Comments on Pensive Mischief: Comic Shops and Such

Brian: I hear you. But surely you would have lost ...

2007-09-14T16:43:00.000-04:00

Brian: I hear you. But surely you would have lost a chunk of those sales anyway? Not everyone sticks around for the end of an event, or any other series.

Certainly the later issues of CIVIL WAR sold less than the early ones. But didn't INFINITE CRISIS, which maintained a pretty steady shipping schedule, follow a similar pattern? (I can't find the figures going back that far, right now.)

Here's an example from a different angle... There...

2007-09-14T11:37:00.000-04:00

Here's an example from a different angle... There came a time when I could not afford all of the comics which came out on a certain week. Since the retailerracked by week, I could postpone buying the lesser titles until next week. What happened was this: the next issue would come out and I would realize that I didn't care much for the title, and dropped it.
I did not spend less, but spent more wisely. I bought fewer Marvels and more black and whites.
I do not buy any comicbooks on a regular basis; I wait for the trade. (I am a bookseller and am building a comics library.) I will buy them if there's something special, like the Groo anniversary issue, or if something has a buzz, like Thor.
Does weekly shiping matter? When I had a pull list and a special order list, it didn't matter as long as something came in every week, and what was listed each month in Previews shipped on a somewhat regular schedule.
At B&N, I can give the general date, check distributors, and reserve a copy for the customer.

I disagree, Stuart, to this extent: there is, with...

2007-09-14T03:24:00.000-04:00

I disagree, Stuart, to this extent: there is, without a doubt a segment of the readership that walks away from a late book, but that's often as much due to "lost momentum" as much as anything else.

We certainly sold fewer copies of CIVIL WAR #5-7 than we did of #1-4, and I attribute most of that to the "pause", where people were able to think second thoughts.

Second thoughts are usually bad for periodical comics.

-B