Il sito The Beat ha pubblicato la consueta analisi mensile delle vendite DC Comics, redatta dal teutonico Marc-Olivier Frisch. Questa volta la lente di ingrandimento è diretta verso le uscite dell’ultimo febbraio, mese che ha visto l’uscita di diversi albi legati al mondo della Legione.
Un paio di appunti di carattere tecnico, a mo’ di premessa.
L’articolo di Frisch si riferisce alla classifica fornita dalla Diamond, distributore unico dei comic shop americani, e riguarda quindi unicamente le quantità di albi ordinati a monte da parte dei negozi. Insomma, occhio: non necessariamente i titoli più acquistati dalle fumetterie suscitano uguale entusiasmo anche tra i lettori.
Inoltre, i dati relativi al vero e proprio numero delle copie vendute non sono perfettamente accurati. Perlomeno stando ai commenti degli editori. Basti pensare al fatto che, ad esempio, la chart comprende solo la top 300, escludendo quindi quasi sempre cifre poco prepotenti ma comunque significative come quelle dei riordini.
Detto questo, la classifica Diamond resta comunque un ottimo metro per tastare il polso ai trend del mercato nel loro evolversi mese dopo mese, e andrebbe considerata unicamente per questa funzione.
Per leggere le parole di Frisch sulle uscite Legion-related di febbraio 2009, vi rimando al resto dell’articolo.
The average periodical of the publisher’s mainstream DC Universe line sold an estimated 30,000 units, which is 4.9 percent down from January, and the lowest point for the line since January 2005.
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15 – FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF 3 WORLDS
08/2008: Legion of 3 Worlds #1 of 5 — 68,306 [73,914]
09/2008: –
10/2008: Legion of 3 Worlds #2 of 5 — 64,412 (-5.7%)
11/2008: –
12/2008: –
01/2008: –
02/2008: Legion of 3 Worlds #3 of 5 — 61,358 (-4.7%)
—————-
6 months: -10.2%In terms of the schedule, the last remaining Final Crisis spin-off has gone far off the rails, but the sales remain solid.
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50 – ADVENTURE COMICS
02/2009: Adventure Comics #0 — 32,851My first instinct here is to wonder if it isn’t kind of depressing for a major company like DC Comics to produce a $ 1 comic and only sell 30K and change of it. But I don’t, because I’ve read the advertising copy, and I’ve read the comic.
Adventure Comics #0 has two stories. The first is a “Legion of Super-Heroes” reprint from the 1950s, an “adventure comic,” very much of its time, and as corny and naive as those things are prone to.
The second is a new six-pager that’s brutal and excessively violent, and it doesn’t make a lick of sense to anyone who hasn’t been reading a lot of DC’s comics anyway.
This, you have to understand, is not an accident: DC Comics is simply not interested in selling its comics to people who don’t already read them.
I’m not making this up. DC Comics Executive Editor Dan DiDio says so, all the time and on the record. Asked in a recent Newsarama piece why his DC Universe imprint doesn’t publish more low-priced entry-level comics, DiDio says:
“When we’re working with pre-existing characters and properties as we do in the DC Universe, people are mostly predisposed and understand who our characters are, so the idea of a wider sampling at a lower price isn’t nearly as necessary as it is with Vertigo.”
The logical conclusion, evidently, is to sometimes publish low-priced comics, but make absolutely sure that they are impenetrable to the general public, lest anyone not among the predisposed might be accidentally seduced into buying a Superman comic.
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75 – R.E.B.E.L.S.
02/2009: R.E.B.E.L.S. #1 — 23,739Tony Bedard and Andy Clarke’s Legion of Super-Heroes spin-off launches with rather dispiriting numbers; and because the first issue was promoted through a 1-for-10 variant-cover scheme, the second-issue drop in March is bound to be steep.
Given that a relaunch of the mother title on the back of the fairly successful Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds miniseries is supposedly in the pipeline, the decision to launch R.E.B.E.L.S. at this stage is another odd one on DC’s part.
The book could certainly have used the extra sales a more cohesive publishing strategy might have brought.
In sintesi, “Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds” resiste nonostante i biblici ritardi nelle uscite.
“Adventure Comics” (vol.III) #0 e “R.E.B.E.L.S.” (vol.II) #1, invece, arrancano, e parecchio. Secondo Frisch, la colpa è della discutibile politica editoriale dietro al lancio di questi due titoli: le storie, infatti, pur realizzate da autori anche decenti, si presentano come poco attraenti e del tutto oscure nei confronti dei nuovi, potenziali lettori.
Personalmente condivido appieno il parere di cui sopra, che evidenzia il negativo andazzo generale di tutta la produzione DC degli ultimi anni. Sigh. Ma adda passà a nuttata!
Tags: Adventure Comics (vol.III), Al Plastino, Andy Clarke, Classifiche di vendita, Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, Francis Manapul, Geoff Johns, George Pérez, Mort Weisinger, Otto Binder, R.E.B.E.L.S. (vol.II)