« Home | Greg Rucka claims he couldn't stand working with D... » | A guest on Pawn Stars wanted a huge amount for a g... » | Wisconsin man charged with theft of classic back i... » | A comic on how to deal with law enforcement » | Quincy, IL convention tries to avoid the controver... » | Yes, moviegoers are tired of superhero fare, but m... » | More on how writer Linda Woolverton had Beauty and... » | What went wrong with how Disney approached both ma... » | DC cancels adult Red Hood series after Gretchen Fe... » | What some video game players may think of Marvel T... » 

Sunday, September 21, 2025 

New Batman volume seemingly sells huge with its premiere

The Hollywood Reporter announced a new Batman volume by writer Matt Fraction supposedly sold big upon debut, with the funny part here being that this time, they actually do offer ostensible sales figures:
The publisher announced Thursday that its Batman No. 1, a relaunch of the Caped Crusader by writer Matt Fraction and artist Jorge Jiménez, has sold over 500,000 copies.

That number puts the title as the top-selling comic of the year so far, a number that is unlikely to be topped, despite one more big publishing event on the calendar — the two-part company crossover comics involving Deadpool and, you guessed it, Batman.

DC was leading the year with another top-seller, Batman No. 158, which featured the return of DC chief Jim Lee to drawing duties in a sequel to his and writer Jeph Loeb’s now-classic Hush storyline. That comic, published in the spring, has sold over 400,000 copies.
None of this proves indefinitely that the masses actually came to buy the supplies of copies at stores, and all the titles highlighted as big sellers didn't sell a million. Why is the Hollywood Reporter keeping on with this futile charade? Fraction's also one of quite a few leftist ideologues whose works are nothing to write home about, and I'm not interested in wasting dough on his stories. Even veteran artist Lee's work hasn't been worth buying in years now, and he too is a left-leaning ideologue, regrettably enough.
Another comic at that 400,000-plus sales level was Invincible Universe: Battle Beast No. 1 from Robert Kirkman’s Skybound and Image Comics.
That's no different a sum from the rest, and chances are even that didn't actually sell beyond the store's ordering levels.
The sales success of the new Batman title continues a strong year for not just Batman but DC, which has found massive and surprise victory with its Absolute imprint, a line of comics that reinvented key heroes and their villains and that is now nearing its one-year anniversary. The line was led with, what else, Absolute Batman, written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Nick Dragotta, with the first issue selling over 200,000 in its first printing. The issue is now in its ninth (!) printing.

Almost all the Absolute titles have gone to multiple printings, with even the comics featuring lesser known heroes such as Martian Manhunter selling in the six figures with their debut issue. Sales have remained buoyant, and the entire lot has sold well into the millions copies, according to insiders.
Despite what they say, that would have to be for many individual titles combined together, and the puff piece certainly doesn't make clear if customers actually buy this stuff en masse. Also, chances are many of these titles allegedly seeing multiple print runs in pamphlets don't have as many additional copies printed up in the extra go-arounds. For all we know, that could be a just a handful, and unless it's made clear in the article, what they're lecturing here is meaningless. I think what's really sad is the continuing refusal of the press to ask whether it's time for comicdom to make the shift to paperbacks/hardcovers, yet they continue with this unintentional comedy where we're told the industry is literally doing fabulous, when it's not.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

About me

  • I'm Avi Green
  • From Jerusalem, Israel
  • I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best.
My profile

Archives

Links

  • avigreen2002@yahoo.com
  • Fansites I Created

  • Hawkfan
  • The Greatest Thing on Earth!
  • The Outer Observatory
  • Earth's Mightiest Heroines
  • The Co-Stars Primer
  • Realtime Website Traffic

    Comic book websites (open menu)

    Comic book weblogs (open menu)

    Writers and Artists (open menu)

    Video commentators (open menu)

    Miscellanous links (open menu)

  • W3 Counter stats
  • Webhostingcounter stats
  • Bio Link page
  • Blog Hub
  • Bloggernow
  • Bloggeries Blog Directory View My Stats stats counter
    stats counter visitors by country counter
    flag counter world map hits counter
    map counter eXTReMe Tracker  

    world map hits counter
    Visitor Counter

    Pflegevorsorge click here

    Flag Counter Free Global Counter Free Hit Counters
    Free Web Counter Locations of Site Visitors  Statistics

    This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

    make money online blogger templates

Older Posts Newer Posts

Flag Counter

track people
webpage logs
Flag Counter

The Four Color Media Monitor is powered by Blogspot and Gecko & Fly.
No part of the content or the blog may be reproduced without prior written permission.
Join the Google Adsense program and learn how to make money online.