DC now sells more graphic novels than periodicals

comicsbeat.com/sdcc-16-dc-now-sells-more-graphic-novels-than-periodicals/

>More of DC’s revenuse performnes come from graphic novels and the backlist than periodicals. I’m told this has been true for several years. Of course the powerhouse performance of all-time sellers like Watchmen, Dark Knight and now The Killing Joke power that, but so do the powerful Vertigo backlist, the Batman backlist led by Scott Snyder and, increasingly, books like the Earth One series.

>Wonder Woman Earth One and Paul Dini’s Dark Night have been big hits so far in 2016. According to Dan DiDio, some of the DCYou titles are picking up in trade, including Prez, which was a surprise because “Generally books that don’t do well in single issues don’t do well in trades, and books that DO do well in single issues do well in trades,” but they’re seeing that pattern broken up more and more.

>When the Comichron/ICv2 sales figures for 2015 were released, it actually shows graphic novels outselling periodicals $535 million to $405 million

>m not saying the beloved comics periodical is going away…the pamphlet is not dead, not by a long shot, but it seems to be fair to say that newer readers are happy to experience comics as graphic novels without the serialization factor. Whether this is something that CAN be or SHOULD be reversed is open to question, but for now, the Satisfying Chunk is winning out.

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No surprise, but the floppies obviously still make too much money to kill them off.

DC usually does quite well in bookstores judging by the bookscan figures.

And this is why we'll never get a DC version of Marvel Unlimited

130 million in favor of TPBs and GNs isn't that much. It's about 20+% difference.

I think the idea that there isn't a wait for trade base is absurd. For one thing, places such as libraries and people with less space to collect are more inclined to buy trades than singles, plus we are moving more and more into a consumer base that wants serialized entertainment all at once, versus waiting for 5 to 7 issues to form a complete enough story.

I mean even the Descender trade (which I waited for versus the singles) didn't have a completed story, so I'm glad I borrowed it from the library versus buying either the singles or the trades, but I'm annoyed it's not a finished story.

The started putting their Essential line in libraries earlier this year. They'll probably pay attention to how the CMX Unlimited plan is doing for some of their lines that they own - similar to what the CW is doing by putting Constantine and Birds of Prey on line for viewing; if they can find a way to monetize things which are NOT bringing them money, they'll do it - maybe they won't put Batman but they might put Booster Gold v1 and v2 on there, for example.

I only buy trade. Floppy take too much place.

If you don't like the paint in a room of your house/apartment you can always turn floppies into wall art

Good on them

this
DC dominates in trades
The only times where they didn't was when Image overtook them one year when TWD craze started and 2015 when scholastic beat them

DC has a lot of good old story.
Marvel has less or don't put them front and centrer.

DC celebrate the past, Marvel shit on it constantly. So the past don't sell.

Marvel is really weird to me. They don't keep things in print long enough.

Death to floppies, they're holding the medium back

They are literally making half the money, they can't die yet

Though even when they "die" there will likely be smaller collector's run of certain things.

>DC books sell for 2.99
>typical TPB sells for about 15 bucks
>For 1 TPB, you need to sell 5 floppies
>Hardcovers can be even more expensive

I'm not really surprised. As the article states, Vertigo's backlog is pretty well liked and those titles tend to be more expensive. Couple that with the fact that you can get trades in big book stores (where periodicals are not always stocked and rarely stocked on time), I'm not sure how this is big news.

What a terrible run to cover your wall with. And those Ramos covers.... ugh.

But whatever you like, user.

That's cool and honestly the more people reading comics the better. I still prefer floppies for modern stuff and trades for comics I either can't find or have been driven up in price because speculators are the scum of the industry

Who are these fucking people that have already made Harrow County #1 more expensive than the trade? That comic came out May of last year

Marvel sells a lot more Omnibus of their books, which are more expensive and casuals are less likely to buy. DC sells trades which are relatively cheap.

What Marvel really needs is a better organizing of collections. You'll often have older books collecting 20 issue from a certain run of a series, skip 30 issues, then collect the next 20 issues. It gets really confusing for your casual collector, and because their numbering system is fucked up, it's hard to tell which volumes go where in chronology.

As a long time X-men fan I've basically lost all hope for ever getting a proper trade collection of the entire Claremont and the subsequent Nicieza/Lobdell flagship book runs.

Not only do they not keep anything in print for very long, the way they keep putting out these weird, overpriced, ill-named and not numbered collections, that sometime seem to skip few issues and they release them in completely random order, it was driving me nuts.

>entire Claremont
That's what those Epic collections are supposed to do

They don't do those in order and iirc, the only X-men epic collection so far is the early Kirby/Lee issues

No there's one that's like halfway through Claremont with 189-198 along with the Nightcrawler mini by Cockrum.

One with Giant Size and 94-110 is coming next year along with vol 1's for New Mutants and Excalibur.

Really? About damn time.

Why would one trade of a still-running series have a completed story? It says "Volume 1" right on the spine?

they've been selling olderish stuff in Complete Collections

>have a completed story?
Because the common trend of "writing for the trade" means story arcs are all 5-6 issues long.

Honestly, it's not surprising, and it's a good thing that it's finally the case. The manga industry has been like this for decades (supported by tankobons vs weekly/monthly/bimonthly magazines).

I do doubt that DC and the comic industry as a whole will learn the right lessons from this, though.

I have never bought a single issue before. The only time I've ever held one is when the store has been dishing out promos for something.

I wouldn't want to just read one comic, so it seems a bit redundant. Always want to read 5 or 6 issues in one sitting, so trades are about the right size normally. If I was buying singles I'd just have to wait for them to pile up for a while before reading them anyway.

indie comics are not the Big 2, user

DC has already learned the lesson. They've been shifting focus to the bookstore trade market for years. One of their biggest writers, if not their #1 biggest writer, has moved exclusively to OGNs! DCYou was the first early feelers with obvious tradebait that paid off, and Rebirth is full-on "we care more about the trades now"

But the Venom was good

Both the Big 2 and indie comics do it

they both DO it, but it happens far more frequently at the Big 2 Marvel in particular where books can get cancelled after 5 issues

At Image or Fantagraphics or Dark Horse, creators say "this is how long we want this series to go," the publishers say "ok," then the creators write and draw the story. Some of them may try to write story arcs into six issues for trades, but they're by no means required to do that, as they have a guaranteed number of issues. What's more frequent is they'll write a cliffhanger on issue 6/12/whatever to entice you into buying the next trade that they know is coming out in 8 months

Justice League V1 Origin was a complete story; sure it was on-going, but the story started and pretty much was wrapped up by the end of the volume, even if threads of it were used in Villains Story. The collected Sandman trades were complete arcs even if the entire set was one big arc as far as Gaiman was concerned. There's even been collected trades that were only 4 singles that were a complete story.

If Descender wants to be told in multiple volumes it should be marked that way, and simple using Vol. 1, Vol. 2 doesn't imply that dude. It just means it's the first collected TRADE, nothing more.

Most of the former Big 2 writers seem stuck in that structure, especially the Marvle ones like Fraction or Aaron. The people who started in the indie scene like Brandon Graham don't do it at all. Prophet is a comic that I think is best read serialized or all at once, it didn't break into even story chunks for the trades

It might be based on different formats. For the most part you can pick up any given Batman story and there is a beginning, middle, and end. Things like the phoenix saga in X-men go from like issue 97-137

well

MorrisonBat you kind of have to read from the beginning

I got a tablet for the soul purpose of reading comics on and I really like it, if for no other reason that I now longer need to keep physical books

The DC equivalent would be stuff like 80s LoSH which is hard to really split up too for the same reason. Great Darkness Saga's trade is awkward because they tried to get some buildup in there but I don't know how much sense it makes to people who didn't read the issues before the hardcover started.

I can't go all-in on digital until every publisher provides legal backups of purchases. I get why they do it but Marvel and DC and holding out so far and I don't like it.

doesn't Marvel include download codes with their books to justify charging $5 for their garbage quality?

Those are just Comixology redemption codes, you can't download the actual comic to your computer with Marvel. Some IDW and Image books let you do it (not sure if it's universal though).

>tacking bagged floppies onto the wall
nigga what the fuck are you doing?

i need a fainting couch

yeah although I read that only something like 1-3% of those are ever redeemed

The tacs aren't piercing the comic or even the plastic, they are just supporting their weight. You can still have that fainting couch though

Maybe this will teach DC to release trades faster, and both the hardcover and paperback at the same time.

i still want some program where i can cash in digital comics for a hard copy of a trade

>DC celebrates the pat
>Goes and shit on their characters histories, rebooting them

you can't do that with physical floppies, why would you be able to that with digital

Guess you didn't hear about what seems to be just Rebirth trades coming out in January 2017 and the rest coming later

no word if it's just these 3 or if most of the double shipping June books

I'm not talking about tacking the comics, I'm talking about how shitty that whole set up looks

buy some dollar store frames or something and stop poking holes in your wall, sweet christ

Know what looks worse? That fucking green paint! I've had to look at that shit for five years now, I find the tacky comics to be quite refreshing

did any of the single-shipping books start in June?

BASED DIDIO

Titans

DC allows the chapters in these metaphorical history books to actually close. Things might change with reboots, but you can always definitively say "This Batman did this thing."

Reboots are infinitely better than retcons, because with retcons, history effectively doesn't matter as EVERYTHING can be changed at the drop of a hat.

they'd have to cut their trade turnaround down to Image levels, and they were already at 2 months with DCYou

I hope they do

>2 months
Most ended in November and ship in Feb/March

I do that but only with covers that I really like. I'm going to put a whole run on the wall.

Also, get some frames.

So the monthly sales game is irrelevant since DC basically beat Marvel through higher tpb sales?

Not even close, floppy sales are still very much needed.
Trades are just bonuses.

Omega Men is out in August after ending at the end of May
Sheriff of Babylon's trade came out last week with a #6 in May
Prez ended in December and got a trade in February
Midnighter, despite having a 7 issue trade, had its #7 in December and a trade in February

TWO
MONTHS

>Monthly Sale game is irrelevant
>Still 40% of their revenue

they're definitely needed, but it's now floppies that are the bonuses to trades

And with the double shipping they can put out like 3 or 4 volumes a year

If the floppies don't sell then it might not get a trade.
Happened with Klarion and some other new52 books.

booksamillion.com/p/Comic-Book-Frame/BAM-Exclusive/F9781492450597?id=6693108373013

Invest in something like this if you're going to do that. Will look a million times better, trust me.

DCYou books sold like ass as floppies across the board, that's not an argument right now

although they were clearly meant as trade bait so the situation is a bit different

None of them sold as bad as Klarion

#1 was 20k and #6 was 5k

woof

RIP gi zombie and forever people.

>130 million in favor of TPBs and GNs isn't that much. It's about 20+% difference.
It is and don't forget which market is actually expanding. You can sell trades online, comic stores, book stores and Wall Mart. Can't do that with floppy. This number will only increase.

Saw someone in the Artist's Alley of a local con selling collages of floppy panels on Canvas with the covers matted in the center. Only makes one per particular issue.

>it debuted at cancellation level

Cancellation for DC is like 15k these days, times have changed

>tfw I own every issue of GI Zombie, Infinity Man, Klarion

It's even lower, if it even exists at all anymore. Midnighter, Doctor Fate, and Omega Men were DC's worst selling mainline titles when they ended, and they each got 12 fucking issues. Omega Men was outsold by Scooby Doo Team Up and Jem and the fucking Holograms. now obviously Omega Men was a bit of a special case because it was cancelled then brought back by fan demand, but the other two weren't. All three of these books were under 10K, but two of them weren't cancelled and got a full 12 issues

Trades are now unequivocally the primary focus. The time of floppies being the sole measure of a title's success are over. We are literally witnessing before our eyes a paradigm shift in comics publishing.

that's you if you're a niche title or a higher up likes you

they only got 12 issues because they promised
they tried cancelling omega men and doomed, and people in dc and fans threw a fit about omega men
doomed was still cancelled

Doctor Fate got like 17 issues iirc

which is pretty noteworthy while sellling so shitty

Also omnis 1 & 3 are currently in print, and vol 2 gets a reissue this fall.
I own a bunch of different epic collections of Marvel stuff, and the first two UXM omnis: the over sized pages of the pmni blows the tiny format of the Epic Collections out of the water, imo. Get the omnis if youthey're pretty reasonable on IST. can.

Wacky Raceland was made into a 6 issue mini because they learned from DCYou to not let incredibly selling books go on for long.

>get the omnis if you can.

*incredibly shitty selling

and yet Wacky Raceland is getting a spinoff

probably because Garth Ennis called up Didio one day and said "Dan, I want to make Dick Dastardly into an ex-IRA fighter and also make jokes about his name" but still

>Wacky Raceland is now a 6 issue mini

sauce?

Levitz is promised a DC title so that's why it's allowed to go on until Blue Beetle comes out.

Fate is unique, Levitz might have a guarantee for an ongoing.

WACKY RACELAND #4
Written by KEN PONTAC
Art and cover by LEONARDO MANCO
Variant cover by JOE PRADO
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
Our heroes head to the radioactive remains of Las Vegas for a little R&R between races, hoping for a jackpot of ammunition to add to their dwindling supplies. Instead, they arouse the ire of the ganglord Neon Caesar, who’s got an ax to grind with Red. Meanwhile, Muttley and his vehicles are lost in the labyrinthine sewers beneath the streets when the gangs of Vegas unite to eradicate the Racers. Our heroes must go it alone against the combined might of the Caesars, the Pharaohs, the Clowns, and the terrifying Combovers, who have great weapons. Terrific weapons. Really, they have the best weapons.
On sale SEPTEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, 4 of 6, $3.99 US • RATED T+

At the very least, Trump has provided some great comedy material over the past year (Jesus Christ it's been a year and it's still not over)

DC
>Sales aren't just up in terms of individual issues, either; DiDio said that the bookstore market is also expanding. "We can talk about periodical sales, but if you want to know where the real growth is right now, it's in the mass market — the collections, the graphic novels. We see those sales expanding on a regular basis."

>This is important for books, where the target market isn't necessarily those who hit the comic store every Wednesday. DiDio called out Midnighter — a series launched last year featuring a hyper-violent gay superhero that was met with much critical success but soft sales in its monthly format — as being a title that benefited from this increase. "We've seen more life for Midnighter in the graphic novel area," DiDio said, leading to the October launch of the Midnighter and Apollo miniseries.

>"What we've seen is that, traditionally, if a book sells poorly as a periodical, it sells poorly as a trade. If it sells extraordinarily well as a periodical, it sells extraordinarily well as a trade," he explained. "What we've seen is that, with the Midnighter book in particular, [which had] a lot of great press, a lot of great reviews, that's where we've seen reviews really inform the sales on the graphic novel collection."

Marvel
>If you adapt the mentality that you're going to wait for trade, what you're doing is contributing to the cancellation of the series. Comics count on people being there once a month to pick them up," said Alonso. "It's important to support that small book. If we were to launch an 'Iceman' solo, support that book. Don't go, 'That first issue was great, I'll wait for the trade.'

If I were Dan Didio I'd greenlight it.
Mainly just to read it myself.

Marvel's trades don't sell because they're terrible quality

literally falling apart on shelves

they should make it like with manga: periodicals in black and white, GNs in color. they save money and can put out faster stories.

As a Canadian, you current election cycle is the funniest shit to watch this year.

Over all - as far as what it means to DC, it's not significant for them to say do something like: stop printing floppies and only release comics as digital and print a trade, except for say vanity projects like Multiversity or American Alien.

You have to look at what brings them money for them to decide to (a) take a certain action, such as releasing some product -- as folks here have mentioned and as the history shows, floppies that never got collected in trades, even for a run where say the first, or even second arc got collected but not the rest. For example, Booster Gold v2 has 3 issues that were never put in any of the trades. Some back ups never get collected, etc.

(b) DC makes choices like toys, licensed merchandise, other licensing, etc., and they take into account - OK Batman is doing this, collectively, or Harley is doing this collectively, and they would look at say Klarion is here, on floppies, not worth a trade, doesn't get licensed, can't be used in a team, but say Midnighter, doesn't do that great on floppies, but trade interest is higher, let's see about another Midnighter/Apollo run? And where can we license this?

You do have a good point about the resale value of TPBs being greater than floppies, generally, for anything current.

DC promised 12 issues and when Omega Men were going to get cancelled prematurely, fans got mad and pointed that out and Didio kept his promise.

I don't think user was saying anything about resale value, just that trades are far easier access

Levitz clearly has some sort of arcane deal with DC.

Yes. DC has been kicking Marvels teeth in when it comes to trades for years. Image also outsells Marvel

>>If you adapt the mentality that you're going to wait for trade, what you're doing is contributing to the cancellation of the series

He can fuck right off. Marvel relaunches so often that there's no need to support niche books

Most Barnes and Nobles I went in had Prez front and center on the endcaps at release and I really think that helped it's sales.

Hoping Omega Men gets the same treatment really.

Marvel is also more expensive. Often for less pages if we're talking their new releases.

I get the feeling Barnes and Noble pushes DC books more for whatever reason

also friends, they're doing a 3-for-2 sale again