IDW Proudly Announces TRANSFORMERS #1 Second Printing After Sold-Out Debut Issue – IDW Publishing “The response to the new Transformers series has been amazing,” says editor David Mariotte. “For a franchise with such a rich history — not just here, but in so many mediums — the first issue was something we knew we had to get right and it’s incredibly gratifying to me, the incredible creative team, the fine folks at Hasbro, and probably to Rubble and Bumblebee that so many people have jumped on-board. We have a lot more coming!”
I still haven't bothered reading the last issue of OP (Lost Light was all I really needed since Unicron's ending was stupid). I'll just wait until the arc is done for this one and buy vol 1 via Comixology.
Perhaps a silly question as I'm not familiar with comic book economics, but do first book sales actually mean anything? For sure, it's better to have reprints than not, but I'd be curious to know, and it may not be possible to obtain, a break down of those numbers. Did IDW under-distribute so that it could later claim issues sold out, and order a reprinting? Who's buying just because it's a TF book? Who's buying because they wanted a good place to jump back in? Who's buying because of word of mouth that it's actually good? For myself, I fall into the category of folks buying because it's a TF book that's competent. Imagine a handful wanted to jump back into the fold, so their interest was piqued because it's a clean break from what came before. I'm really curious about that last question though, as I personally found the first couple issues to be pretty bland... and I think it's that third group that ensures growth and not immediate stagnation.
Maybe I don't understand the whole 'sold out' thing. Does that mean how many comics the comic book store orders from IDW? Or does it mean how many that they actually sell? Because I went to my local comic store this past wednesday to pick up issue # 3 and they still hand like 20 copies of issue # 1 on the shelf... So how does that mean it's sold out? It wasn't the second printing......
I guess it depends on how many prints they scoped initially. If they scheduled low print volumes just in case it didn’t sell well at all then a second print wouldn’t really mean much per se. I mean, I’m no expert in these things but it sounds like the sort of shit companies I am familiar with the internal workings of would behave. Anyway, for someone who is probably more sympathetic to the new continuity than many (or at least more balanced perhaps) this reads a little awkwardly. Do people always have to speak in corporatese? The first issue was a damp squib imo I am afraid, albeit it’s starting to show signs of improvement now.
That's exactly it. It's got absolutely nothing to do with how many people buy a comic, and everything to do with how many the stores buy. The comic shops over-anticipated demand, and IDW took that to mean it sold out. It's sort of like music charts (at least in the days of CDs, I think downloads make it a little different now). Used to be that a #1 hit was the result of record companies and record stores expecting something to be popular. This is how you ended up with one-hit-wonders. The record companies expected a song to be a hit, never mind that nobody actually bought the album and the band was doomed to fail.
Wouldn't it make more sense to do this after a year when people have a grasp of where this reboot is going and want a #1? So far its been meh at best, i'm holding out to see if IDW can get me excited again.
It would, yeah. My local shop hasn't needed second printings of Transformers since before Revolution, despite IDW doing them and some of the recent examples are either still available as 1st editions on the website of a major US comic shop that sells internationally or were cleared for $1 an issue (Revolution) Transformers Unicron #2 (of 6) (Cover B - Raiz) @TFAW.com Transformers #1 (Cover B - Hernandez) @TFAW.com Could link 5 stores and visit two more 'near' me to check stock and its still just anecdotal, I realise that, but just because they can meet demand doesn't mean they always do. Maybe they'll do one eventually, but also find it silly they're starting with a large, expensive hardback rather than a smaller volume for people who want to start a series from a creative team and continuity that is new. Cool the hardbacks are getting out faster, but that shouldn't be at the cost of an accessible middle ground. Maybe it's better in the US but the preorder is $80 from Amazon who are up to half the price of what I find in bookstores so I'm expecting $100-120 at least.
Why they decide to release it now? And not before? People most likely already read the issue, and it just came out a month ago. So it's not like were in short supply.
In any case anyone else was interested in the numbers Comichron: March 2019 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops Issue 1 - 21,757 Issue 2 - 12,871
