The Comic Shop Down $21,000 In Marvel Comics Sales Alone For 2017

>Challengers Comics + Conversation of Chicago is a comic shop that has won the Eisner Retailer Award in 2013, as well as a number of local Best Comic Shop wins as well. Celebrating their tenth year of business in 2018, they are located in Bucktown, across the street from the Western Blue Line Station and the #49 bus stop. In case you wanted to pop by. They open at 11 am.

>They are also currently crunching their annual numbers on Twitter. With this rather notable observation for the year’s takings.

>The thread continues. Challengers is just one shop, it is clearly not every shop, but it is an important shop. As you can see, it’s not a small store. And if this kind of thing is happening to Challengers, odds are it’s happening to hundreds, thousands of comic book stores as well.

>There has been serious concern expressed of late over the performance of the direct market of comic book stores of late, especially in the latter half of 2017. And the finger has been most definitely been pointing in Marvel Comics’ direction. Would any other stores like to throw in their comparable situations for the year?

Down 21,000 and up 2,000 sounds like people leaving instead of just switching sides

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>I hurt myself today

>challengers

no offense, but that's not even the most popular comic shop in bucktown, much less chicago.

fuck man, g-mart comics on kedzie and milwaukee is better. I think we at least need to look at other comic book stores in the area's performance.

Clearly Marvel needs more diversity still.

Challengers across the street from the most popular happy ending mob-owned massage parlor downtown. It should be closed.

>le make new characters meme

No one wants to read new characters. No one wants to invest time in a character that will most likely be a product of his time.

No one wants to read Female Thor either.
But at least if you make a new character, I still get to read normal Thor.

female thor sold better than aaron's original thor run

>le store shill thread disguised as a marvel doom and gloom discussion

Fuck off you're not fooling anyone

>No one wants to read Female Thor either.
Sales say otherwise, but sure.

You used Alpha when Alpha's sole purpose was to be an asshole who misused his power. Slott didn't intend him to be popular.
Meanwhile, characters like the X-Teen and Avengers Academy were straight up killed and were sizable in their fanbases.

I know the people who praise Marvel's diversity. They always like to boast about it and then don't read shit about it, even when I do lend them stuff. I know a girl who keeps saying Green Lantern is gay now cause the 52 thing.

If only there were some way to isolate the problem.

>Slott didn't intend him to be popular.
Yeah he did, fuck your historical revisionism.

...

The problem is that most new characters take DECADES to get popular to the point where they can hold down a series on their own and even that rarely happens. It takes patience and lots of good writing to get people invested.

Or just have sidekicks. That's what DC did along with legacy heroes who worked alongside their mentors. There's nothing wrong with using a popular character to prop up new ones, you just need to keep the popular character around. That was Marvel's mistake.

>No one wants to read new characters

At least asian Hulk was a long-standing secondary character with a history of hanging out with Hulk. I don't lump him in with the other shit.

Too bad his book is shit, even if the character isnt

Minority characters ended up being fan favorites all the time back in the day, they just ended up getting killed off by hack writers for cheap reactions. Odd that none of the new SJW whiners seem to care or even know about that, nor has anyone thought to bring back old fan-favorite minorities. It's almost like these tumblr people don't read comics or care about them at all?

his book was pretty good before it became a bizarre Asian team-up book

>It's almost like these tumblr people don't read comics or care about them at all?
Well it's more like these writers want more creative control and money.

the one with jimmy woo and other asian characters was nice, but jeremy lin thing prior to that arc was weird as fuck -- in any case, after that the book went to the crapper

Look at the fucking state of this. Is it any wonder Marvel's not doing well?

>Sales say otherwise

WHAT PART OF "DOWN 21 THOUSAND DOLLARS" DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?

Well, wonder how much of that comes from trying to match the numbers Marvel wanted for the lenticulars

Whor is one of Marvel's tentpole books. Yeah, Aaron messed up once years ago. The fact that no one's been posting any additional trollbait from it just shows that it was momentary lapse and most Thor readers don't mind (other than the stupidity of "Gor was right.")

>most new characters take DECADES to get popular

the majority of characters that are popular NOW were overnight successes

"the problem" is that it takes TALENT to make popular characters and NO ONE at marvel has any talent

Kamala was ruined by the other glaring issues Marvel has
Events and relaunches

A lot of stores are targeting Marvel for their own failures. The old store in my hometown closed down this year. The owner blamed Marvel, but has had the same Green Lantern ring set sitting for sale in the front of the store since Blackest Night. Also did not help they would close early on weekdays while other comic stores stayed open.

The shop in my town that seems to be struggling the most does shit like this. In the last three weeks, they've been closed early all four times I've driven by. Posted hours are 11am - 7pm. He was closed at 5pm two of the days, and was closed at ~2pm with a "Will return @ 4pm" sign on the door the other times. Each time I noticed other people checking as well. Three of the times were before Christmas. I can only imagine how much holiday business he missed out on.

The first few issues then it dropped like a rock

>people calling "female thor" a "new character"

IT'S JANE FOSTER, YOU LITERAL RETARDS

She's a legacy character reusing someone else name.

a name that was vacant.

Incorrect. It's stabilized and has been hovering comfortably in the 30-40k range. Not Spider-Man numbers, but still very healthy for a B-lister like Thor.

Try 50-60k, which is a full 20k more than regular Thor was selling leading up to the switch.

>inb4 people buy digital comics now argument

They're counting that against last year's Star Wars and Secret Wars #1s, remember. The whole market has been down that same 10%.

It's a lot easier to go up $2k from sweet fuck-all than it is to prevent an inevitable $21k fall from HYPE TRAIN, too.

Also this. It's one store; maybe all the mobsters getting handies over the street have stopped wiping off with Marvel as a sign of respect.

They don't read comics, user, they just bitch about diversity on the internet.

Secret Wars and Star Wars were in 2015.

Yes because Whor is the only comic Marvel made diversity changes too. Haven't read Whor myself yet so can't speak on the quality, but she's been around since 2014 and for at least the first few years sales went up a good amount from Aaron's original run

>It's a lot easier to go up $2k from sweet fuck-all

2016 was Rebirth

the dude is saying that DC went UP from the Rebirth explosion

that's almost mindblowing

Not too surprising given Metal and all its Bat tie-ins and Doom Cock.

Yeah aside from this being made from someone who probably wants to gas trans people you're not going to build up a new character like that without them having some existing ties to an existing character or taking up a new mantle.

Most of the mantle changes actually made sense. And ironically, one of the most "out of nowhere" ones, Kamala Khan being Ms. Marvel, was one of the best.

You're talking about characters that were created in the 60s who in many cases have gone through many different changes, and the concept of mantles being passed down is nothing new for comics.

Marvel doesn't actually care about diversity and set itself up to fail if anything. They tried, poorly, to bait a more diverse audience but a lot of people didn't bite because they knew it was a gimmick, they didn't bother to promote their new comics, hire "diverse" writers, train in the few diverse YA-focused writers they did get in, make much attempt to push new characters/iterations of characters outside of shitty mobile games and the occasional cartoon cameo etc. etc. etc.

Not to mention the constant crossover events taking up space and attention away from their shiny new "diverse" comics and promoting general fatigue with the universe in general, and need to shove characters into often poorly written team up books/avengers rosters. Meanwhile, some other characters(like America Chavez) worked better in team contexts and could have done with getting a story arc or two in their team books before netting a solo to help build them up.

Having characters come from different backgrounds helps break up a lot of the monotony we see in capeshit. We have a saturation of capeshit, but it's something that can quickly become interested again when you put a new context on it. That's why a comic like Ms. Marvel works well, in many ways it's quite an oldschool book but it being fresh and modern and "diverse" is part of what makes it more engaging.

i am pretty tumblr and i absolutely want characters like phyla vell who met cheap deaths back, and i've said before how the diversity push was largely as a result of them sidelining the x-books which had a lot of popular minority characters.'

while i'm probably a lot more oldschool than the average tumblrina, don't make assumptions to suit your narrative. people are a lot more sensitive to minority representation now ever since the rise of the anti-SJW/alt-right/neoreactionary movement. The internet outrage machine(the one that's bigger and noisier than tumblr) is a lot more focused on what the funny books are doing with "muh childhood".

21000 is not a lot of money

it is for a store that probably operates on an absolutely razor thin profit margin

...

>Captain America's black
That was actually good idea, poor execution
Falcon was pretty much Cap's sidekick for years so if Steve were to be unable to continue the legacy, Falcon would be one of his choices
Amadeus Chulk could've been a fun idea with no messes in between had it been not for Bruce Banner's stupid death
Whor was just stupid

>the diversity push was largely as a result of them sidelining the x-books which had a lot of popular minority characters

them trying to make iceman a big deal proves your theory wrong

you do realise that a lot of people who get mad at comics and star wars aren't actually hardcore fans at all, right? there's that shit on both sides. it's amazing how ghostbusters suddenly became everyone's childhood back when the remake was revealed.

this is just a line people keep repeating over and over to the point where it's assumed to be true. it seems to make sense, because it fits an existing narrative, but even if it WAS true, those people are a prospective audience. comics have been pretty oriented towards one sort of audience for a very long time, so it's not surprising they'd want to see something that interests them more before throwing themselves fully in. i feel that way about a lot of media, esp. modern mainstream video games.

LCSes barely even break even. For them that's enough to go out of business.

>At least asian Hulk was a long-standing secondary character with a history of hanging out with Hulk.
this is one of the most idiotic opinions I've read on this site. Like Falcon and Jane Foster are just random dudes off the street to Cap and Thor? Really fuckface? You could've just said "I like Totally Awesome Hulk" and sounded less like a dumbass.

Anyway it's hardly like the character history matters with legacy characters. People bitched about Jason Todd and Eric Masterson and Kyle Rayner and Jessica Cruz and all that fucking shit but here we are however many years later and all those characters are beloved, despite the fact that they were invented only to replace long established heroes

>it's amazing how ghostbusters suddenly became everyone's childhood back when the remake was revealed

you're clearly young

EVERYONE in their 30s grew up with that movie

Ghostbusters is one of the most beloved films of all time and has been since its original release

Jane Foster pretty much was a random dude off the street to Thor by the time she picked up the hammer.

>A lot of stores are targeting Marvel for their own failures.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

>Jason Todd and Eric Masterson and Kyle Rayner and Jessica Cruz
>beloved

Roz solomon being Thor woulda made more sense desu

Ghostbusters was huge. Two movies, a cartoon that ran for seven years plus another cartoon a few years later that ran for another two years that managed to make the team ~diverse~ without angering the old fans, so many toys and merchandise. Ecto-cooler.

>not loving Jess

She spent her debut year without an identity, so that's largely how people remember her.

>Hating Jessica
I'll give you Kyle because he's an uninteresting Hal, but everyone loves Jess

>Sup Forums was right yet again

One day you losers will admit it. It might be a while but that train is never late.

>Jess Watches Shin Getter Robo:Armageddon
The perfect hotblooded waifu
>youtube.com/watch?v=SBI2Sntjblg

>AX

Niggering our way through I see.

>. It might be a while but that train is never late.

>ANGR doesn't survive and Robbie never gets any push despite being literally the only good diverse teen legacy hero

He's referring to Sup Forums's predictions of future events.

Honestly, I thought it was a Holocaust joke at first.

Ax is correct, though?

>Sup Forums was right yet again

Literally anyone with half a brain has been calling this a sinking ship since Secret Wars ended.

No, it was fairly obvious from the issues that he was intended to be an asshole. Slott even admitted he made him a white guy so people wouldn't get excited for a minority/woman and then see they're an asshole.

>Whor is one of Marvel's tentpole books
Last issue barely shipped above 41k copies. For a tentpole that's pretty pathetic. It's good sales for a regular book but if you're calling 41k shipped a tentpole, brother, your standards are low.

Amazing Spider-Man now ships 50k. Other than Star Wars, this is the best they have.

right, never intended for him to get popular, which is why he got a self-titled one-shot instead of just showing up in Spider-Man only

I got invested in the characters of Avengers Academy.

Not making that mistake with Marvel again.

FemThor's failing was two-fold: Thor's Fall and Thor's Replacement

>Thor's Fall
Let's look back to the 90s when Thor Odinson was also replaced. What did he do to fall? He consciously and deliberated decided to murder Loki. He had agency. When Heimdall called him out he "said yeah I guess I am unworthy but I'd do it again." Compare that to Original Sin which *whispers in ur ear* *makes u unworthy*
That's a total asspull and it turns Odinson into a victim of fate. It sucks.

>Thor's Replacement
So 90s Thor Odinson accepts that he's unworthy and has no regrets but Earth still needs heroes so he designates Eric Masterson (the guy whose body he hijacked a couple of dozen issues ago) as the new Thor. Once again, there is agency. Jane Foster re-appears out of nowhere with cancer, gets to the moon (did they ever explain that?), and "re-programs" the hammer. It all feels disconnected.

What was whispered?

What does that have to do with her sales still being high?

Gor was right

WHAT DIDST THOU SAY?!?
Why was Original Sin so retarded, it made Identity Crisis look like a masterpiece.

>still being high
41k used to be cancellation numbers before Quesada took over.

I really don't blame Marvel for putting all their eggs into the MCU basket

They really needed a new Ultimate so they can write the same characters with fresh lore, because it really seems like they've hit a creative wall. The Spiderman movie just proved what all the Spiderman threads always whine about, there will never be another Spiderman to be WHERE ARE MY PICTURES PARKERRRR while actual Parker moves on to bigger and better things. Why can Batman have generations of Batpeople but Marvel gets so stuck with theirs? They're trying but it almost always fails

this is the most laughable Brand Defense I've seen on Sup Forums yet

idiots like you are why in 10 years Disney is going to be trying to make a Jack of Hearts movie

this 'it's impossible to make successful new characters!' meme is dumb as shit considering the movies and cartoons making organic development of popularity obsolete

And how is shit like FosterThor any less 'product of the times' then shit like Prowler?

oh wait Prowler is being moved into the movies now

exactly proving my point

Are you gonna tell me the sky is blue and the grass is green next?

"poop scoop maloop"

marvel comics loses fucking money anyway so it doesn't matter

Disney is just using them as a workshop for ideas for movies and cartoons, why not try to make new shit, god knows Jane Foster Thor will never be a fucking movie, only comic fans are stupid enough to accept shit like that

FUCKING THIS

>Down 21,000 and up 2,000 sounds like people leaving instead of just switching sides
Well, yeah.
People legit only buy Marvel comics.
People legit only buy Marvel + select indies.
Lots of them stopped buying Marvel.
At least one of them is me.

That was over 17 years ago. This is now, and right now, 40-60k in sales is very good for a legacy replacement of a B-list character, especially when her contemporaries are all struggling to sell over 20k.

Not post-crash it wasn't.
Though Quesada/Jemas were notorious about wanting to raise the price/cancel Spider-Girl, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther for being Marvel's lowest selling monthly titles, even though all three were over 20k. Spider-Girl kept going because her fans sent tons of letters, Captain Marvel got a relaunch before an inevitable cancellation, and Black Panther went through a drastic writer-initiated retooling before its inevitable end as well.

>idiots like you are why in 10 years Disney is going to be trying to make a Jack of Hearts movie

You make it sound like that's a bad thing.

Is it the speed of the drop? Oldfags like me and others around here remember the cancellation numbers of our lifetimes
>100K
>80K
>60K
>50K
>40K
>20K
>10K

Now there's books published with 5,000 sales that are a going concern.
It took twentyplus years for the cancellation number to go from 100K to under 40K. Then a little under twenty to get from there to where we are now. The biggest drop inside the last ten.

Which is the same decade the MCU has become one of the biggest franchises in entertainment.
Comics are just dying the slow death and makign the characters accessible outside of comics has actually worsened the health of comics.
Obviously the utter shite quality of Marvel in the last five years just increased the speed.

I can buy comics AND get a massage?

Of course they don't when you shove them into a book taking the spotlight from the title character.

>He consciously and deliberated decided to murder Loki.

Why would that even be a crime, especially to violent bronze age savages? Comics are so fucking dumb.

>Retarded asshole SJW loses their shit.

>violent bronze age savages
They're peaceful uru age savages, pleb.

Do you think comic stores are really profitable or something?

That could be most of the dude's rent for the year, the fuck are you talking about?

Yes, I'm sure they'll just pay it off with the Marvel comics they'll sell this yea-OH WAIT