Top Comic Reorders For January 2012

[Rich Johnston]

We often concentrate on the advance orders for comic books, seing what retailers ordered in, and judging each accrding to the other. But more exciting sometimes are the reorder and advance reorder lists. This is the front line of comics, retailers trying to get their hands on extra copies of an item because they have sold out - or frantically trying to up the amount they have ordered because they think they have sold out. These charts for January show, the comics, both published and shortly to be, that are causing the most heat from retailers.

The popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles seems to have caught a number of retailers on the hop, hitting second place with a $50 volume, Batman #5 with the turny turny pages clearly making an impact, Children's Crusade gets an advance reorder bump over the upcoming Avengers Vs X-Men, King City gets one from Prophet, the X-Men singles are getting a little more attention, and no shop it seems can keep The Walking Dead books in stock.



TOP 25 REORDER COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVELS/TPs - For comics that have already been published.

DescriptionPricePublisherBATMAN THE BLACK MIRROR HC$29.99DCTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ULT COLL HC VOL 01$49.99IDWWALKING DEAD TP VOL 15 (MR)$14.99IMABATMAN #5$2.99DCA TALE OF SAND HC (C: 0-1-2)$29.95ARCBATMAN HUSH COMPLETE TP$24.99DCMAUS SURVIVORS TALE COMPLETE HC (C: 1-1-0)$35.00RAWWALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM TP VOL 01 (MR)$59.99IMABATMAN DARK KNIGHT RETURNS TP$14.99DCWALKING DEAD TP VOL 03 SAFETY BEHIND BARS$14.99IMAFEAR ITSELF PREM HC$34.99MARX-STATIX OMNIBUS HC$125.00MARWALKING DEAD TP VOL 02 MILES BEHIND US (NEW PTG)$14.99IMAAVENGING SPIDER-MAN #3 WITH FREE DIGITAL CODE$3.99MARBATMAN THE LONG HALLOWEEN TP$24.99DCWALKING DEAD TP VOL 01 DAYS GONE BYE$9.99IMAWALKING DEAD HC VOL 01 (MR)$34.99IMAUNCANNY X-MEN #5$3.99MARWALKING DEAD TP VOL 14 NO WAY OUT (MR)$14.99IMAGIRL GENIUS TP VOL 10 AGATHA H & GUARDIAN MUSE (C: 0-1-2)$22.95STUAMAZING SPIDER-MAN #678$3.99MARLOCKE & KEY TP VOL 01 WELCOME TO LOVECRAFT$19.99IDWSPIDER-MAN SPIDER-ISLAND HC$39.99MARBATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #5$2.99DCWALKING DEAD TP VOL 04 HEARTS DESIRE (NEW PTG)$14.99IMATOP 25 ADVANCE REORDER COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVELS/TPs -?* for comics yet to be published when the additional order was made. ?*?*?*?*

Description PricePublisher AVENGERS CHILDRENS CRUSADE HC$34.99MARBATMAN #4 2ND PTG$2.99DCFATALE #1 VAR CVR 3RD PTG (MR)$3.50IMAWOLVERINE AND X-MEN #6 XREGG$3.99MARPROPHET #22$2.99IMAWOLVERINE AND X-MEN #4 2ND PTG BRADSHAW VAR XREGG (PP #1007)$3.99MARWOLVERINE #300 2ND PTG KUBERT VAR (PP #1007)$4.99MARKING CITY TP (MR) (C: 0-1-2)$19.99IMATEEN TITANS #6$2.99DCBATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #6$2.99DCUNCANNY X-FORCE #22 XREGG$3.99MARWOLVERINE X-MEN ALPHA OMEGA #1 (OF 5) 2ND PTG BROOKS VAR$3.99MARTRANSFORMERS ROBOTS IN DISGUISE ONGOING #2$3.99IDWMUDMAN #1 VAR CVR 2ND PTG$3.50IMAAVENGERS VS X-MEN #1 (OF 12) STEGMAN SKETCH VAR (PP #1007)$3.99MARDEADPOOL #51$2.99MARVENOM #13.3$2.99MAREMITOWN TP VOL 02$24.99IMAMUDMAN #2 VAR CVR 2ND PTG$3.50IMASECRET AVENGERS #23$3.99MARULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #7 WITH DIGITAL CODE$3.99MARTEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ULT COLL HC VOL 02 (C: 1-0-0)$49.99IDWAVENGERS KREE SKRULL WAR HC$34.99MARSILVER SURFER PARABLE PREM HC$24.99MARALL STAR WESTERN #6$3.99DC

[QCCBob]

Kindly remember when perusing that many 2nd printings are offered BEFORE the book sold out and that retailers often need to stock them for completists, not necessarily because they sold out at their shop.

Walking Dead is insane, though. I sell more WD TPB/HC in a month than Marvel in a quarter...

[Hollow]

The Avengers: Childrens Crusade HC is most likely because they had the volume in the october or november Previews order form but nobody noticed because the solicitation wasn't printed in the Marvel previews. Then last month they had the cover but nobody could order it because no code was printed in the order form but my understanding is that the people interested told their retailer to (re)order it - hence it appearing on the top of the chart (because basically these are initial orders).

Someetimes I wonder if Marvel even want their own comics to sell.

[D Bell]

Initial orders are a nice guage because you can detect trends... to a degree. But with the number of re-boots, re-strarts and re-numbering, it appears the publishers (Marvel especially) are deliberately making it hard for retailers to order to sell through.

Re-orders do give an indication of demand, but, as pointed out above, there are factors which may impact initial order so it's inexact at best.

Rich, why not take five major cities - London, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle - with multiple shops and each month ask one shop in each city order vs. sell through. The shops can remain anonymous (hence needing cities with mutiple shops) while we can start to finally get an idea of what consumers are actually buying.

[Nova2814]

I might be missing something, but is it accurate to use the word re-order for an item that still isn't published? I'm thinking of the likes of the Avengers: Children's Crusade HC (not out til March) or Secret Avengers #23 (out in 2 or 3 weeks time).

Or is this for items ordered after the final order cut off date but before publication?

And in any case, where does that info come from? Presumably not from the monthly Diamond charts, they're always retrospective.

So. Many. QUESTIONS!!!!