Marc Bernardin, writer of the Wildstorm comic book Highwaymen, has recently found out his comic book is being cancelled.
From [Jim Lee, Wildstorm publisher] via Newsarama:
"The Highwaymen will conclude its arc and then end, Lee said, noting that the series was a great read but hasn’t performed well sales-wise. After the series is over, Lee said that they’ll be working with the creators again."On his blog, Bernardin asks: "Why?"
Not, "Why isn't Wildstorm going to do another arc worth of Highwaymen stories." I know why. Because it didn't sell. We moved a hair under 10,000 copies of issue #1... issue #2 took a 40% dive...While I understand Bernardin's need to ask this question in the face of the book's cancellation, I'm not entirely sure it's the right question.
So, the question is, "Why didn't it sell?"
Because as far as I can tell, Highwaymen did sell.
What's that? How can I say that, when as Jim Lee just said, it hasn't performed sales-wise, and is being cancelled?
Well, let's take a look at the numbers*.
Highwaymen #1 (June 2007) 9,360Now, sure, if we're comparing Highwaymen to Batman, the numbers don't look too great. Like Bernardin said, opened near 10,000 and went over a steep drop from issue one to issue two. But let's keep in mind: the steep drop-off between first and second issues is more or less an industry axiom. It's a rare runaway hit that doesn't suffer a similar drop. And the fact that orders for issue three only dropped a further 6% is, believe it or not, pretty good.
HIghwaymen #2 (July 2007) 6,108 (-35%)
Highwaymen #3 (August 2007) 5,718 (-06%)
Like I said, compared to Batman, these numbers are anemic. But that is not a helpful comparison. Let's see if there's a more useful one (or more) to make.
Highwaymen is a full-color 32 page comics pamphlet, priced at $2.99. It isn't a super-hero book, but it is in the broader adventure genre. It falls into what would be considered comics mainstream.
Looking for possible comparisons, I decided on the following.
Cross Bronx, a four issue crime/horror genre miniseries of full-color $2.99 32 page pamphlets from Image Comics.
Cross Bronx #1 (September 2006) 8,880Fear Agent, originally a science-fiction/adventure series of full-color $2.99 32 page pamphlets from Image Comics, ended after 11 issues not because of cancellation, but because of a move to another publisher for a new four issue miniseries (Last Goodbye).
Cross Bronx #2 (October 2006) 6,031 (-30%)
Cross Bronx #3 (November 2006) 5,633 (-07%)
Cross Bronx #4 (December 2006) 5,626 (-00%)
Fear Agent #1 (October 2005) 7,648Casanova, an ongoing science-fiction/adventure series of two-color $1.99 16 page pamphlets from Image Comics.
Fear Agent #2 (December 2005) 5,317 (-30%)
Fear Agent #3 (March 2006) 5,256 (-01%)
...
Fear Agent #11 (February 2007) 4,757 (-10%)
Fear Agent: Last Goodbye #1 (June 2007) 10,653
Fear Agent: Last Goodbye #2 (July 2007) 6,644 (-38%)
Casanova #1 (June 2006) 9,749Nightly News, a six issue political-thriller miniseries of full-color $2.99 32 page pamphlets from Image Comics.
Casanova #2 (July 2006) 6,337 (-35%)
Casanova #3 (August 2006) 5,874 (-07%)
...
Casanova #7 (February 2007) 5,481 (-03%)
Nightly News #1 (November 2006) 5,567And, finally, Manifest Eternity, originally an ongoing science-fiction/adventure series of full-color $2.99 32 page pamphlets from Wildstorm, it was cancelled as of its sixth issue.
Nightly News #2 (December 2006) 3,879 (-30%)
...
Nightly News #6 (June 2007) 3,868 (-00%)
Manifest Eternity #1 (June 2006) 11,387Looking at these numbers and comparing them to those of Highwaymen #'s 1-3, here's what we see:
Manifest Eternity #2 (July 2006) 8,415 (-26%)
Manifest Eternity #3 (August 2006) 6,690 (-20%)
Manifest Eternity #4 (September 2006) 5,655 (-15%)
Manifest Eternity #5 (October 2006) 5,213 (-08%)
Manifest Eternity #6 (November 2006) 4,831 (-07%)
Highwaymen had a comparable start to Cross Bronx, and a comparable sustainability in sales.
Highwaymen started stronger than Fear Agent, and has a comparable sustainability in sales.
Highwaymen had a comparable start to Casanova, and a comparable sustainability in sales.
Highwaymen has a much better start than Nightly News, and a comparable sustainability.
And, finally, though Highwaymen opened lower than Manifest Eternity, it has done a much better job sustaining its sales.
Now, granted, these are not perfect comparisons. But I think the numbers that these five books seemed to settle around gives us a decent cross-section view of the likely performance for a book like Highwaymen in pamphlet form. And out of all of these books, all of them selling in a comparable range, the only two that are considered failures are Highwaymen and Manifest Eternity. Unlike every other book on this list, both of them were published by Wildstorm, which is an arm of DC Comics.
Manifest Eternity, granted, was bleeding sales, and may have dropped much lower. But it may have leveled out, having found its audience. An audience of a comparable size to the one for, say, Nightly News. But let's try one more comparison, also from Wildstorm. Winter Men, a critically acclaimed series, originally intended to be eight full-color 32 page issues at $2.99, first reduced to six issues, then ended as of the fifth issue with a vague promise of a "special" finale issue to come at some undetermined time. The sales on the fifth and final issue? 6,480, a good 1,000 copies-sold better than the other series here.
Image has put Cross Bronx and Nightly News out in trade paperback, to be kept in print and presumably sell more copies. Casanova has had one hardcover volume and is still being published as a pamphlet. Fear Agent finished its run at Image a full 1,000 copies-sold lower than Highwaymen's current sales numbers, but was apparently considered enough of a success that Dark Horse, traditionally a more conservative publisher than Image, decided to publish the second Fear Agent series. Where it has seen a solid opening, and, again, the traditional steep decline from first issue to second issue.
Highwaymen, Manifest Eternity and Winter Men are canceled. They may or may not be reprinted in trade. They are considered failures. But the numbers for Highwaymen are solid for a non-superhero genre book in pamphlet form. The numbers for Winter Men were even stronger.
If Highwaymen had been put out by a smaller publisher, like Image or Dark Horse, its numbers seem to be strong enough that it would have survived. But at DC, Highwaymen is a failure. Though it has performed as well as a book of its type should be expected to, it has not met whatever internal standard DC has decided on.
I think the question to ask is: "Why?"
*All of these numbers are taken only from the publicly available charts at icV2.com. Their potential inaccuracy or incompleteness should therefore be kept in mind.
HIGHWAYMEN written by Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman, art by Lee Garbett
CROSS BRONX written by Ivan Brandon and Michael Avon Oeming, art by Michael Avon Oeming
FEAR AGENT written by Rick Remender, art by Tony Moore and Jerome Opena
CASANOVA written by Matt Fraction, art by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon
NIGHTLY NEWS written and drawn by Jonathan Hickman
MANIFEST ETERNITY written by Scott Lobdell, art by Dustin Nguyen
WINTER MEN written by Brett Lewis, art by John Paul Leon
4 comments:
There are so many differing factors involved from publisher to publisher, it's pointless to compare numbers.
Page rates, profit splits, media rights...all kinds of things come into the equation.
Jason - thanks for putting so much energy into this. Really impressive and insightful.
To B. Clay Moore: Trust me, our page rate, profit split and media rights did NOT break the bank. I wish.
Regardless, the response to the Highwaymen has been positive and it was great experience. Despite whatever branding problems Wildstorm might have, they were cool to work with and I would again.
B. Clay Moore:
I absolutely understand that there are real practical considerations that change from company to company as to what constitutes a profit, etc. However, what I'm really wondering is why Wildstorm would launch a series like Highwaymen and not expect it to do the kind of numbers that it did, and plan accordingly.
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