FCBD 2007 Breakdown: The Rest of the Story

Not exactly on schedule, but now for the rest of our FCBD ordering breakdown (for those who missed it, Part One):

Comics Festival - (3.4% of dollars spent; 2.9% of total copies bought):
As Mr. Butcher was kind enough to point out in the comments section of our last post, this is a very cool book. Essentially an anthology of short pieces from a variety of creators including personal favorites Darwyn Cooke, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Hope Larson, Cameron Stewart, Chip Zdarsky and many, many more. We ordered high on this because it's something that we'll give away all year in an effort to broaden horizons and expose readers to a huge variety of very talented creators.

Transformers: The Movie Prequel - (3.4% of dollars spent; 3.8% of total copies bought):
We do well with Transformers comics in general and specifically with the younger set which is a major target demo in this effort. This book specifically promotes the just concluding miniseries and soon to be trade in time to cash in on some movie hype.

Umbrella Academy, Zero Killer, Pantheon City - (3.4% of dollars spent; 3.8% of total copies bought):
This one is a bit of a shot in the dark since I know very little about any of these, but Dark Horse usually puts out an interesting product. Looking back, this is probably a bit high but I may have been seduced by the Gerard Way/My Chemical Romance connection.

Marvel Adventures Three-in-One - (3.25% of dollars spent; 3.8% of total copies bought):
The Marvel Adventures do well with kids and while it may have been smarter just to reprint the first Avengers, this will do.

Lynda Barry Sampler - (2.9% of dollars spent; 2.6% of total copies bought):
I'm not particularly familiar with Barry's work, but what I have seen looks interesting and I suspect we'll be able to use this in much the same way as we did the Mr. Jean sampler last year.

Amelia Rules Hangin Out - (2.9% of dollars spent; 2.3% of total copies bought):
I'm becoming a bigger and bigger Amelia Rules fan the more I read of it, especially as something that appeals to the girls that come in and complain that everything here is for boys (far from true, but I'm not going to argue that most of the comics industry is geared to boys).

Astounding Wolf-man #1 - (2.75% of dollars spent; 4.1% of total copies bought):
This was one of only two titles that I adjusted down based on price and that's because it was offered at just $.16 per piece and I suspect I'll have quite a few left over. Launching a new title with new characters on FCBD is probably not the greatest idea, but I'm willing to give Kirkman the benefit of the doubt, particularly since this title looks very entertaining (plus the latter half is a Brit story that may entice new readers to pick up a trade). Unfortunately, this is the type of book that likely appeals to those familiar with Kirkman rather than those new to comics.

Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century #1 - (2.75% of dollars spent; 4.1% of total copies bought):
This was the other title that I adjusted down based on price. We're going to be giving these away long after FCBD and they probably won't do much beyond advertise the cartoon but another all ages book with familiar characters doesn't hurt.

TokyoPop Choose Your Weapon - (2.6% of dollars spent; 2.8% of total copies bought):
I'm not sure about the titles TokyoPop is spotlighting here going all out with the action and the new titles but it's manga and the kids are gonna scoop it up -- and hopefully remember us when they're looking for the next volume of Bleach.

Family Guy/Hack Slash Flip Book - (2.4% of dollars spent; 2.9% of total copies bought):
Now here's a misfire. Like it or not, Family Guy appeals to a wide range of readers including some surprisingly young kids. Coupling a popular title with a less popular one, ala Battlestar Galactica and Lone Ranger seems like a good idea at first (especially when the Family Guy stuff alone can help us sell more Family Guy books) but when the less popular property is even less appropriate (and more importantly less familiar to their parents) it's an opportunity wasted.

Wahoo Morris #1 - (2% of dollars spent; 2.3% of total copies bought):
I've mentioned this one before and this order is partially an effort to support a self publisher willing to take the risk of putting out a FCBD book to promote a title that we already stock.

I've left out a few titles that I didn't have anything to say about and there are another six or seven titles that we placed a token order of 15-20 copies for since I don't expect much demand for them nor to be able to use them to sell other books (i.e. Arcana Studios Presents & Buzzboy).

Free Comic Book Day 2007: It's Time For a Breakdown

I promised awhile back that I would break down our order for Free Comics Book Day this year and so, here we go. I'm talking only in percentages here, although the breakdown will include percentage of money spent versus percentage of total copies ordered (that will make more sense as we go). First, let me say that it's only so much hyperbole to say that we had a metric ton of leftover FCBD comics from last year. We distributed many of those around town but we still have enough of the X-Men/Runaways book to wallpaper the store. That said, we spent slightly more on this year's offerings, although when considering that there are ten more books being offered this year, proportionally we cut back a tiny bit.

And now, on the with show.

Amazing Spider-Man Swing Shift - (5% of dollars spent; 6.2% of total copies bought):
Considering FCBD is May 5th and Spider-man 3 comes out on May 4th, I suspect that there will be more demand for this title than any other. Unfortunately, it appears to be one of the least useful FCBD books available since it advertises neither a trade paperback nor even an ongoing story to immediately point to if a new customer likes it. At best I can point to other Spider-man titles and the work of Dan Slott and Phil Jimenez. Even so, Spider-man is a character that people recognize and that we can stick into just about anyone's hand year round and they'll probably at least take a look.

Unseen Peanuts - (4.75% of dollars spent; 3.8% of total copies bought):
This book was one of the rare instances in which I upped the percentage of money being spent because of a fairly high cost to retailers of $.31 per copy. This book, however, has tremendous selling potential since it offers a sample of what is included in each volume of the Complete Peanuts while highlighting that fact that many of these strips have never been collected in any other volume. Based on the promotional value of this book, I upped the amount we spent on it, and even so we'll still have 2/3 as many copies of this as we will of Spider-man.

Justice League of America #0 - (4% of dollars spent; 4.7% of total copies bought):
While I wasn't a huge fan of this particular issue, it does act as an introduction of sorts to the Justice League and I can pretty safely point anyone who likes it towards Meltzer's run on JLA.

Train Was Bang on Time - (4% of dollars spent; 4.7% of total copies bought):
Anything I can do to get people to read more Eddie Campbell and First Second is high on my priority list. The one drawback here is that we may not have the Black Diamond Detective Agency book that it's promoting on FCBD, but we will shortly thereafter and we'll be using this one year round.

Whiteout #1 - (3.8% of dollars spent; 3.2% of total copies bought):
After the success we had with using the first issue of Fables to turn readers onto the trades, this one is a no brainer (especially if the movie's development picks up steam).

Bongo's Free For All - (3.7% of dollars spent; 4.28% of total copies bought):
Everyone loves the Simpsons. And there's plenty more where that came from.

Lone Ranger/New Battlestar Galactica Flip Book - (3.5% of dollars spent; 3.6% of total copies bought):
This one is a bit tricky, but it is a chance to promote to readers who enjoy Sci-Fi's BSG show and to promote a Lone Ranger series that has been pretty solid thus far.

Owly & Korgi - (3.5% of dollars spent; 2.25% of total copies bought):
Expensive but worth it. The little kids who got dragged in last year with their parents and older siblings really liked Owly and it's a series that I hand sell pretty well so anything that helps promote it is helpful.

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Coming Soon: Part 2