www.ComicBookPage.com

Just read some interesting stats about variants. We all know that they're ubiquitous and arguably out of control, but the folks at Comicbase (my collection tracker of choice) just compiled some numbers by decade, and they confirm what we've all inherently known for some time, i.e. that variants are the norm, and even issues with a "regular" cover rather than just a slew of options are becoming more and more unusual.

Original article here: https://www.comicbase.com/mailings/Comi ... -03-20.htm

As a collector, they're frustrating and annoying. I can only imagine the headaches that they pose for John when trying to get some semblance of useful data out of the diamond numbers these days.

As always, I love the mayo reports. Keep up the great work, as it's very much appreciated!

And Marvel announces Secret Empire has been extended to ten issues lol :
From CBR :
In what is becoming a yearly tradition, Marvel Comics has added an extra issue to its summer event series Secret Empire, with issue 10 arriving in August.

“[Writer] Nick [Spencer] has constructed each issue of Secret Empire so that it ends with a climactic twist or a big reveal or a shocking development, and issue #9 is no exception,” Executive Editor Tom Breevort disclosed in an interview with Marvel.com. “So moving into the finale, with issue #10, the heroes across the Marvel Universe will be pushed to the breaking point as we race to the exhilarating climax we’ve been planning for months. Oh, and let me say again: we’re not going to use the Cosmic Cube to simply reverse everything away—the stakes matter, maybe more than they ever have before.”

Another possible reason for Seven to Eternity #5 bump in sales was they offered a 1:25 Silver Foil edition and it was the start of a new story arc. The first volume sold very well so looks like some people may be jumping onto the single issues now

i really liked the metric sam discussed comparing Marvel/DC average comics shipped by dividing total units by number of titles shipped-would like to see mid tier and smaller publisher comparisons that way too if possible

from the look of some of these trend lines, the book channel will surpass comics stores in the near future / digital sales continue to be an unknown metric (wish someone would publicly share some digital data) /

These are interesting, but there are a few things that I question on the numbers:
1) What is the breakdown between Manga and "Comics" - two different types of properties that often get lumped together
2) I would like to see data on the shoppers letting me know if they are the same people at both places, or more likely two different types of people
3) What are they buying? Reprints of old material, or the newest stuff as it comes out?
4) When talking subscriptions, does that count digital subscriptions, or just physical through the publishers?
5) What percentage of the book seller market is Amazon?

compsolut wrote: 2) I would like to see data on the shoppers letting me know if they are the same people at both places, or more likely two different types of people
5) What percentage of the book seller market is Amazon?

I think these are the two most important questions with #2 being the more important. Again without the data we will never know. My guess (and yes it is purely a guess) is this represents a single market (customer base). I would guess Amazon represents a large percentage of the book seller market and another significant chunk would be essentially comic sellers that are large enough and nimble enough to order much of their trade stock from a book distributor. As for the customers I would think many of the book market customers are what we would think of as traditional "comic readers" and not really additive to the market at least in a traditional sense. My guess is many of those customers are comic readers that can either find a better price in the book market or lost their local comic shop or lapsed readers that find it a more acceptable way to get comics than hanging out in the LCS on Wednesdays.

Hello,

I like the Mayo Report Podcasts and I have a possible discussion topic.

I don't know if it's talked about but maybe in the next Trade Edition there can be talk about the socalled perennials like "Fables", "Y: The Last Man", "Preacher" and "Sandman" because I don't think they are that anymore.
I think they all but dissappeard from the lists.
Are there any perennials besides "Watchmen" left that aren't been published like "Saga" and "Walking Dead"?

For the Marvel Legacy titles, I'm considering treating them as new volumes/title runs even for titles which are currently active and aren't changing names. Anybody see any problem with that?

Listening to the September Trades Report while you and TJ tear into the Man Thing Vol 1 at Rank 11. Two words for you: Comic Bento. It was in the box this past month. Haven't read it yet, but I am not hopeful now.

Also, no Runaways were in the past month's box, but the next box coming in a couple weeks theme is Teamwork. They are saying that it their first ever 6 book box and one of the clues is "Big tales of certain Streaming Sensations!" That could definitely be referring to Runaways, but it is odd to be volumes 4, 5, and 6. Lending credence to this theory to is that the titles that Comic Bento buy that show up on the Diamond list have lately been clumping around the 1500 level of sales. That's too bad since when I started tracking this, they fell around the 2500 range.

The latest episode on Comics there was a question about Youngblood. The answer is it is not the Leifeld covers because they have been doing Leifeld covers since issue #1 as cover Bs open to order. The walking dead cover is the reason for the up turn in sales. I know this because I always order the cover Bs.

Well, I'm a bit behind on the episodes and in this forum. Anyway, I just listened to the January Comics episode. You guys were wondering about Walking Dead 175, saying it wasn't an anniversary issue really nor was it a new arc or jumping on point. You've probably heard this by now, but it was a new arc starting up: New World Order.