DC INCREASES DISCOUNT INCENTIVES FOR APRIL SUPERMAN TITLES

[MattBrady]

Press Release

This April, a new era dawns for the Man of Steel as three dynamic teams take the reins on his monthly titles: Writer Brian Azzarello and artists Jim Lee & Scott Williams take over SUPERMAN, with writer Greg Rucka and artists Matt Clark & Nelson on ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN and writer Chuck Austen and artists Ivan Reis & Marc Campos on ACTION COMICS.

Now, DC Comics adds to the excitement of the new teams' debuts by offering qualifying retailers an additional 5% discount on all initial orders for ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #627, ACTION COMICS #814 and SUPERMAN #204.

Retailers may qualify for the additional 5% discount on each title as follows:

* For ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #627 (FEB040240), initial orders must meet or exceed initial orders on TEEN TITANS #7 (NOV030248).

* For ACTION COMICS #814 (FEB040239), initial orders also must meet or exceed initial orders on TEEN TITANS #7 (NOV030248).

* For SUPERMAN #204 (FEB040241), initial orders must meet or exceed initial orders on BATMAN #618 (JUN030139).

"All of the new writers and artists come to the table with their own strong reputations, so we expect to see significant heat with these issues," says Bob Wayne, DC's VP - Sales & Marketing. "We're pleased to offer this additional discount to make sure retailers get the most out of the new teams' debuts."

Please note that this discount applies to initial orders only. Retailers must qualify for each title separately. Each store must qualify separately.

ACTION COMICS #814 (FEB040239), ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #627 (FEB040240) and SUPERMAN #204 (FEB040241), are solicited in the February issue of Previews (Volume XIV #2).

[gOgIver]

That's nice

[topkat74]

Did anybody else notice that the price of all three Superman books was raised to $2.50? I wonder if that's just for the first month of the re-vamp or if that's a permenant price increase. I guess we'll find out in the next previews. If they're permenant can the rest of DC's $2.25 books be far behind?

[GOSD]

Originally posted by topkat74
Did anybody else notice that the price of all three Superman books was raised to $2.50? I wonder if that's just for the first month of the re-vamp or if that's a permenant price increase. I guess we'll find out in the next previews. If they're permenant can the rest of DC's $2.25 books be far behind?

What do you think?

Once prices go up (unless it's an anniversary issue), they almost never go back down.

For $2.50, they better be damn good.

[Frans Blix]

Well that's crafty. Not sure how much of a difference 5 percent makes to a retailer, but if this works out as DC hopes, all three books will make the top 20.

Of course, I assume the Jim Lee book was top 10 bound anyhow, so that's just a gift to retailers. This seems to mainly help those other two books do some out of sight numbers as well.

Using December's numbers and Batman's #618 numbers from August, let's see how that would hold up.

BATMAN #618 147,126
TEEN TITANS #6 73,001

SUPERMAN #200 49,907
ACTION COMICS #810 31,105
ADVS O/SUPERMAN #623 28,286

Superman #200 was an anniversary issue, so it probably does closer to Action's numbers most of the time. Thus, DC expects to more than double the amount that Action and Adventures ship five times what "Superman" would do in a normal month. Pretty doggone ambitious, but Dan Didio did say he wanted to get people exctied about the monthlies again.

[Raphe Cheli]

Well, you don't know what the "initial" orders were for those comics (those numbers include reorders that shipped that month, too), but I think DC has the right idea. They're not penalizing any retailer for not ordering more (it's not like they'll get less than their usual discount), but rewarding those that are taking a chance.

And those numbers -- for the first Jim Lee Superman, especially -- don't seem unreasonable, either (although the Action and Adventures will be a stretch).

As far as saving money, well... say you order 250 copies of all three first issues -- at $2.50 cover price, the 5% extra nets you $31.25 more in discounts (of course, you'll actually have to sell them to make that money actually mean anything).

[Layters]

Funny how whenever Austen starts on a new book there always has to be an incentive.

[Jeffbot]

Originally posted by topkat74
Did anybody else notice that the price of all three Superman books was raised to $2.50? I wonder if that's just for the first month of the re-vamp or if that's a permenant price increase. I guess we'll find out in the next previews. If they're permenant can the rest of DC's $2.25 books be far behind?

I noticed that. I assumed the books had either more pages or some kind of special cover. Guess we'll see!

[Hdefined]

I hope Rucka's Aventures turns out great. I just gave up on his Wonder Woman though, and skipped out on issue #200. Not only was nothing happening, but he just never got me to care about the title character.

[OcCaM]

I thought I read something about a few extra pages in the launch titles of SUperman. Perhaps, this is a temporary jump in price, we'll see.

Anyway, haven't bought Superman since the Byrne relaunch and even that I didn't care for much. Not a big Superman fan at all. Still, Azz/Lee is a strong enough combo I'll try that.

Unfortunately, putting a horrendous writer (Austen) with a great artist isn't going to cut it for me. And putting a so-so writer with a so-so artist doesn't cut it for me either. Now, if Rucka had been fitted with Matthew Clark, I would have been trying out two Stupidman comics!

[Barry]

Just curious, do all retailers receive these DC press releases via e-mail? If so, is there really any point to posting something about retailer discounts on a news site, when it's only relevant if you're a retailer?

[Matches Malone]

Originally posted by OcCaM
Unfortunately, putting a horrendous writer (Austen) with a great artist isn't going to cut it for me. And putting a so-so writer with a so-so artist doesn't cut it for me either. Now, if Rucka had been fitted with Matthew Clark, I would have been trying out two Stupidman comics!

Rucka and Clark *are* working together. They're the AoS team. Austen and Reis are on Action.

[Frans Blix]

Originally posted by Barry
Just curious, do all retailers receive these DC press releases via e-mail? If so, is there really any point to posting something about retailer discounts on a news site, when it's only relevant if you're a retailer?

I think it's relevant since fans often say that the companies don't do enough to push some of their books. This is probably something that has happened behind the scenes in the past that we never knew about. Though it could be a first, I dunno.

DC also has that "Share the Risk" program that Matt often posts about.

[bluedevil2002]

Originally posted by OcCaM
I thought I read something about a few extra pages in the launch titles of SUperman. Perhaps, this is a temporary jump in price, we'll see.

Pretty sure that was just Superman #204. Unless there was a typo and the other two either have extra pages or lower price.

[paulski]

Originally posted by OcCaM
I thought I read something about a few extra pages in the launch titles of SUperman. Perhaps, this is a temporary jump in price, we'll see.

Nah, this'll be permanent. Some of the Batbooks went up from $2.75 to $2.95 at the same time, so I get the feeling this is DC's first step in moving all of its titles up in price to at least $2.50.

And when they do, I'll be waiting to go chop chop. But until then, I'm happy to keep buying what I'm buying.

[LK_]

oh well, i'll be getting Jim Lee's superman for sure. as for the rest, need to see before putting down my money.

but if the price increase is permanent, i'll forget about the other 2 superman title.