Image Comics isn’t taking a summer break, it seems. They’re kicking off a number of interesting new titles, including books by their heavyweight creators and new expansions for booming universes.
The hype train is steady chugging, too - so you don’t want to mess around with waiting to pick a #1 up off the shelf before you decide.
Universal Monsters: Blood of the Wolf Man #1 - These titles have sold extremely well for us, and we anticipate a strong showing for Wolf Man.
Of the Earth #2 - We saw an unexpected blow-out on the #1 for this series. We highly recommend adding this to your sub list if you want to be certain to get a copy.
Terminal #1 - Blockbuster alert! A story about warring superheroes described as X-Men meets Invincible - and by Kirkman and company to ice that cake most generously. Definitely get this on your pull list.
The Trillion Dollar Kid #1 - A new Ghost Machine release by Geoff Johns. Fun concept with growth potential.
If Destruction Be Our Lot #2 - Another title that blew up on release and flew out the door. Great story, great art, big world under construction. Existentialism meets futurism. Get into this one!
Odin #2 - The No Surprise At All hot seller, new title with James Tynion IV at the writer’s desk. Unexpectedly high market activity on the #1, which at present is only 2 days old. Get your order in for the next installment, because if the price stays high the next issue will vanish.
It’s a weird time in the comics industry. Comics are popular in all sectors. Both majors have big things brewing. Indies are also booming. New and extremely interesting publishers are sprouting across the landscape, and it’s becoming much easier for fans to connect with these new projects because of more involved media and better management tools, such as Manage Comics and League of Comic Geeks.
At the same time, economic pressures are hard for everyone.
We want to make sure we cover everyone’s wants and needs, but at the same time, we don’t want to see a lot of copies stick to the shelves. The more preorders we receive, the easier it is to predict overall demand, and the more accurate we can be when we place shelf orders. This is one reason we offer a discount to subscribers. You help us with ordering accuracy, so we waste less money, and we share some of those savings with you.
But when it comes to smaller, newer, and generally unknown projects, the ONLY barometer we have is subjective opinion and customer requests. If our ordering staff like the concept of a new series, but see no customer activity on a new title, we will typically err on the side of caution, which means a minimal initial order.
As we have seen in recent months, this can produce some toxic effects on the secondary market, such as a $50 price tag for a #1 on release week as the result of late-blooming hype following a low average order across the board.
In short: it pays to preorder.
You get what you want on time and at a reasonable price.
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