Going to start a new thread. The other one drifted off topic and some butt hurt fanboys want to bury what I was talking about, so I'll make a new one.
There was a rumor that Sonic comics were canceled due to subscriptions being pulled back in January. The new solicitations for May just came out, and no Sonic comics were listed at all:
http://www.archiefans.com/news-and-new-releases/archie-comics-for-may-2017/msg9408/ (http://www.archiefans.com/news-and-new-releases/archie-comics-for-may-2017/msg9408/)
They had multiple titles so this is a bit weird. I want confirmation whether or not Sonic at Archie Comics is over. I'm also curious as to why. My guess would be Sega did not re-new the license and the comics aren't being axed by Archie due to poor sales.
Betty & Veronica #3 along with some other titles (like Sabrina & Afterlife) have been pushed back so often you wonder if they have been 'de facto' cancelled (left to die on the vine). :-\
Like I said, love the comics & artists (except Erica), hate the assholes running it (into the ground).
Quote from: Mr.Lodge on February 22, 2017, 09:42:23 AM
Betty & Veronica #3 along with some other titles (like Sabrina & Afterlife) have been pushed back so often you wonder if they have been 'de facto' cancelled (left to die on the vine). :-\
Like I said, love the comics & artists (except Erica), hate the assholes running it (into the ground).
Archie doesn't announce cancellations (which I honestly thinks has the reverse intended consequence for their PR). So we have to read the tea leaves I guess. That's what happened with Betty, Kevin Keller, New Crusaders, etc. I think those two titles are still up for subscription however.
Sonic Universe sold a little over 4K in January.
http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2017/2017-01.html (http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2017/2017-01.html)
In other Archie news...
Archie = 11K
This is a pretty big drop of about 2K from the previous issue. This book, Archie's only remaining monthly title, was averaging a loss of about 1K copies per month. Then it appeared to level off at about 13K for a couple of months. January is traditionally a bad month for publishing. This drop may be the January doldrums or perhaps an indication that some serious hemorrhaging is about to happen.
Jughead = 6K
This title has also been losing about 1K per month. At 6K, there's not much room for this one to go much lower.
Reggie = 5K
Ouch! It's clear now why this one was retro-actively declared to be a mini-series. This one will limp to its death at #5. There's a weird gap of a few months until #3. That's only going to hurt things even more!
Keep in mind these numbers are the books ORDERED by retailers and NOT the actual books SOLD to readers. Nationally, 11K copies of January's Archie issue may have been ordered by stores but that isn't necessarily the number of copies the stores actually sold. This is one of the reasons you see these numbers go lower with each issue. These days, however, stores tend to order pretty tightly. They usually order enough to cover their subscribers with a couple of extra copies for their stands. As the months go by, if the store starts to notice that those extra copies fail to move, they'll order less and less.
Quote from: Fernando Ruiz on February 22, 2017, 05:01:22 PM
Sonic Universe sold a little over 4K in January.
http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2017/2017-01.html (http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2017/2017-01.html)
In other Archie news...
Archie = 11K
This is a pretty big drop of about 2K from the previous issue. This book, Archie's only remaining monthly title, was averaging a loss of about 1K copies per month. Then it appeared to level off at about 13K for a couple of months. January is traditionally a bad month for publishing. This drop may be the January doldrums or perhaps an indication that some serious hemorrhaging is about to happen.
Jughead = 6K
This title has also been losing about 1K per month. At 6K, there's not much room for this one to go much lower.
Reggie = 5K
Ouch! It's clear now why this one was retro-actively declared to be a mini-series. This one will limp to its death at #5. There's a weird gap of a few months until #3. That's only going to hurt things even more!
Keep in mind these numbers are the books ORDERED by retailers and NOT the actual books SOLD to readers. Nationally, 11K copies of January's Archie issue may have been ordered by stores but that isn't necessarily the number of copies the stores actually sold. This is one of the reasons you see these numbers go lower with each issue. These days, however, stores tend to order pretty tightly. They usually order enough to cover their subscribers with a couple of extra copies for their stands. As the months go by, if the store starts to notice that those extra copies fail to move, they'll order less and less.
Good info! I wonder how the other Sonic titles are/were doing.
Sonic the Hedgehog #290 (the only other still-published title besides Sonic Universe) sold 5501 copies (about halfway between what Jughead and Reggie & Me are selling currently) in comic shops in December 2016. For comparative purposes, Sonic the Hedgehog was selling in the 11k-12k range back in 2013, about as good as Archie is doing right now.