May 2014 Sales Discussion

[Phoenix8008]

Just getting the thread out there. If we're lucky, maybe we'll get the comichron numbers today. Probably not till next week though.

[lorddunlow]

I'll just get this out of the way now:

The sky is falling! VEI is DDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMEEEEEEDDDD!!!!!!

Burn your books now! The company is in the dumpster.


Okay. I feel better now.

[greg]

VEI is domed?

[Aram]

Did VEI headquarters move to an igloo?

[Keith]

Or become part of a Stephen King novel, or a mini-series based on the aforementioned novel?

[ilzuccone]

end of line!

[MarkRoseHFX]

[grendeljd]

Did VEI headquarters move to an igloo?

Yep. They're officially located & made in Canada now. For Dunlow!

[lorddunlow]

Did VEI headquarters move to an igloo?

Yep. They're officially located & made in Canada now. For Dunlow!

Noooooooooooooooooo!!!

(way to bring my shame full circle)

[Carson]

Any word yet? How's it been trending over the last year? I honestly haven't been paying attention. I'm barely finding time to read all the books!

[ilzuccone]

Any word yet? How's it been trending over the last year? I honestly haven't been paying attention. I'm barely finding time to read all the books!

You don't poo?

[Phoenix8008]

Any word yet? How's it been trending over the last year? I honestly haven't been paying attention. I'm barely finding time to read all the books!

Here's a post from the April Sales Discussion thread. Individual titles are going up and down some, but total company sales is definately trending upward as seen in my chart below:

Not being a doomsayer, but the fact that other books are selling less is irrelevant and isn't much of a comfort for me. I don't necessarily want Valiant to put up huge sales numbers, but sooner or later it all comes down to profitability and sustainability.

If VEI ever stops making comics because they weren't profitable enough to be sustainable, then we'll know about it. Other than that, we're all guessing wildly as to what is or is not profitable or sustainable for them. I wish sales would trend upward on individual titles as well, but the total sales for the company is on an upward trend.
Here's the numbers for the first full 2 years:


And this doesn't count Trade sales, or digital as we know. Or merchandise. So until they tell me they're shutting down because they just can't do it anymore, I'm going to assume that they are and they can.

[jkingman]

what made the sales jump so high in December?

[kjjohanson]

what made the sales jump so high in December?

That's November, the (fully returnable) Unity launch

[BugsySig]

I'd expect publisher numbers later today and full sales estimates by the end of the week.

[Carson]

Any word yet? How's it been trending over the last year? I honestly haven't been paying attention. I'm barely finding time to read all the books!

You don't poo?

Yes but my dachshund scratches at the door until I let him in and scratch his belly. They are some needy dogs

[Aram]

I honestly don't think any sales matter at this point too much anymore. I think VEI has shown that it has it's ducks in a row with steady performance that shows potential for the future and there is essentially NO Chance of VEI going away or "failing" until after a movie based on it's Characters shows some signs of commercial mainstream success or failure.

If the first movie(s) turn out to be Tank Girl or Barb Wire.. Then we can start talking potential Doom as it may scare VEI's investors away from future support.

If we get "The Crow", "Hellboy", or "Constantine". Then I think VEI will be set pretty much forever and start doing some amazing things that are in the mainstream. At which point we will all be on

[BugsySig]

I honestly don't think any sales matter at this point too much anymore. I think VEI has shown that it has it's ducks in a row with steady performance that shows potential for the future and there is essentially NO Chance of VEI going away or "failing" until after a movie based on it's Characters shows some signs of commercial mainstream success or failure.

If the first movie(s) turn out to be Tank Girl or Barb Wire.. Then we can start talking potential Doom as it may scare VEI's investors away from future support.

If we get "The Crow", "Hellboy", or "Constantine". Then I think VEI will be set pretty much forever and start doing some amazing things that are in the mainstream. At which point we will all be on

But what will we talk about every month if not the sales numbers!?!?!?

[Bone-A-Fach-ee]

I liked Tank Girl.

[MarkRoseHFX]

I liked Tank Girl.

it was a pretty big bomb they made it for 25 million and it grossed 4 million.

[leonmallett]

I honestly don't think any sales matter at this point too much anymore. I think VEI has shown that it has it's ducks in a row with steady performance that shows potential for the future and there is essentially NO Chance of VEI going away or "failing" until after a movie based on it's Characters shows some signs of commercial mainstream success or failure.

If the first movie(s) turn out to be Tank Girl or Barb Wire.. Then we can start talking potential Doom as it may scare VEI's investors away from future support.

If we get "The Crow", "Hellboy", or "Constantine". Then I think VEI will be set pretty much forever and start doing some amazing things that are in the mainstream. At which point we will all be on

But what will we talk about every month if not the sales numbers!?!?!?

[Ladakh]

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicss ... 14-04.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

April 2014 Valiant sales info
RANK TITLE ISSUE SALES
73 Rai #1 29,137
194 Unity #6 9,351
205 XO #24 8,595
211 Harbinger #22 8,213
216 A&A #19 7,969
219 Q&W #9 7,896

VEI 4/12 to 4/14 = 24 months
VH2 2/97 - end 10/98 = 21 months

VEI is absolutely not making money if they average less than 10,000 copies and 25,000 copies for a #1 reboot. And 10,000 copies is less than late VH 1 or VH2 print runs.

A comic book costs $4.00. $2.00 to the retailer, how much for printing and distributing??? $1.50? This leaves 50 cents to VEI per copy X 10,000 copies = $5,000 from book sales.

You cannot make a comic book for $5,000. The penciller alone should get $5,000 just for pencil art! Think about it- $5,000 per issue, 12 issues = $60,000 a year income which is what run of the mill artists make. Penciling is time consuming and doing a series is a full time job. So unless they're paying in Yen, I have no idea how they're getting the overhead to producing a book that's going to return $5,000.

Another thing I recently realized- VEI pretended they were making a Harbinger movie just to see if Jim Shooter or anyone else would claim ownership. With no one claiming it, they then started making the comics. You folks were all lied to and led on.

I had a bad feeling when I heard there was going to be a relaunch in 2012 by VEI because I was afraid they wouldn't have enough glue to hold together a universe without the three central GK characters including Solar, who created all VALIANT universes.

I sure hope this post stays here and does not fall into a black hole, call me the harbinger of doom.

[Keith]

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicss ... 14-04.html

April 2014 Valiant sales info
RANK TITLE ISSUE SALES
73 Rai #1 29,137
194 Unity #6 9,351
205 XO #24 8,595
211 Harbinger #22 8,213
216 A&A #19 7,969
219 Q&W #9 7,896

VEI 4/12 to 4/14 = 24 months
VH2 2/97 - end 10/98 = 21 months

VEI is absolutely not making money if they average less than 10,000 copies and 25,000 copies for a #1 reboot. And 10,000 copies is less than late VH 1 or VH2 print runs.

A comic book costs $4.00. $2.00 to the retailer, how much for printing and distributing??? $1.50? This leaves 50 cents to VEI per copy X 10,000 copies = $5,000 from book sales.

You cannot make a comic book for $5,000. The penciller alone should get $5,000 just for pencil art! Think about it- $5,000 per issue, 12 issues = $60,000 a year income which is what run of the mill artists make. Penciling is time consuming and doing a series is a full time job. So unless they're paying in Yen, I have no idea how they're getting the overhead to producing a book that's going to return $5,000.

Another thing I recently realized- VEI pretended they were making a Harbinger movie just to see if Jim Shooter or anyone else would claim ownership. With no one claiming it, they then started making the comics. You folks were all lied to and led on.

I had a bad feeling when I heard there was going to be a relaunch in 2012 by VEI because I was afraid they wouldn't have enough glue to hold together a universe without the three central GK characters including Solar, who created all VALIANT universes.

I sure hope this post stays here and does not fall into a black hole, call me the harbinger of doom.

Oh snap... here we go...

[iwantvaliant]

[leonmallett]

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicss ... 14-04.html

April 2014 Valiant sales info
RANK TITLE ISSUE SALES
73 Rai #1 29,137
194 Unity #6 9,351
205 XO #24 8,595
211 Harbinger #22 8,213
216 A&A #19 7,969
219 Q&W #9 7,896

VEI 4/12 to 4/14 = 24 months
VH2 2/97 - end 10/98 = 21 months

VEI is absolutely not making money if they average less than 10,000 copies and 25,000 copies for a #1 reboot. And 10,000 copies is less than late VH 1 or VH2 print runs.

A comic book costs $4.00. $2.00 to the retailer, how much for printing and distributing??? $1.50? This leaves 50 cents to VEI per copy X 10,000 copies = $5,000 from book sales.

I have heard that 40-50% goes to the retailer, but not that it costs $1.50 per unit to print and distribute. Do you have a source for that?

Also, the industry is vastly different than it was in the early to mid 90's. Not a like for like comparison.

You cannot make a comic book for $5,000. The penciller alone should get $5,000 just for pencil art! Think about it- $5,000 per issue, 12 issues = $60,000 a year income which is what run of the mill artists make. Penciling is time consuming and doing a series is a full time job. So unless they're paying in Yen, I have no idea how they're getting the overhead to producing a book that's going to return $5,000.

How many artists are truly $60K a year guys in the industry? Many or few of them? (I don't know, but not too many I would wager).

Another thing I recently realized- VEI pretended they were making a Harbinger movie just to see if Jim Shooter or anyone else would claim ownership. With no one claiming it, they then started making the comics. You folks were all lied to and led on.

Well that would make Paramount and Brett Ratner part of the conspiracy wouldn't it? Shooter had no claim at all.

I do feel VEI should have said nothing in place of making announcements that have amounted to nothing, but that does not mean they lied per se, but possibly should have been circumspect.

I had a bad feeling when I heard there was going to be a relaunch in 2012 by VEI because I was afraid they wouldn't have enough glue to hold together a universe without the three central GK characters including Solar, who created all VALIANT universes.

I think it is evident the GK3 were not needed, and may have been a hindrance (witness Dark Horse and potentially DE).

I sure hope this post stays here and does not fall into a black hole, call me the harbinger of doom.

You harbinger of doom, you!

I am not VEI's greatest cheerleader (in fact I have been, and will remain, very critical of some of their more dubious - IMHO decisions), yet I feel I am drinking their Kool Aid by contrast to yourself knob Row!