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Black Panther #1 of new series sells 300,000 copies???

Started by Real Elijah Snow,

153 posts in this topic

the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted
I love me some Black Panther. I even bought the original art for the Larry Stroman variant for this very issue. BUT 300,000 copies? Is that possible?

 

http://comicsheatingup.net/2016/03/21/black-panther-1-pre-sells-300000-copies/#more-13846

 

That number seems way too high to be possible...What am I missing here?

 

The writer is likely bringing some readers. Ta-Nehisi Coates is not your average first-time comic writer.

 

Bingo. He is a best selling writer and a bit of a celebrity writer. This is the kind of book that will be selling off the rack for the next year with people wandering in and asking for it who have not read a comic in perhaps ever. Left leaning intellectuals of all stripes will be buying the comic, giving it as a gift, etc.

 

If it is not terrible, the NY Times book section will write a long article praising it, etc. It might sell 100,000 copies just in Manhattan and go into a 25th print.

 

Affordable housing will be built out of laminated copies of BP #1 in the distant future.

 

No.No.No.& No.

 

*Hope you're being sarcastic

 

Only about the affordable housing. You need Turok 1 print-runs and paper stock for that.

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GeeksAreMyPeeps

GeeksAreMyPeeps

Posted
Posted
I love me some Black Panther. I even bought the original art for the Larry Stroman variant for this very issue. BUT 300,000 copies? Is that possible?

 

http://comicsheatingup.net/2016/03/21/black-panther-1-pre-sells-300000-copies/#more-13846

 

That number seems way too high to be possible...What am I missing here?

 

The writer is likely bringing some readers. Ta-Nehisi Coates is not your average first-time comic writer.

 

Bingo. He is a best selling writer and a bit of a celebrity writer. This is the kind of book that will be selling off the rack for the next year with people wandering in and asking for it who have not read a comic in perhaps ever. Left leaning intellectuals of all stripes will be buying the comic, giving it as a gift, etc.

 

If it is not terrible, the NY Times book section will write a long article praising it, etc. It might sell 100,000 copies just in Manhattan and go into a 25th print.

 

Affordable housing will be built out of laminated copies of BP #1 in the distant future.

It seems to me that the readers that would be brought in would come in after the book is published. I doubt non-comic readers are adding this to a pull list.

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SquareChaos

SquareChaos

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Always interested to hear these theories about outside talents bringing in new readers, but I dunno.

 

Mieville is pretty well read, people into his genre wouldn't be scared off or misidentify the comic book medium as low brow, and still the New 52 Dial H didn't do well. And it was actually an interesting book.

 

I know every instance is different, but....

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revat

revat

Posted
Posted
Always interested to hear these theories about outside talents bringing in new readers, but I dunno.

 

Mieville is pretty well read, people into his genre wouldn't be scared off or misidentify the comic book medium as low brow, and still the New 52 Dial H didn't do well. And it was actually an interesting book.

 

I know every instance is different, but....

 

I would guess they're banking on the movie rather than the author. IF BP is the coolest part of the movie, that could draw some interest. But it does seem weird that LCS's would order soooo many copies, or is Diamond who pre-ordered so many copies thinking the LCS's would order so many copies? How does it work again?

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the blob

the blob

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There has been a tremendous amount written about Coates writing BP in the mainstream media (and even more in the nerdstream media) Whether comic shop owners are aware of this or respond to it, I have no idea. As there are so few bookstores left I wonder how them ordering extra copies could get the number up there. Could Amazon have ordered a bunch? I could see this for a graphic novel, but a comic #1?

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-return-of-the-black-panther/471516/

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/all/2015/12/conceptualizing-the-black-panther/420759/

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/books/ta-nehisi-coates-to-write-black-panther-comic-for-marvel.html?_r=0

 

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/02/ta-nehisi-coates-previews-black-panther-com

 

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/15/ta-nehisi-coates-promises-dramatic-upheaval-in-new-black-panther-comic-series

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/03/09/ta-nehisi-coates-preview-of-his-black-panther-comic-is-a-leap-in-the-right-direction/

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/09/23/ta-nehisi-coates-black-panther-and-superhero-diversity/

 

http://www.gq.com/story/ta-nehisi-coates-black-panther-dream-come-true

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/27/marvel-s-black-panther-for-the-uninitiated.html

 

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2016/03/09/ta-nehisi-coates-offers-an-inside-look-at-black-panther/

 

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/ta-nehisi-coates-is-writing-the-black-panther-comic-for-marvel/

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/ta-nehisi-coates-first-black-873832

 

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/weekend-news-roundup-03142016

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ta-nehisi-coates-to-write-new-black-panther-comic-book-series-for-marvel_us_56019afae4b00310edf8c937

 

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/newsbrief/index.html?record=710

 

 

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the blob

the blob

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Obviously I live in a weird distorted world in NYC, but seriously, every 5th person on the subway is reading his latest book. it's like the girl with the dragon tatoo a few years ago except it's a nonfiction book dealing with race relations.

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revat

revat

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Obviously I live in a weird distorted world in NYC, but seriously, every 5th person on the subway is reading his latest book. it's like the girl with the dragon tatoo a few years ago except it's a nonfiction book dealing with race relations.

 

yes its a distorted view, but its also the most populous city in the country by a long shot, so its not chopped liver. It means something

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Real Elijah Snow

Real Elijah Snow

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I guess I'm extra glad I bought this then...

rV70VZ.jpg

 

 

Sorry for bad pic. The pencils don't come out well in the photo.

 

Still, I just don't see this 300,000 being ordered by normal shops. There has to be something else to it. Loot Crate, Marvel doing a 2 for 1, or some other giant chunk being ordered by one source just has to be in play here. 100,000 would be a giant smash for the character, but 300,000? Doesn't matter who's writing it.

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TSwift25

TSwift25

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I guess I'm extra glad I bought this then...

rV70VZ.jpg

 

 

Sorry for bad pic. The pencils don't come out well in the photo.

 

Still, I just don't see this 300,000 being ordered by normal shops. There has to be something else to it. Loot Crate, Marvel doing a 2 for 1, or some other giant chunk being ordered by one source just has to be in play here. 100,000 would be a giant smash for the character, but 300,000? Doesn't matter who's writing it.

 

A #1, a movie tie-in, plus a celebrity writer, plus a mess ton of variants...I can see it. Maybe not 300K but I can see something close to it. What did DKIII and Star Wars 1's do? Probably close to that, right?

 

Also, echoing on the blob...I live in NYC. I walk into midtown for just any random put out by Marvel #1 and there are STACKS of it. I'd imagine this'll be a triple or quadruple stack just of the regular cover, with stacks of variants too...like Star Wars 1 was.

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the blob

the blob

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Yeah, but Star Wars is Star Wars.

 

(Of course, Dark Horse had been pumping out fantastic Star Wars comics for years, so its not like there was pent up demand...)

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rob_react

rob_react

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Posted
Always interested to hear these theories about outside talents bringing in new readers, but I dunno.

 

Mieville is pretty well read, people into his genre wouldn't be scared off or misidentify the comic book medium as low brow, and still the New 52 Dial H didn't do well. And it was actually an interesting book.

 

I know every instance is different, but....

 

This is definitely different than a fantasy writer coming into comics and writing a property that no one cares about.

 

People compare Ta Nehisi Coates to James Baldwin. His last book was an Economist book of the year. He holds a unique place in American intellectual discourse.

 

And the dude is writing Black Panther.

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Kyle R.

Kyle R.

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Well IMO, from observation and not from reading anything Coates has written, Marvel did hire a black writer to write a black character. It's pretty obvious when Marvel wouldn't give him X-men or Spider-man. It seems like Marvel hires specific writers for specific characters.

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SquareChaos

SquareChaos

Posted
Posted
Always interested to hear these theories about outside talents bringing in new readers, but I dunno.

 

Mieville is pretty well read, people into his genre wouldn't be scared off or misidentify the comic book medium as low brow, and still the New 52 Dial H didn't do well. And it was actually an interesting book.

 

I know every instance is different, but....

 

This is definitely different than a fantasy writer coming into comics and writing a property that no one cares about.

 

People compare Ta Nehisi Coates to James Baldwin. His last book was an Economist book of the year. He holds a unique place in American intellectual discourse.

 

And the dude is writing Black Panther.

 

I wouldn't exactly say many care about Black Panther either - they obviously care more about the writer than the character if this phenomenon is an actual thing, which is why Mieville was a suitable example. Not that Black Panther isn't massively more known than Dial H, but simply in the context of neither of them being even C-listers.

 

I've read both Coates and Mieville, and at this point in time, I don't view Coates as particularly important... certainly not in the sort of historical context he's being mentioned in. He is certainly up and coming, but the James Baldwin comparisons, at this stage, are a bit ridiculous.

 

I think it's cool that he's writing comics, and I hope he continues to be a prominent up and coming figure.

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