IDW's new Godzilla comic!

[TripMasterMunky]

[Inferior Rodan]

[Legion]

Not very surprised. This could only hurt the comic in the long run.

[Inferior Rodan]

If retailers are smart (i suspect some of them are) they will give whatever leftover issues they have away on free comics book day. I suspect when issue 2 comes out we will see a pretty good drop in sales but the idea is to level off so this comic gets its core reader base. Once that happens it should give us an idea (and IDW) of how long this series will last.

[kidnicky]

[Legion]

[kiryugoji04]

[lhb412]

[Inferior Rodan]

Its interesting to note that although this will not hurt the series as a whole i think it could make selling the series a little harder. We`ll just have to see if IDW does other little gimmicks to promote it. The cover thing is cute though it was a bit much.

[jellydonut25]

i really think the ONLY reason people "over ordered" was to get a cover with their comic on it.

i mean, do you think there are ANY stores out there that individually sell FIVE HUNDRED copies of any comic???



i'm not going to be concerned with sales talk until issue 5 or so.

of COURSE there's going to be a HUGE dropoff from 1 to 2 when you run a promo like IDW did for issue one.

honestly, they could have put out a Casper the Friendly Ghost comic with a promo like that "have Casper haunting your store!" and stores woulda ordered tons of it.

people just like to see themselves...

but i can GUARANTEE the sky will be falling according to some people when there is in fact a HUGE dropoff from issue one to issue two

[kidnicky]

[kpa]

The comic book market as a whole is soft these days. The consistent sellers have always been the key Marvel and DC superhero titles, and their numbers aren't anywhere near where they used to be. According to retailer orders for March, only one comic (FF #1) sold over 100,000 copies. Series from the core franchises-- X-Men, Batman, Spider-Man, Avengers-- are selling in the 40,000-70,000 range per issue... so numbers are way down from where they were in the 1990s.

Nearly half the books in March's Top 100 sold less than 30,000 copies, and only 2 or 3 non-Marvel/DC books even managed to break into the Top 100. There's a lot of titles from the smaller publishers that sold less than 10,000 copies last month.

Godzilla comics have never been big sellers so I doubt IDW or most retailers are expecting anything different this time out. IDW's various GI Joe and Transformers titles sell between 5,000-15,000 per issue so selling 59,000 copies of Godzilla #1 was a fluke and they know it. IDW found a clever way to boost sales and create publicity for a new series, and they'll probably be very happy if Godzilla is selling 10,000-15,000 copies per month by issue #5.

Any retailer who has been in the business for a while knows where the market stands and that moving 500 copies of any title isn't likely. If they signed on for the retailer cover campaign for Godzilla #1 they must have felt it was worth doing... even if it was just as a vanity item. I've read that some places did premiere parties for the exclusive, and it could also be used to generate local publicity, get people into the store, sell on ebay, use as display items, etc. My understanding is that some stores were selling the exclusive at a higher price. So there are options beyond immediate sales that could make it worthwhile. Obviously, 75 stores across the country felt so.

All in all, I think IDW's promotion was good for the book. But it will be the quality of the stories + Godzilla's level of popularity with comic book readers that will have lasting impact and determine whether or not the series has longevity.

[kidnicky]

[Pkmatrix]

[MekaGojira3k]

[jellydonut25]

[kidnicky]

I don't think my store had their full stock on display,so IDK. They had like 3 or 4 of the normal cover and maybe 10 of the custom,but this was only the day after it came out,you know they didn't move 490 copies first day.

[kpa]

[Inferior Rodan]

[ebirahsmeg1]

[kiryugoji04]

[ebirahsmeg1]

[Amankhan]

[kiryugoji04]

Matt told me HIS cover was the retail incentive, though. Weird.

[kidnicky]