angelophile | Comic sales figures for June

ICv2 have Diamond's estimated comic sales for June up, which means it's time for analysis again. It's rolled around quickly. At some point I might even finish writing up the reviews for comics I've actually been reading.

Just before we start on the floppies, a quick glance at the Trades and Graphic Novels chart reveals that returns from the Watchmen consignment program outweighed new sales, leaving Watchmen off the Top 300 Graphic Novel list. It seems that in addition to the movie flopping, DC are seeing a lot of returns of the graphic novel, which was reprinted in bulk, expected to fly off the shelves with a successful movie behind it. I guess Watchmen is the new Tank Girl.

In general it's been swings and roundabouts. While, after last month's slide, there's a recovery on dollar sales (up 6% on this time last year) in the comics market, trades are a massive 35% down. It seems like retailers aren't prepared to splash out on expensive editions which may sit gathering dust until someone wants them.

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's golden teaming leaps straight into the top spot with Batman and Robin. To be expected, although the unit sales aren't staggering.

I pointed out last month Wolverine: Weapon X's 35% drop off for the second issue, but hadn't realised that issue one had not one, not two, bour four variant covers. Taking that into account, the 59k for issue 2 doesn't look bad. It's down again this month, though, to 51k. A pretty sharp drop off again. I wonder if there's quite the market for 3 Wolverine ongoings Marvel believes there is. It's gone from 3 in the charts to 34 within the space of 3 issues.

Back at the top, the Dark Reign tie in adds a few thousand readers to last month's figures ad Amazing Spider-man, averaging about 61-63k an issue. That's close enough to that magical 63k figure that it's not worth sweating over. Although, given that Dark Reign is focused around Spider-man's biggest villain, it's not as big a jump as I might have expected.

Now here's a curiosity. Last month Uncanny X-men saw a sudden mid-arc jump in sales back up to 75k from 69k. I put it down to a variant cover, but #511 retains sales of 71k and #512 is at 76k. Apparently the storylines have paid off, as there don't appear to be variant covers for either issue. The steampunk/timetravel issue of #512 was obviously a popular one shot and perhaps the cockteasing image of Jean on the cover #511 made some poor unfortunates expect a return of their favorite character. Dark Reign tie ins from here on in, so that sales increase should be sustained.

A couple of months after the last issue, Astonishing X-men finally ships, Ellis' last issue paired with the current artist. I wonder if the book will be more regular from here on in, because loss of momentum is undoubtedly contributing to another 5k drop in sales to come in at 65k. At the moment the most astonishing thing about this title is when it comes out at all. A shame, really, it's not likely to remain a contender if the slide continues. Let's see if a new art team and new story arc turn it around.

X-force once again manages to come in ahead of X-men Legacy, although there's not much between them, both in the 58k range. That's almost identical to last issue for X-Force, which ontinues to be remarkably steady or gaining boosts from crossovers, like here. Legacy's actually up 4k, probably attributable to the variant cover and the fact it's the final Professor X-centric story before the grand relaunce which... um... appears to be as a Rogue solo title instead. Yeahh. With the best will in the world, I can't see how simply changing the focus from one solo character to another will help with a book that's languishing from where it was as a team book.

Now Deadpool. 52k for the core title's #11, up 1k on last issue, 36k for the Suicide Kings mini and the reprint of #10 picks up another 5k. These are very good figures for Deadpool. Marvel might well be right believing he can carry two books if they both sell at this level. Of course, the danger is oversaturating the market on the strength of a moderate success. Hmm.

After a big debut at 55k, the second issue of New Mutants sees the expected sharp drop off, but it still chalks up 43k. That's not bad, although the real test will be how quickly it levels out. That's still good for a "young X-men" style title lately, though.

Now here's the thing... Claremont's 90s reboot X-men Forever. I predicted top 15 for this. Of course, what I meant was 54 *cough*, which is where the book ends up. That's... not a strong debut by anyone's standards. That said, issue #1 chalks up sales of 36k and #2 31k so the drop off's not that huge, but... HOWEVER, there may be a question mark over this one. It appears that both issues sold out and are being reprinted, so there's a possibility those figures were capped just by supply. It seems Marvel may have had lower expectations for the book than I expected, if they were only printing those kinds of numbers. if you take that into account, selling out's more positive than the figures may suggest. It's also one of Marvel's 4 dollar titles and I know that almost put me off picking it up. I doubt I'm alone. How many sales are picked up on the reprints will be interesting.

X-factor ships two issues, both sell at 31k, identical to the last issue. Like a rock, that title. It's barely shifted in months.

Incredible Hercules is still around the 28k level and if it stays steady there, maybe the book's got a future. However, this has been a decent run for a character that's B, if not C-list by Marvel's standards. The swapping out of atists suggests the book's nearing cancellation point, though. Marvel don't seem to be investing in this one, just letting it run its course.

Sliding riiight down into the cancellation zone, Agents of Atlas and Exiles both looking shaking. Exiles particularly so as it's slipped to pre-relaunch, cancellation levels of 21k in the space of three issues. I think Marvel will draw a line under this title soon. I doubt it'll last beyond six issues with figures like that.

Even lower is poor old Captain Britain and MI13, which holds steady still at 18k. not that it matters, the book's already canceled.

Now, Runaways #11 hits with the new creative team and you might expect a sales boost. Except there isn't one and the title dips just below 17k. This is seriously dangerous territory for a mainstream universe Marvel title. in fact, if it had been any other book it would probably have been cancelled by now. however, Marvel invest in this book and I have to say, fair play to them, because it's exactly the sort of book they should invest in. But readers don't appear to be backing them.

Now, it's always been said that Runaways sells in Digest for and that's why Marvel don't mind low sales, like the Marvel Adventures stuff, so a glance at the Trades chart reveals the digest of Joss Whedon's run went in at number 21. The trouble is, that's the first digest for a loooong time, so I root around to find out more. And the news isn't good. Whedon's volume marks #8 of the digests and sales were around 2.7k. The digest before that came out waaaaaaay back in April 2007 and charted at #9 with sales of 5.5k. Volume 6 in October 2006 managed 5k. Volume 5 in March 2006 4k. And so on. It seems the sales for that latest digest release are not good either.

So where does that leave Runaways? With a new creative team on board, safe for now, but 6 issues from now? I think the future may not be so clear.