I guess comic books are not popular anymore

#26
#26


It’s a long thread but to make it short. The series is actually selling in the top 10 after 5 issues and an Annual. Both physically and digitally.

Number 5 was the “coming out” issue and it outsold number 1 which had a second and 3rd print.

Number 6 didn’t show in the charts due a shipping delay that has pushed it back a month. This is where the Comicsgate online articles and YouTubers are wanting you to believe that “wokeness” is killing the sales when actually it’s doing quite well.
 
#27
#27
Gandalf said:
1. it was an "eh" movie, one of the worst in the MCU, though I admit Brie Larson is relatively easy on the eyes. Eternals told this movie to hold its beer and took its place on top of the dung heap as the worst steaming pile of poorly written woke MCU crap ever envisioned.
2. No, Captain Mar-Vell, has not been a "her" character "since the 60s. Merely a bunch of ret-conning to stuff a woman into a man's part instead of giving her a unique history.
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I said her character goes all the way back to the 1960s. That was before a lot of this woke nonsense you see now.
 
#28
#28
burntorangeVOLffle said:


It’s a long thread but to make it short. The series is actually selling in the top 10 after 5 issues and an Annual. Both physically and digitally.

Number 5 was the “coming out” issue and it outsold number 1 which had a second and 3rd print.

Number 6 didn’t show in the charts due a shipping delay that has pushed it back a month. This is where the Comicsgate online articles and YouTubers are wanting you to believe that “wokeness” is killing the sales when actually it’s doing quite well.
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Are they selling as many issues now as they did back in the 70s, 80s and 90s? Also the price of new comics today are between 3.99 and 5.99 per issue. Some are 7.99 or more.

There is still a collectors market for old comics. So I'm assuming you are not including that market as part of the sales.
 
#29
#29
On my birthday and my brother on his, Daddy would give each of us a dollar and take us to Wallace's newsstand. Dad called them "funny books" and they cost 10 cents apiece then. I guess Little Lulu and Dot would be dating in today's storylines.
 
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#30
#30
DonjoVol said:
Are they selling as many issues now as they did back in the 70s, 80s and 90s? Also the price of new comics today are between 3.99 and 5.99 per issue. Some are 7.99 or more.

There is still a collectors market for old comics. So I'm assuming you are not including that market as part of the sales.
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No I was talking about new sales.

Comics haven’t sold at those levels in over 25 years. They will never reach those numbers again with any consistency but it has absolutely nothing to do with “wokeness”. However, sales across the industry are up. 2020 alone saw an increase of over 6% from 2019 despite nothing new coming out for 3 months. 2021 continued that trend. And this is pure print format, not including digital.

The collectors market is thriving as well. The movies and shows are driving a speculators market that is driving up prices across the board. Typically people who participate in the collectors market are also purchasing new books as well. Not all, but a vast majority.

To the point of the thread, the current Superman Son of Kal El book is selling in the top 10 in relation to other new books coming out today. Due to a delay there was no new issue in Dec so it did not appear on the sales charts. A bunch of alt-right sites pounced for click bait.

Books don’t fall from the top 10 to out of the top 50 in one month. Retailers order 2 months in advance. It had been known that #5 was the “coming out” issue for months ahead of time which is why it outsold #1. There will be a drop just but retailers aren’t stupid enough to cut sales back that much.
 
#31
#31
burntorangeVOLffle said:
Carol Danvers was Ms Marvel dating back to the 70s. The original Mar-vel died of cancer in the early 80s and a Black Woman took on the moniker (80s woke?). Danvers had a few other identities over the years but has been officially Captain Marvel for close to 15 years now.

—

Comic sales have actually been up as a whole since 2019. Not anywhere close to the peek of the 90s but overall the industry is fairly healthy. Back issue market is actually quite insane lately. Regret selling off most of my collection about 5 years ago because it’s going waaaay higher today.

—

As for Superman Son, who cares. Superman has been a hard sell for years. It’s why they killed him in the 90s. It was the only way to juice sales.

But I got bad news for all of you. Comics have always been “woke”. Superman started out as social justice warrior fighting slum lords and corrupt local officials. Captain America debuted punching Hitler a year before entering the war. Black Panther premiered in the top selling book just as the Civil Rights movement was underway. Stan Lee regularly used his soap box to denounce bigotry and prejudice. Really the list goes on and on. Only difference today is sexual orientation is more prevalent and that stirs up the anti-woke whiners.

Meanwhile school board in TN is banning a Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the Holocaust… but let’s get our panties in a knot over Superman’s son being gay.
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DonjoVol said:
I said her character goes all the way back to the 1960s. That was before a lot of this woke nonsense you see now.
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Ok, correct then on the Danvers character going back (as Ms Marvel). What I was lamenting was that she took over Captain Marvell, when they could have just as easily kept her as Ms Marvel or come up with something entirely new. Its lazy writing, not just progressive wokeness.
 
#33
#33
burntorangeVOLffle said:
No I was talking about new sales.

Comics haven’t sold at those levels in over 25 years. They will never reach those numbers again with any consistency but it has absolutely nothing to do with “wokeness”. However, sales across the industry are up. 2020 alone saw an increase of over 6% from 2019 despite nothing new coming out for 3 months. 2021 continued that trend. And this is pure print format, not including digital.

The collectors market is thriving as well. The movies and shows are driving a speculators market that is driving up prices across the board. Typically people who participate in the collectors market are also purchasing new books as well. Not all, but a vast majority.

To the point of the thread, the current Superman Son of Kal El book is selling in the top 10 in relation to other new books coming out today. Due to a delay there was no new issue in Dec so it did not appear on the sales charts. A bunch of alt-right sites pounced for click bait.

Books don’t fall from the top 10 to out of the top 50 in one month. Retailers order 2 months in advance. It had been known that #5 was the “coming out” issue for months ahead of time which is why it outsold #1. There will be a drop just but retailers aren’t stupid enough to cut sales back that much.
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And have you read all the new adventures of this Fabulous new superman?
 
#37
#37
Tin Man said:
I remember when comic books broke the 10 cents barrier. The latest Marvel comic to feature the Silver Surfer was 13 cents, leaving only 2 cents for penny candy (MaryJanes).
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Comics wer 10¢ From their inception in the 1930s thru about 1962. Then they went to 12¢ and 15¢ to wrap up the 1960s.

Today comics are $3.99 to $9.99 for a big anniversary book.
 
#42
#42
burntorangeVOLffle said:
Comics wer 10¢ From their inception in the 1930s thru about 1962. Then they went to 12¢ and 15¢ to wrap up the 1960s.

Today comics are $3.99 to $9.99 for a big anniversary book.
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And that's why their sales are still good. There is always going to be a market for new comics.

There is also really no data on sales prior to the 1990s. So it's really hard to get an actual number on how many comics were sold back in the day. I would bet a lot more were sold back in the day.
 
#43
#43
burntorangeVOLffle said:
Carol Danvers was Ms Marvel dating back to the 70s. The original Mar-vel died of cancer in the early 80s and a Black Woman took on the moniker (80s woke?). Danvers had a few other identities over the years but has been officially Captain Marvel for close to 15 years now.

—

Comic sales have actually been up as a whole since 2019. Not anywhere close to the peek of the 90s but overall the industry is fairly healthy. Back issue market is actually quite insane lately. Regret selling off most of my collection about 5 years ago because it’s going waaaay higher today.

—

As for Superman Son, who cares. Superman has been a hard sell for years. It’s why they killed him in the 90s. It was the only way to juice sales.

But I got bad news for all of you. Comics have always been “woke”. Superman started out as social justice warrior fighting slum lords and corrupt local officials. Captain America debuted punching Hitler a year before entering the war. Black Panther premiered in the top selling book just as the Civil Rights movement was underway. Stan Lee regularly used his soap box to denounce bigotry and prejudice. Really the list goes on and on. Only difference today is sexual orientation is more prevalent and that stirs up the anti-woke whiners.

Meanwhile school board in TN is banning a Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the Holocaust… but let’s get our panties in a knot over Superman’s son being gay.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we should, this pushing immorality and sodomy on society to make it seem natural is not good for any society.

Going after corrupt politicians isn't woke. You're mixing two different subjects
 
#44
#44
DonjoVol said:
And that's why their sales are still good. There is always going to be a market for new comics.

There is also really no data on sales prior to the 1990s. So it's really hard to get an actual number on how many comics were sold back in the day. I would bet a lot more were sold back in the day.
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The Direct Market was introduced in the 80s.

The demise of the comics industry has been predicted pretty much every decade since it’s inception. Total circulation was probably at its peak in the 1940s. But even then the people working in the industry were expecting the bottom to fall out at any point.

The 90s was driven by speculators buying multiple copies of new books and a glut of “New Number 1s” that were exploiting it. Single issues were getting print runs in the millions. By 95 that was cut in half as the speculators fled. Marvel went bankrupt and it looked like they were going to start farming out their IP. Then there was a creative renaissance in the early 00s but sales of top books were maxing out at 200k… That’s about what a top seller does today.

Without looking at the hard numbers my guess is Superman, as a top 10 book, is in the 100k range for print. That doesn’t account for digital or collected editions which come out a few months later.
 
#45
#45
Volaholic320 said:
Yeah, we should, this pushing immorality and sodomy on society to make it seem natural is not good for any society.

Going after corrupt politicians isn't woke. You're mixing two different subjects
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Your views are antiquated.

Superman was created by two poor Jewish kids. He was a reflection of fighting for the oppressed. In the 50s, post WWII, he was morphed into this “All American” Dad figure by the company, not the original creators who were screwed out of their creation. In the 80s he was returned to his roots somewhat taking on corporate greed (Lex Luther was the personification of Wall Street at the time).

American comics have pretty much always leaned left on social issues. They were only capable of going so far due to their own self censoring standards (Comics Code Authority) adopted after concerned parents, lead primarily by religious groups, freaked out and triggered congressional hearings. There is a great book on it called The 10¢ Plague that details it very well.

Comics were addressing civil rights before TV and movies. They were also tackling LGBTQ going back to the 80s.
 
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