First Rebirth Title To Be Canceled?

[rui no onna]

I thought all these were now in the safe Zone due to the dollar increase meaning that DC is generating more money than before?

DC is making more money than before on these s why cancel them.

The price increase was more like a stay of execution. You can be sure DC is depending on trade sales for the lower selling books to make profit.

Also note that DC doesn't receive the full $1 increase. Guessing DC only gets to keep ~40% or ~$1.60 of total $3.99 cover since part of that goes to retailers (~50%) and Diamond (~10%). Factor around $0.25-$0.50 for printing cost, then that's down to just $1.10-1.35. From that, you still need to pay creators. At ~$500 per page (writer, penciller, inker, colorist, letterer) and another $500-1000 per cover, that's ~$11-12,000 in creative costs for a 20-page issue. That still doesn't include editorial and overhead.

Let's assume printing cost is $0.35.

The Print column (that's supposed to be print run) is the one for estimated sales. This was modified from spreadsheet I used for comparing profitability back in the newsstand days with 500K print runs/250K distribution versus the direct market with no returnability. In this case, the chart assumes estimated unit sales = print run. Actual print run is gonna be higher to account for damages, etc but it shouldn't vary too much.

[Punjabi_Hitman]

The price increase was more like a stay of execution. You can be sure DC is depending on trade sales for the lower selling books to make profit.

Also note that DC doesn't receive the full $1 increase. Guessing DC only gets to keep ~40% or ~$1.60 of total $3.99 cover since part of that goes to retailers (~50%) and Diamond (~10%). Factor around $0.25-$0.50 for printing cost, then that's down to just $1.10-1.35. From that, you still need to pay creators. At ~$500 per page (writer, penciller, inker, colorist, letterer) and another $500-1000 per cover, that's ~$11-12,000 in creative costs for a 20-page issue. That still doesn't include editorial and overhead.

Let's assume printing cost is $0.35.

The Print column (that's supposed to be print run) is the one for estimated sales. This was modified from spreadsheet I used for comparing profitability back in the newsstand days with 500K print runs/250K distribution versus the direct market with no returnability. In this case, the chart assumes estimated unit sales = print run. Actual print run is gonna be higher to account for damages, etc but it shouldn't vary too much.

Ad revenue I imagine would completely offset the printing costs.

[rui no onna]

Ad revenue I imagine would completely offset the printing costs.

http://jimshooter.com/2011/11/comic-...n-part-2.html/

I don’t have a current advertising rate card for Marvel or DC, but a few clues tell me that they probably don’t make a whole ton of money on ads. First of all, comics have a very small amount of ad space to sell relative to most magazines. Second, ad rates are governed by circulation. It’s too long a lecture for today, but…you know anyway. Few readers, few “impressions,” means low ad space revenues. Comic book circulation figures are low and the cover prices are painfully high. To me, that means the companies are living off of copies sold, not ads.

Here’s another thing. While I was Editor in Chief at Marvel, 1978-87, the ad sales people, at President Jim Galton’s behest, waged a campaign to upgrade the ads. “National ads only” was the mantra. They got rid of mail order ads like the ones for X-Ray Specs and Broken Finger Key Chains. They made a concerted effort to go after movie ads, bicycles, sneakers and other national products. We creative types did our part by building the total number of copies sold substantially.

You know what? It was a Catch-22. We were selling so many comics, and therefore paying to print so many comics that if you factored out the cost of printing a page with an ad on it, it cost more money than we could get for the ad!

I’m doing this From memory, now, but the following is close if not exact: I believe it cost in the low $20,000’s to print an ad that ran in all 12 million-plus Marvel Comics one month, but the most we could ever get for a page was $18,000. The reasons we couldn’t get higher rates were many—advertisers realized that the comic book buyers tended to buy multiple titles, they didn’t like our demographics, etc. Still, it was better to have the eighteen grand than not. We had to print 32 pages per issue anyway.

[millernumber1]

http://jimshooter.com/2011/11/comic-...n-part-2.html/

Also, don't forget that a ton of the ads are just internal product promotion. I don't think moving money from one WB account to another for a Wonder Woman movie ad is actually getting much revenue.

[Citizen Pain]

Has there ever been a time that a Green Lantern on the Justice League isn't also the one with their own book?

Gnort in Giffen league

[Assam]

Gnort in Giffen league

TBF, G'nort was only an occasional supporting character. The main GL on the team was Guy...who also didn't have his own book until AFTER Giffen left and AFTER Guy stopped being a GL...so yeah. Either way, Hal was still the one with his own book during that time.

[Lee Stone]

TBF, G'nort was only an occasional supporting character. The main GL on the team was Guy...who also didn't have his own book until AFTER Giffen left and AFTER Guy stopped being a GL...so yeah. Either way, Hal was still the one with his own book during that time.

Also, from 1972 to 1976, even Hal didn't have his own book.

[adrikito]

I hope that Batman Beyond..

DC should continue with the old Batman Beyond/JL world.. The current comic is another Earth:2:Society..

[Timothy Hunter]

Speaking of DC titles that have a strong probability of being cancelled, (While not specifically Rebirth, although the imprint came to fruition at the same time.) the DC Young Animal titles are selling very poorly, the majority of them selling in the 10,000's range. I wonder what the state of the Young Animal line will be a few years down the line.

[Kyer]

I agree.
Some books may just get to keep going to complete a trade, some may get to keep going because of digital...

Matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised if DC's using digital sales to determine which books are worth keeping going long enough for trades, which would reach a bigger market in bookstores. Especially since digital and bookstores cater more towards readers, while comic shops cater more to collectors.
So if Book A is consistently outselling Book B in digital, and Book B is a big seller in print while Book A is floundering... it may be worth keeping Book A going long enough to be marketed as a trade in the bookstores.

There are still bookstores?
Used to have a Walden's down the street. Miss. It. So. Danged. Much.

[Assam]

There are still bookstores?
Used to have a Walden's down the street. Miss. It. So. Danged. Much.

They're still around, but...it's sad what's become of them. I miss having a Borders I could just walk to. Hell, I miss Borders existing!

[Frontier]

They're still around, but...it's sad what's become of them. I miss having a Borders I could just walk to. Hell, I miss Borders existing!

Same here .

[JasonTodd428]

They're still around, but...it's sad what's become of them. I miss having a Borders I could just walk to. Hell, I miss Borders existing!

Border's used to be my go to bookstore and I still miss it. I hate what's become of the chain bookstores but there are a couple of local bookshops here that aren't a part of a chain that still do a lot of business precisely because they aren't the "big chain stores". I'm a regular costumer at both of them because I feel that the service at them is more personal then what I get at the Barnes and Nobles at our only existing mall.

[Kyer]

Borders was the Holy of Holies: Books, Music, DVDs. I got to go there on birthdays and Christmas shopping. *sigh* But Walden's was my home away from home. So peaceful. Only bookstore now is a hole-in-the-wall used (very used) bookstore the size of my bedroom.

Sadly, it's not just bookstores. I miss so many brick and mortars and fear for the rest.

[rui no onna]

Speaking of DC titles that have a strong probability of being cancelled, (While not specifically Rebirth, although the imprint came to fruition at the same time.) the DC Young Animal titles are selling very poorly, the majority of them selling in the 10,000's range. I wonder what the state of the Young Animal line will be a few years down the line.

Reckon both Vertigo and Young Animal have a lower threshold to meet. These imprints are targeted more towards general book market rather than comic book market so to be expected that floppy sales are low.

That said, sales of ~10,000 copies is probably break-even as far as creative and printing costs go. I guess the question is whether or not DC would be willing to run floppies at a loss hoping to make it up via trades.