any reason other than forgetting to take it off their pull list.
7. None of the comic book readers I chat with have really been commenting on this book lately.

Anyone care to chime in?

Ultimate Comics Walk-Up Sales For Jan 7th, 2009

From Lee Newman of Ultimate Comics, the list of top-selling books at one of their locations in North Carolina for what was released on 1/7/09. Pull lists are not included, as this is meant to capture what is being bought off the shelf.

Top Ten for the Week of 1-7-09

1. Secret Invasion: War of Kings
2. Punisher #1
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight #21
4. Secret Six #5
5. Marvel Zombies 3 #4
6. Amazing Spider-Man: Fear Itself
7. Super Hero Squad One- Shot
8. Archibald Chases the Dragon
9. No Hero #3
10. Trinity #32

Commentary -

First an apology. The holidays were rough for me this year. Between business at the shop, a finacially poor year personally, and a couple of new responisbilities online, I got behind in almost every aspect of my life.

Next, a note as to why there will probably be a shift of focus in this list going forward. The great esperiment, the Northgate Mall location of Ultimate Comics closed this past week. This was due to many factors, almost none of them having to do with the economy. Sales for the stores in general either held steady or were up for last year. This year has seen increases across the board, thus far (only two weeks in, but you know). Anyhow, the closing of that store had more to do with the stability of that particular mall and the inability to adjust our hours to the demands of business. We were spending way too much money on labor to justify staying there. The hours of operation there caused us to double our staffing when it opened and the cost was never offset by the sales of that location. Instead it ate away at the profit margins of our other stores.

All that is to say that the customer of that base was consolidated (with a few exceptions) to the Ninth Street location where the shelf sales generate this list. It was good to see a couple smaller books get some love on the list, but it is much more a Marvel and DC show than I remember it being (or maybe I am remembering with rose colored glasses, who knows?).

1. Honestly, I expect this thing to drawf sales of the Annihilation books, between a strong word of mouth for the individual titles going in and the inclusion of the cosmic X-People and the Inhumans while spinning it out of Secret Invasion, I think this one is a winner. The banner saw bumps in Guardians, Nova, and Kingbreaker opened stronger than Emperor Vulcan.

2. My new found love for the character, the Dark Reign Banner and a solid actioner with some good word of mouth created success here. Will it hold out?

4. The little book that could, this book sees incremental growth with each issue for us. That is a great thing, in the era of attrition, I am happy when a book holds steady. To sell more with each issue is great.

6. If Man-Thing is such a selling point, why won't anyone buy the statue in my display case?

7. Kids love comics. They really do. I love selling books to them too. I wish every shop would embrace the kid's titles.

8. Archibald rules. If you are not reading this great book by Grant Bond, than you are missing out. Seriously, everyone who picks up this book loves it.

I'm still not recovered from the holidays and job search stuff, myself, so you can all have at this. ;)

Ultimate Comics Walk-Up Sales For Dec 4th, 2008

From Lee Newman of Ultimate Comics, the list of top-selling books at one of their locations in North Carolina for what was released on 12/4/08. Pull lists are not included, as this is meant to capture what is being bought off the shelf.

Sorry, everyone for the late post this week. One day shorter in the week and business in the store created a very hectic week for me.

1. Batman #682
2. Batman #681
3. Secret Invasion #8
4. X-Men Noir #1
5. Haunted Tank #1
6. Sandman: The Dream Hunters #2
7. Amazing Spider-Man #579
8. X-Infernus #1
9. Justice Society #21
10. Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #1

Commentary:

1&2: Media exposure baby. Seriously, I would love if Marvel and DC would start advertising on tv with a nice comic shop locator ride on!

3. It is important to note that last week's issue of Batman performed better than the end of Marvel's big event. Some will think this is attrition, but believe or not we don't see too much attrition in event books, even late ones like Final Crisis perform well and consistently. The big push here was the Batman story made it into the news.

4&8. Yup, people will buy the X-Men regardless of what it is.

5. Surprise of the week. Solid, fun, and funny book (although I am unsure as to whether or not it was supposed to be funny or if my twisted brain made it funny), it may have had something to do with me talking it up. ; )

10. Hellboy has been a big performer at this store. We are just now figuring out what numbers of it will sell here, it may become a repeat performer.

1 & 2. Ugh. I'd be afraid that those sales would mean we'd see more stories like BATMAN R.I.P., but most of my problems with the arc were very Grant-Morrison-specific, thus unlikely to be repeated any time soon.

4 & 8. I haven't seen a copy of these yet, but I'd like to hope there is some quality behind them in addition to having the X-MEN name slapped across them. Lee's comment doesn't leave me with much hope, though.

Ultimate Comics Walk-Up Sales For Oct 8th, 2008

From Lee Newman of Ultimate Comics, the list of top-selling books at one of their locations in North Carolina for what was released on 10/8/08. Pull lists are not included, as this is meant to capture what is being bought off the shelf.

1. Presidential Material: Barack Obama
2. The Stand: Captain Trips #2
3. Secret Invasion: Inhumans #3
4. Ender's Game #1
5. X-Men Original Sin #1
6. Deadpool #3
7. Presidential Material: John McCain
8. Dark Tower: Treachery #2
9. Final Crisis: Revelations #3
10. Trinity #19

Presidential Materials - Being in a college town really helps come election time. The best selling items that this new location (9th Street, Durham) has ever had are the Obama by Ross Tee Shirt and the Obama comic book.

The Stand - Stephen King sells all kinds of books everywhere.

Inhumans - Fluke? Don't know, like last week's House of M: Civil War, this is a book that was not as popular as it was this week. I haven't read it yet, maybe something important happened.

Ender's Game - Good old Orson Scott Card, even when he removes North Carolina from the comic, it still sells really well. I was not old enough to realize the Ender's Game phenomenon when it happened last time... It will be interesting to see if it's success is a regional or countrywide thing.

X-Men Original Sins - Crossover appeal, plus a decent issue of Wolverine Origins not featuring Deadpool leading into it made this one sell really well.

Deadpool - A steady behemoth. This one sells more each time it comes out and has the most beautiful legs.

If Lee hadn't explained the college connection, my jaw would have absolutely hit the floor to see those Presidential Material books so high on the charts.

Happy to see that Deadpool's audience is building. Not surprised that an X-Men event is selling well, but can't comment on it until I read some of it.

The Stand doing so well has to be a bittersweet success for Marvel, with King moving his comic book adaptations to another publisher soon.

Hate to see the homophobe scoring a hit, but Ender's Game was a really good sci-fi novel.

Ultimate Comics Walk-Up Sales For Oct 1st, 2008

From Lee Newman of Ultimate Comics, the list of top-selling books at one of their locations in North Carolina for what was released on 10/1/08. Pull lists are not included, as this is meant to capture what is being bought off the shelf.

1. Batman #680

2. No Hero #1

3. Four Eyes #1

4. Terror Titans #1

5. Supergirl #4

6. Boys #23

7. Civil War: House of M #2

8. Nightwing #149

9. Trinity #18

10. Justice League of America #25

some commentary...

Batman - regardless of whether or not it makes any sense, people want to find out if he is really gonna die.

No Hero had the highest pre-order subscription number of any book we have ever sold (that wasn't a continuing volume, in other words discount JLA vol x and New Avengers). Black Summer must have struck a chord.

Four Eyes... a good retailer not only spies the next big thing, but makes it the next best thing by actively recommending it. The success of this book is a testimony to passionate recommendations.

Civil War: House of M - the list is compiled from sales at the new 9th street location in Durham... what is funny is that the store never sold a single copy of issue one which came out after it opened. WEIRD.

Nightwing is living a relatively popular life from crossover appeal. For all you who say you are tired of crossovers... people still buy the big events and tie ins more than anything else.

Trinity #18 - this book is turning around, it still has a long way to go to the numbers we saw with Countdown (yes it was a successful book for us), but since the Anti-matter Earth story started and the book got interesting... it has picked up.

Gotta say, seeing JLA on the bottom of that list is a bit surprising, despite my current opinion of the title. I guess more of the diehards are sticking with it than the casual readers of the book.

I wonder where Batman & Nightwing shelf sales will be after RIP.

Terror Titans being that highly ranked is a bit of a shocker.

Very nice to see books like No Hero, The Boys and Four Eyes garnering that much interest, regardless of who is responsible for the performance.