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Post by pulpcitizen on Aug 16, 2011 7:28:23 GMT -5
I suppose it's the events that allow editors to experiment with other titles. Have a look at last July's sales www.newsarama.com/comics/july-2011-comic-book-sales-110805.htmlASM 666 sold over 260.000 copies, at 4 dollars it's 1.040.000 dollars. I'm sure some of that must go to finance, say, Alpha Flight or some new miniseries. That article mentions sales 'index' rather than strict units doesn't it? I am not sure that ASM will have sold 260K units/copies.
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Post by freedomfighter on Aug 16, 2011 19:05:04 GMT -5
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Post by humanbelly on Aug 18, 2011 4:49:12 GMT -5
...I was debating with HB-Son that perhaps the broader-scope drawback of doing superhero films as part of a larger, ongoing story is that it just takes too flippin' long to get the bigger story told. It's more on the scale of published books (maybe one a year, at best?) than the monthly crawl of their comic-book source material. The expectation then becomes so hyper-inflated that anything short of a ground-breaking, life-changing blockbuster is deemed a solid disappointment. And then you're reluctant to invest your hopes for another year or so of waiting for the next installment. And of course there's NO sense of trust that the studio(s) will hold up their end of the deal and not either a) drop the franchise (where's the next Hellboy film?) or b) Re-boot the franchise in a moment of greed or pique (there was an audibly palpable reaction of betrayal and dismay from the crowd when they saw the trailer for the upcoming Spidey reboot at my local theater---- that does not bode well.). In a way, modern television may really be the best medium to tell a good superhero story. A series provides so much more time to actually invest yourself in the characters-- which is what will ultimately drive the story. HB On Hellboy, I think the lack of third instalment is more to do with Guillermo del Toro being busy with other projects than anything else. And I did just see a trailer on TV yesterday for a very creepy horror movie he's been working on. You've given me a glimmer of hope, then. I thoroughly enjoyed both of the Hellboy films-- but I don't think the more-extravagant second one made quite as much money as the first (I could be mistaken, though), so I've feared that they'd just let the franchise go. Great casting, terrific directorial vision, tremendous art direction. I'm just a shamelessly-gushing fanboy, I'm afraid. . . HB
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Post by humanbelly on Aug 18, 2011 4:57:49 GMT -5
It looks like this table still only gives us a partial picture of an individual book's total sales, as it's the figures for July, but they do include July sales for books that were released in previous months (Amaz.Spidey #665 sold an additional 50K copies, for instance). I suppose you'd have to go back to previous months' tables and add up the sales since the book was released. . . (a bit of chore). The numbers are still lookin' kinda grim to me, though. . . HB
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Post by bobc on Aug 18, 2011 15:28:53 GMT -5
Grim indeed. Our beloved industry is dying, guys.
Word on the streets is that comic book companies are only still publishing in hopes that some creator will come up with a stellar storyline that they can make into a movie. Also--sales of super hero statues help, too.
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Post by bobc on Aug 18, 2011 15:30:31 GMT -5
ugh--it's worse than I thought. Sales are down more than 20% from just five years ago.
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Post by freedomfighter on Aug 18, 2011 21:09:09 GMT -5
ugh--it's worse than I thought. Sales are down more than 20% from just five years ago. that actually doesn't surprise me a bit. I'm sure the industry is suffering from event fatigue. five years ago, there were a ton of big events unspooling like Secret War, Infinite Crisis, Identity Crisis and anytime you go to the well too often, you're going to chase off readers, instead of keeping them. Price hikes and the economy also have an impact...
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Post by bobc on Aug 20, 2011 9:44:14 GMT -5
I know. You're right. I went to Austin books for the first time in a looong time, and virtually every Marvel title had a giant marquis screaming "FEAR ITSELF!" And even the back issues had the same giant title! It was like a wall full of the same comic!
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Post by bobc on Aug 21, 2011 13:56:22 GMT -5
Conan brought in only 10 mill this weekend.
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Post by humanbelly on Aug 21, 2011 14:50:58 GMT -5
Conan brought in only 10 mill this weekend. Not surprised at all. Washington Post review gave it 1-1/2 stars, and heck, I didn't even realize there was a Conan movie coming out until a couple of months ago. Say, is Conan still a Marvel property, even? I thought his rights had been picked up by someone else a few years back. That's so hard to fathom, 'cause I very much remember when he was THE HOTTEST character in Marvel's stable. And now he's little more than an obscure footnote-- I imagine many, many 25-and-under readers don't even realize his title existed at one point, and (in my little town, at least) it tended to fly off the spinner-racks in a heart-beat. HB
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Post by bobc on Aug 22, 2011 8:40:44 GMT -5
That's a good question. I don't know who publishes Conan today, if anybody. Did you know Conan was the only comic John Buscema liked illustrating?
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Post by humanbelly on Aug 22, 2011 12:28:16 GMT -5
I think I remember coming across that factoid-nugget on this board sometime awhile back, in fact. It's just so hard to give full credence to a claim like that (even given that he made it himself!). I wonder if it's a not-uncommon artistic personality type (sheesh, I'm sure you've come across them!) where the artist pours himself into a piece, does it brilliantly, and then as a defense mechanism immediately dismisses its value and validity-? I see it in actors and musicians pretty frequently.
It's nice that he enjoyed Conan, though. I think it really showed in the quality of his work. I don't think I ever noticed a particular drop in artistic quality over the years I bought the title-- from around issue 35 to a year or so after the Beliz the Pirate Queen saga. The stories actually ran out of steam for me by then. Conan's great, no question, but there does seem to be a limited number of interesting scenarios for him.
HB
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Post by owene on Aug 29, 2011 7:58:42 GMT -5
While in the supermarket today I noticed a Winter Soldier action figure as part of the Captain America movie range. Not someone with any real recognition outside of us comics nerds I wouldn't have thought, maybe a hint at the next Cap movie?
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Post by starfoxxx on Aug 29, 2011 17:22:00 GMT -5
While in the supermarket today I noticed a Winter Soldier action figure as part of the Captain America movie range. Not someone with any real recognition outside of us comics nerds I wouldn't have thought, maybe a hint at the next Cap movie? I saw UsAgent and Capt Britain mini-figures, too. I'm still bitter that all we get is "mini-figures" now. I would love to get a USAgent and Capt Britain Marvel Legends-size figure, but it looks like Legends-size figures are dead. I digress...I think the odd selection (unknown to non-comic fans) of figures in the Cap movie toy line are more the result of similar sculpts than future movie characters. But thats just my opinion.
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