Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, DC Comics, Superman | Tagged: dc comics, jon kent, superman, Tom Taylor

Tom Taylor On Superman: Son Of Kal-El Absence From December's Top 50

Published Tue, 25 Jan 2022 14:56:11 -0600

Superman: Son Of Kal-El #5 gained international headlines when it featured Jon Kent, son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, and the new Superman in the DC Universe, coming out as a bisexual young man, and that Jay Nakamura was to be his boyfriend. It was reportedly the 6th best-selling comic in the direct market in November. But in December, Superman: Son Of Kal-El #6 was not even in the top fifty sellers. And the usual suspects of YouTube channels and social media accounts have been crowing over that fact. So its writer Tom Taylor took to Twitter for a litany of excuses as to why that might have been. He tweeted his pathetic justifications, thus;

Today, I woke up to piles of strangers in my mentions attacking the sales of Superman: Son of Kal-El issue #6 and celebrating the failure of our comic. Now, this was pretty confusing. I don't believe a story's worth is measured by its sales. But our Superman is selling pretty well. Issue #5, where Jon Kent comes out as bisexual, made the Top 10 in comic sales for November. I get there are those who want to see this series fail for some pretty obvious, and awful, reasons, but… it's not failing. Far from it. Issues 1-4 of Superman: Son of Kal-El all sold out and went back for a 2nd printing. Issue 5 well outsold our first issue, even though our first issue had to be reprinted twice. So, what's happening here? I mean, some guy on youtube can't be wrong, right?

Maybe Superman: Son of Kal-El isn't selling that well AFTER issue 5? That would make perfect sense. Issue 5 made global news. And yet… a quick glance at Amazon shows SEVEN issues of Superman: Son of Kal-El are currently in the Top 50 of the comics Bestseller list. (Sales are updated hourly. And we only have seven issues out.) Maybe we should check how the latest issue is doing on Comixology? But then… how is this true? Is this… not true? Is someone LYING on the internet?Apparently, I'm the one who's lying. And manipulating whole sales charts to support my lies… or something. Wait. Issue #6 didn't even appear in December sales? What?!

Okay, accurate physical comic sales to stores are hard to come by but some good sites do report estimates. Sometimes they're close. Sometimes they're off by a lot. But I'm sorry to say… this is true. As so many are reporting, Superman #6 DIDN'T sell well in December. Because… it didn't come out until January.

I don't know, Tom Taylor, you can prove anything with facts. And yes, having to redraw a comic so it features the right Robin can delay a title by a week or two…

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