What Makes A Comic Book A Success Nowadays?
The inclusion of an official “Graphic Books” Top Ten list in The New York Times was truly a momentous event — however late — for the comic book industry. Did the “Watchmen Effect” have anything to do with pushing NYT in this direction? Or, after serializing various comix in their Sunday magazine, was this the next logical step?
But most pressing on my mind, as I look at the books listed in both the softcover and hardcover editions, is that the criteria I have been lazily relying upon to determine whether a comic book title was a success or not is not enough anymore. (Oh, I’m sure others have figured this out before me. But allow me to experience a few moments of wide-eyed satori, won’t you?)
Case in point: The Incredible Hercules.
According to the standard Diamond Top 100 chart for January 2009, upon which “Herc” clocks in at #54, this book is sorta middle-of-the-road. By looking at some comparative sales analysis with other months, one could even say, it “seems to be bleeding readers with no end in sight.”
But then look at the New York Times graphic book sales list. The hardcover collection of the latest Incredible Hercules arc, “Love and War,” is at eighth place. That means a whole lot of customers plunked down $19.95 for a collected edition of a story arc that *just* finished. What does this tell us? And how does this compare with “Herc’s” showing on the direct sales Top 100?
How many readers, I have to wonder, liked this title so much that they decided to skip the floppies altogether and go straight for the (relatively affordably priced, in my opinion) hardcover? I mean, it wasn’t like there was a big wait between the floppies and the collected edition release.
In this case, we absolutely cannot judge the success of Incredible Hercules based solely on direct market numbers, nor can we do so based solely on floppy sales. The sales of the collected edition of the latest story arc — from the direct market, bookstores, and Amazon.com — should be taken into consideration, as well.
This is a far cry from the way things were when I was working in the editorial side of the comic book industry six years ago. Then, we lived or died by those Diamond numbers. They were The Numbers.
It’s important to note that the NYT rankings are based from a number of sources, including both bookstores and the direct market.
