IDW comic sales

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andersonh1
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IDW comic sales

Post by andersonh1 »

Interesting thread from TF Archive.

http://tfarchive.com/community/showthre ... 35&page=26

No wonder they went to a $4.00 cover price when they're only selling 11,000 or so copies of AHM a month. Then again, upping the price probably contributed to the lower numbers. Still... can't be a high profit margin with sales that low. Assuming the numbers are accurate.

Edit - more sales figures:
http://tfarchive.com/comics/idw/sales.php

IDWVERSE: INFILTRATION
N/A - OCT05 #0 - over 100,000
030 - JAN06/#1 - 45,468
053 - FEB06/#2 - 35,828
074 - MAR06/#3 - 30,344
068 - APR06/#4 - 28,835
083 - MAY06/#5 - 27,264
088 - JUL06/#6 - 25,303

IDWVERSE: STORMBRINGER
093 - JUL06/#1 - 24,542
104 - AUG06/#2 - 20,415
109 - SEP06/#3 - 18,792
115 - OCT06/#4 - 17,449

IDWVERSE: ESCALATION
138 - NOV06/#1 - 20,625
139 - DEC06/#2 - 16,363
129 - JAN07/#3 - 15,616
127 - FEB07/#4 - 14,737
131 - MAR07/#5 - 14,932
148 - MAY07/#6 - 14,446

IDWVERSE: MEGATRON ORIGIN
115 - JUN07/#1 - 16,951
141 - JUL07/#2 - 14,754
135 - SEP07/#3 - 14,547
158 - OCT07/#4 - 14,396

IDWVERSE: DEVASTATION
148 - OCT07/#1 - 15,704
161 - OCT07/#2 - 13,854
164 - NOV07/#3 - 13,334
146 - JAN08/#4 - 13,604
146 - FEB08/#5 - 13,185
149 - FEB08/#6 - 12,666

ALL HAIL MEGATRON
139 - JUL08/#01 - 15,703
141 - AUG08/#02 - 13,363
151 - SEP08/#03 - 13,238
167 - OCT08/#04 - 12,837
140 - NOV08/#05 - 12,387
196 - DEC08/#06 - 11,843
139 - FEB09/#07 - 11,832
130 - MAR09/#08 - 11,731
135 - MAR09/#09 - 11,479
162 - APR09/#10 - 12,183
AHM #11 12,292
AHM #12 12,124
170 AHM #13 11,892
162 AHM #14 11,736
Last edited by andersonh1 on Wed Oct 07, 2009 2:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: IDW comic sales

Post by Onslaught Six »

To be fair, it looks like there's been a steady drop in numbers across the board. Also, there's Movie comics to account for--I know, most people are probably buying both, but I'm sure there's a share that's buying the Movie comics instead of the G1 ones. Add up the numbers between Defiance, Alliance and AHM and you have something that's actually approaching the sales numbers the G1 book--at the time, the sole book--was getting.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
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Re: IDW comic sales

Post by Dominic »

Hey Anderson, thanks for doing about a third of my panel research for me.


Joking aside, those numbers are idiomatically consistent with what I see locally. It looks like "Stormbringer" really killed things. Look at the drop, and how many readers did not come back.


Dom
-really wants to see post AHM sales.
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Re: IDW comic sales

Post by Sparky Prime »

Dominic wrote:It looks like "Stormbringer" really killed things. Look at the drop, and how many readers did not come back.
How does it look like Stormbringer "killed things" exactly? I mean really, look at the numbers. There is a steady decline throughout each series, but not any one of them in particular.
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Re: IDW comic sales

Post by andersonh1 »

I'll have to look at some more numbers from the link at TF Archive, and also the source of their sales numbers to see how the movie books sell. It's interesting to me that all the publicity and increased visibility that the live action movies offer doesn't promote a corresponding increase in G1 series comic sales. I don't see a spike in numbers around the time the movies have been in theaters.

But it seems that a couple of things can be seen here. The series started out well with the sales of the 99c books, and after that there was a steep decline up until the end of Escalation, after which there's a much slower decline in sales. In fact, from Escalation on, barring the slightly higher sales of each first issue, each series sells fairly consistently. Though even these consistent sales are slightly lower from series to series. I wouldn't quite call sales stable, but the bleed is much slower, in the hundred or low thousands rather than 2500 or 5000 less per issue.

I think the comic series has settled down to a core audience that's fairly loyal at this point. All the bandwagon-jumpers-on who were interested enough to check out the books when they first began publication and had plenty of publicity have dropped away, leaving a core group of readers who will probably be back month after month. That group are most likely older fans loyal to the characters they grew up with rather than kids who would be more familiar with Animated or the live action movies. The reversion to more G1 designs and conventions in All Hail Megatron is possibly indicative that IDW believes this is their core audience as well.

I'm not sure how IDW can build on that and increase sales, but I think if they could get out of dingy, out of the way comic book shops, that would help. Graphic novels in mainstream bookstores don't sell in large numbers, but definately seem to help the bottom line. I'm amazed at how big the graphic novel/manga section is in the local Barnes and Noble.
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Re: IDW comic sales

Post by Onslaught Six »

I'm interested in how Transformers: Absolute Travesty On Art will sell.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Re: IDW comic sales

Post by Dominic »

Sparky Prime wrote:
Dominic wrote:It looks like "Stormbringer" really killed things. Look at the drop, and how many readers did not come back.
How does it look like Stormbringer "killed things" exactly? I mean really, look at the numbers. There is a steady decline throughout each series, but not any one of them in particular.

You are partly right. It looks like "Stormbringer" did worse than it did because it has such a large drop over 4 issues. And, it is not like the drop during the early part of "Infiltration". But, the first issue of "Stormbringer" is the only one not to outsell the end of the previous series. Of course, that is arguably an indictment of "Infiltration".


So, what do we think these numbers mean for the franchise and fandom as a whole? There seems to be only a very small, and steadily shrinking, readership for Transformers. Even at its largest, there are mid-sized cities that could more than absorb the entire stock of sold books. (By this, I mean that if we assume that every copy sold was sold in a single city, there would be many people in that city who simply did not buy one. And, the numbers I am thinking would just assume legal residents, if not simply registered voters.)


Dom
-wonders if Transformers is heading for "Transformers: Cancellation"
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Re: IDW comic sales

Post by BWprowl »

Dominic wrote:Dom
-wonders if Transformers is heading for "Transformers: Cancellation"
Gee, axe us.
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Re: IDW comic sales

Post by andersonh1 »

Dominic wrote:
Sparky Prime wrote:
Dominic wrote:It looks like "Stormbringer" really killed things. Look at the drop, and how many readers did not come back.
How does it look like Stormbringer "killed things" exactly? I mean really, look at the numbers. There is a steady decline throughout each series, but not any one of them in particular.

You are partly right. It looks like "Stormbringer" did worse than it did because it has such a large drop over 4 issues. And, it is not like the drop during the early part of "Infiltration". But, the first issue of "Stormbringer" is the only one not to outsell the end of the previous series.
Infiltration drops 20,000 readers, going from 45,000 to 25,000. I'm leaving aside the 100,000 #0 issue. Stormbringer loses far less readers over the course of its run.
Of course, that is arguably an indictment of "Infiltration".
I think this nails down where the loss of readership was. It's possible that readers didn't care for the direction enough to stick with future installments.
So, what do we think these numbers mean for the franchise and fandom as a whole? There seems to be only a very small, and steadily shrinking, readership for Transformers. Even at its largest, there are mid-sized cities that could more than absorb the entire stock of sold books. (By this, I mean that if we assume that every copy sold was sold in a single city, there would be many people in that city who simply did not buy one. And, the numbers I am thinking would just assume legal residents, if not simply registered voters.)


Dom
-wonders if Transformers is heading for "Transformers: Cancellation"
This is what I'm wondering about. The fact that the steep drop has levelled out and the number remain fairly constant from month to month at around 12,000 average or so has me hoping that they're still doing well enough to make money for IDW, and are therefore worth publishing. I can't help but feel that expanding the sales venues, cutting the price and more publicity would contribute to greater sales. Look at the initial sales at the beginning of infiltration, when there was plenty of news about IDW getting the franchise and the low-price introductory issues were available. Numbers were strong. Some of that was sales on the multiple covers, I'm sure. I bought multiple covers myself, something I never do, because at $1.00 each, why not?

I'd say there's interest out there if IDW can tap into it. Whether they're able or willing, who can say? Looking at sales on the other top 150 titles, it seems to me as if nothing is selling like it used to. IDW's woes are shared by the industry as a whole.
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Re: IDW comic sales

Post by Dominic »

When I was working for a local paper, circulation money (newstand price) was intended to cover nothing more than printing. And, even that was never supposed to be a question of necessity. (Relying on it to pay for more than printing, which was the case for us, was a *very* bad thing.)

I have no idea if this is the case for comics. Does anyone know what the printing bill is, relative to the value of the full page ad in a comic? There is also the question of pay-roll costs and other expenses.

Comics have been in trouble for about 30 years, and in *real* trouble for the last 15 or so. The bounces are temporary, and usually the result of movie tie-ins and such. When you consider that there have been 2 *very* successful TF movies, the comics looks especially anemic.

I am not sure there is interest. Comics themselves are slumping. And, I know at least one Transfan who only buys the comics because they are TF related. (He is a completist who buys *everything*.) But, he does not read the comics. He only reads 616 Marvel, and nothing else. He is rarity in his degree of consumption. Most people who do not read comics do not buy them.

To be honest, the more TF becomes like a Big 2 "capes" book, the less likely I am to stay with it.


Dom
-going to apply some of the information from that link now.
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