THB Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 (edited) Trillium is WoWza!!!! and been a Brubaker fan since I stumbled across Lowlife so many years ago. Keep up the Great work Frank......your book is one of the reasons I LOVE comics!!!! Edited August 12, 2013 by THB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garf Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 What I'm reading: ... Ten Grand -- huge fan of Ben's work and this has really been a surprise... ... my favorite book of all time is Ex Machina, by Brian K. Vaughan. I have really been meaning to check both of these out and you have just bumped Ten Grand to the top of the pile Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the authority Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 (edited) What I'm reading: Quite honestly, I read A LOT of comics. I try to keep my eyes on everything as a fan and creator. But here is stuff I've really been liking (and it's probably not different from many of you guys): Saga -- top of the pile. Unmitigated goodness. Locke & Key -- again, equally amazing. Hawkeye -- yup. East of West -- wasn't really onboard at first, but now one of my favorites. Fatale -- I will read anything Brubaker writes. Hickman Avengers -- love Hickman, but this is starting to lose my interest Ten Grand -- huge fan of Ben's work and this has really been a surprise...didn't expect to like it as much as I do. Trillium -- amazing first issue. ...and lots more. I really loved Grant Morrison's run on Batman, for the record. Also, my favorite book of all time is Ex Machina, by Brian K. Vaughan. Ex Machina was great and the covers are unbelievable. I like your picks but I haven't read Locke & Key. I think its cool that you have a top of the pile and your book is in the top of the pile. Edited August 12, 2013 by The Authority Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the authority Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Print run is holding steady at 10409. This book has the ability to have mass appeal. I'm surprised it isn't hitting 20,000 per month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronc Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 I am surprised by the 21% decline from first issue. It was holding well until issue #4. Most folks like it so I am really puzzled by the data. 13,163 13,127 13,153 11,357 10,409 -14% (% decline of #4 with regards to #1) -21% (% decline of #5 with regards to #1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accessndx Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 First issues always get speculator bumps. There was also no way to evaluate in advance what the demand would be, so the print runs for the first issue or so would have either been too few or too many. I prefer to see it as the glass is half full rather than empty simply because it's retained a rather solid 80% of the original interest. Now that it's escaped the stigma that a 'mini' brings with the announcement of an ongoing, the title has room to grow and gain readership. Don't forget, this title has no 'hype' relating to movies, tv, etc. Whatever interest is out there relates to a true fanbase. However, I wouldn't be surprised if before long we hear about such developments. It's hard to keep the genie bottled up after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the authority Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 I think it is more of a reflection of summer/con time ordering rather than anything indicative of people's thoughts on this series. The people on this site also knew it was ongoing. I'm not sure everybody else did or at least not when ordering 4 and 5. This book is a gem and I think readership will grow over time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natevegas Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 I think it is more of a reflection of summer/con time ordering rather than anything indicative of people's thoughts on this series. The people on this site also knew it was ongoing. I'm not sure everybody else did or at least not when ordering 4 and 5. This book is a gem and I think readership will grow over time. +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronc Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 I know. Glass half full - half empty scenario. On a side note, can anybody point to me any examples of a title that experience a declining print run but is able to pick up later on WITHOUT a tv show or film announcement? I am relatively new and I am not seen any titles that manage this kind of trend reversal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katchoo Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 First issues always get speculator bumps. There was also no way to evaluate in advance what the demand would be, so the print runs for the first issue or so would have either been too few or too many. I prefer to see it as the glass is half full rather than empty simply because it's retained a rather solid 80% of the original interest. Now that it's escaped the stigma that a 'mini' brings with the announcement of an ongoing, the title has room to grow and gain readership. Don't forget, this title has no 'hype' relating to movies, tv, etc. Whatever interest is out there relates to a true fanbase. However, I wouldn't be surprised if before long we hear about such developments. It's hard to keep the genie bottled up after all. They know exactly what the demand is for the first few issues based on retailer orders which are based on customer pre-orders. It's the same with any book. They only print what's ordered. It's not a guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the authority Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 First issues always get speculator bumps. There was also no way to evaluate in advance what the demand would be, so the print runs for the first issue or so would have either been too few or too many. I prefer to see it as the glass is half full rather than empty simply because it's retained a rather solid 80% of the original interest. Now that it's escaped the stigma that a 'mini' brings with the announcement of an ongoing, the title has room to grow and gain readership. Don't forget, this title has no 'hype' relating to movies, tv, etc. Whatever interest is out there relates to a true fanbase. However, I wouldn't be surprised if before long we hear about such developments. It's hard to keep the genie bottled up after all. They know exactly what the demand is for the first few issues based on retailer orders which are based on customer pre-orders. It's the same with any book. They only print what's ordered. It's not a guess. Its a guess as to how many people will keep reading, how many won't, how word of mouth will be, or the fact that this book will be ongoing after originally being a 5 issue mini. Comics would never rise or fall in value if everybody knew exactly how many books to order. It is a guess on issue 1 imho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krighton Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 the 5 of 5 threw everyone who doesn't watch this title closely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank J. Barbiere Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 Surprising no one, I am a huge nerd for "data" regarding comics sales, etc. First, I'd just like to note that ICV2 are just *estimates* based on Diamond rankings, etc. The numbers also don't include Diamond sales in England--while they are pretty close, they are normally skewed by at least 800-1000 copies...so we're actually doing a little better than represented there (as is everyone else on the list for the most part). We had a significant amount of orders for our second printing of number one. Though I won't get into the print run itself (let's just say second printings of number one are still available from Diamond), we sold 3,500 of 'em out of the gate. That brings our actual sales on issue one more towards the ballpark of 18,000--which is amazing, by my own standard. Issue two also saw a significant reprint--while we didn't sell as many as #1 reprint, it was still a nice shot in the arm. Three continued to hold (and actually sold a little better than #2 before reprint which was interesting), and four is where we first saw the dropoff--which frankly, was expected, but I'm just very glad it took three issues in. Five did hit the lowest we've seen, but still well above 10,000--that's been my goal since we saw the book had a little bit of heat on it and I'm very thankful to everyone who has stuck on board, retailers and fans alike. I think the first two issues were definitely over ordered due to speculation--yes, the book is "pre-ordered" by fans, but I think the honest number of our readership is floating more around the 10K mark--which is phenomenal! The whole team is incredibly thankful for anyone interested, in to be able to build a readership that large from nothing is a milestone. I'm hoping with the trade coming (and at a $9.99 price point) we can pick up plenty of new readers in time for issue 6. Issue 6 also being a stand alone story that doesn't draw too deeply on the first arc is also intended to bring in new readers--so we'll see what happens. We want to do this book for a long time, so certainly tell your friends and anyone you think would be interested about it! It's the best thing anyone can do at this point, and very appreciated by the whole team. Well, now I've rambled on, but that's my current status on where we're at ; ). We've got some fun stuff lined up #6, including a very special Phantom Variant that we'll hopefully be unveiling soon. Also, definitely going to try to have a sketch variant for issue 7! Best, Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katchoo Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 We've got some fun stuff lined up #6, including a very special Phantom Variant that we'll hopefully be unveiling soon. Uh oh... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank J. Barbiere Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 ...and here's another awesome page from issue 6 for you guys, to make up for my giant wall of text Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZaCrew Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 Good info Frank! And most of us are very optimistic about Five Ghosts, Aaronc is just our local Debbie Downer .. He tends to do this with any book that sees drop in numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank J. Barbiere Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 Haha, no worries--it's all good data. Just wanted to give my opinion on it! Seeing any kind of drop is always a bummer, but I'm optimistic about getting more people on board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeerThirty Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 Frank, How have digital sales been doing? Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank J. Barbiere Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 Digital is reported quarterly, so I'm not even sure how we've been doing on that front. I think it's been going pretty well, but we'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank J. Barbiere Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 Oh, and it looks like November solicits just went live. Check out the cover to FIVE GHOSTS #7--LOST COASTLINES, PART ONE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
