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 Nov 26th, 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 11/26/08. Pull lists are not included, as this is meant to capture what is being bought off the shelf.

1. Batman #681
2. Umbrella Academy: Dallas #1
3. Captain America #44
4. Hulk #8
5. Ultimate Spider-Man #128
6. Superman #682
7. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes #1
8. Nova #19
9. Secret Invasion: Inhumans #4
10. Secret Invasion: X-Men #4

A normal week with normal sales sees the usual suspects for the most part.

1. Media bump pushed this one over the top and required a fairly hefty reorder after a Friday Sell out!

2. Good to see this selling strong from the get go. The first series was a bit of a slow starter. I think the key difference here is that the core comic audience seems to like the book, so even though we get the My Chemical Romance fans a month or two behind the book, it sells strong on the release and then has legs. This is the kind of comic I like. I will probably have multiple facing for the book just like an Event or a Stephen King book.

7. I chalk this up to my customer base being weird. ;)

I'll toss in a few of my own comments later. It's been a hectic week, filled with attempts to become gainfully employed again and dealing with traffic court issues. Should be much more active again soon.

300 Fitness Craze Still Kicking

Who knew that over a year and a half after it was released in theaters, 300's influence would still be found in gym's across the country?

Shortly after the release of the movie, there were many articles about the grueling workout routine the actors were put through to get them ripped. An overwhelming number of the exercises (if not all) involved the use of a kettlebell. It became a hot fad that trainers and clients embraced.

In November 2008, you can still see those gyms and trainers resistant to the movement back in 2007 now adopting it. While the local Bally Total Fitness gyms in my area don't have a large variety of kettlebells, but they certainly have several and trainers putting clients through their paces with them.

Who would have ever imagined when Frank Miller's beautiful mini-series came out that it might, in a roundabout way, lead to a new fitness craze?

Amazon Leaks?

Some or all of these may be the inadvertent leaks that Amazon often provides of upcoming trades and hardcovers coming out from the big two (with another few thrown in for good measure):

The DC Comics Library entry that sites "Various" for creators is DC COMICS LIBRARY: BATMAN: THE ANNUALS. The DC Comics Library entry that credits Jim Shooter & Curt Swan is DC COMICS LIBRARY: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF FERRO LAD.

All cited Amazon entries ship in 2009 to be relatively sure they haven't likely appeared in Previews yet. An overwhelming majority are February 2009 or later.

There's a little something for everyone in the advance solicited offerings. Don't like super-heroes? Well, there are new offerings from Chris Ware, Tony Millionaire, Lynda Barry, Tom Spurgeon, Anders Nilsen & Wilfred Santiago.

Hart D. Fisher Just Might Have A Point

Lucas Siegel over at ShotgunReviews.com (full disclosure: one is a friend and the other is a place I used to contribute to) dug up the original solicitation text that was provided to Newsarama.com where Dark Horse claimed that UMBRELLA ACADEMY: APOCALYPSE SUITE was the comics debut of Gerard Way, when it was no such thing.

While you might be able to question the tone and tenor of Fisher's reaction to the whole thing, you can certainly see where an outsider would doubt his word versus that of Dark Horse, Previews, Newsarama.com, etc. Who are you going to believe? The "most dangerous man in comics" or everyone else? But he was right, obviously, that Gerard worked for him and he's right that people lied in claiming it as his first work. I'd call it just an oversight, but Dark Horse had officially claimed to never say this was his first work and that they were aware that he had done work prior to this mini.

Hart D. Fisher Talks To Schwapp!!!

Imagine my surprise when an e-mail popped up in the bin over at the Schwapp Online mailbox and it happened to be from the infamous Mr. Hart D. Fisher.

He was, apparently, pleased and impressed with my taking the time to try to look at what one of the things influencing him during this time may be: his wife's ongoing recovery from cancer.

Cervical cancer and Ovarian cancer nearly killed my wife. She's lucky to be a live. Her cancer is rare and vile. She has a 50/50 shot of it coming back in the next 4 years, so yes, for me, the clock is ticking.

You should sit down and think- what would happen to you if you applied for a job, they checked your resume and found something on your resume that didn't check out (not your fault, the fault of someone else) and then you find you didn't get the job because the company pegged you as a liar because this fact on your resume didn't check out.

Then you start thinking about how lies like this could effect a person in my shoes in other ways.

Glad you actually took the time to think about this thing beyond the initial kneejerk reaction.

HDF

So, it appears that the emotional and financial tolls of such a catastrophic illness as cancer and the life changing impact of a resulting hysterectomy do have a place in the process. But there, also, appears to be an added dynamic at play here: the implication that Gerard Way's prior lack of acknowledging his Boneyard Press work has led to people calling Mr. Fisher a liar. Thus far, I haven't seen that mentioned in any other coverage, leading me to assume this is something that will come out as he shares the rest of the story that he's been promising in other statements.

In discussing this with Mr. Fisher, he is quick to want to avoid his wife's condition becoming any kind of focus of the discussion (though he did give me permission share all that we discussed via e-mail):

My motivation is a letter I got from a fan, her friends were giving her shit about On Raven's Wings. Go back and read what I said on my journal about this. My story does not change. And things are only going to get uglier as this thing plays out. This story has barely broke, wait until people simmer down and actually take a look at this situation and the real world ramifications of what these folks did.

Am I struggling to take care of my wife? Yes I am. It's very hard. I am her sole care giver and that's a heavy load. Go read my blog, read about how my brother turned on me during my wife's chemo/radiation treatments, how he started a competing editing business, how he went after my customers and gave them credit terms and cheaper rates to take them away from our company while we were fighting for Waka's life. It's a shit world.

The more you know about me, the more you'll see there's a different story than the one you're reading now. If you want to write about what I've told you, yeah, Go ahead and write about it. Here's a good place to start if you want to know my real story.

Thank you for taking the time to think. I appreciate it. Best of luck to your mother and her struggle. (editor's note: I shared with Mr. Fisher that my mother, also, had cervical cancer in the past)

HDF

As I spent time suggesting to Mr. Fisher that, if more people knew about what he and his wife are going through right now, it might soften their view of him and better allow them to digest what he's saying without bias. As it stands now, right or wrong in his position, I don't think that many people are going to give much effort in trying to give him a fair shake. Deserved or not, it seems that most people are more inclined to dogpile on him without reading through much of the story.

The following are two separate responses where he made it clear that he's not willing to personally draw attention to his wife's medical woes, regardless of whether it might increase the number of readers that give his argument a chance:

You can talk about it. At this point, I can't. I won't put Waka out there like that. My reputation is already shit. I'm only worried about my real life and my wife's life. This whole thing is one big shit sandwich for me. But you have to fight for your work, otherwise everyone will take everything you have until you're gone, nothing but gone...

HDF

and

You can quote what I wrote you. You can talk about our interchange here. But I'm not going to issue a big press release about my wife's cancer. All of my information is public. It's right there. Just like the optimum wound interviews. They're public knowledge.

For me, I have to be careful how I deal with this battle. I have been advised to not go ballastic, and there is more to this story to come out.

So by all means, you can attribute everything I've written you as a quote. I talked to you because what you wrote took some thought. I won't deal with the witless and get dragged into the mud.

But now, I'm hanging out with my wife and we're laughing about this. Laughing is good.

HDF

I don't pretend to know what the truth of this whole issue is. All I do know is that I refuse, at this time, to demonize anyone involved in the clash. Hart D. Fisher may be a controversial figure, but I'm more concerned with wishing him and his wife all the best during their trying times than trying to blast him for a story I don't know all the elements of.

Hart Fisher: A Disturbing "Artist" With An Honorable Goal

Nearly this entire video seems like a joke. Horror porn? Touting a horror movie he is working on with a blind director? A blind director?!?!? Really...if you want a laugh, you really need to watch the first 2:30 of this video.

But at 2:31, you'll see likely why he is making such a big deal of Gerard Way not pimping his work from Boneyard Press back in the day. He's apparently selling all of the Boneyard stuff he has to try to pay for the medical bills from his wife's hysterectomy. So it might just be possible to understand why he's making such an irrationally large issue about whether "Garry" is making sure people know about his first work. Maybe...just maybe...there are no bad guys in this thing...not even Hart.