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Bleeding Cool Bestseller List, 13th May 2018 – 'If Artists Can't Stay With Artist-Driven Series, Why Should The Readers?'

Published Sun, 13 May 2018 09:00:37 -0500

This is the Top 10 Bleeding Cool Bestseller List, as compiled by a number of comic stores from their sales on Wednesday and Thursday. It measures what are known as the "Wednesday Warriors", those who can't wait to the weekend to get this week's comics. We salute you, and the keenness you bring to your passion.

Justice League: No Justice #1
Detective Comics #980
Batman: White Knight #8
Venom #1
Flash #46
Oblivion Song #3
Hunt For Wolverine: Adamantium Agenda #1
Isola #2
Barrier #1
Monstress #16

Thanks to the following retailers,

Comix Experience, San Francisco, California
Rodman Comics of Ankeny, Iowa
Fat Jack's Comicrypt of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Collector's Paradise, Canoga Park, California
Dr. No's Comics & Games Superstore of Marietta, Georgia
Big Planet Comics – 4 stores in the Washington DC area

Who had to this to say,. If your store would be interested in joining the Bleeding Cool Bestseller List, do get in touch.

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Venom was the big star of the week due to….well, it is Venom. No surprise. Barrier #1 only edged #2's numbers by a little as a few people opted to only get #1 to try it. We'll probably see them back in a day or two for #2. The DC minimal trade dress variants sold us out of quite a few titles this week with people opting to get both "A" and "B" covers now. After the dust of Free Comic Book Day settled we sold a few more copies of Avengers from last week so hopefully that was due to the FCBD special.

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Batman White Knight #8 was number one and JL No Justice was number 2. But number 3 wow. Venom has never been a strong seller for us but this week it was number 3. The heat on this book is incredible. Everyone felt the need to check it out. We also had two Image books make the top 10. First time that's happened in years. Oblivion Song and Isola are both doing very well for us. Also Avengers #1 was number six this week. That book is putting up incredible numbers. The top 10 was the most balanced its ever been. 4 Marvel, 4 DC, and 2 Image. Quality books coming from all publishers is a good thing.

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Justice League No Justice #1 was our top seller by a little, but other than that, it was a pretty Image-heavy week. Both Monstress #16 and Barrier, Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin's new series, did really well. We sold out of Barrier #1 really quickly, and definitely could've sold a bunch more. Luckily, we still had some FCBD copies on hand so the people interested in #2 could still pick up both at the same time.

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Sluggish weak. Most people were in this Saturday already for free comic book day. Flash #46 won the top spot for us which totally puzzles me. It sold out and we still have copies of the previous issue. Wondering if another store was shorted their order, or what happened. Immortal Men #2 is D.O.A. New Age of Heroes is not a hit. Venom #1 did not see an increase in sales from the previous issue for us. Hunt for Wolverine Adamantium Agenda 1 also did not do well. People are excited for the return of Wolverine but, Marvel is trying to milk out the fans with so many limited series about Wolverine. To many duds this week weighing down sales.

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DC had five titles in our store's Top Ten this week, Marvel had four, and Image had one. There were big surprises, though: Justice League: No Justice, coming off the tail end of Dark Nights: Metal, failed to take the number one slot, losing out to the Batman: White Knight finale and barely beating Venom #1. This should be a point for concern for DC: this is a high-profile project that spins out of second-biggest DC seller of the year, and the lead-in story was read by more than a thousand readers in our market… but hardly any of them felt motivated to pick up the first issue. Another big surprise: Immortal Men #2 didn't even crack the top ten. Readers were disappointed and in some cases angry that DC misled them about Jim Lee doing the art for the first issue (he actually did less than half the issue), and some are bailing on the entire New Age of DC Heroes line, pointing out that if the artists can't even stay with these supposedly-artist-driven series, then why should the readers? Marvel should have some concerns, too-notably a concern that readers aren't buying into these lengthy multi-book return of Wolverine. This should have been a tightly focused four-issue series, not a seventeen issue extravaganza. And Image should be concerned that so few readers cared one whit about Barrier; the high-profile FCBD first issue turned off more readers than it turned on, with a lot of folks turning down the book because they didn't like the landscape format, the heavy use of untranslated Spanish, and the oddball size that won't fit in a comics bag. Apparently every publisher could use a few refresher lessons in Catering to Comics Readers 101! Other big surprises: the calamitous fall in readership for Batgirl and the Birds of Prey, Suicide Squad, Exiles, Spider-Man/Deadpool, and Hal Jordan & the Green Lantern Corps, each of which has lost at least a third of its readership in the course of two issues. People aren't liking what they're finding between the covers of these titles, and they're expressing their dislike with their comics-buying dollars!

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While we ordered more Venom #1s because of Marvel Incentives, we still have more subscribers for Justice League No Justice. We ordered and plan on selling a lot of copies of Despicable Deadpool #300 because we have a signing with artist Scott Koblish this Saturday.

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