Transformers questions by newbies, and not-so-newbies

[Sky Shadow]

The guys on the Seibertron podcast look at the sales numbers for comics in the US. According to them IDW's Transformersverse has always been a very small seller. A new issue will sell 1500 - 1750 copies at absolute best. I have no idea how many copies a comic has to sell to be profitable but at maximum 1750 copies it can't be making them much if any money.

That's not even close. In the US, More Than Meets Eye and Robots In Disguise each sell about 10,000 per month. Both ongoings are consistently two of IDW's top ten most profitable titles. Last month, MTMTE sold 9,552 copies, RiD 9,409 and the Dark Cybertron Finale 9,395, each at $3.99. Plus, Regeneration One sold 11,153 copies at $5.99 each, and the reprint of #1 sold 5,397 at $1 each. That was $185,344 spent on the cover price of Transformers comics in March, in the US. And that doesn't count digital downloads or trade paperback sales.

[DELTAprime]

That's not even close. In the US, More Than Meets Eye and Robots In Disguise each sell about 10,000 per month. Both ongoings are consistently two of IDW's top ten most profitable titles. Last month, MTMTE sold 9,552 copies, RiD 9,409 and the Dark Cybertron Finale 9,395, each at $3.99. Plus, Regeneration One sold 11,153 copies at $5.99 each, and the reprint of #1 sold 5,397 at $1 each. That was $185,344 spent on the cover price of Transformers comics in March, in the US. And that doesn't count digital downloads or trade paperback sales.

Where do you find these numbers? I'd like to see them for myself and send in a correction to Seibertron.

[griffin]

Where do you find these numbers? I'd like to see them for myself and send in a correction to Seibertron.

I go by this site in the past for monthly sales numbers.

IDW sales are small in comparison to the three major companies, with very few comics ever breaking into the top 100 every month... and when they do, it usually isn't a Transformers comic.
Last month they got to #81 with a My Little Pony comic. And the next highest were - another MLP, then TMNT, then X-files, then GIJoe, THEN... Transformers at #168.
That means 167 other comic titles that a comic shop got in during March were more popular than Transformers... compared to being a #1 comic during Dreamwave.

So even if Seibertron's numbers are wrong, you could imagine that IDW would like to be one of the big boys in the industry with sales figures, and could have had some new readers from all those non-comic buyers reading 10s of thousands of comics with the toys.

[Sky Shadow]

Where do you find these numbers? I'd like to see them for myself and send in a correction to Seibertron.

They're the official sales numbers. Here: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/28315.html or here: http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomi...4/2014-03.html

[griffin]

Ah, we utilise the same resource.

Just having a flick back to Dreamwave's era... their top two titles selling about 140,000 copies each in just one month, compared to IDW struggling to get 10% of that per title (somewhere around 10,000 with most TFs issues).
As bad as Dreamwave turned out, they certainly knew how to sell a comic, as the sales number of that first Gen1 series of theirs climbed and held, instead of dropping off from the first issue (as most do).


(the thing that bugs me though, is both DC and Marvel produced almost-free comics, that they had to sell at a huge loss, just to make sure Dreamwave's Transformers didn't enjoy boasting rights of #1 each month)

[DELTAprime]

Cool, I think someone at Seibertron needs some glasses. One last thing, are these numbers just print comic sales or do they include Comixology?

[griffin]

They are the sales from Diamond distribution to comic stores (the exclusive middleman between comic companies and comic shops)... so just the printed version.
There are likely to be stats out there for the digital downloads, or maybe ask IDW what their sale proportions are between print and digital.

[Verno]

So it sounds like the millions of new fans introduced to the fandom by the Movies isn't translating into new fans of the comics -- which is ironic given then quality of storytelling in each...

Again, this is why I think IDW would be at least a little miffed that the toys featuring in-package issues have been delayed. Opportunities like this only come along once in a while (a decade?) to promote their main TF comic story on such a stage. It's not like they haven't been toeing the line with other work either. They've produced Movie-tie-ins, TF: Prime and Beast Hunters tie-ins, but have been slightly screwed over now I feel.

It also surprised me that there was initially talk that IDW wouldn't be producing Movie-tie-in comics for TF4. I believe it's now been confirmed that they will. It seems the logical bridging point to get new fans reading comics in the first place.

But then again, maybe fans just don't want to read comics. They've been given every opportunity to jump on board via tie-ins in the past.

If certain characters are being introduced because of toys, rather than because it was the writer's intention to have the plot include them (to make sense of their out-of-place alt-modes), it is a pity... and a shame that Hasbro then prevents the publicity element of IDW introducing them to a story, that is primarily a Gen1 casted story.
(I don't have a problem with the IDW universe bringing in other eras, and would love a more inter-linked universe of series, but it has to make sense by being introduced like an upgrade or as a group, or a crossover to another dimension.)

I'm only speculating there, Griff, but as I'm constantly reminded -- Hasbro exists to sell toys, not make fans happy -- it seems only logical that Hasbro would have had a word with IDW about their inclusion. Otherwise it means it's just the biggest coincidence in TF HISTORY!