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[QUOTE=andersonh1;938270]Two out of every three books DC has published since August 2011 have been cancelled. Seriously, go through the list of books that are still ongoing and compare with the ones that have been cancelled, or will be done in March. Even counting relaunches like Nightwing to Grayson, or a restart of Teen Titans and Deathstroke, DC has maybe a 40% success rate. That doesn't seem like a minor failure to me. One of the reasons we're getting some of the more out-there new series in June is because DC is running out of properties to try. They've got to dig into the more obscure characters and concepts to keep things going.
We can bury our head in the sand if we want, but things are not rosy.[/QUOTE]
Uh
There have been more obscure titles.
Amethyst, Vibe, Voodoo, Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE, OMAC, I Vampire, etc.
And All Star Western, Batwing, and Stormwatch just kept going and going and going whether they and their sales were garbage or not.
Even the batbooks under Doyle have been trying to expand.. Gotham by Midnight, Gotham Academy... just slapping Batman on it since that's what most people care about. Notice how Black Canary and Midnighter got a book... notice how they have been in batbooks...
Them trying different titles and being more diverse isn't a new thing for the New 52. Honestly I'm surprised they're still trying. Many of earlier attempts didn't get very many issues.
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[QUOTE=Blacksun;938845]DC rebooted, but marvel showed that diversity and relaunch is the right weapon. well marvel has more market and dollar share, so why would someone question their success[/QUOTE]
They both did different things with continuity, but they both relaunched their entire line to massive success.
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[QUOTE=M L A;938984]Uh
There have been more obscure titles.
Amethyst, Vibe, Voodoo, Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE, OMAC, I Vampire, etc.
And All Star Western, Batwing, and Stormwatch just kept going and going and going whether they and their sales were garbage or not.
Even the batbooks under Doyle have been trying to expand.. Gotham by Midnight, Gotham Academy... just slapping Batman on it since that's what most people care about. Notice how Black Canary and Midnighter got a book... notice how they have been in batbooks...
Them trying different titles and being more diverse isn't a new thing for the New 52. Honestly I'm surprised they're still trying. Many of earlier attempts didn't get very many issues.[/QUOTE]
well they are trying another batgirl and harley success
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[QUOTE=andersonh1;938270]Two out of every three books DC has published since August 2011 have been cancelled. Seriously, go through the list of books that are still ongoing and compare with the ones that have been cancelled, or will be done in March. Even counting relaunches like Nightwing to Grayson, or a restart of Teen Titans and Deathstroke, DC has maybe a 40% success rate. That doesn't seem like a minor failure to me. One of the reasons we're getting some of the more out-there new series in June is because DC is running out of properties to try. They've got to dig into the more obscure characters and concepts to keep things going.
We can bury our head in the sand if we want, but things are not rosy.[/QUOTE]
Is it failure with DC published a great book, but cancelled it later due to low sales?
Because that was the case with many of them.
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I think a lot of it is due to the fact that DC simply failed to promote some of these titles properly. They don't have the insight to hype something not like Marvel goes all the time shamelessly. The reveal with Aqua-mom being the most recent missed opportunity imo.
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[QUOTE=Jeevanjacobjohn;939744]Is it failure with DC published a great book, but cancelled it later due to low sales?
Because that was the case with many of them.[/QUOTE]
They may have been great books. But when they only last eight or ten or twelve issues, it's hard to call them a success.
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[QUOTE=andersonh1;939860]They may have been great books. But when they only last eight or ten or twelve issues, it's hard to call them a success.[/QUOTE]
They successfully created great books. The fans unsuccessfully supported those efforts with purchases.
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[QUOTE=Jeevanjacobjohn;939744]Is it failure with DC published a great book, but cancelled it later due to low sales?
Because that was the case with many of them.[/QUOTE]
You can argue it all sorts of ways. Deep down my gut reaction is that it's a commercial failure...that aim is to sell enough comics on a series to make it worthwhile to keep going. But can easily see it might be worthwhile if it achieves some wider clear objectives... such as keeping a range of brand names intact, giving writers experience of using wider characters, rewarding veteran fans with return of favourite characters, etc.
Deep down I don't think comics will ever sell big numbers again unless they change commercial model: to cut out physical comics and just sell electronic comics at a dollar each...or less.
Will that ever come? Who knows? (After all present strategy for adult super hero comics of selling mid range numbers at high prices to a core of existing fans does work reasonably. It produces a fair number of good comics and yields some profit for DC.)
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I think that cancelling books that aren't working and launching new ones is a sound strategy. That's not failure.
It's not like everything Marvel does is a winner either.
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February update:
DC Sales - Top 300 (Jan-Feb) 2015 - 3,866,771 estimated units.
DC Sales - Top 300 (Jan-Feb) 2014 - 3,740,813 estimated units.
And here are the figures for 1997-2014:
2014 - 26,836,455 estimated units
2013 - 28,184,085 estimated units
2012 - 29,602,125 estimated units
2011 - 26,522,201 estimated units
2010 - 23,528,000 estimated units
2009 - 24,126,336 estimated units
2008 - 25,760,378 estimated units
2007 - 29,597,217 estimated units
2006 - 30,243,575 estimated units
2005 - 26,995,698 estimated units
2004 - 23,895,322 estimated units
2003 - 22,344,120 estimated units
2002 - 20,687,488 estimated units - Dan Didio joins DC as VP of Editorial.
2001 - 21,220,332 estimated units
2000 - 23,243,656 estimated units
1999 - 25,141,760 estimated units
1998 - 22,869,060 estimated units
1997 - 26,323,968 estimated units
And, out of interest, here's the Marvel numbers:
Marvel Sales - Top 300 (Jan-Feb) 2015 - 5,935,911 estimated units.
Marvel Sales - Top 300 (Jan-Feb) 2014 - 4,518,675 estimated units.
And here are the figures for 1997-2014:
2014 - 30,398,670 estimated units
2013 - 31,243,347 estimated units
2012 - 30,278,745 estimated units.
2011 - 29,522,809 estimated units
2010 - 29,998,200 estimated units
2009 - 34,167,744 estimated units
2008 - 37,269,988 estimated units
2007 - 38,132,744 estimated units
2006 - 34,647,105 estimated units
2005 - 32,461,832 estimated units
2004 - 32,021,066 estimated units
2003 - 28,974,336 estimated units
2002 - 28,473,404 estimated units
2001 - 25,349,296 estimated units
2000 - 21,948,494 estimated units - Joe Quesada becomes EIC.
1999 - 24,111,104 estimated units
1998 - 27,015,555 estimated units
1997 - 32,664,192 estimated units
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And as i keep saying, sells are indeed back to what they were before the reboot.
Thank you.
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[QUOTE=Starter Set;1026190]And as i keep saying, sells are indeed back to what they were before the reboot.
Thank you.[/QUOTE]
Even without counting the digital sales part it's still false.
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Realizing there are many ways to slice & dice sales data, here's a look at DCs sales within the top 300 for the past six Februaries:
Pre New 52
2010: 1,849,106
2011: 1,627,516
Post New 52
2012: 2,147,334
2013: 2,305,589
2014: 1,842,304
2015: 2,023,985
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[QUOTE=Shinomune;1026225]Even without counting the digital sales part it's still false.[/QUOTE]
Correct and no amount of saying otherwise is going to change that fact.
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