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John, the trade episode was great. However, it ended kind of abruptly. Was there more to the episode?

Perseus wrote:John, the trade episode was great. However, it ended kind of abruptly. Was there more to the episode?

I suppose that depends when/how it ends. I'll check it when I get home tonight.

Yes, it does end abruptly.

I use multiple programs to record Skype.

One failed because apparently it only records if I start the call. That is something I realized immediately after recording this episode when I looked for and failed to find the recording of the call from that program.

The other program is apparently didn't get all of the episode for some reason. I'm not sure why.

It looks like about 15 minutes or so of the conversation didn't make it in. If TJ has that part of the conversation, I'll see if I can get the episode updated or not.

Thanks for pointing out the problem.

I've fixed the episode and re-uploaded it. The original version was 1:16:15 long (hours:minutes:seconds) and the revised file is 1:31:36.

John and TJ, I just listened to the January trades episode. I like the idea of trying to get some sort of library orders or check out numbers. With the constant churn of titles on the periodical side of things (but relatively stable readership?), it seems like combining library readership with trade sales might give a more comprehensive view of mass market comic exposure. Maybe a few librarians would be willing to give you some recent stats, or at least some insight on how comics and graphic novels do at their libraries.

Wanted to comment about library usage. Ever since I moved to my town in the western Chicago suburbs that had a great library, I probably do over half of my comic book reading through it. However, it is usually stuff that I want to keep up on, but am not interested in enough to buy (non-Thor Marvel, things I heard might be good, etc). My ongoing favorites I still buy. My library is also a part of a system that can borrow from other libraries, so I get tons of stuff from other places. Even for someone with a steady job who could afford to buy all of these books, I can't justify it. As we all talk about, this is an expensive hobby for what we get out of it ($3-4 for a 10 minute experience). Sometimes though this gets me to buy a copy for my own personal collection. I discovered Scalped this way and just bought all 5 of the nice hardcover collections

My library also provides Hoopla, the digital library app where I can download a bunch of comics books (as well as books, movies, and audiobooks). The selection on Hoopla is pretty good. A lot of DC is there, as well as most of the new Rebirth trades that just came out in the past couple months. They also have lots of Valiant, Dark Horse, Archie, IDW, and Boom. No Marvel though. They do limit you to 10 books a month, so stick with the collections rather than the single issues if you do use it.

I love my local library and gladly pay my property taxes each year to keep that going.

NDHorse wrote:Wanted to comment about library usage. Ever since I moved to my town in the western Chicago suburbs that had a great library, I probably do over half of my comic book reading through it. However, it is usually stuff that I want to keep up on, but am not interested in enough to buy (non-Thor Marvel, things I heard might be good, etc). My ongoing favorites I still buy. My library is also a part of a system that can borrow from other libraries, so I get tons of stuff from other places. Even for someone with a steady job who could afford to buy all of these books, I can't justify it. As we all talk about, this is an expensive hobby for what we get out of it ($3-4 for a 10 minute experience). Sometimes though this gets me to buy a copy for my own personal collection. I discovered Scalped this way and just bought all 5 of the nice hardcover collections

My library also provides Hoopla, the digital library app where I can download a bunch of comics books (as well as books, movies, and audiobooks). The selection on Hoopla is pretty good. A lot of DC is there, as well as most of the new Rebirth trades that just came out in the past couple months. They also have lots of Valiant, Dark Horse, Archie, IDW, and Boom. No Marvel though. They do limit you to 10 books a month, so stick with the collections rather than the single issues if you do use it.

I love my local library and gladly pay my property taxes each year to keep that going.

sounds amazing - checking for hoopla at my library system right now / cool they participate

drew wrote:

NDHorse wrote:Wanted to comment about library usage. Ever since I moved to my town in the western Chicago suburbs that had a great library, I probably do over half of my comic book reading through it. However, it is usually stuff that I want to keep up on, but am not interested in enough to buy (non-Thor Marvel, things I heard might be good, etc). My ongoing favorites I still buy. My library is also a part of a system that can borrow from other libraries, so I get tons of stuff from other places. Even for someone with a steady job who could afford to buy all of these books, I can't justify it. As we all talk about, this is an expensive hobby for what we get out of it ($3-4 for a 10 minute experience). Sometimes though this gets me to buy a copy for my own personal collection. I discovered Scalped this way and just bought all 5 of the nice hardcover collections

My library also provides Hoopla, the digital library app where I can download a bunch of comics books (as well as books, movies, and audiobooks). The selection on Hoopla is pretty good. A lot of DC is there, as well as most of the new Rebirth trades that just came out in the past couple months. They also have lots of Valiant, Dark Horse, Archie, IDW, and Boom. No Marvel though. They do limit you to 10 books a month, so stick with the collections rather than the single issues if you do use it.

I love my local library and gladly pay my property taxes each year to keep that going.

sounds amazing - checking for hoopla at my library system right now / cool they participate

Drew, I hope you enjoy! I love Hoopla. It's how I'm reading Planetary right now. I've read a ton of this service. My library has increased my number from 8 to 10 a month now. Very happy.

do you and john jackson miller's numbers usually sync up?
http://www.comichron.com/ has Marvel > DC in feb units 33.64% to 33.47?

He also had image at 18.13% so guessing he counted WD 163 and you didnt?

drew wrote:do you and john jackson miller's numbers usually sync up?
http://www.comichron.com/ has Marvel > DC in feb units 33.64% to 33.47?

He also had image at 18.13% so guessing he counted WD 163 and you didnt?

Yes, usually the numbers calculated by John Jackson Miller, Milton Griepp and myself all match up give or take a unit for rounding issues. I skimmed the estimates JJM had for the first dozen or so comics and we seemed to match for February.

Presumably you are comparing those numbers to the breakdown of the top 300 I do each month.

If you compare the breakdown of the top 300 that I do with Comichron's Share of Units in Top 300 and Share of Dollars in Top 300, I think you'll find that we match on those.

The numbers from Comichron you are quoting are the overall market shares which are provided by Diamond. I tend not to bother much with the Market Shares since those numbers are calculated off the overall data, not just the detailed data Diamond released.

During the comics episode of the Mayo Report for January 2017, Sam and John discussed a couple of Harbinger related titles but did not mention Harbinger: Renegade (formerly Harbinger: Renegades).

Sam - have you checked out this title? Four issues have been released, the title is on hiatus until the next arc starts in July. I enjoyed the first arc but I could tell the change in writing style from Joshua Dysart to Rafer Roberts.

JohnMayo wrote:

drew wrote:do you and john jackson miller's numbers usually sync up?
http://www.comichron.com/ has Marvel > DC in feb units 33.64% to 33.47?

He also had image at 18.13% so guessing he counted WD 163 and you didnt?

Yes, usually the numbers calculated by John Jackson Miller, Milton Griepp and myself all match up give or take a unit for rounding issues. I skimmed the estimates JJM had for the first dozen or so comics and we seemed to match for February.

Presumably you are comparing those numbers to the breakdown of the top 300 I do each month.

If you compare the breakdown of the top 300 that I do with Comichron's Share of Units in Top 300 and Share of Dollars in Top 300, I think you'll find that we match on those.

The numbers from Comichron you are quoting are the overall market shares which are provided by Diamond. I tend not to bother much with the Market Shares since those numbers are calculated off the overall data, not just the detailed data Diamond released.

So The Walking Dead 163 counted towards its market share but not shares of units and dollars? Am I right in assuming Saga #43 will not be included in the overall data for this May since it's 25 cents as well?

MichaelCastle wrote:

JohnMayo wrote:

drew wrote:do you and john jackson miller's numbers usually sync up?
http://www.comichron.com/ has Marvel > DC in feb units 33.64% to 33.47?

He also had image at 18.13% so guessing he counted WD 163 and you didnt?

Yes, usually the numbers calculated by John Jackson Miller, Milton Griepp and myself all match up give or take a unit for rounding issues. I skimmed the estimates JJM had for the first dozen or so comics and we seemed to match for February.

Presumably you are comparing those numbers to the breakdown of the top 300 I do each month.

If you compare the breakdown of the top 300 that I do with Comichron's Share of Units in Top 300 and Share of Dollars in Top 300, I think you'll find that we match on those.

The numbers from Comichron you are quoting are the overall market shares which are provided by Diamond. I tend not to bother much with the Market Shares since those numbers are calculated off the overall data, not just the detailed data Diamond released.

So The Walking Dead 163 counted towards its market share but not shares of units and dollars? Am I right in assuming Saga #43 will not be included in the overall data for this May since it's 25 cents as well?

Market share includes everything. All comics, trades, books, magazines, toys, etc.

The breakdown of the top 300 comics only includes the top 300 comics.

I don't have all of the data supporting the market share figures so I'm not certain if The Walking Dead #163 was included or not.

MichaelCastle wrote:So The Walking Dead 163 counted towards its market share but not shares of units and dollars? Am I right in assuming Saga #43 will not be included in the overall data for this May since it's 25 cents as well?

or diamond will flip flop - they seem to change their reporting methods all the time

drew wrote:or diamond will flip flop - they seem to change their reporting methods all the time

Can you clarify this statement?

From my perspective, Diamond is reasonably consistent in how they report sales. They changed from pre-orders to invoiced order in Q1 of 2003, the year end data sometimes has a different number of items and doesn't always include an index value. They' changes how they handle promotion items a little over the years (which is presumably what you are referring to). Other than that, the format and nature of the data from Diamond seems very consistent over the past 15 years.

As I understand it, bulk purchases do hit the list but items priced below printing costs do not. I could be wrong about the specifics on that.


Market shares, both the unit shares and the dollar shares, includes *everything*. All comics, trades, books, magazines, toys, etc. Presumably those figures include things like the $0.25 issues of The Walking Dead and Saga but, since I don't have all of the data supporting the market share figures I can't crunch the numbers and confirm that.

The unit and dollar breakdowns of the top 300 comics that I calculate only includes the top 300 comics.

I think you guys are confusing the overall market shares which is measures in units and dollars with the unit and dollar breakdowns of the top 300 that I calculate. They measure very different things.