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 12th, 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 11/12/08. Pull lists are not included, as this is meant to capture what is being bought off the shelf.

1. Amazing Spider-Man #577
2. The Stand: Captain Trips #3
3. Batman: Cacophony #1
4. Action Comics #871
5. Nightwing #150
6. Wolverine #69
7. Detective Comics #850
8. BPRD: The Warning #5
9. Green Lantern Corps #30
10. Dark Tower: Treachery #3

Commentary:

It was a light week and rain on Friday and Saturday hurt our sales a bit. The new store is on one of those "main street" type strips next to Duke Campus. It is not a mall or a shopping center with a major draw so the weather can have adverse effects on foot traffic into the store. That is what happens when a large group of your clientele is vehicleless and the rest thinks it will be too hard to park... although when the weather is bad Ninth St suddenly becomes an easy place to park.

1. Stupid Spider-Man all over the place. As mentioned in the comments last week, yes the creative team does play a part in this, but natural attrition has not happened since New Ways to Die ended. Seems like a lot of the One More Day haters may have just liked what the end result was after all.

3. Little disappointing. The art is hurting this one big time, I am hearing a lot of gripes in the stores.

4. New Krypton is a success!!! Action is in the top ten.

3. Yeah, that's what happens when you're so desperate to make a splash that you let Kevin Smith have his neighborhood pal (Walt Flanagan) draw the mini-series. Saw that coming from the moment the project was announced. I'm not trying to dump on Flanagan completely, but if he's not close friends with Smith, he doesn't get a gig with DC Comics, let alone a crack at one of the "trinity". It is not a good sign for the health of a publisher and the quality of their product when they're flailing blindly to try to get back in the win column.

4. I'd be interested to see if the New Krypton tide really lifts all boats. Action Comics is the easy sell, with Johns & Frank. Robinson's first arc on Superman was shaky and Sterling Gates is still largely an unknown quantity on Supergirl.

5. Nightwing "goes out" with a bang.

6. Is this still the Millar/McNiven run? I really meant to pick their run up, but missed the 3rd issue, I think, and never went back. I'll probably snag the trade.

Your thoughts? And, as always, if any retailer wants to be added to the column, leave a comment or drop me a line.

Ultimate Comics Walk-Up Sales For Oct 29th, 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 10/29/08. Pull lists are not included, as this is meant to capture what is being bought off the shelf.

1. Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns

2. Presidential Material: Barack Obama

3. Avengers: The Intitiative #18

4. Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1

5. Ultimate Captain America Annual #1

6. Spike: After the Fall #4

7. Hellboy: In the Chapel of Moloch

8. Spawn #185

9. Amazing Spider-Man #575

10. Thor #11

Commentary:

Despite online grumblings about Astonishing X-Men Ghost Boxes and its price, the fact that we were short shipped had more to do with this book not being on the list then the price point. The few folks who did get ahold of it seemed to have good things to say about it, in store. Online is another matter altogether.

1. Johns is the MAN!!!! We knew this would sell well and despite it being short shipped it still brought people in the door. That is a book with huge potential. Why it doesn't translate into sales I haven't figured out, but with the hardcover of Secret Origins hitting the shelves early next month, maybe the book will get the boost the fans and almost certainly DC wants.

2. We weakened and did one last reorder. I, also, pulled them off the shelves from two of my other stores. (Wednesday saw a run on the Ross Obama Tee)

3. Skrull Kill Crew seemas to be full of win this time around.

4. People really liked One Brand More Day... it probably helped that this story pretty much came out of the Secret Invasion tie in series.

5. Kevin may be right, people may want to see this universe end, we'll know for sure next week.

6. This book like Amory Wars and Umbrella Academy seemed to pick up the further it got along until at the end you had people coming in to buy the whole thing in one fatal swoop. I don't know if there is a disconnect with reaching the fans in a timely matter like the Who Wants to Be a Superhero book a couple years ago or if they just don't like the monthly thing (which I don't see reflected in Buffy or Angel).

7 & 8. Put the original creators on their books and people will check them out. The key now is to retain that interest.

9. Hmmm. Amazing Spider-Man has dropped another slot in the top ten. I'd be curious to know if it is because more of the walk-up purchasers have added it to their pull (thus not counted here) or sales are returning to normal after the New Ways To Die arc.

5. I'll be just as shocked as anyone if I wind up being right about something. ;)

4. Wait wait wait...what? They named the annual story "One More Day"? I don't know whether to call it ballsy or retarded.

2. Barack Obama: helping the economy before even in office. I wore my Ross OBAMA shirt to the polls...before being reminded I couldn't wear a shirt seen as campaigning into the polling place. Had to turn it inside out before going in the building.

1. FINAL CRISIS on the cover and being a key part of the set-up to BLACKEST NIGHT? Yeah...that's a recipe for success cooked up by Geoff.

Note to Retailers: If anyone out there would like to provide similar information regarding sales at their store, I'd love to have it (with or without commentary). A link to your store's online presence will be included in any installment that uses your data. More data = more gooder.

Abe Sapien By Adam Hughes

Found on ComicArtFans.com.