Here's an article from ICv2:
IDW PUBLISHING DIVISION LOSES $801,000 IN MOST RECENT QUARTER
The article says it's the latest in a string of bad quarters. The quarter this time last year lost $1.1 million, which explains, to me, why they had that big shakeup in management a while back.
Curious, I pulled the sales numbers from the latest available month (July) at comichron. Here they are:
116. League of Extrarordinary Gentlemen Tempest #1, 16,970
139. Sonic The Hedgehog #7, 14,203
153. Transformers Unicron #1, 12,579
168. Star Wars Adventures #12, 10,818
171. TMNT Ongoing, 10,316
179. Transformers Unicron #84, 9,351
186. My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic #67, 8,564
187. My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic #68, 8,548
190, Star Trek TNG Terra Incognita #1, 8,401
196, TMNT Urban Legends #3, 7,962
208. Rise of TMNT #0, 7,198
212. TMNT Universe #24, 7,075
213. G.I. Joe a Real American Hero #253, 6,850
223. My Little Pony Ponyville Mysteries #3, 6,477
224. Aphrodite V #4, 6,425
229. Ducktales #10, 6,196
234. Star Trek Discovery Succession #3, 6,015
240. Transformers Lost Light #19, 5,832
245. Transformers Bumblebee Movie Prequel #1, 5,696
246. Transformers Lost Light #20, 5,682
250. Optimus Prime #20, 5,500
251. Joe Hill The Cape Fallen #1, 5,497
253. Transformers Lost Light #21, 5,438
254. Optimus Prime #21, 5,306
266. Euthanauts #1, 4,819
268. Dungeons & Dragons Evil At Baldurs Gate #2, 4,799
271. X-Files Case Files Hoot Goes There #1, 4,736
273. Transformers Bumblebee Movie Prequel #2, 4,616
274. Judge Dredd Under Siege #2, 4,576
281. Dungeons & Dragons Evil At Baldurs Gate #3, 4,325
285. Ghostbusters Crossing Over #4, 4,226
292. Crow Memento Mori #4, 4,097
293. Judge Dredd Under Siege #3, 4,081
295. Uncle Scrooge #36, 4,048
300. Lowlifes #1, 3,941
302. Tangled #3, 3,853
303. Orphan Black Crazy Science #1, 3,851
306. Uncle Scrooge #37, 3,726
308. Joe Hill The Cape Fallen #2, 3,678
317. Star Trek New Visions An Unexpected Yesterday, 3,544
322. Highest House #5, 3,415
337, Walt Disney Showcase #3, 2,990
345. Elsewhere #8, 2,862
347. Walt Disney Comics & Stories #742, 2,849
353. Walt Disney Showcase #4, 2,779
366. Delta 13 #3, 2,423
375. Haunted Horror #34, 2,349
377. Donald & Mickey Quarterly Treasure Menace In Venice, 2,319
380. Lowlifes #2, 2,257
386. Punks Not Dead #6, 2,122
397. October Faction Supernatural Dreams #5, 1,928
400. Joe Hill The Cape: Greatest Hits Edition #1, 1,920
403. Assassinistas #6, 1,890
407. Real Science Adventures Nicodemus Job #1, 1,783
411. J Scott Campbell Danger Girl Gallery Ed Prestige Format, 1,766
432. Wynonna Earp Greatest Hits #1, 1,365
456. Rick Veitch The One #6, 1,148
486. Sword of Ages Special Edition #1, 962
There are 48 titles on this list, some of which are one-shots, but we can probably assume monthly output at roughly 45+ every month. That might be too many for a small indie; both Dark Horse and Dynamite have gone through a culling recentyl and both produce fewer titles now.
IDW seems to have five strong franchises: TMNT, Transformers, Star Trek, Disney and My Little Pony that account for more than half the line (which I have put in bold). Other franchises with fewer titles include Ghostbusters, Wynonna Earp, Star Wars Adventures, D&D, Judge Dredd, G.I. Joe, X-Files and Sonic (which used to be at Archie). Outside of those licenses, IDW has about 20 mostly non-franchise titles that are more or less unrelated.
What do y'all think? Do they need to add or reduce titles? Change emphasis? Are there any regular IDW readers here?
Replies
IDW publishes the Library of American Comic Strips and the Artist's Editions.
It would be sad if they had to fold their comic book line, but it would be devastating if we lost the achival series.
I never thought about how many IDW comics I buy, but looking over that list, I do see Transformers Unicron, Judge Dredd (written by Mark Russell), TMNT ongoing, and Joe Hill's The Cape.
They produce a lot of comics, and in fact, the Transformers line alone would be enough to read for the month (they are pretty, but dense).
I 'm not a regular reader. I'll pick up the odd mini-series here, or a story arc there, like the series of one-shots they did for G.I. Joe. I've thought for a long time they publish too much of the same types of comics. You have 5 Transformers titles? With some coming out twice a month. I think having a tighter line would really help them out. There are so many titles of franchises I'm interested in, but most of the time I end up picking none of them. Alas, the paradox of choice.
I've bought a lot more of their archival books as those are beautifully done.
Wow, I had no idea that some of those titles come out twice a month. That's a little bit of an overload.
Travis Herrick (Modular Mod) said:
I read IDW occasionally; the most recent thing was the fourth volume of Kill Shakespeare, which actually came out a couple years ago. I'm not the target audience for the licensed stuff. But I have been watching the Wynonna Earp TV show, and keep forgetting that it started out as a comic. I think I have the first volume, probably part of a Humble Bundle of e-comics.
I buy Haunted Horror and Weird Love regularly. Those are bi-monthly, released alternating months.I got Haunted Horror #35 on schedule this month, but I did not get Weird Love #25 last month when i should have. I checked with my LCS and was informed that no issue since #24 has been solicited.
Yoe Books is an imprint of IDW, too, and I buy almost everything he edits.
I used to buy all of the Yoe horror collections, until I realized they were overlapping with the PS Artbooks I buy -- and the latter are comprehensive, so they win. I have a couple of Weird Love books, but they tend toward the repetitive so I haven't bought any lately.
Other than that, I can't think of any IDW books I regularly follow. Most of it seems aimed at younger or different audiences than me, which I think is great in the abstract.
I used to read two IDW books regularly -- Popeye Classics, and Letter 44. Both finished their runs in the last year or so, and I haven't picked up anything from IDW in their place. (Which might not have been the case had I realized Mark Russell has been writing Judge Dredd! How long has that been happening? Russell is a name I'll FOLLOW.)
I picked up the first trade paperback of Elsewhere, though, and I notice a new one is out. It's a fun story, but seemed a little slight, so I'm on the fence about volume 2.
I wonder how they feel about how the Black Crown line is doing, and what the next steps are there? I had high hopes for it, but I picked up a couple of titles, and it just didn't connect with me.