Jump to content
Awoo.

IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread


Dejimon11

Recommended Posts

16 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

I want a cover with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Blaze and Tangle.

All of 4 issues represented!

There's enough heat about Amy not being representing in Mania in person, I think you might have accidentally omitted her here. 

  • Chuckle 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

There's enough heat about Amy not being representing in Mania in person

Admittedly, she would've made much more sense than Metal.

14 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

I think you might have accidentally omitted her here. 

Accidentally? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Admittedly, she would've made much more sense than Metal.

Accidentally? 

The rundown of characters didn’t include Amy, who should represent issue 2.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Ernest-Panda said:

The rundown of characters didn’t include Amy, who should represent issue 2.

Yeah, I knew that. I was just pointing out the correlation of Amy being left out of being showcased alongside Team Sonic, Blaze, and KickbuttGirl.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Yeah, I knew that. I was just pointing out the correlation of Amy being left out of being showcased alongside Team Sonic, Blaze, and KickbuttGirl.

Ah it was accidental!!

I was in a hurry to write I want a cover with all the characters.

Amy was a spotlight in Fallout!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I saw a post on Twitter that exclaimed that IDW Sonic #1-4 first print runs had collectively sold over 60,000 copies. It sounds a lot, but is that good compared to Archie and some of its 4 issue arcs? Or the early more popular years of Archie according to old Penders who is always touting that his early runs sold the most of any issues. Blegh.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Collectively? That's an average of 15k each, which is like 1.5x what an average Archie issue would get, and 2x what an average Universe issue would get. 

Lemme get the real number...

Sonic #1 - 21,362
Sonic #2 - 14,684
Sonic #3 - 13,779
Sonic #4 - 13,225

That doesn't seem too much higher than the Archie Sonic average (9 - 10k by the end) going by the figure its trending down to. 

Edit: For comparison's sake, these are the figures for the first four issues of Sonic Boom.

Sonic Boom #1 - 17,228

Sonic Boom #2 - 8,216

Sonic Boom #3 - 7,474

Sonic Boom #4 - 6,957

So it has started higher than that, and stabilised at a higher point. Although bear in mind it's yet to face the challenge of monthly retention. 

  • Fist Bump 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, VEDJ-F said:

Actually, as far as Heroes' story is concerned, that's exactly what Eggman did. It doesn't justify why he chose to hire them beyond "he's heard good things about them", and we're not given any indication that Eggman has prior knowledge on them. In that particular case, if you ran a detective agency with some good word of mouth, you were perfectly viable for Eggman's plans. 

They probably added in their ad "your case solved before the game's story ends or you get a free pizza on us", and since the poor doc was locked away by that ungrateful Metal Sonic without any food...

  • Chuckle 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Skull Leader said:

They probably added in their ad "your case solved before the game's story ends or you get a free pizza on us", and since the poor doc was locked away by that ungrateful Metal Sonic without any food...

At least Neo Metal was nice enough to let him have an Amazon subscription.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

That doesn't seem too much higher than the Archie Sonic average (9 - 10k by the end) going by the figure its trending down to. 

So it has started higher than that, and stabilised at a higher point. Although bear in mind it's yet to face the challenge of monthly retention. 

So should we assume by that then that IDW has smaller print runs than Archie if they are selling out and going into 2nd runs if the numbers are roughly the same but IDW is doing 2nd and 3rd runs?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think it's so much that they have smaller print runs regular (otherwise we'd hear about MLP getting second printings all the time), more that the print runs for these issues were restricted. All the numbers line up to a 10k print run for all of them (at least for direct market alone), which is way lower than you'd expect in a print run for Sonic. 

Why that would be is more interesting to think about. I personally propose two possible readings of the information, an...optimist reading (for lack of a better phrase) and a cynical reading. 

Optimist: The print runs were restricted to scope out the market. Printing in batches of 10k allows them to gauge how much interest there is in the comic so they can adjust the print run for future issues accordingly.

Cynical: The prints runs were restricted specifically to generate hype about there being more print runs, despite the fact the numbers aren't that much higher on paper. Plus they can get more money out of print run exclusive variants. 

  • Thumbs Up 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm pretty sure print runs are based on overall demand and pre-orders. The incentive covers are a big part of that, too. If a customer really wants that Kieran Gates cover, and will actually pay the stupidly high price the comic shop will slap on it, then the stores will order those hundred copies to score it for them and make back some of what they spent on that batch of issues that are going to go for $4 a pop (plus the ten copies of Fourdraine cover and four copies Knight covers). Those sorts of orders, rare as they probably are, will likely clear out Diamond's stock faster and facilitate additional printings for at least the next month or so.

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, VEDJ-F said:

Actually, as far as Heroes' story is concerned, that's exactly what Eggman did. It doesn't justify why he chose to hire them beyond "he's heard good things about them", and we're not given any indication that Eggman has prior knowledge on them. In that particular case, if you ran a detective agency with some good word of mouth, you were perfectly viable for Eggman's plans. 

Well its a good thing that
Maina+ Spoilers

Spoiler


Maina+ further muddies Knuckles Chaotix canon status by bringing back big Ol' Red head. If Chaotix is canon, than Eggman would know who the detectives were because they helped to thwart one of his plans in the past.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Well its a good thing that
Maina+ Spoilers

  Hide contents

 

Maina+ further muddies Knuckles Chaotix canon status by bringing back big Ol' Red head. If Chaotix is canon, than Eggman would know who the detectives were because they helped to thwart one of his plans in the past.

 

 

1. That is still up for debate on whether KC is even canon to the classic line. Like, for further spoilers, the trailer has a meta acknowledgement of Knuckles and Mighty working together before, but going by Encore mode's current description this doesn't apply in the actual events of the game.

2; Regardless, this does not apply to the Modern side. The things happening to Mania Plus count for classic only, and the modern side is not affected by any of it. As such, the reading stays exactly the same as it ever was; Eggman did not know the Chaotix beforehand, he only hired them on good word. 

I mean, you can't make KC canon to Heroes, or how Vector acts to "Eggman" (especially in the Japanese version) makes no sense at all. Like, he apologises for taking out Eggman's robots as part of the job before Espio points out it's the evil scientist Dr Eggman, that is not the reaction of someone who's fought Eggman before.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

 Espio points out it's the evil scientist Dr Eggman, that is not the reaction of someone who's fought Eggman before.

Perhaps the American boxart of the Chaotix is the only canon thing about the game and Espio was just stuck in a combi-catcher the whole time?)
Knuckles_Chaotix.thumb.png.a0fdfff8b66107b0bd07e04589379f0c.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Keeping in mind the dimensional divide, does it matter if Knuckles Chaotix or elements of it are canon to Mania?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, VEDJ-F said:

Collectively? That's an average of 15k each, which is like 1.5x what an average Archie issue would get, and 2x what an average Universe issue would get. 

Lemme get the real number...

Sonic #1 - 21,362
Sonic #2 - 14,684
Sonic #3 - 13,779
Sonic #4 - 13,225

That doesn't seem too much higher than the Archie Sonic average (9 - 10k by the end) going by the figure its trending down to. 

Edit: For comparison's sake, these are the figures for the first four issues of Sonic Boom.

Sonic Boom #1 - 17,228

Sonic Boom #2 - 8,216

Sonic Boom #3 - 7,474

Sonic Boom #4 - 6,957

So it has started higher than that, and stabilised at a higher point. Although bear in mind it's yet to face the challenge of monthly retention. 

That is some great numbers, will be interesting to see how the comic performs when it goes down to monthly. Really pleased to see the comic doing well

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great news! We also have to consider the fact that customers were asked to buy an issue each week, that's quite a bit of money we are talking about, so it's impressive, I did not expect this strategy to work at all, plus there are digital sales (the version I bought by the way).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Tenko said:

So I saw a post on Twitter that exclaimed that IDW Sonic #1-4 first print runs had collectively sold over 60,000 copies. It sounds a lot, but is that good compared to Archie and some of its 4 issue arcs? Or the early more popular years of Archie according to old Penders who is always touting that his early runs sold the most of any issues. Blegh.

https://sonicsourceblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/07/idw-sonic-sales-numbers-breakdown/

IDW Issue #1-4 blew pretty much any arc Archie ever did out of the water. They also achieved these numbers without fatiguing buyers with 4 issues in 1 month. Archie sales averaged around 6,000 copies a month with only special events or milestone issues ever reaching even close to these numbers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, VEDJ-F said:

Sonic #1 - 21,362
Sonic #2 - 14,684
Sonic #3 - 13,779
Sonic #4 - 13,225

That doesn't seem too much higher than the Archie Sonic average (9 - 10k by the end) going by the figure its trending down to. 

Edit: For comparison's sake, these are the figures for the first four issues of Sonic Boom.

Sonic Boom #1 - 17,228

Sonic Boom #2 - 8,216

Sonic Boom #3 - 7,474

Sonic Boom #4 - 6,957

So it has started higher than that, and stabilised at a higher point. Although bear in mind it's yet to face the challenge of monthly retention. 

These are okay. Neither bad nor great. With all the promotion they were doing, I was expecting them to be higher. 30K debut, 20K for the weekly issues, trickling down from 15K to 8K over the first year.

The Boom comparison doesn't entirely work due to the weekly release. The drops between IDW's #2 - 4 are relatively conservative because retailers ordered them all at the same time and they were collectively treated like Boom's #2 was. There's probably going to be a more substantial drop with #5.

13 hours ago, VEDJ-F said:

I don't think it's so much that they have smaller print runs regular (otherwise we'd hear about MLP getting second printings all the time), more that the print runs for these issues were restricted. All the numbers line up to a 10k print run for all of them (at least for direct market alone), which is way lower than you'd expect in a print run for Sonic.

Print runs are determined from pre-orders. If #132 or whatever has pre-orders of 7500, you're going to print close to that. If #1 has pre-orders of 30500, you might go higher on the print run because you know a jumping on point like that will have re-order activity. Or you might still keep it close to the pre-order number and instead just do additional printings if the demand is there. This is why it's relatively easy to game the system and you've gotta take the whole "#X sold out!" with a grain of salt. An issue selling out could just mean "We successfully shipped every pre-order."

These sales also don't include the additional printings. Those haven't shipped yet.

1 hour ago, SoNich said:

https://sonicsourceblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/07/idw-sonic-sales-numbers-breakdown/

IDW Issue #1-4 blew pretty much any arc Archie ever did out of the water. They also achieved these numbers without fatiguing buyers with 4 issues in 1 month. Archie sales averaged around 6,000 copies a month with only special events or milestone issues ever reaching even close to these numbers.

I mean, this was a highly promoted reboot and #1. The biggest special event and milestone a comic can do.

Also Sonic Worlds Battle Unite had 43K sales because it was included in one of those Loot Crate-like things.

  • Thumbs Up 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, NotHole said:

I mean, this was a highly promoted reboot and #1. The biggest special event and milestone a comic can do.

Also Sonic Worlds Battle Unite had 43K sales because it was included in one of those Loot Crate-like things.

Ah that explains it, thanks for the info! You're right, issue #1's tend to debut high and then trail off to an average amount. In this instance, you can essentially included #1-4 in this effect. I would suspect around 10K+ for issue #5 going and probably settle around 9-10k within a year. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, SoNich said:

Ah that explains it, thanks for the info! You're right, issue #1's tend to debut high and then trail off to an average amount. In this instance, you can essentially included #1-4 in this effect. I would suspect around 10K+ for issue #5 going and probably settle around 9-10k within a year. 

I agree. A drop larger than 2K for #5 would be both surprising and worrying. I do think within a few months sales will land just above Archie's upper range before settling into standard attrition, though. Sonic has just always had a ceiling in the direct market. Between that, the gentle freefall the book was in during its last year at Archie and these initial sales, I'm not convinced keeping everything the same except the publisher on the cover will change much. But's that's obviously a gut feeling guess.

1 hour ago, Nestor said:

Do these sales numbers include online purchases?

They're sales estimates to comic shops. So they don't actually reflect sales to print readers either, just what was shipped to shops.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I already brought it up a few posts back.

What I want to know is what is it doing being sold in a UK retailer like FP?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

You must read and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to continue using this website. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.