Did OMAC (nu52) purposely end on #8? (Forever people?)

[Joe Kalicki]

How in the world is it DCs fault that they cancel a VERY low selling book after 8 issues? They can't predict that the "trade waiters" will actually buy the trade, or that there are even enough of them for those sales to matter. If you are interested in this clear-fringe title, yet dont buy the floppy to instead wait for the trade, those loss of sales will certainly effect the no-doubt soon cancellation of the book.

Exactly. If the book is cancelled at issue 8, the decision was probably made around issue 5 or 6, which is earlier than any trade possibly could come out.

[tib2d2]

Haha, "tradewaiters", I've never heard that term. Love it, and I've certainly been guilty of being one from time to time.

[Carabas]

How in the world is it DCs fault that they cancel a VERY low selling book after 8 issues? They can't predict that the "trade waiters" will actually buy the trade, or that there are even enough of them for those sales to matter. If you are interested in this clear-fringe title, yet dont buy the floppy to instead wait for the trade, those loss of sales will certainly effect the no-doubt soon cancellation of the book.

How do you figure that? They're not running an orphanage for unloved books, these titles need to earn their keep.

DC has been around long enough to know that books that don't do well in singles can do very well indeed in trades. They only have to look at Vertigo.

Take a book like Gaile Simone's The Movement. This is exactly the sort of book that caters to people who buy trades rather than singles, and it was canceled with #12, which came out a week before the first trade. The news that it was canceled was broke before the first trade was even sollicited. How do they expect to make money from smaller books like that if they keep up their ludicrous trades shedule?

[mortymantis]

I read omac as a trade from my local library and loved it. So much that I bought all 8 issues for my collection. The art is awesome and the homage to Kirby is great. It does deviate from the Kirby version greatly, but the intro to the old Kirby collection of his omac said that he never considered omac to be part of the dc universe. It was his own thing

With that said all I can remember of Kirby's version of omac being used was in an episode of batman brave and the bold. Anybody else recall Kirby's version popping up? (Btw omac would make a great dc animated movie)

[NexusTenebrare]

DC has been around long enough to know that books that don't do well in singles can do very well indeed in trades. They only have to look at Vertigo.

Take a book like Gaile Simone's The Movement. This is exactly the sort of book that caters to people who buy trades rather than singles, and it was canceled with #12, which came out a week before the first trade. The news that it was canceled was broke before the first trade was even sollicited. How do they expect to make money from smaller books like that if they keep up their ludicrous trades shedule?

Can and will are two completely diferent things.
Do you think DC or any company for that matter are going to take a bet on every single fringe book they bring out? That's just bad business.
Maybe you haven't heard, but the comics industry is stuggling. They just can't afford to wait a year to see if a book is going to be popular.
I can understand people wanting to tradewait, but if you do you have no right to complain about DC cancelling books. It's up to you as a consumer to show them there's an initial interest in the title.

[Joe Kalicki]

Can and will are two completely diferent things.
Do you think DC or any company for that matter are going to take a bet on every single fringe book they bring out? That's just bad business.
Maybe you haven't heard, but the comics industry is stuggling. They just can't afford to wait a year to see if a book is going to be popular.
I can understand people wanting to tradewait, but if you do you have no right to complain about DC cancelling books. It's up to you as a consumer to show them there's an initial interest in the title.

Yeah, and if you're tradewaiting, you can still buy the collection after the series has been cancelled. If it's successful enough as a trade it might even get a revival. I certainly hope tradewaiters wouldn't avoid the trade just because the monthly ended.

[beetle_booster]

DC has been around long enough to know that books that don't do well in singles can do very well indeed in trades. They only have to look at Vertigo.

Take a book like Gaile Simone's The Movement. This is exactly the sort of book that caters to people who buy trades rather than singles, and it was canceled with #12, which came out a week before the first trade. The news that it was canceled was broke before the first trade was even sollicited. How do they expect to make money from smaller books like that if they keep up their ludicrous trades shedule?

Why on earth would a cancellation of a monthly series affect a trade waiter? He'a waiting for the trade anyway and has no intention of buying the monthly floppies.

[Carabas]

Why on earth would a cancellation of a monthly series affect a trade waiter? He'a waiting for the trade anyway and has no intention of buying the monthly floppies.

It's the other way round.
Delaying the first trade so insanely long, like DC has been doing, hurts the book. It used to be that there were books that survived only and only because trade sales were so fantastic despite singles sales being almost non-existant. And these have been some of the best books DC ever published. When you start canceling critically acclaimed but commercially unsound books BEFORE you even sollicite a trade, you kill books that might have done very well otherwise.

[beetle_booster]

Ok so now you are adding "critically acclaimed" into the mix. Not every poor selling monthly is critically acclaimed. The Movement certainly is not.

Besides, it seems even strong trade sales is not enough to financially justify the continued publication of a monthly ongoing. I Vampire was in NY Times best seller list.

[FanboyStranger]

Ok so now you are adding "critically acclaimed" into the mix. Not every poor selling monthly is critically acclaimed. The Movement certainly is not.

Besides, it seems even strong trade sales is not enough to financially justify the continued publication of a monthly ongoing. I Vampire was in NY Times best seller list.

I've mentioned this before, but the NY Times Best Seller list is misleading when it comes to comics. We don't get actual sales figures. If something is released in a slow week, it doesn't mean it has sold incredibly well. It's a nice thing to put on a book, but it doesn't tell us much.

[Carabas]

Besides, it seems even strong trade sales is not enough to financially justify the continued publication of a monthly ongoing. I Vampire was in NY Times best seller list.

Which is really strange. There seems to be a real anti-trade atmosphere at DC since Didio vacated the EiC chair.