Thursday, June 18, 2015

Sales Review: May 2015


ICv2 have looked back and reviewed the sales from last month and have posted their commentary over on their site. Here is the link: http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/31800/top-300-comics-actual-may-2015

This was the end of Convergence and the beginning of Secret Wars across the aisle. As usual, Marvel just crushed the market. I don't know if it is even news anymore.

Last month I wondered if these mini-series might be some sort of showcase for characters and realities. And with the end of Convergence opening up the entirety of DC's universes and timeline, who knows what the company's plans are.

That said, who the heck knows how you judge these sales. Is it the event or the subject matter or both that drives sales.

Still, Supergirl was featured prominently in the mini-series and had some wonderful moments in the main series.



Convergence:Adventures of Superman was written by Marv Wolfman and starred the immediate pre-Crisis Supergirl. The plot of 'battling the Kamandi world' to survive Telos' edict took a back seat to the Supergirl character driven story.

In the story, Supergirl learns of her fate to die at the hands of the Anti-Monitor during the Crisis.


The book sold relatively well, selling just over 33K. Even though this was labeled a Superman book, it really was a Supergirl book at heart. I will say it again, I hope Marv Wolfman doesn't go back to this time period or the Supergirl character again.

The ending of Convergence is so vague, it is hard to know if this Supergirl actually now survived the Crisis.

The unbelievable (and probably my favorite Convergence mini-series) Shazam book by Parker and Shaner came in right behind, selling just below 33K.


The nutty Convergence:Supergirl Matrix book was a strange attempt at comedy by Keith Giffen and Timothy Green.

This second issue was a bit better than the first because it had Matrix grow a bit. The art, when not too cheesecake, was dynamic.


It also sold decently, breaking the 30K mark.

It is clear there is a market for Supergirl. Now if only DC would do the right thing and put out a book.

The excellent Rucka/Hamner Question mini-series also broke the 30K mark. That was another very good Convergence book.

But for me, the best Convergence mini-series was the Dan Jurgens Superman book.

Here was a classic Superman, with Lois, doing what's right. He is truly a hero. He and Lois are a couple and great together. And the art was fantastic.


This book sold just about 47K which (I believe) is better than the standard Superman titles sell now.

For me this was a wonderful trip back to a Superman I could believe in. This was the Superman I wanted to read. I can't thank Dan Jurgens enough.

So Convergence sold pretty well for DC and the mini-series actually fared well. But with these 2 months behind us, so go these sales. With a boatload of new books and new directions coming out, it will be interesting to see DC's DCYou sales next month.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So from the sept and oct dc comicbook listings supergirl isnt part of it. Wonder what was that sept supergirl promises. Couldve been pushed back to november? Such a bad timing for reboot, they should start early with ppl getting interested and looking for supergirl books cuz of tv. Are they waiting to see a few tv episode scripts before planning out the reboot?

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

Well, DC seems to always do something in September now, so who knows?

I am still trying to figure out the new ending of COIE. Seems like it would eliminate ZERO HOUR (yay!) if Parallax dies and Hal Jordan doesn't become The Spectre in DAY OF JUDGEMENT and sacrifices himself in FINAL NIGHT.

I suppose one day we'll get some sort of answer. Maybe during the Darkseid/Anti-Monitor war event going on right now. (By the way, the first chapter was the most I've enjoyed the new52 JL.) Anti-Monitor seems to be tied to Metron, and if anyone would know of DC's "new history", he would be the guy.

Anonymous said...

Convergence was a gimmick. The trouble with DC is that since the Bronze Age they have relied too heavily on gimmicks: killing off characters, re-boots, etc. It is the mark of a loss of creativity and lack of long term thinking. What happens is that there is a spike in readership because gimmicks are like a spectacle but then long term readership gets tired and frustrated and leaves. Marv Wolfman is an example of a gimmick user.