IDW comic sales

[Dominic]

Okay, check out what I found while researching for my NEFX panel:

(May 2008)
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/12754.html

Just look at the top 50 or so, and consider what those numbers actually imply. (And, compare them to sales in the 80, which numbered......much higher.) There is a difference between knowing that comics are in trouble and *knowing* there are in *real* trouble.

Here are more comprehensive numbers:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/1850.html

[Sparky Prime]

You are partly right. It looks like "Stormbringer" did worse than it did because it has such a large drop over 4 issues. And, it is not like the drop during the early part of "Infiltration". But, the first issue of "Stormbringer" is the only one not to outsell the end of the previous series. Of course, that is arguably an indictment of "Infiltration".

The first issue for Stormbringer compared to the last issue of Infiltration is only a difference of 761. Plus 24,542 is pretty good when you consider no other TF book as sold that well in the meantime according to these numbers. And as andersonh1 pointed out, comparatively Stormbringer didn't loose as many readers during its run as Infiltration did. So no, none of this is indicative that Stormbringer "killed things" at all. It's just part of the steady decline we see throughout the entire run of IDW's TF books.

[andersonh1]

Without knowing production and employment costs, it's hard to know where the line between profitable and unprofitable lies. I think it's safe to assume that since the books continue to be published that IDW continues to make a profit. They're not going to lose money on them.

12,000 books x 3.99 cover price is $47,880. If the books average around 12,000 a month, that's $574,560 for one title in a year. If IDW publishes 10 titles with similar sales (just to pull numbers out of the air), that's 5.75 million a year. Subtract printing expenses, employee pay and benefits, license fees, and whatever other expenses a comic publisher incurs, and that's enough to keep a small company running.

I used to work for a sign-making shop, and at our lowest we made maybe $700,000 in a year, with ten employees. A new owner came in and built the business up to over a million a year. Even at the lower numbers, it was enough to pay everyone, buy supplies, and still turn a profit. It all depends on the size of the operation and operating expenses.

[Dominic]

"Infiltration" started off with a 99c special though. That explains a good portion of the drop. I try out 99c books, but do not always come back for more. I will say that "Stormbringer" may have coincided with the correction that brought the reader numbers down to where they normally would be anyway. But, like I said above, the first/last-previous comparisons on "Stormbringer" look pretty damning.


We need hard numbers, (that I do not think we can reliably get), to see if Anderson's scenario works. I am willing to bet that after capital investments, (equipment and the like), IDW's biggest operation expenses are licensing fees for the "Transformers", "Star Trek" and "Buffy" titles. (Are there numbers from the Dreamwave collapse that might give us an idea what the TF license is worth, at least before the movie?) Much of that could be off-set by "30 Days of Night" money. The other question is how IDW monetizes their licenses. Do they allow losses on one to be covered by gains on another?

So, can we get numbers?

Dom
-notes comics are doing better now than almost 10 years ago, but are apparently sinking again.

[Sparky Prime]

But, like I said above, the first/last-previous comparisons on "Stormbringer" look pretty damning.

As as I said, the comparison on Stormbringer isn't big enough for it to be "damning". It's not even that big of a difference compared to some of the other minis.

[Dominic]

The first issue of every other IDW series had a "bounce" from the last issue of the previous series. "Stormbringer" opened lower than "Infiltration" closed.

Dom
-and "Stormbringer" was the fan appeal book. Hmm..........

[andersonh1]

After a cursory glance or two, I had initially disagreed with you Dom, but in actually going back and looking at the loss per issue, there's a big drop from issue #1 to issue #2 of Stormbringer.

Infiltration loses the following in sales, or sells this many fewer copies:
#2 - lost 9640 from issue #1
#3 - lost 5484
#4 - lost 1509
#5 - lost 1571
#6 - lost 1961

Stormbringer #1 - lost 761 from Infiltration #6, which is small enough to be negligible. However...
#2 - lost 4127 from issue #1
#3 - lost 1623
#4 - lost 1343

So I think you're right, that while the audience who stuck with Infiltration until the end of that series were happy to stick around for Stormbringer, another correction took place with issue #2. After that the series as a whole continued a slower decline, with a slight bump for every #1 to come along. Escalation #1 is the first sales gain, with 3176 new sales, but issue #2 loses 4262, leaving Escalation #2 1086 lower than the last issue of Stormbringer.

It's little wonder that IDW cut Simon Furman's storyline short. They can see the trends and knew something had to change. But I think that given these numbers, that would have happened no matter who was writing. I think one of the things they decided was that the readers wanted something more nostalgia-driven, and so we saw the reversion to more G1 character groupings and designs in AHM. It's hard to tell if it was successful, ultimately, given the numbers I posted here don't go past April. I'd like to see how the latest issues have been selling.

A couple of other observations:
- Unless I missed one, there are only six issues where sales exceeded the previous issue. Four of those are first issues, with a slight bump for Devastation #4 and AHM #10. That's a dismal trend, obviously.
- Infiltration lost the bulk of those that dipped their toe in to try the new comics with 20,165 readers lost from #1 to #6.
- Stormbringer lost 7093
- Escalation lost 6179
- Megatron Origin lost 2555
- Devastation lost 3038
Don't have final sales figures for AHM, but from #1 to #9 it had lost 4224.

If you throw out the first issue outlier, the numbers are slightly better, but sales still go down at a steep pace, though not as steep as they do with the early series. "Slow bleed" is the phrase that comes to mind constantly. The less-committed fans and the curious left early on, while the more dedicated fans have slowly dropped out of the habit of buying. I was one of them myself.

The downward trend can only mean one thing, that unless sales can be stabilized or increased, the IDW comics have a limited lifespan. Sooner or later it won't be worth the cost to produce them. A (presumably) small publisher like IDW will tolerate far lower sales and profit margins than the big two, but if the numbers continue to trend downward, it won't be worth it at some point, even to IDW. Still, right now I think Transformers is generally their top seller, though I'd have to double check to confirm that. So even at lower numbers, it might be making more money than any of their other titles. I think Angel outsold Transformers this past month, but that generally hasn't been the case.

Having gotten back into the Transformers comic-buying habit, I'm hoping things improve. If not, I'll enjoy it as long as it lasts.

[Dominic]

The downward trend can only mean one thing, that unless sales can be stabilized or increased, the IDW comics have a limited lifespan.

It is not just IDW though. Marvel and DC have had some impressive bounces in recent years, but the trend is still not good over-all. Granted, they are doing better than '01, but there are plenty of same-month losses.

Some of the drops you describe are greater than later print runs.

There may simply not be interest in TF comics.

Dom

[andersonh1]

The downward trend can only mean one thing, that unless sales can be stabilized or increased, the IDW comics have a limited lifespan.

It is not just IDW though. Marvel and DC have had some impressive bounces in recent years, but the trend is still not good over-all. Granted, they are doing better than '01, but there are plenty of same-month losses.

Some of the drops you describe are greater than later print runs.

There may simply not be interest in TF comics.

Dom

It's the medium more than the property then, because Transformers are doing well at the movie and in toy sales. You'd think they would be successful in comics as well, but they aren't. I'm not sure how to explain it, other than a general malaise in the comics industry.

[andersonh1]

I've updated AHM numbers and placed them in the first post.