rjrjr

This will be the first Marvel CU that I don't see at the theater. I'm definitely not the audience. The audience looks to be the same ones they went for Spidey's last outing; kids who wanted to see Spider-Man wear a fireman hat. No thanks!

Bingo. Fans want to read stories with the characters they know and the stories should fit the characters. X-Men is completely about the struggle of minorities. To make them just another hero team like Avengers would be silly.

This article completely misses the mark on why Marvel comics are not doing well. They are not doing well because of substitute heroes, not social justice warriors. The fans want to read the adventures of Donald Blake as Thor, Steve Rogers as Captain America, Tony Stark as Iron Man, not Jane Foster, Sam Wilson, and Riri Williams. Marvel and DC have always tackled politics in their comics and many of those story lines are the most critically acclaimed. They don't come more liberal than Steve Rogers. Marvel has done a good job morphing Tony Stark in a conservative. They don't need to lose those angles, they just need to bring back those characters and put them front and center.

It is Star Wars. Nothing to do with Zdarsky.

Any analysis of the profits that doesn't include the product placement, which was huge in this movie, is woefully incomplete. Seem like that will add another $100 - $150 million to the profits for this movie.

Which came first, Star Wars #7 or Pizzazz #1? http://swcomiccollector.blogspot.com/2017/03/retro-marvel-star-wars-7-versus-pizzazz.html I dug up an old discussion about this topic on the old message boards: http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1527806&fpart=1

Here is a Philippine Marvel Special Edition #2: The Empire Strikes Back: And the blog posting about it: Retro Foreign: Philippine Marvel Special Edition #2: The Empire Strikes Back

One of the greats.

This post illustrated the problem I've been seeing with Marvel's Star Wars line. The variants (along with #1s) are most definitely having a huge impact on how many units of an issue are ordered. I'm doubtful there are more readers of Marvel's Star Wars line today than there were of Dark Horse's line towards the end, the difference being the variants sold to the same individual collectors. In either case, I think this have been some good discussion with some good arguments on either side. I know others have been prophesying doom and gloom. While I'm optimistic about the end result, it really does feel like this trend is accelerating towards some conclusion in the next year or so. DC has scaled back on variants tremendously and Marvel has to be thinking what they need to do to recapture the sales they once had without having to constantly over-ship to maintain dominance on the charts. (It looks like over-shipping is their plan in April again.) Several small retailers are following (or rather initiated) the path that DC comics is taking. Clearly, someone is paying attention and realizing the path the industry has been taking is not healthy and needs to be corrected.

Incredible Hulk #271. Lame cover, terrible art, terrible story. It doesn't get any worse than that issue IMHO.

i finally completed a blog about Adam Hughes' Star Wars covers: Cover Artist: Adam Hughes

While looking at the monthly sales charts lately, I started thinking, is the comic industries reliance on variant covers sustainable? It is very clear from my monthly analysis of Star Wars comic sales that variant covers have a large impact on sales. What use to be a special treat for collectors has now become the norm and the ratio of some of these variants are getting higher and higher. Not only that, but we have businesses now that do nothing but sell variant cover exclusives. Plus, existing businesses like Mile High Comics have also jumped into this craze and it is the focus point of most of their newsletters now. And it isn't abnormal to see 10+ variant covers for a title launch. So, what do you think? Is this healthy for the industry? Or are the publishers digging themselves a hole by catering to variant cover collectors?

Comic.org is wrong. The Star Wars launch party was January 14th (here is the press release from Diamond): https://www.previewsworld.com/Article/158533-Star-Wars-1-Launch-Party-at-Your-Local-Comic-Shop The premiere was sent as a thank you to retailers. The Jaxxon party variants were sent for the launch party. I never questioned your saying Marvel mailed out the premiere variant. In fact, it accounts for why retailers received their books at different times. (Some before January 14th and some after January 14th.) It was known as early as December 10th that Star Wars had sold over 1 million copies: http://comicbook.com/2014/12/09/confirmed-marvels-star-wars-1-to-sell-over-one-million-copies/ So, retailers were plenty confident in this book well before the book's release. And despite the huge numbers, Marvel still went back to print 6 more times on Star Wars #1!

Why would Marvel be unable to personalize copies after Diamond shipped Star Wars #1 to retailers? I believe you that some stores receiving their copies a week or two earlier than the Star Wars #1 launch and the article's date is a good reference for this. I was wrong. But I do know some stores received their copies up to a few weeks afterward. It makes sense since, as you mentioned, Marvel personalized and mailed these out to stores. Wasn't the Star Wars launch party on January 14th when Star Wars #1 went on sale? I thought the Star War #1 party variant with the Jaxxon cover (both the order-able copy and the 1 or 2 per store sketch variant) were the books that were sent for the launch party. The premiere variant was sent as a thank you to retailers and wasn't limited to stores that had a launch party, but the Jaxxon sketch variant was. I'm questioning the reason you give that the Star Wars premiere variant was sent and your assertion that only stores participating in a launch party received them. It was already known that Star Wars #1 sales were strong before these were mailed to retailers and it was clearly indicated they were sent as a thank you to retailers for making Star Wars #1 the most successful comic launch in years. (Even your January 4th article says this.) The Jaxxon standard and sketch variants were the books sent for the launch party and I can see Marvel limiting the sketch variants to only stores that signed up for the launch party. Are you maybe mixing up these different books?

The problem with this book is an early report from Bleeding Cool or Mile High Comics said only 12 copies existed and that proved to be far from the truth. Buying a book on initial population estimates is a dangerous game IMHO. http://swcomiccollector.blogspot.com/2015/11/speculation-spotlight-12-star-wars.html

The art killed that book for a lot of people who initially thought the book had potential if I recall. So many comics have great writing and unappealing art which kills them. Comics is a visual medium and the art is important and unfortunately Letter #44 didn't stand a chance.

Just how bad is Doctor Aphra performing? I wrote a blog yesterday analyzing February's numbers: http://swcomiccollector.blogspot.com/2017/03/darth-maul-has-his-revenge-in-february.html

If sales for Doctor Aphra keep going down (it was the worst selling 3rd and 4th issue of a Star Wars title since Marvel's relaunch outside of The Force Awakens #3 and 4 which are movie adaptation comics) I wouldn't put too much stock into Doctor Aphra's first appearance. It is another character whose sales do not support the perceived popularity of this character. Unless this character appears in a movie, I don't see much mobility for Darth Vader #3 after this character's title is cancelled later this year. My gut tells me the following Star Wars comics will be the long term winners: Poe Dameron #1 Calgary Expo exclusive Poe Dameron #1 My Geek Box (Pepe Larraz) exclusive Star Wars #1 C2E2 exclusive (Luke Skywalker action figure sketch cover) and the 2 obvious ones, Vader Down #1 and C-3PO Special #1 ridiculous ratio'd variants I think these will at least maintain their already depressed values: Star Wars #1 and Chewbacca #1 Alex Ross variant covers (both color and b&w versions have nostalgic appeal) And, not surprisingly, some of the harder to find "variants" for modern Star Wars comics are actually some of the later 2nd prints: Obi-Wan & Anakin #2 (2nd print) While it is not worth anything, try finding that issue on eBay. Thanks, Ron

This comic was given 2 per store (not 1) and was sent as a thank you to stores for the success of Star Wars #1. It was most definitely sent after retailers already ordered Star Wars #1 and retailers did not receive this earlier than their orders for Star Wars #1. (In fact, I believe it was sent to retailers a few weeks after Star Wars #1 arrived at retailers.) These articles talks about the 2 per store ratio (and other articles also mention the same thing): https://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/12/11/all-the-star-wars-1-variant-covers-we-can-find-in-one-place-45-so-far-42-pictured-including-stan-sakai/ http://www.rebelscum.com/jedijournals/issue.asp?id=ISU4807 This listing on Amazon shows the reason for the premiere comics being sent out: https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Premiere-Variant-Comic/dp/B00SGH9GY0 Marvel has sent similar premiere variants for subsequent Star Wars titles as a thank you to retailers.

Does inhumans count?

Reaching, reaching ... A movies success or failure does not have much to do with past movies. Otherwise, Star Wars would have been finished with AOTC and James Bond, well, a long time ago. All a studio cares about is box office numbers. Yes, they'd like the publicity/advertisement that good reviews bring, but at the end of the day, if critics hate it and audiences love it and the movie makes money, guess which way the studio will lean? Those Transformer movies keep chugging along and guess what, low Rotten Tomato scores. And the studio could care less because they keep raking in the dough.

I agree with these numbers as well. GOTG2 doesn't have the 3 movie lead-in that Avengers had. GOTG2 will do better than GOTG, but nowhere near Avengers numbers.

Encapsulated books can have this same issue. I live in Arizona. If I stored the CGC books in the garage for a year or two, I guarantee you, they will not be in the same grade that is written on the CGC slab.

Philflound, many of the Indonesian comics are indeed original art and not foreign editions of U.S. comics. it is a cool comic. You might want to check this out: Indonesian Comics