Wolf359

Anyone know of the best way to sell a lot of comics? I've got the first six issues of every title of the new 52 and lost interest. Just taking up space at this point.

Travis McClain

DC may have wanted publicity out of it, but I can assure you that Gail Simone has been working on developing Alysia as trans for quite some time. I follow both her and Natalie Reed, a trans activist, on Twitter. Simone had been corresponding with Reed in the time leading up to that bizarre brief firing from the book. Their public tweets to one another were ambiguous, but it was obvious that Simone was researching. At the time, I thought it might have to do with The Movement (and it may yet play out there, too), but Alysia being revealed as trans in Batgirl was definitely not as overnight as it may seem to outside readers.

Trevor

Check ebay auctions perhaps. I bet you'd get less than pennies a book from a dealer. Someone like me might be crazy enough to buy them in bulk.

ivelostr2

when i switched to all digital a year ago, I sold the first 6-7 of each title on ebay...some of them went for ridiculous amounts. I think the first 7 of Detective went for like $125.00 at the time. It was before the trades had started coming out, so it may beless now. I put them in bags and boards, wrapped them in plastic bags, and then used packing tape to tape the entire run to the bottom of a pizza box. I threw some peanuts or shredded paper around them and they were easy to send out.

davidh777

Read the second TPB of Animal Man and think I enjoyed it more than the first one. While the first one got pretty weird, this one was weird all the way through and I think I was bought in from the beginning.

PhantomStranger

I am surprised to be the first to mention this, but DC just canceled Legion of Superheroes. Check Mark Waid's Twitter posting:

https://twitter.com/MarkWaid/status/334039438915153920

I don't think the Legion will ever be a big seller again, unless they attach the real Superman or Supergirl to it.

A couple of other series were also canceled, like Demon Knights.

Josh-da-man

So what's the final tally? How many of the original "52" are they still publishing?

Before long, the "new 52" will be 20 Batman books, 20 Superman books, and 12 Justice League books.

Adam Tyner

I'm surprised Demon Knights lasted this long. I really liked the book when it first started, but it started to feel like I was reading about a war in near-real-time, and when I'm at issue 9 or whatever it was when I left and they're still fighting more or less the same exact battle as #1...? It might read wonderfully in trade but is tedious spread over the better part of a year.

I'm theoretically sad about losing the Legion, but despite being a lifelong fan, it's been years since anyone at DC has gotten me excited about the team. The Waid/Kitson run petered out after a few issues, I stuck with it till Shooter took over, but I found that generally underwhelming and dropped the book for the first time in forever, and the most recent LSH and Legion Lost #1s were terrible enough that I couldn't make it to #2.

I've dropped almost every DC book I've been reading, and I think I'm now down to Batman, Detective, Batgirl, Batman Inc., Animal Man, and Swamp Thing. I wouldn't lose any sleep if I stopped reading the Bat-books.

Random question for you all: DC seems to take longer to collect their books to TPBs than any of the other major publishers. Do you think that's a good thing (encouraging people to buy the monthly floppies instead) or a bad thing (less timely; once you start in TPB, the gulf in issues makes it harder to transition to floppies)?

PhantomStranger

I think it's a problem, especially as someone that doesn't buy individual issues on a regular basis anymore. TPBs are an impulse buy for many people, but the buzz on most series have worn off by the time the TPB has come out.

Supposedly there will be some sort of alternative Justice League set in the future, to replace the Legion.

majorjoe23

On The Beat they said 31.

Part of the problem with launching 52 new series it once is that they'll mostly reach the end of their first arc around the same time. But if DC put out 52 TPBs in a month it would probably kill some shops. It would also mean that DC would have two months out of the year when they released 104 TPBs, and zero the rest of the year (ignoring minis and other things, and the fact that some arc might have 5-6-7 issues).

So they staggered the releases, which created big gaps between for some books between when an arc ended and the book would come out.

Dragon Tattoo

All I read is Batman and Wonder Woman anyway. They're both good and will never be in danger of cancellation. I'm done taking chances with DC books.

I might pick up the new Batman/Superman book, though.

xmiyux

I'm pretty disappointed in their lack of any kind of good online program.

I have always preferred DC to Marvel but Marvel's Unlimited program sucked me in and after a little trial I paid the 60$ for a year and have really enjoyed reading the old issues. The app on the iPad and on the computer definitely leads something to be desired but it was still worth the money imo.

And I hate the fact that DC offered nothing similar.

taffer

September is going to be an expensive month for DC fans.

The following titles are all QUADRUPLE shipping one title per week.

Batman
Detective Comics
The Dark Knight
Batman & Robin
Action Comics
Superman

Flash is triple shipping as well.

No word yet on other titles. But man that is 16 Batman books in a single month without even counting the other Bat-related titles like Nightwing and Batgirl.

stingermck

FYI this is for the villains take over. Each issue will be a villain spotlight, just like faces of evil a few years ago.

fujishig

Ugh, I guess that'll help them with market share for that month, but does a gimmick like that ever please anyone but the company bringing in the bucks? The normal creative team usually can't work that fast unless they prepared ahead of time, so you get fill in artists and/or writers. Your budget as a fan is blown up even if you just collect what you normally do. And who in the heck is going to jump on to a new comic because it's coming out weekly?

I know why they do it, if they made these one shots or minis the orders would be low.

BTW, I hated faces of evil too, other than the covers.

taffer

Yeah. Its supposed to be the aftermath of the Trinity War crossover that will take place this summer. September will then be "Villains Month" with all the regularly scheduled comics being postponed until October. That is similar to "Zero Month" last September where we got #0 issues between the releases of #12 in August and #13 in October.

So far these are the ones that have been revealed:

Detective Comics #23.1 - Poison Ivy
Detective Comics #23.2 - Harley Quinn
Detective Comics #23.3 - Scarecrow
Detective Comics #23.4 - Man-Bat

Batman #23.1 - Joker
Batman #23.2 - Riddler
Batman #23.3 - Penguin
Batman #23.4 - Bane

Batman & Robin #23.1 - Two-Face
Batman & Robin #23.2 - Court of Owls
Batman & Robin #23.3 - Ra's al Ghul
Batman & Robin #23.4 - Killer Croc

Batman: The Dark Knight #23.1 - Ventriloquist
Batman: The Dark Knight #23.2 - Mr. Freeze
Batman: The Dark Knight #23.3 - Clayface
Batman: The Dark Knight #23.4 - Joker's daughter

Action Comics #23.1 - Cyborg Superman
Action Comics #23.2 - General Zod
Action Comics #23.3 - Lex Luthor
Action Comics #23.4 - Metallo

Superman #23.1 - Bizarro
Superman #23.2 - Brainiac
Superman #23.3 - H'el
Superman #23.4 - Parasite

Flash #23.1 - Grodd
Flash #23.2 - Reverse Flash
Flash #23.3 - The Rogues

Aquaman #23.1 - Black Manta
Aquaman #23.2 - Ocean Master

Justice League #23.1 - Darkseid
Justice League #23.2 - Lobo
Justice League #23.3 - Dial E
Justice League #23.4 - The Secret Society

Oh, and also ALL of these are going to be priced at $3.99. They all also have 3D gimmick covers.

Here's an example of the 3D cover:

Travis McClain

An expensive month? Not for me. I'm bailing on Detective Comics over this. That brings my monthly readership down to just Batgirl and The Movement. I've been excited for Batman '66, but I've hesitated to support DC Comics any further these days.

JasonF

I just realized that once LSH concludes its run, I'll be down to All-Star Western and Animal Man, plus Wonder Woman and Green Lantern via collections (the latter only until Johns concludes his run). Pretty slim pickings from DC for me.

kodave

I don't know how you guys follow these New 52 titles monthly or weekly or whatever. I only read in trade and every New 52 Vol. 1 that I've read so far has felt like half of a story. And seeing how a lot of them lead to events or crossovers - Rotworld, the Owls stuff, whatever Aquaman's was called, I feel like I almost have to trade-wait two or three volumes to get a solid complete story.

Travis McClain

In my case, the only two books I've read since #1 are Batgirl and Detective Comics. They've both tied into "Night of the Owls" and "Death of the Family". In the case of the former, I just skipped anything outside those two books and truthfully, it didn't make much difference to me since the stories told were complete enough that I didn't feel compelled to buy/read another issue of anything else.

I did, however, read the Batman issues that featured "Death of the Family" proper, but only that because my friend bought them and lent me his. I actually think both books work without the main story reasonably well, with the one exception being that obviously, the last part of DOTF in Batgirl set up the very last issue of that arc in Batman. Without having read that one issue, I'd have been left wondering how Babs got out of the jam she was in at the end of Batgirl #16. Not enough to bother me that I'd have gone out of my way to read Batman #17, but it would have annoyed me.

Detective Comics has made really good use of short backup stories to flesh out its narrative, and that plays well for a monthly book. Likewise, I think Batgirl is written to be read and enjoyed specifically as a monthly rather than as large TPB-ready arcs. I get the same thrill out of reading Batgirl each month as I ever got out of any monthly book. I just dropped Detective Comics in protest of "Forever Evil", but I also just started reading The Movement. Being written and created by Gail Simone, I'm not really concerned about it falling into the same storytelling/marketing pitfalls you outlined that have harangued other books.

madcougar

Basically you go to the comic book store and buy the books as they come out. That's how I follow the New 52 books (and Marvel books, too).

fujishig

Admittedly I haven't been following, but do they at least coordinate the tpb releases so that the crossovers come out at the same time if they're split across multiple books? I understand why they had to stagger the tpbs, even though most of the books started at the same time, but that seems like it would become somewhat of a mess.

I am tempted by Batgirl (despite my hatred for how they cancelled the last book and character, heck, the last two characters). I gave up on everything else. I have always loved the Justice League, though, and will probably get a few more volumes after more come out, so that I can read a chunk at a time.

Anything else (besides the main bat books, as I'm not going back into that again) that people are just really enthusiastic about? Did the Johns GL run end on a good note?

Travis McClain

I'm interested in The Movement, the new book written by Gail Simone. I haven't picked up issue #2 yet (I'll get it Wednesday when I go out for this month's Batgirl) but I'm enthused about it for two reasons. One, Simone. Two, it's an original book. She did introduce a preexisting character into the book who hadn't yet had a New 52 appearance so I expect that to be an important element but largely it's just nice to have absolutely no preconceived ideas about anything except the writer's perspective on the world.

I also have to say, I'm back to being excited about Batman '66 after learning today that Ty Templeton worked on issue #2...featuring King Tut!

kodave

So if I'm unfulfilled and don't feel like I got a complete story reading after 6 issues in a row in a trade, that problem will be alleviated by reading one issue (and paying $3? $4? $5? an issue) then waiting weeks or a month for the next issue? Sounds perfect.

I'll stick to "super trade waiting" and read 2 or 3 volumes at once to get something resembling a complete story while paying $5-$10 for each trade.

Travis McClain

It's worth noting that some writers' work is more suitable for trades and some is more suitable for monthly reading. The easiest examples I could offer from the New 52 are Batgirl and Batwoman.

With Batgirl, Gail Simone has a very strong feel for building up our anticipation for the next month's issue, the way comics were written in the era before every single arc was collected shortly after it finished. I really do think that trade-waiting on Batgirl misses out on the fun of that monthlong anticipation between issues. Simone writes to build that up, and then when the new issue finally comes out it's constructed to pay off our wait while also building us up for the next issue.

Conversely, Batwoman isn't even a comic book that gets collected so much as it is a series of graphic novels that's serialized first. That book's narrative is structured differently and the month between issues really isn't built into the arc the same way. It probably reads better in collected form than it does as a monthly.

This is just something to think about. Some books feel more suited for monthly reading and others, best consumed in collected editions. The pages may be identical either way, but there's something about that wait time that I really do believe affects our enjoyment of books that account for it just as I believe there are some books clearly conceived as eventual graphic novels that are better read that way.