Best of the Best 2009

[HassanT]

Glad you enjoyed the episode.

For the other category, it is anything not publisher by DC or Marvel. That is the rule we use on the Weekly Comics Spotlight. (We sometimes break that rule when there isn't a title not published by DC or Marvel that we both get and want to discuss, in which case we usually pick a WildStorm, Vertigo or Icon or other non-mainstream DC or Marvel title.)

I had a brain fart when I nominated Brubaker for Criminal for Other. I been listening to your show every week, I am not sure how I forgot that. It didn't help that I didn't think there was any independent comic that rocked my boat in 2009. Although, I just read the first Chew trade (which I purchased in November). If I had that trade before I sent my nominations in, I would have picked Chew as best Other book. It was a fantastic read.

I do think when comparing Marvel vs DC sales, DC sometimes gets the short end of the stick, when people forget about how diverse their line of comic books are when you include all the different publishing lines. You mentioned in the latest Mayo Report that Marvel is publishing more comic books per month than DC and therefore has the largest market share. It is even a bigger difference when you consider that Marvel publishes mainly super-hero comics while DC has their Vertigo and Wildstorm line (which is mostly game tie-ins now).

In my almost completely proverbial "spare time" I'm planning on reworking my number crunching system such that it can split things out by imprint. I think being able to see how Vertigo stands up by itself could be very interesting.

Based on an email from 80sJunkie, I'm also working on a section of the monthly Excel file that gives the averages for the publishers items on the top 300 list. But that too gets skewed by the imprints since the WildStorm and Vertigo titles tend to sell less than the DC Universe titles.

I am sure it is hard work since the data from Diamond does not have imprint labels. It will be interesting to see what your analysis comes up with.

The December 2009 comics sales just came out with Marvel having a huge market share. But, if they are publishing a lot more comics than all the others, then the market share headline is somewhat meaning less.

If I was running DC, my first goal would not be necessary overall market share at this point, but having the market share for the Top 10 and 25 books every month. Once you capture that on a consistent basis, it would be easier for them to grow their market share across the board by using the top selling books as leverage. Right after Infinite Crisis, I thought DC was on the right path but then they made too many bad decisions. I hope with Blackest Night and new publisher, they make series progress in trying to boost their line as a whole in sales.

[JohnMayo]

I am sure it is hard work since the data from Diamond does not have imprint labels. It will be interesting to see what your analysis comes up with.

The December 2009 comics sales just came out with Marvel having a huge market share. But, if they are publishing a lot more comics than all the others, then the market share headline is somewhat meaning less.

If I was running DC, my first goal would not be necessary overall market share at this point, but having the market share for the Top 10 and 25 books every month. Once you capture that on a consistent basis, it would be easier for them to grow their market share across the board by using the top selling books as leverage. Right after Infinite Crisis, I thought DC was on the right path but then they made too many bad decisions. I hope with Blackest Night and new publisher, they make series progress in trying to boost their line as a whole in sales.

I didn't even know the December numbers had been released. I guess I'll get the monthly email from Diamond with that information sometime this week. (It often goes out to the retailer community first which makes a certain amount of sense.)

If I were running DC right now, I'd be working on strengthening the overall line up by focusing on getting each title to perform better. Each title ought to have something that makes it either a unique title in the marketplace or a best-in-class title.

I'd opt for expanding the diversity of the overall line-up as opposed to increasing the number of titles in any given group/franchise. In other words, I'd be more likely to go for another teen book that wasn't a Titans spinoff rather than have a Titans title, a Teen Titans title and half the JLA be former (or current) Titans. I'd also have gone with an All Stars title made up of other Golden Age characters rather than have it be a JSA Jr sort of title. While I'm enjoying JSA, JSA All Stars, Titans, Teen Titans and JLA, I think that expanding existing franchises and families of titles is more likely to either cannibalize sales or only increase the number of units sold to existing customers.

I'd also have a strong grass roots marketing campaign for titles like Jonah Hex, Warlord and other "fringe book" in the DC lineup. Those are titles that if promoted on forums and podcasts could be much better. Basically, I'd have try to make it as easy as possible for people who like to talk about comics on podcasts and websites and have the ability to influence the purchases of their audience to be talking about DC comics. The goal here would not be to give away review copies to people but to try to make the experience of reading DC comics as sticky as possible. There area lot of inexpensive ways for DC (and other publishers) to be promoting their comics that I don't think they are fulling utilizing.

By having a strong line up of titles that are each either holding their own every month or increasing in sales (even if only slightly), you shouldn't need to worry about the overall marketshare or the breakdown of the top 300 as those should take care of themselves.

There ought to be a strong hook for each title that makes them each easy to market and sell. I don't think that either DC or Marvel has that sort of line up right now.

[HassanT]

I am sure it is hard work since the data from Diamond does not have imprint labels. It will be interesting to see what your analysis comes up with.

The December 2009 comics sales just came out with Marvel having a huge market share. But, if they are publishing a lot more comics than all the others, then the market share headline is somewhat meaning less.

If I was running DC, my first goal would not be necessary overall market share at this point, but having the market share for the Top 10 and 25 books every month. Once you capture that on a consistent basis, it would be easier for them to grow their market share across the board by using the top selling books as leverage. Right after Infinite Crisis, I thought DC was on the right path but then they made too many bad decisions. I hope with Blackest Night and new publisher, they make series progress in trying to boost their line as a whole in sales.

I didn't even know the December numbers had been released. I guess I'll get the monthly email from Diamond with that information sometime this week. (It often goes out to the retailer community first which makes a certain amount of sense.)

If I were running DC right now, I'd be working on strengthening the overall line up by focusing on getting each title to perform better. Each title ought to have something that makes it either a unique title in the marketplace or a best-in-class title.

I'd opt for expanding the diversity of the overall line-up as opposed to increasing the number of titles in any given group/franchise. In other words, I'd be more likely to go for another teen book that wasn't a Titans spinoff rather than have a Titans title, a Teen Titans title and half the JLA be former (or current) Titans. I'd also have gone with an All Stars title made up of other Golden Age characters rather than have it be a JSA Jr sort of title. While I'm enjoying JSA, JSA All Stars, Titans, Teen Titans and JLA, I think that expanding existing franchises and families of titles is more likely to either cannibalize sales or only increase the number of units sold to existing customers.

I'd also have a strong grass roots marketing campaign for titles like Jonah Hex, Warlord and other "fringe book" in the DC lineup. Those are titles that if promoted on forums and podcasts could be much better. Basically, I'd have try to make it as easy as possible for people who like to talk about comics on podcasts and websites and have the ability to influence the purchases of their audience to be talking about DC comics. The goal here would not be to give away review copies to people but to try to make the experience of reading DC comics as sticky as possible. There area lot of inexpensive ways for DC (and other publishers) to be promoting their comics that I don't think they are fulling utilizing.

By having a strong line up of titles that are each either holding their own every month or increasing in sales (even if only slightly), you shouldn't need to worry about the overall marketshare or the breakdown of the top 300 as those should take care of themselves.

There ought to be a strong hook for each title that makes them each easy to market and sell. I don't think that either DC or Marvel has that sort of line up right now.

100% agree with you.

As for support for independent titles, I have a rule that I don't wait for the trade for independent and creator owned titles. However, it doesn't mean I won't pick up the trade to try it out. I was on the fence with Chew but after reading the first trade, I went to my LCS and picked up issues 6 and 7 and will be reading it in the monthly format.

[adampasz]

I'd also have a strong grass roots marketing campaign for titles like Jonah Hex, Warlord and other "fringe book" in the DC lineup. Those are titles that if promoted on forums and podcasts could be much better.

Yeah, I can't believe we have Mike Grell again writing and drawing -- it's like a dream come true -- Warlord, and nobody seems to be paying attention. Okay, maybe his best days as a creator are behind him, but it's still a treat to be able to buy a Mike Grell Warlord book! It definitely seems like DC could do more to promote and support the series.

[Frank Castle]

Great ep guys! A nice wrap up on the year in comics.

And to defend myself a little bit on Planetary 27. Bob is right, I don't read many DC comics. And I was a little bias on #27 as I have been waiting for a couple yrs to read the series as a whole. So I read 1-26 the week before 27 came out, so the book was fresh in my mind even though only 1 issue came out in 2009.

I'm sure next yr I'll vote for the 1 issue of All Star Bats that should come out in 2010!!!

[BobBretall]

Yeah, I can't believe we have Mike Grell again writing and drawing -- it's like a dream come true -- Warlord, and nobody seems to be paying attention. Okay, maybe his best days as a creator are behind him, but it's still a treat to be able to buy a Mike Grell Warlord book! It definitely seems like DC could do more to promote and support the series.

I think Grell's doing some damn fine art on Warlord, as well as on his current Jon Sable series from IDW.

[JohnMayo]

Great ep guys! A nice wrap up on the year in comics.

And to defend myself a little bit on Planetary 27. Bob is right, I don't read many DC comics. And I was a little bias on #27 as I have been waiting for a couple yrs to read the series as a whole. So I read 1-26 the week before 27 came out, so the book was fresh in my mind even though only 1 issue came out in 2009.

I'm sure next yr I'll vote for the 1 issue of All Star Bats that should come out in 2010!!!

I'm certain that Planetary #27 would have worked MUCH better for me if I'd just reread #1-26. That would have given me the connection to the material that I was lacking due to the long gap in publishing. As it was, I thought it was very well done but it lacked the emotional relevance since it had been so long since I'd read the characters.

[Trev]

shouldn't there be a 2010 edition of this thread?

or do we all assume that blackest night takes all available categories.

[JohnMayo]

shouldn't there be a 2010 edition of this thread?

or do we all assume that blackest night takes all available categories.

I just created the thread. Thanks for point out that we hadn't done that yet.

And, yes, Blackest Night might take all catagories...