Sales figures (was Re: Posters...)

[Mark Semich]

>From: Torsten Wesley Adair <torsten at cwis.unomaha.edu>
>I haven't seen the yearly Postal Service statistics that most
>publishers are required to publish, put recent direct market (comic book
>stores) figures show Gladstone with a 0.25% share of the "fan" market.  
>
>If Marvel (which owns the newsstand distributor rights) is an intelligent
>marketeer, then Disney comics should sell very well in newsstands and
>non-comic book stores.  That is where the future of Disney comics lies, as
>how many of us in the United States bought Western and Gold Key comics at
>a comic book store?

I remember reading about this 0.25% figure recently, and I wasn't
exactly clear on what it meant.  From your posting, I gather that
these sales figures don't include subscription or newsstand sales.  Is
this the case?  I've also heard theorizing that the current comic book
glut may push Gladstone out of the market, but I tend to take that
with a grain of salt.  After all, quality never goes out of style...
:-)

However, I am curious just how Gladstone is doing sales-wise, and I do
wish that they would do some sort of advertising or promotion just to
make people aware of the high-caliber work that's being done these
days.

I know that the comic book stores in Boston sell out in one day of the
few Gladstones that they order (except for "Donald and Mickey").  In
spite of this, none of them increase the size of their orders.  So
there are probably many people who would read Gladstones if they ever
saw them.

Additionally, there are those who don't normally read Disney comic
books who would love to read Don Rosa's "Life of Scrooge" series
(based on it's quality alone) if they knew that it was coming out and
had any idea at all what it was like.

And the only marketing I've ever seen from Marvel has been for
X-superhero-TM-angst books.

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     "I am Scrooge McDuck of the clan McDuck.  There can be only one!"
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mark a. semich                                               mas at csa.bu.edu
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