Botched up launch of recent IDW D&D comic series.

ggroy · February 03, 2011, 07:41:47 PM

Articles written by some dude who seems to be like the "RPGPundit" of the comic book world.

He discusses how the recent D&D comic book series by IDW, has been completely botched up from the start.

- "The Sad Tale of a Comic Book Publisher's Failed Product Launch"

- "How to keep IDW Publishing from losing their shirt on the Forgotten Realms, Part 1: Building a Foundation for a Successful Comic Book Product Launch"

- "How to keep IDW from losing their shirt on the Forgotten Realms, Part 2: Connecting with your audience"

- "The Failure of Licensed Comic Publishers"

ggroy · February 03, 2011, 10:47:44 PM

Estimates of the number copies sold of the IDW D&D comic, deduced from Diamond's statistics.

D&D issue #0 - 23,657 (86th best selling in August 2010)

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2010/2010-08.html

D&D issue #1 - 15,462 (118th best selling in November 2010)

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2010/2010-11.html

D&D issue #2 - 11,623 (159th best selling in December 2010)

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2010/2010-12.html

(In contrast, the top selling comic titles each month are estimated to be selling around 90,000 copies or higher every month).

In a top 1000 list of comics sold in 2010, D&D issue #0 was the 962th place.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30650

Tommy Brownell · February 03, 2011, 10:55:46 PM

Right.

The Marvel and DC title are usually that high.

I'd be shocked if anything shy of Transformers or GI Joe remotely approaches Marvel or DC's numbers.

Tommy Brownell · February 03, 2011, 10:58:34 PM

Oh, sorry, I had no idea True Blood sold as well as it did.

ggroy · February 03, 2011, 11:02:50 PM

In other words, D&D comics are totally "small fish".

thedungeondelver · February 03, 2011, 11:03:52 PM

Dear lord. WotC couldn't carry the ball if it had a handle, their outsourced S/W developers apparently can't code "Hello, World.", the computer game front is moribund, they've split the 4th ed audience, they couldn't put together the equivalent of Facebook for D&D players, and now this.

Is D&D cursed? Or is WotC?

Tommy Brownell · February 03, 2011, 11:07:05 PM

Maybe...it may just be the company, and their market presence.

DC may have been able to automatically move 40,000 more units for instance (maybe).

ggroy · February 03, 2011, 11:07:44 PM

Quote from: thedungeondelver;437407Dear lord. WotC couldn't carry the ball if it had a handle, their outsourced S/W developers apparently can't code "Hello, World.", the computer game front is moribund, they've split the 4th ed audience, they couldn't put together the equivalent of Facebook for D&D players, and now this.

Is D&D cursed? Or is WotC?

The D&D movies must be cursed. :banghead:

jeff37923 · February 03, 2011, 11:11:15 PM

Quote from: ggroy;437411The D&D movies must be cursed. :banghead:

I dunno, Wrath of the Dragon God was pretty good for a "B" movie.

Tommy Brownell · February 03, 2011, 11:14:06 PM

Quote from: jeff37923;437413I dunno, Wrath of the Dragon God was pretty good for a "B" movie.

Yeah, it was at least a pretty noticeably step-up from the first one.

ggroy · February 03, 2011, 11:21:48 PM

The original D&D comic series (AD&D, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Spelljammer) published by DC Comics, were abruptly canceled back in late 1991.

(Scroll down to the TSRETALIATION section).
http://www.comicbookresources.com:8080/?page=article&id=14605

Some DC and TSR insiders from the early 1990's mentioned there was a huge falling out between TSR and DC which, led to the abrupt cancellation of all TSR comic series published by DC.

Allegedly TSR attempted to start their own comic series independently of DC, which made DC very angry.

(Scroll down to the HERE BE DRAGONS section).
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=14600

Tommy Brownell · February 03, 2011, 11:25:32 PM

TSR with a poor business decision? SHOCKING.

ggroy · February 03, 2011, 11:37:31 PM

Wonder how many issues this IDW D&D comic series will last.

ggroy · February 03, 2011, 11:39:24 PM

One can say that it will probably be immediately axed, if the title doesn't sell enough copies to cover the costs and WotC licensing fees.

Tommy Brownell · February 03, 2011, 11:44:28 PM

The sad part is, I've heard it's pretty good. (It's written by John Rogers, who is an avowed geek that worked on the Manual of the Planes, and is the creator of Leverage, which is kinda great).