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Once upon a time, there was a young man who wanted to draw comics. By once upon a time, I mean in the late 1980s. And by young man, I was maybe 16 at the time. . .
Yes, that is some really bad anatomy.I'm still hoping to get back to that Showcase issue from last week's Negative Monday.
HOLY CRAP. Have you seen the latest sales numbers?
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08/2009: Doom Patrol #1 -- 28,267
09/2009: Doom Patrol #2 -- 22,001 (- 22.2%)
10/2009: Doom Patrol #3 -- 20,036 (- 8.9%)
11/2009: Doom Patrol #4 -- 53,748 (+168.3%)
12/2009: Doom Patrol #5 -- 35,348 (- 34.2%)
01/2010: Doom Patrol #6 -- 17,117 (- 51.6%)
I was hoping Doom Patrol could hold onto some of their numbers push during the Blackest Night ring issue; but instead it's ended up plunging 800 issues BELOW John Bryne's final issue! And in only six issues it's managed to lose 11,150 readers. NOT good.
They better stop and take a good hard look at this title soon, or it's doomed, unfortunately (and as usual, ironically.) I swear, I don't want to see Doom Patrol go away AGAIN!
Those figures are frustrating, especially since issue #7 has finally got to where I wanted the series to start. There is one shining light, though. Kevin Smith once told a story about the fallout of the commercial underperformance of the movie "Jersey Girl". He could deal with bad reviews or not banking huge receipts, but he was much more concerned with the possibility that the studios would interpret this as a sign of his star fading and not fund future projects. When he confessed his fears to Harvey Weinstein he was told, "Kevin, none of your movies make money in the theaters. We make the money in rental and DVD sales." In the time between being a fan and becoming a professional, Smith had learned his craft at movie making, but he hadn't kept up with changing tides in distribution and demographics. His audience had grown up with greater control over when and where they watch movies than he (or I) had. Similarly, I have no idea how many people are holding out for the trade paperback due this summer. And hopefully, the powers that be at DC will admit to themselves that they don't really know either.
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