ICv2 has published their table of May 2009 sales estimates, and it doesn’t look good — for anyone. The summary notes that comic sales overall dropped 19% from April to May.
Flash: Rebirth #2 was still ranked highly at #4 (down from #2 in April), but had dropped to an estimated 86,183. At first glance that’s a staggering drop of 15.8% — but since the entire market dropped 19%, by comparison, Flash: Rebirth is actually doing pretty well!
Flash: Rebirth Sales
| Issue | Rank | Units Sold | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flash: Rebirth #1 (of 6) | 2 | 102,429 | +286.6% |
| Flash: Rebirth #2 (of 6) | 4 | 86,183 | -15.9% |
Meanwhile, down near the bottom, the chart shows another 2,681 units of Flash: Rebirth #1 — presumably these would be the second printing, which arrived in stores the very last week of April.
Flash: Rebirth #2 is also still the third-highest monthly sales a Flash book has pulled in the last decade.
Top Flash Books since 2000
| Month | Issue | Units Sold | Change | W/Reorders |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06/2006 | Flash: FMA #1 | 120,404 | (+196.8%) | [126,741] |
| 04/2009 | Flash: Rebirth #1 | 102,429 | (+286.6%) | [105,110] |
| 05/2009 | Flash: Rebirth #2 | 86,183 | (-15.9%) | |
| 07/2006 | Flash: FMA #2 | 77,487 | (- 35.6%) | [ 82,501] |
| 07/2007 | All Flash #1 | 78,955 | (+ 2.7%) | |
| 06/2007 | Flash: FMA #13 | 76,860 | (+ 60.8%) | [ 82,767] |
| 08/2007 | Flash #231 | 72,898 | (- 7.7%) |
These are Flash issues that sold more than 70,000 units over the past few years. (Even Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge maxed out around 62K.) Interestingly, these top issues are all the first and second issues of a relaunch, with one exception: Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #13, the final issue of that series, in which Bart Allen was killed.
I’m glad to see that Rebirth is hanging in there, but that is shocking (and frightening) that the overall comic market took such a hit. I hope we don’t see a bunch of companies start to file for bankruptcy.
The Irredeemable Shag
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.-= The Irredeemable Shag’s latest blog post: Star Wars Muppet Figures =-.
Know how to solve this problem? Just label everything #1. LOL
I remember Sergio Aragones used to joke about doing that with Groo the Wanderer.