February 2016 Sales Discussion

[Keith]

Retail Share
MARVEL COMICS - 40.78%
DC ENTERTAINMENT - 26.00%
IMAGE COMICS - 9.18%
IDW PUBLISHING - 4.78%
DARK HORSE COMICS - 3.07%
BOOM! STUDIOS - 2.12%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT - 2.09%
ONI PRESS INC. - 1.04%
VIZ MEDIA - 0.94%
TITAN COMICS 0.92%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 - 9.09%

Unit Market Share
MARVEL COMICS - 42.19%
DC ENTERTAINMENT - 29.01%
IMAGE COMICS - 10.13%
IDW PUBLISHING - 4.14%
DARK HORSE COMICS - 2.59%
BOOM! STUDIOS - 1.94%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT - 1.68%
ONI PRESS INC. - 0.85%
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT LLC - 0.84%
TITAN COMICS - 0.82%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 - 5.82%

[Nairbe]

I know it's probably not as bad as it looks, it's just that this last year Valiant has had some outstanding content (Imperium, Ivar, Dead Drop (KIDDING!) .

To see them basically unchanged just feels a bit demoralizing.

[BugsySig]

Were there only 8 books in February?

[Keith]

I think 7, actually.

[wwise03]

Yea I wouldn't read much into the overall numbers given that there were only 7 books. I would be concerned if Valiant doesn't get a push in May considering there are 10 books that month and the beginning of 4001 AD.

And by concerned, I mean disappointed. Not actually concerned that Valiant will be closing their shop.

[krylox]

Right now, Valiant is producing the best content in its young history, who cares about numbers. They need good stories that can be turned into nice movies. This is where they money comes from. Don't worry about comic sales. I really hope they're continuing their current publishing philosophy, their line-up is top notch and 4001 looks cool, too. But with DC Rebirth coming up, I wouldn't expect crazy numbers from the crossover, neither.
Can't wait for new announcements, though. An anthology book would be awesome.

[lorddunlow]

Dooooooom!

[ShadowTuga]

[Keith]

164 - Faith #2 - 12,266
204 - Bloodshot Reborn #11 - 8,349
205 - Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #4 - 7,982
208 - Ninjak #12 - 7,872
229 - X-O Manowar #44 - 6,326
245 - Dr. Mirage Second Lives #3 - 5,468
255 - Imperium #13 - 5,267

138 - Bloodshot Reborn Vol. 2 - 812
178 - Ivar Timewalker Vol. 3 - 640

[greg]

164 - Faith #2 - 12,266
204 - Bloodshot Reborn #11 - 8,349
205 - Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #4 - 7,982
208 - Ninjak #12 - 7,872
229 - X-O Manowar #44 - 6,326
245 - Dr. Mirage Second Lives #3 - 5,468
255 - Imperium #13 - 5,267

138 - Bloodshot Reborn Vol. 2 - 812
178 - Ivar Timewalker Vol. 3 - 640

Bloodshot Reborn The Analog Man Director's Cut #1 - less than 3,744 (sales not listed, lower than #300 in Top 300)

Imperium #13 (5,267 copies) is up more than 11% vs. Imperium #12 (4,735 copies).
5,267 copies is higher than each of Imperium #9 through #12.

[agent_graves]

164 VAL Faith (2016) 2 12,266 1 22,019 -44.29%

204 VAL Bloodshot Reborn (2015) 11 8,348 10 10,755 -22.38%

205 VAL Wrath of the Eternal Warrior (2015) 4 7,981 3 8,383 -4.80%

208 VAL Ninjak (2015) 12 7,872 11 8,373 -5.98%

229 VAL X-O Manowar (2012) 44 6,326 43 6,696 -5.53%

245 VAL Dr Mirage Second Lives 3 5,467 2 6,045 -9.56%

255 VAL Imperium (2015) 13 5,267 12 4,734 +11.26%

Faith we know why, Bloodshot, eh. Other than that, everything pretty much held steady....

IMPERIUM!!!!! (New Arc?)

[jmatt]

Imperium #13 (5,267 copies) is up more than 11% vs. Imperium #12 (4,735 copies).

Yes!

[bygranddesign]

[doom] I can't see Wrath making it past 12 issues [/doom]

[Tim]

[doom] I see Dr. Mirage: Second Lives going four issues TOPS [/doom]

[Tim]

[doom][/doom]

[Phantom]

Glad to see numbers rising on Imperium.
Quite a big jump, 11%. new story line. Didn't feel it was hyped ~ so people who are buying trades are buying the series in floppy each month starting with this book?

Lots of variants with this issue, another factor?

I have all the books but looking forward to the Hardcover, of this series.

[Captain Craig]

164 - Faith #2 - 12,266
204 - Bloodshot Reborn #11 - 8,349
205 - Wrath of the Eternal Warrior #4 - 7,982
208 - Ninjak #12 - 7,872
229 - X-O Manowar #44 - 6,326
245 - Dr. Mirage Second Lives #3 - 5,468
255 - Imperium #13 - 5,267

138 - Bloodshot Reborn Vol. 2 - 812
178 - Ivar Timewalker Vol. 3 - 640

I do not understand why XO is only 6K and seemingly dropping.
Great character, solid character growth....where are all you VEI readers making Faith 2x as high?
Not knocking that mini, I like it too. Just pointing out it's a disconnect for me to see XO half of FAITH.

[Joshua]

New X-O stuff has been great, too. Odd to see it dropping. Great about Imperium. Ninjak...well, I think the initial appeal of those glow-in-the-dark covers helped at first but since Valiant bailed on that, I think that helped the drop.

[ShadowTuga]

[doom] I can't see Wrath making it past 12 issues [/doom]

Starting with issue #9, it should be just Eternal Warrior.

[bygranddesign]

[doom] I see Dr. Mirage: Second Lives going four issues TOPS [/doom]

[doom] same with Faith... [/doom]

[ValiantCentral]

The industry as a whole was down 16%...considering there were no number 1s and February had the lowest number of variants in months, I'd say the numbers were fine http://www.valiantdatabase.com/sales/veibytitle" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kjjohanson]

Glad to see numbers rising on Imperium.
Quite a big jump, 11%. new story line. Didn't feel it was hyped ~ so people who are buying trades are buying the series in floppy each month starting with this book?

Lots of variants with this issue, another factor?

I have all the books but looking forward to the Hardcover, of this series.

I'm going to go with high demand for the CGC variant, since it's such an amazing idea and people want multiple to secure a 9.8

[wwise03]

I feel pretty confident that Valiant will be putting out more quality comics for at least the next several years, so these numbers mean little to me (whether good or bad).

[grendeljd]

I feel pretty confident that Valiant will be putting out more quality comics for at least the next several years, so these numbers mean little to me (whether good or bad).

I fail to see anything that resembles doom and/or gloom in this post. You realize you are posting in a Valiant sales discussion thread, don't you?!

[wwise03]

I feel pretty confident that Valiant will be putting out more quality comics for at least the next several years, so these numbers mean little to me (whether good or bad).

I fail to see anything that resembles doom and/or gloom in this post. You realize you are posting in a Valiant sales discussion thread, don't you?!

I see plenty of people predicting that certain books won't make it past certain issue numbers, presumably because they think the sales are too low at this stage in their lives (i.e., Wrath of the Eternal Warrior). I also see people trying desperately to justify what they perceive to be low sales numbers (i.e., the industry was down as a whole in February, thus it is ok that Valiant's sales were low). Finally, I see posts that indicate that most books put out by Valiant are shrinking in sales. While these posts may not be complete the total gloom and doom posts that we've seen on these boards in the past, the implication in some of these posts are that Valiant's sales are shrinking and/or unsustainable. I simply sought to point out that I believe Valiant is in a good position to continue putting out books for several years. I did not mean to offend you.

On a side note, you can add one more sale for Bloodshot Reborn Director's Cut 1, as my shop ordered one for me last week which I bought today. I think sales of 3,000 plus for the Director's Cut was pretty darn good considering the costs associated with selling it were likely limited to actually putting the comic book together (i.e., didn't have to pay someone to write, draw, color, and edit it again). Additionally, another patron at my shop saw the book and ordered the first Bloodshot Reborn trade paperback after flipping through it. It's too bad my shop didn't have back issues of all the issues put out so far. The shop only had one or two of the three most recent issues.