New 52 killing sales of older collections?

[andersonh1]

I ran across this by poster "Continuity Kid" on the Marvel Masterworks board, and I wonder if there are any retailers posting here that have had similar experiences?

http://marvelmasterworksfansite.yuku...3#.U4O0SN6qzLF

I think the New 52 sales are still strong for a core batch of collected editions of New 52 material, but on the flip side the reboot killed older collected edition sales for sure. I encourage and talk up the classics like the Tales of the Batman collections, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Kirby's Fourth World, The Legion: Great Darkness Saga, etc, and I still sell them, but only on the praise of the fact they are great stories. That's certainly meritorious reason enough for any book to find a reader, but that leaves many other books languishing on the shelves. No one knows where they fit or if they happened or matter at all to the New 52, and lacking the spotlight of fan/reader appreciation most folks ignore them. I don't have that problem with older Marvel collected editions. In fact they move very well for us! I think part of what contributes to their sales is the books offer stories that still matter! Old heroes and villains origins are still largely intact, the events of them or the teams they serve on still resonate in the current day's books with aspects like The New Universe characters, Captain Universe, World War II, the original Nick Fury, the creation of Ultron, the Dark Phoenix Saga, etc, etc, etc still echoing through today's Marvel Universe. We all know where these things come in and that they happened and carry weight! With DC Comics you have so many books that read like they have their basis in a character forged after a lightning round of writers half studying the publisher's intellectual properties' histories via their Wiki entries and cutting anything that won't sound slick when characters are added to the next animated feature or video game. Sure you can say, well this did happen but that was before Flashpoint or that was before Infinite Crisis or before Zero Hour, but hasn't that been part of the problem for DC since Crisis on Infinite Earths? Nowadays being a fan of superhero comic books makes me envy sports fans because at least no editorial retreat creates a cosmic event that wipes out the history of the NBA, NFL, or MLB. I think this also helps explain the number of older long term comic book readers we've seen try more Vertigo titles, Dynamite's pulp/adventure type characters, and in the last year especially I see these guys giving more attention to Image Comics than ever before!

This is anecdotal of course, and I have found that the New 52 has had the opposite effect on me. I'm more likely to buy older collected material because I don't like DC's current output. But I'm not a retailer, I'm just one reader.

Any thoughts?

[Diggy]

Personally I continue to buy both New 52 issues and older collections, but that's just me.

[Charles RB]

That makes sense: companies with shared universes use the shared universe a selling point, and now all those comics don't "count". It's a bit sad since a good comic is good even if it doesn't count anymore (and a bad comic is bad even if it counts), but that's the way the market works. I'd be happy for a retailer to say I'm wrong though

[earl]

I'd figure Batman and Superman collections would still do ok, but I would think the reboot would definitely harm some of the second tier series from ever being collected. I'm kind of surprised DC put all their eggs in one basket with the New 52 considering some of the most evergreen stories in their line over the years are self contained series not usually tied into the current over riding continuum.

I think the bigger problem for Marvel and DC is that they are trying to publish just too many titles and too much of the same kind of titles. It's kind of hard to keep any type of consistency and quality when you are doing 9-10 Avengers or Batman or X-men titles a month. They have been trying to do this to keep up market share and sales but it's not working and I think the weekly readers are getting bored. To me, the current super hero titles for both companies are just not that good right now at all and the ones that are even interesting are pretty terrible as monthly comics go as they are like these stories that are setup to run for like 2 or 3 years to pay off or they change directions every few months.

[RKitch]

I feel like part of the reason is that people don't know which stories to read in what order. If you're looking to read Geoff Johns' Green Lantern run, you're not gonna know what to buy first. There isn't a clear "Volume 1" printed on what's collected as "Green Lantern: No Fear." Plus Mavrel has the volume numbers on the side, even if there have been like 6 series of the character. Brubaker's "The Winter Soldier" isn't the only Captain America story labeled "Volume 1." Not to mention they list the trades for the run inside the cover of the book. That helps a lot.

[basbash99]

I feel like part of the reason is that people don't know which stories to read in what order. If you're looking to read Geoff Johns' Green Lantern run, you're not gonna know what to buy first. There isn't a clear "Volume 1" printed on what's collected as "Green Lantern: No Fear." Plus Mavrel has the volume numbers on the side, even if there have been like 6 series of the character. Brubaker's "The Winter Soldier" isn't the only Captain America story labeled "Volume 1." Not to mention they list the trades for the run inside the cover of the book. That helps a lot.

I agree with this to some extent. Luckily the internet makes it easier to figure out where a trade paperback falls in the grand scheme of a character/universe's history.

More on topic, I'm not sure I agree with the OP' premise. While I have purchased a number of new 52 paperback trades (and a few hardbacks), I find myself also buying trades of older material. For instance, so far this year I bought one of the Batman DC showcase (with some Neal Adams work (maybe it was Detective Comics.. can't remember), as well as the Darkness Saga paperback and DC Showcase Jonah Hex volume 2. Granted both the Darkness Saga and the Jonah Hex trades were ones I'd been anticipating buying for awhile, but I think if anything the new 52 is causing readers who were turned off by it to delve onto DC's history. I would guess this trend might be hard to spot since it may be easier for readers to buy individual issues online in the case of trades that are old/out of print, or in the case of material that is good but was never collected into a trade edition.

[Billy Batson]

I'd figure Batman and Superman collections would still do ok, but I would think the reboot would definitely harm some of the second tier series from ever being collected.

I dunno about that. Collections of old series seem to be doing well. For example the first Animal Man series is almost full collected.

[earl]

Grant Morrison's Animal-man is in print, don't think they ever did the rest. I'd say that is in print by creator more than character.

[FanboyStranger]

Grant Morrison's Animal-man is in print, don't think they ever did the rest. I'd say that is in print by creator more than character.

They have been collecting the full Animal Man run over the past two years. Volume five came out in February, and Volume six, which begins Delano's run, comes out later this summer.

[FanboyStranger]

I think when you look at what sells on DC's backlist, this isn't the case. It may be that way for certain superhero books, but the bulk of DC's periennial bestsellers are what they've always been: certain well-known superhero stories and Vertigo books.

It's actually been striking to me that DC has released so much classic material over the past year: Matt Wagner's Demon, the two Grell GA volumes, Ostrander's Spectre, Martian Manhunter, and Deadshot volumes, etc. Hell, we're even getting Cinder and Ashe next month.

[RKitch]

I think when you look at what sells on DC's backlist, this isn't the case. It may be that way for certain superhero books, but the bulk of DC's periennial bestsellers are what they've always been: certain well-known superhero stories and Vertigo books.

It's actually been striking to me that DC has released so much classic material over the past year: Matt Wagner's Demon, the two Grell GA volumes, Ostrander's Spectre, Martian Manhunter, and Deadshot volumes, etc. Hell, we're even getting Cinder and Ashe next month.

DC really is acknowledging their backcatalogue lately. I would even argue they're working harder on the extended backcatalogue than the recent stuff, including The New 52.