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  1. #1
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    Default MAYO REPORT: Analyzing the Marvel NOW! Relaunches

    In a special MAYO REPORT, John takes a look at Marvel's increasingly common tactic of relaunching series to boost sales numbers.


    Full article here.

  2. #2
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    This is what I've been saying since marvel started this relaunch nonsense (only without the statistical data)

    One point not mentioned which causes even more loss, is that the older fan, the ones who used to have hundreds of issues of one volume are losing interest, and stop buying.
    So while in the past you could always count on the core fan base, that fan base is diminishing as well, and will be much harder to get back

  3. #3
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    The sales are trending downwards in most cases with or without relaunches.

    A diminishing fanbase for superhero comics specifically, increased prices, double-shipping, decreased print quality, events and crossovers and a shift to more creator-centric publishing are probably doing much more damage than the relaunches themselves.
    Last edited by Ceebiro; 05-05-2014 at 01:29 PM.

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    That of course as well

  5. #5
    Astonishing Member RobinFan4880's Avatar
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    I have to agree with the Mayo Report in that Marvel is ruining the "special-ness" of a relaunch. They should be rare in occurrence. If we get a new Wolverine volume every year, then it becomes ho-hum and boring. It defeats the intended goal of renumbering.

  6. #6
    FatherCreed85
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    This is especially true with Marvel killing off Wolverine this year. When Captain America was killed I flipped out. I couldn't believe it. Then the bring him back (which I'm sure they'll do with Logan) and I felt like it was a cheap trick. I find myself looking through the backlog of stories rather than looking forward to new stuff. Granted I rather enjoyed the first half of superior spiderman, I was rather disappointed with the last half.
    Sometimes new arcs hit a decent stride but feel cheated when I start a new run and have it flipped 8 or so issues in (LOOKING AT YOU INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK)
    And I agree. Releasing all the issues with different covers.....that takes away from what makes a Variant cover special.
    I haven't looked yet but did CBR do a similar report for when DC released the new 52?

  7. #7
    Uncanny X-Fan Shingen's Avatar
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    They are definitely overlooking the specialness of buying an issue 50 or 100, and how rewarding it is to a reader to say, "Hey I've been with this title a long time!"

    One potentially overlooked fact is that some of these titles sans relaunches would have continued a decay into cancellation; the relaunch may only be back to normal sales 6 months later, but if they would have been at cancellation numbers instead then there is an actual gain for Marvel.

    The chart also doesn't take into account the variation in creator teams. Unsurprisingly, the combination of popular team+famous writer does best, right? Could the loss of sales be halted or less extreme if the creator teams were more famous? It seems to me that sampling of number 1s is more likely with less known talents.

    Also to be considered: sheer number of titles. Most comic fans have a static number of books they can buy. I, for example, had a huge pull list when the last wave of Marvel Now relaunches went through, and couldn't really make much room for new titles, even ones I was interested in. At some point releasing tons of new titles will crowd out others and force buyers to make choices, choices which tend to favor bigger names in both character and talent.

  8. #8
    Uncanny X-Fan Shingen's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ceebiro View Post
    The sales are trending downwards in most cases with or without relaunches.

    A diminishing fanbase for superhero comics specifically, increased prices, double-shipping, decreased print quality, events and crossovers and a shift to more creator-centric publishing are probably doing much more damage than the relaunches themselves.
    How do you square this contention with the fact that sales were up across the board for each of the last two years?

  9. #9
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    I basically agree with all of this. It's obviously true, and Mayo gives us a lot of data to really see what's going on.

    The only supplementary point that's missing is this:

    Without relaunches sales would just trend downward continuously. A recharge is needed sometimes, and new #1s seem like the only reliably effective strategy left. I don't like so many relaunches, but the audience has been trained to (almost) ONLY pay attention to a title they're not already reading when a relaunch is imminent. Word-of-mouth and single issues that were satisfying in and of themselves used to drive Big Two sales far more than they do anymore. McFarlane increased sales on Amazing Spider-Man without needing tailormade jumping-on points. Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee took over Batman at issue 600-something, and DC didn't see fit to give them a new #1. The problem is that with your everyday regular series to stand out anymore, there needs to be a new #1. I'm sort of shocked that the new Johns/JRJR Superman isn't a new #1, especially since DC has already starting to (re)relaunch New 52 properties with new #1s. That's the exception, not the prevailing rule.

    I think one thing that all of this stuff shows us is that storytelling style, publishing strategies, and numbering are linked. For any of them to change, all of them would need to change, and the way these three factors are configured now just doesn't seem sustainable.
    Last edited by DarkBeast; 05-05-2014 at 01:52 PM.

  10. #10
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    I'll just throw my anecdotal experience out there. When Marvel relaunched Uncanny, I stopped buying monthly books completely and switched exclusively to TPBs.

    Granted, it was probably a long time coming, but that's what it took to push me over the edge. And now, since I'm no longer buying monthly books, I've watched my buying habits turn away from Marvel almost completely. About the only thing I still buy is Mark Waid's Daredevil.

  11. #11
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    Same here, I went from buying nearly every title marvel published in the 90,to buying none now.

  12. #12
    Astonishing Member RobinFan4880's Avatar
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    Comics as a medium are becoming more and more popular however, the way people purchase comics is changing.

    A large number of readers (dare I say small majority?) buy at least a few comics digitally. Right off the bat that is going to drastically reduce the sales numbers we get to see. Even if only a ten to twenty present of potential customers switch to digital then that will have a significant impact on Diamond's charts. If your comic would normally sell 80,000 copies but 20% of your readers are digital, then suddenly Diamond only lists 64,00 issues sold, which drops a solid book down to slightly above mid-tier.

    Beyond that, there is much more competition with indy producers. Even if they are only capturing a tenth of the sales of the big two, that will have a massive impact on Diamond's numbers (especially when coupled with digital purchases).

    Prices are also an issue. The jump for 3 dollars to 4 dollars means that, if a customer was on a budget, he is now purchasing vastly fewer titles. For example, say someone has a budget of 50 dollars a month. At 3 dollars a comic, he was purchasing 16.6 comics. With the jump to 4 dollars, he is now purchasing 12.5. That is nearly 4 fewer issues a month.

    Due to this across the board price hike, many are dumping floppies and instead focusing on trades. It only takes a small minority of people to make that switch to suddenly see large drops in Diamond's charts.

    Added on top of this, we are now seeing far more comics with faster release schedules. Double Shipping and Weekly are becoming quite normal. Every comic purchased for a double shipped or weekly title means 2 to 3 fewer issues sold for other titles.

    There are a lot of issues at play here and, unfortunately, we do not have all the facts or figures.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by GLFan5994 View Post
    Comics as a medium are becoming more and more popular however, the way people purchase comics is changing.

    A large number of readers (dare I say small majority?) buy at least a few comics digitally. Right off the bat that is going to drastically reduce the sales numbers we get to see. Even if only a ten to twenty present of potential customers switch to digital then that will have a significant impact on Diamond's charts. If your comic would normally sell 80,000 copies but 20% of your readers are digital, then suddenly Diamond only lists 64,00 issues sold, which drops a solid book down to slightly above mid-tier.

    Beyond that, there is much more competition with indy producers. Even if they are only capturing a tenth of the sales of the big two, that will have a massive impact on Diamond's numbers (especially when coupled with digital purchases).

    Prices are also an issue. The jump for 3 dollars to 4 dollars means that, if a customer was on a budget, he is now purchasing vastly fewer titles. For example, say someone has a budget of 50 dollars a month. At 3 dollars a comic, he was purchasing 16.6 comics. With the jump to 4 dollars, he is now purchasing 12.5. That is nearly 4 fewer issues a month.

    Due to this across the board price hike, many are dumping floppies and instead focusing on trades. It only takes a small minority of people to make that switch to suddenly see large drops in Diamond's charts.

    Added on top of this, we are now seeing far more comics with faster release schedules. Double Shipping and Weekly are becoming quite normal. Every comic purchased for a double shipped or weekly title means 2 to 3 fewer issues sold for other titles.

    There are a lot of issues at play here and, unfortunately, we do not have all the facts or figures.
    I think fans of digital greatly overestimate it's impact. Take a look at the 'pull list' number for Comicology... the top pulled titles are in the 3-4000 range... that's on 5%-10% of most Marvel and DC titles print sales. I find that most people that talk about digital purchase (away from CBR) are buying old stuff when it's .99 and things like that. They might get a new comic or two, but I don't think it's nearly as common as people think.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by GLFan5994 View Post
    There are a lot of issues at play here and, unfortunately, we do not have all the facts or figures.
    To be fair, we have the one set of figures that do matter. Digital sales are irrelevant, as much as champions of that medium would have you think otherwise.

    Price increases and the age old floppy v. trade argument are just business as usual bits of overhead.

  15. #15
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    Its ogre for Marvel. Oh well at least they have their movies.
    #InGunnITrust, #ZackSnyderistheBlueprint, #ReleasetheAyerCut

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