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 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. ;)

I've Been A Bit Of A Marvel Event Hater...

(image found at DeviantArt)

...but thinking about it lately, I've come to remember all the types of stories I wished that the super-hero comics would tell. We always settled for Elseworlds, What Ifs and plain ol' out-of-continuity mini-series to get our fix of that really complicated story idea that you knew would never happen in the regular books because it would be too difficult to coordinate and too big of a gamble for the publisher to take (in case readers thought it sucked).

I've been too caught up on holding editorial and creative teams to hyperbolic statements made in fluff interviews to sit back and really appreciate the balls it must take to ALMOST ALWAYS have some major changes happening to their fictional universe that has ripple effects (or more) through their entire catalog.

I, also, get stuck on the idea that they went in this direction instead of that one or maybe weren't quite as ballsy with the changes as I'd like to have seen. That kind of reaction is either testament to how well they've been pulling it off (that my major complaint is that they should have gone further), a bit of entitlement or both.

When I review books (which I'll get back to shortly, whether you want me to or not), I make a point of trying to step back and evaluate the execution as much or more than I evaluate what story direction they've chosen. I've kind of lost sight of that in the last few months.

That doesn't mean that the execution of the last few years of events has been flawless, mind you. Just that I think that a lot of fans forget that, at one time, they asked for this sort of cohesive storytelling to the fictional universes they read about and now try to tear it down because it went off in a direction different from what they would have preferred.

You have to take the good with the bad and, sometimes, just have to step back and realize that the next major change might bring along that story you've been waiting for them to tell for years.

Ultimate Comics Walk-Up Sales For Dec 10th, 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 12/10/08. Pull lists are not included, as this is meant to capture what is being bought off the shelf.

1. Secret Invasion: Dark Reign
2. Final Crisis #5
3. Punisher War Zone #2
4. Justice League of America #27
5. Captain Britain and MI13 #8
6. Final Crisis Revelations #4
7. Wonderful Wizard of Oz #1
8. Amazing Spider-man #580
9. Watchmen #1
10. Civil War House of M #4


Commentary

1. The customers are generally excited about Dark Reign.
2. Delays hurt this one (besides any storytelling problems)
3. People dig this one.
4. meh, we'll see if the gimick helps sales stay up.
7. YAY!
9. I guess at this point, it means we are officially in a fever for this product!

1. Seems to be something you're either very excited about or looking to tar and feather the EiC for, with very few people in the middle.
2. There's so much that can be claimed to have hurt this book, with the two mentioned being in that long list.
4. Read the issue. McDuffie did the same job introducing the Milestone characters into the DCU that you'd expect from a work-for-hire hack, rather than someone who has a care. The issue read pretty bad, IMO, and I doubt is getting many new fans for the introduced characters.
7. Yay? What's got you so excited there, Lee?

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.

Want To See A Spoilery Cover?

Secret Invasion #8 isn't out in American stores until tomorrow, I believe, due to the holiday. But there's already a scan of the wrap-around cover for New Avengers #50 that is displayed in the last issue of SI.

Since Blogger can't do breaks, I'll just link to the Photobucket account it was found under. You click, you've spoiled yourself, not I.

Uh Oh...

So, Secret Invasion #8 is going to be late? Brevoort says it is due to the extra pages and the care Yu is taking with them, but we all know that Tom and the truth have an on again/off again relationship when it comes to spinning negative news.

I hope it's not to make another change due to spoilers. According to Mr. Anonymous, Mockingbird was supposed to turn out to be the real deal until spoilers started flying willy nilly.

I don't think it is possible that they'll change who leads the Dark Avengers or who becomes/remains Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Well, maybe it would be easy enough to slot in someone else as leader, as long as they answer to the person originally intended to be the leader. It gives the appearance of change without really screwing up all the things they have planned already.

I, also, doubt that they'll change who is jumping ship from one Avengers team to another. The character that Mr. Anonymous gave me would need to have so many plans changed that I don't think they can scrap the move just to nullify spoilers.

Can't wait to find out...

For Those Following Along At Home...

There was a certain last page in a recent Marvel comic book that is important to some of the redacted spoilers...

Think **** with a *****. ;)

I Feel Honored...

...to have the Jinx World regulars discussing my redacted spoilers rather than cursing my name on their boards.

Well...they could be cursing me somewhere over there, but since I didn't see it, I'll remain blissfully ignorant. ;)

LitG NA Spoiler? Not The Whole Line-Up!

Over on CBR, Rich Johnston shares a few bits about the current Avengers storylines that get spoiled by companies other than Marvel.

One of them is a cover image that is said to show the new line-up of New Avengers.

But it's woefully incomplete.

There's at least one other notable member that, IMO, would change the mechanics of the team entirely.

So, if someone spoiled it for you by blabbing about Rich's revelations on a message board (despite Rich's efforts to make people have to choose to see them in the confines of his column), rest easier knowing that there's still a few surprises left for you.

Slott On Mighty Avengers?

So...they hand Mighty Avengers to one of the few people that couldn't keep their Bendis SI info straight?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Bendis clearly established that War Machine was supposed to be the only set of armor not completely linked to Stark's networks, making him safe from the Skrulls' virus attack. Yet Slott wrote him as suffering from that same virus in an issue of Avengers: The Initiative?

A guy can't manage to coordinate one book with Bendis, so he gets another he has to coordinate with him? Weird.

Embrace Change

The Skrulls above? Not members of **** ********. ;)

Mr. Anonymous Spoilers Redacted Pt3

No direct...oh, you know the deal...

Coming out of SI, **** will still be working with the government. He'll be running *****.

Mr. Anonymous Spoilers Redacted Pt2

Again, no direct spoilers.

****** is the leader of the Dark Avengers.

The Dodsons: Secret Invasion: X-Men

As always, the images shared here can be found in Terry Dodson's Yahoo Group. I encourage all of you that enjoy these images to sign up there and let the Dodsons know how much you appreciate their hard work.

For Those Waiting For Mr. Anonymous Info...

I had a crisis of conscience about revealing the new spoilers that I had been given. I had decided to hold off on direct spoilers, but it became moot because Mr. Anonymous had asked me to hold off on revealing them until he was ready and fairly certain there was no chance at things getting changed last second.

One of those things came out at the Retailer Summit today.

DARK REIGN

Our boy had this nugget and at least one more. That other one? I promised someone that I would only go so far as to run it with asterisks if my source gave me the go ahead to run it. But I can't control whether Mr. Anonymous goes to another source to have this info shared directly with the world.

Mr. A is still out there. I know be cause he popped by to link me to the retailer summit report on the 'Rama. So, if you're reading this, I can possibly tease that other spoiler for you, but not outright reveal it to teh interwebz. Which way you go on that, sir, is your choice...and I'll respect that choice whatever it may be. Do feel free to hit me with an IM every now and then to BS, regardless.

Oh...and to any of the Bendis Board posters who read the first batch way back and then ran to bash me over on 606studios.com, do tell Mr. Bendis that I apologize for any frustration that first batch caused him and hope that having held off on Dark Reign all this time demonstrates the sincerity of that apology.

So I've been listening the the Bendis Tapes...sue me.

How To Be Lazy & Still Post Something

In the unscientific and only sparsely voted on poll, here's how the results broke down regarding which of the Big Two events people are enjoying more:

• Both about the same: 6%
• Neither really: 24%
• Final Crisis: 30%
• Secret Invasion: 36%

Wow. Almost a quarter of the respondents feel both events are pretty much stinking up the place? I expected far more passionate feelings for one or the other (even if purely being driven by partisanship).

If this were conducted on a bigger site (thus drawing in more voters), I'd truly be shocked by the results. I'd probably be selling a bit of controversy by saying that the top three vote-getters are all within the margin of error from each other.

But it was run here. With a whopping 69 votes. So...it's nothing. ;)

Just So I Don't Go 0-For-Monday...

Busy day out in the real world today, so I didn't really have time to blog much today.

So I decided I'd throw a poll up. Which are you enjoying more: Final Crisis or Secret Invasion?

Before the events came out, I didn't even really think that'd be a hard call to make personally. Oh how things good in concept aren't always so good in execution...

And Marvel_b0y Says...Nothing?

Given the teaser about upcoming Mr. Anonymous spoilers, I thought it was worth pointing out that marvel_b0y has been silent since April. The blog is still up. With all the "spoilers" still on it.

Hmmm...quiet as can be, just as soon as the series landed. Just as soon as the event it seemed to be viral marketing for hit.

Is there really still any doubt that it was some sort of viral marketing attempt by people with access at Marvel?

One of the saddest things? The last blog over at marvel_b0y's LiveSpace is now just a spot for World of Warcraft farming companies to advertise their gold for sale in the comments.

Might as well just take the whole thing down now, don't you think, J&J?

Mr. Anonymous Says Hi

After a loooooooooooooooooooooong absence, Mr. Anonymous dropped me a message. Seems like he has more info for me to share with the masses. Wants to hold off for a bit to make sure there are no last minute changes.

Post-Secret Invasion landscape stuff. Good stuff. Interesting stuff. Stay tuned.