“There’s no way not to call this a success,” said comics retailer and Comic Book Resources columnist Brian Hibbs to the New York Times. He’s speaking about DC Comics’ big relaunch which has just wrapped its first month of new number ones and the NY Times agrees with him.
“In the last five weeks, since the first of these 52 renumbered or new series were introduced, the sales of DC comics have increased by leaps and bounds,” says the NY Times. “The first issue of the new Justice League, the company’s flagship book, has sold more than 200,000 copies, compared with the roughly 46,000 for each of the last few issues before the reboot.”
The DC New 52, or DCnU, or DC relaunch, whatever you want to call it has been both praised and scorned by regular fans but seems, at least at the moment, to have done what it was meant to do – get new readers to buy comics.
The NY Times cites the creative team of Chief Creative Officer for DC, Geoff Johns and Co-Publisher Jim Lee as part of the success for Justice League but that overall, the collectibility of the number ones are probably one of the biggest factors in the sales. “Nine other series, including Action Comics, Batgirl and the Flash, at least doubled their normal sales and sold over 100,000 copies, a milestone that had proved increasingly difficult for comic-book publishers to reach,” says the NY Times.
New York City’s Midtown comics owner Gerry Gladston said it’s great to see new faces in the store and that second-month orders were also looking good. “I have to say that DC’s diabolical plan is working, for now.”
(via The New York Times)
