December 2015 Sales Discussion

[Keith]

And so it begins...

Retail Market Share
MARVEL COMICS - 37.09%
DC ENTERTAINMENT - 29.32%
IMAGE COMICS - 10.29%
IDW PUBLISHING - 5.31%
DARK HORSE COMICS - 3.05%
BOOM! STUDIOS - 1.91%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT - 1.63%
TITAN COMICS - 1.38%
ONI PRESS - 0.89%
VIZ MEDIA - 0.82%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 - 8.31%

Unit Market Share
MARVEL COMICS - 41.87%
DC ENTERTAINMENT - 29.93%
IMAGE COMICS - 10.65%
IDW PUBLISHING - 4.10%
DARK HORSE COMICS - 2.43%
BOOM! STUDIOS - 1.71%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT - 1.55%
TITAN COMICS - 1.21%
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT LLC - 0.80%
ONI PRESS - 0.74%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 - 5.02%

[ShadowTuga]

Let's skip the gloom and doom this month.

P.S:Greg, just go ahead and break it to us, mere mortals.

[Keith]

178 Dr Mirage Second Lives 1 - 12,844
199 Wrath of the Eternal Warrior 2 - 10,363
224 Ninjak 10 - 8,849
231 Bloodshot Reborn 9 - 8,496
264 X-O Manowar: Commander Trill 0 - 6,961
268 Rai 12 - 6,827
305 Unity 25 - 5,730
317 Ivar, Timewalker 12 - 5,130
325 Imperium 11 - 4,915

TPBs
141 Ninjak v2: Shadow Wars - 854

[BugsySig]

178 Dr Mirage Second Lives 1 - 12,844
199 Wrath of the Eternal Warrior 2 - 10,363
224 Ninjak 10 - 8,849
231 Bloodshot Reborn 9 - 8,496
264 X-O Manowar: Commander Trill 0 - 6,961
268 Rai 12 - 6,827
305 Unity 25 - 5,730
317 Ivar, Timewalker 12 - 5,130
325 Imperium 11 - 4,915

Wow. How can Ivar and Imperium be the lowest selling books? That baffles me. I suppose it would have been Unity if not for the #25 on the cover, but damn.

Glad to see Dr. Mirage getting a boost from the initial miniseries. Wrath continued to perform well. Bloodshot and Ninjak seem to have stabilized in the 8k area.

Trill #0 surprises me a bit. XO typically performs better than that, and a ZERO usually adds a slight boost.

Rai may have suffered from that extra delay a bit.

[Nameless7]

Imperium is really the best that valiant is putting out (now that Ivar concluded) and its a shame it is the lowest ranked.

I am know I am going to be heavily pushing people toward Imperium at my LCS from now on.

[agent_graves]

178 VAL Dr Mirage Second Lives 1 12,844

199 VAL Wrath of the Eternal Warrior (2015) 2 10,363 1 32,528 -68.14%

224 VAL Ninjak (2015) 10 8,849 9 8,538 +3.64%

231 VAL Bloodshot Reborn (2015) 9 8,496 8 8,989 -5.48%

264 VAL X-O Manowar: Commander Trill (2015) 0 6,961

268 VAL Rai (2014) 12 6,827 11 7,549 -9.56%

305 VAL Unity (2013) 25 5,730 24 4,943 +15.92%

317 VAL Ivar, Timewalker (2015) 12 5,130 11 5,199 -1.33%

325 VAL Imperium (2015) 11 4,915 10 5,244 -6.27%

Nice to see Mirage almost hit 13k, pretty decent start...

The Unity comedy special, upped those numbers by 15%...

Ninjak's new arc has his numbers up 3%...

As mentioned up thread, Rai's delay, most likely, hurt those numbers...

People are really missing out on Imperium, it's sad to see such low numbers, on a phenomenal book...

[nycjadie]

OK, this is helpful. 1:20 Variants to invest in:

317 Ivar, Timewalker 12 - 5,130
325 Imperium 11 - 4,915

[greg]

Let's skip the gloom and doom this month.

P.S:Greg, just go ahead and break it to us, mere mortals.

The last time VEI had this low of an average per book, they introduced Divinity #1 and Imperium #1.

So, that was a down month for sales, but a good month for fans.

[kjjohanson]

I wonder how it might affect sales if the title was changed to "Harbinger: Imperium"

[kjjohanson]

Those numbers are particularly trouble when you consider that commonly books now have more than two covers at regular price. I imagine enough people that don't buy incentives still pick up the regular priced books

[Osawakaten]

People are really missing out on Imperium,

[Ricomortis]

People are really missing out on Imperium,

Welcome!

...and yes they are!

Rico

[grendeljd]

People are really missing out on Imperium,

Preaching to the choir here, friend! I don't get it either - the book is absolutely superb.

[kjjohanson]

People are really missing out on Imperium,

But people aren't missing that you're trying to hide external links in your post.

[Nairbe]

I wish some of this big money (I'm guilty of it too) we are seeing on back issues was being spent on current issues. I will go postal if Imperium gets cancelled due to low sales.

[leonmallett]

People are really missing out on Imperium,

Preaching to the choir here, friend! I don't get it either - the book is absolutely superb.

Yep. I would like for the book to be pushed more.

[greg]

People are really missing out on Imperium,

But people aren't missing that you're trying to hide external links in your post.

Links deleted.

[ShadowTuga]

Let's skip the gloom and doom this month.

P.S:Greg, just go ahead and break it to us, mere mortals.

The last time VEI had this low of an average per book, they introduced Divinity #1 and Imperium #1.

So, that was a down month for sales, but a good month for fans.

Mighty thanks for the simple comparison.
We did not have a new GREAT #1 but Ivar, Ninjak, Rai and Imperium had very strong issues (Ivar was superb, imho). So I guess we win, but VEI doesn't.

I know it's beating a dead horse, but *SQUEE*! Imperium! How can this book be so low?????????

EDIT - Forgot about Mirage 2 #1. While not on the same level of Divinity by any chance (my opinion) it was still a great book. Not GREAT, but great.

[Donovan]

I don't think that any of the artists featured on Imperium have been the best fit for the tone I'm getting from the story. Braithwaite was the closest (really close!). Scott Eaton was farthest.

No disrespect intended to anyone who has worked on the book, I just don't think the art has really matched the tone for me.

Regardless, it's so good, and deserves bigger numbers.

[leonmallett]

I don't think that any of the artists featured on Imperium have been the best fit for the tone I'm getting from the story. Braithwaite was the closest (really close!). Scott Eaton was farthest.

No disrespect intended to anyone who has worked on the book, I just don't think the art has really matched the tone for me.

Regardless, it's so good, and deserves bigger numbers.

I have felt Eaton's work has been just as good a fit as Braithwaite's, but mileage varies of course.

[sonicdan]

I really like the art team of CAFU and Ryp on Imperium right now.
Looking forward to seeing art by Kari Evans in the upcoming arc as well.

[Bl00dsh0t]

Imperium should be better received that what it is - those numbers do no coincide with the quality of the book.

Unity has been down for a while so not surprised to see 25th issue have a major bump.

If they had kept Harby post 25 I wonder what the sales would look like?

Def think the delay with Rai hurt.

Wonder what the low point for Valiant is to cancel a title or re-think their marketing? Will they look at titles going past 25 to build a new reader base by playing a longer term strategy? Personally, I'd love for A&A, Bloodshot and Harbinger to have gone past 25 and not have some form of a reboot (that said I have Imperium and Reborn on my pull-list)...

[kjjohanson]

Interesting that with the end of Unity, Imperium is the closest thing to a team book now.

I suspect that we'll end up seeing Unity retooled and relaunch as Secret Weapons. Not sure how that will come about but it would give the chance to launch a #1 of one of the old Valiant properties.

[SwiftMann]

Ninjak's new arc has his numbers up 3%...

New arc or the originally solicited 3 glow-in-the-dark covers?

Or both. Hard to believe new arcs really have any positive impact at these levels.

[BugsySig]

Ninjak's new arc has his numbers up 3%...

New arc or the originally solicited 3 glow-in-the-dark covers?

Or both. Hard to believe new arcs really have any positive impact at these levels.

Good point. Thought the return of Shadowman may have been a factor as well.