"Astonishing X-Men is still delivering consistently high sales".
Seems like fans still can't get enough of Joss' take on The X-men. Issue 15 was Marvel's highest selling book that didn't have anything to do with the much hyped crossover 'Civil War'.
Whilst AXM's sales are in the six figure zone, you might be wondering how IDW's Angelverse range is doing. So during a long coffee break, I grabbed the estimated North American figures from ICv2.com. The first figure reflects the comic book's chart position in the top 300. Bear in mind that many (if not all) of the IDW issues had variant covers.
Chart Position/Issue no/Price/Estimated copies shipped
June 2005
152 Angel The Curse #1 $3.99 15,357
July 2005
129 Angel The Curse #2 $3.99 14,657
244 Angel The Curse #1 (2nd print) $3.99 2,329
August 2005
148 Angel The Curse #3 $3.99 13,239
192 Spike Old Times One Shot $7.49 7,894
September 2005
134 Angel The Curse #4 $3.99 14,055
October 2005
126 Angel Curse #5 $3.99 14,660
268 Angel Curse #1 3rd Ptg $3.99 2,428
December 2005
124 Angel Old Friends #1 $3.99 17,164
January 2006
118 Angel Old Friends #2 $3.99 14,753
February 2006
133 Angel Old Friends #3 $3.99 13,057
164 Spike Old Wounds One Shot $7.49 9,754
43 Angel Curse (TBP) $19.99 1,787 *
March 2006
150 Spike Vs Dracula #1 $3.99 14,108
153 Angel Old Friends #4 $3.99 13,479
162 Spike Vs Dracula #2 $3.99 12,090
249 Angel Scriptbook 1 $3.99 4,544
April 2006
138 Angel Old Friends #5 $3.99 12,785
229 Angel Scriptbook #2 $3.99 3,448
May 2006
159 Angel Spotlight Illyria One Shot $3.99 11,805
162 Spike Vs Dracula #3 $3.99 11,341
170 Angel Spotlight Gunn One Shot $3.99 10,507
188 Spike Lost & Found One Shot $7.49 8,962
286 Angel Scriptbook #3 $3.99 3,067
June 2006
151 Angel Spotlight Wesley One Shot $3.99 9,673
233 Angel Scriptbook #4 $3.99 2,487
281 Angel Curse Cvr Gallery One Shot $3.99 1,439
July 2006
156 Spike Vs Dracula #4 $3.99 11,095
167 Angel Spotlight Doyle One Shot $3.99 8,949
270 Angel Scriptbook #5 $3.99 2,339
90 Spike TPB $19.99 1,363 *
August 2006
153 Spike Vs Dracula #5 $3.99 10,558
180 Angel Spotlight Connor One Shot $3.99 8,101
282 Angel Scriptbook #6 $3.99 2,160
September 2006
154 Spike Asylum #1 $3.99 8,999
October 2006
165 Spike Asylum #2 $3.99 7,856
178 Angel Masks $7.49 6,611
November 2006
210 Angel Auld Lang Syne #1 $3.99 8,057
220 Spike Asylum #3 $3.99 7,359
December 2006
195 Angel Auld Lang Syne #2 $3.99 7,358
206 Spike Asylum #4 $3.99 6,912
January 2007
211 Angel Auld Lang Syne #3 $3.99 6,699
February 2007
187 Spike Asylum #5 $3.99 6,753
192 Angel Auld Lang Syne #4 $3.99 6,371
March 2007
193 Angel Auld Lang Syne #5 $3.99 6,351
June 2007
176 Spike Shadow Puppets #1 $3.99 7,834
July 2007
206 Spike Shadow Puppets #2 $3.99 7,071
August 2007
215 Spike Shadow Puppets #3 $3.99 7,027
September 2007
223 Spike Shadow Puppets #4 $3.99 6,980
November 2007
41 Angel After The Fall #1 $3.99 47,563
December 2007
52 Angel After The Fall #2 $3.99 44,792
185 Angel After The Fall #1 (2nd PTG) $3.99 9,055**
January 2008
39 Angel After The Fall #3 $3.99 46,013
155 Angel After The Fall #2 $3.99 11,604**
186 Angel After The Fall #1 $3.99 8,675**
February 2008
37 Angel After The Fall #4 $3.99 48,407
March 2008
31 Angel After The Fall #5 $3.99 49,558
252 Angel After The Fall #6 $3.99 4,399
256 Angel After The Fall #3 $3.99 4,162
April 2008
45 Angel After The Fall #6 $3.99 46,645
255 Angel After The Fall #4 $3.99 4,574
263 Angel After The Fall #7 $3.99 4,403
298 Angel After The Fall #1 $3.99 3,009
May 2008
50 Angel After The Fall #7 $3.99 45,430
224 Angel After The Fall #1 (Director's Cut) $3.99 6,040
June 2008
43 Angel After The Fall #8 $3.99 47,888
45 Angel After The Fall #9 $3.99 47,081
276 Angel After The Fall #10 $3.99 3,366
July 2008
51 Angel After The Fall #10 $3.99 43,024
59 Spike After The Fall #1 $3.99 36,874
August 2008
54 Angel After The Fall #11 $3.99 44,905
71 Spike After The Fall #2 $3.99 33,635
289 SDCC 2008 Angel After The Fall #10 Previews Exclusive Variant Cover $2.00 2,486
September 2008
53 Angel After The Fall #12 $3.99 43,019
75 Spike After The Fall #3 $3.99 31,059
October 2008
66 Angel After The Fall #13 $3.99 40,838
88 Spike After The Fall #4 $3.99 29,446
November 2008
47 Angel After The Fall #14 $3.99 38,954
December 2008
64 Angel After The Fall #15 $3.99 37,649
January 2009
47 Angel After The Fall #16 $3.99 34,801
259 Angel After The Fall Cover Gallery $3.99 3,044
February 2009
51 Angel After The Fall #17 $3.99 32,842
53 Angel #18 $3.99 32,842
104 Angel Smile Time #2 $3.99 18,813
To place IDW's sales in some sort of historical context, I looked at Dark Horse's Buffyverse comics dating back to 2003. Plus it may give some indication of how Joss' Buffy season 8 comic books will sell. Though I reckon it will sell somewhere in the range of the Serenity comic book mini-series.
April 2003
116 Joss Whedon’s Fray #7 $2.99 18,911
139 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #56 $2.99 14,746
May 2003
132 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #57 $2.99 14,899
June 2003
139 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #58 $2.99 14,698
142 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Chaos Bleeds One-Shot $2.99 14,542
July 2003
147 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #59 $2.99 14,777
August 2003
111 Joss Whedon’s Fray #8 $2.99 19,435
141 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #60 $2.99 14,580
September 2003
146 Buffy the Vampire Slayer #61 $2.99 14,424
October 2003
157 Buffy The Vampire Slayer #62 $2.99 14,445
November 2003
138 Buffy The Vampire Slayer #63 $2.99 14,130
December 2003
125 Tales of the Vampires #1 $2.99 17,332
January 2004
113 Tales of the Vampires #2 $2.99 14,791
294 Tales of the Vampires #1 $2.99 704 **
February 2004
122 Tales of the Vampires #3 $2.99 13,831
March 2004
149 Tales of the Vampires #4 $2.99 13,748
April 2004
138 Tales of the Vampires #5 $2.99 13,584
*Chart position is from the Trade Paper Section
** Issue re-ordered
August 02 2006
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About membership.
The Angel Scriptbook series in its current format will be ending in September with issue 7,"Smile Time."
Chirs Ryall explained over at the IDW forum
http://forums.idwpublishing.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=1adf4b8a33f50eacb84b136e23ede6b5;act=ST;f=24;t=1503
The Scriptbooks will be returning but in a trade format marketed to bookstores instead of a comic format marketed to comic shops.Most likely five episodes per book.It will have all the same type of content I believe as the comic format.
Buffyfantic | August 02, 14:52 CET
Gouki | August 02, 15:06 CET
ajay42 | August 02, 19:12 CET
daylight | August 02, 19:35 CET
See what Ryall means about the scriptbook sales, not shifting in huge amounts are they ? I've only bought the last one (5 x 5 ?) myself since personally I don't really see the point in a sort of half-way house between screen and comics (I rarely buy comic movie adaptations for the same reason) but i'm a big fan of both Faith and that particular episode.
Otherwise though IDW's sales compare fairly well to the Dark Horse numbers especially given that the IDW books are more expensive (at those prices I doubt there're too many impulse try-buyers).
(nice work Simon but I hope your boss doesn't come by here, they might rethink the length of your coffee break ;)
Saje | August 02, 19:37 CET
Buffyfantic | August 02, 19:52 CET
That sucks. Sure, I'll still get them as trades, but I hate the idea of having the eps in that haphazard order and not being able to put them chronologically. :-(
[ edited by Telltale on 2006-08-02 18:15 ]
Niels van Eekelen | August 02, 20:15 CET
the ninja report | August 02, 21:13 CET
They do compare fairly well though I do wonder what would happen if IDW dropped their variant policy. Four or five different covers for every issue must be boosting the sales. Dark Horse from what I recall didn't do variant covers.
Simon | August 02, 21:24 CET
Also worth mentioning--only the Buffy numbers are listed for Dark Horse here. Angel sold significantly less for them, which is why they stopped publishing them and eventually dropped the licence.
Niels van Eekelen | August 02, 23:00 CET
If I'm not mistaken all three X-Men corebooks seems to be away from the whole Civil War thing. I've heard that the AXM characters are involved in the saga or event (however you like to call it), you just won't find it in the actual Astonishing book.
Not really interested in the Civil War thing, the only marvel book that I read that's slightly involved is Peter David's X-Factor, and that's it.
Numfar PTB | August 02, 23:38 CET
The problem I'm having, being new to comics, is that many of these stories have been going on for years and have long, complicated mythologies and it's almost impossible to jump into them the middle. One of the reasons I started reading comics this year was to continue with the Buffy universe, which I know.
So, the question to you X-Men fans out there, is the book worth buying for a comic newcomer or is there a better starting place?
MacGuffin | August 03, 00:26 CET
There's other jumping-on points I could suggest, but I don't think they could beat AXM, especially in that pretty oversized hardcover format.
Niels van Eekelen | August 03, 01:15 CET
Shukriyya | August 03, 02:11 CET
I looked around a lot before I decided to start reading AXM. It's not as big of a financial investment as one would think, especially since issues are more or less once a month. I would order from amazon, since they have more reasonable prices for the paperbacks. The only confusion is that there are actually many versions of the TPBs on Amazon. The ones you want are the paperback separate TPBs, not the large black hardback that has the two individual ones combined. I picked it up at my comics store and I think it's too heavy.
the ninja report | August 03, 02:21 CET
MacGuffin | August 03, 02:46 CET
samatwitch | August 03, 04:02 CET
That you don't like the format because you think it's heavy and hard to read is your prerogative, of course, but personally I love it. The art is slightly larger, there's some extras that aren't in the trades, and it just looks pretty.
If you want heavy, try the Uncanny X-Men Omnibus (also a terrific starting point for new X-Men readers, by the way)--same format, only 850 pages. Now that's a lap-crusher. :-)
Niels van Eekelen | August 03, 15:31 CET
Telltale, I was under the impression that part of the reason that Angel wound up abandoned was that Joss Whedon insisted on having the book seriously retooled: the ongoing series was wrapped up for the sake of this, he co-wrote a "new direction" miniseries (complete with new logo) with Brett Matthews called "Long Night's Journey" which took a while to complete, and then they just never got back to it?
daylight | August 09, 22:34 CET