Warren Ellis: Fell Numbers at 29K+

Here's an interesting note from the writer Warren Ellis at his The Engine site. Apparently, the first four issue of his Fell series with artist Ben Templesmith have all reached the 29,000 mark, with issue number one gaining on 40,000. These are fine to excellent numbers for non-superhero comic books.

What makes this is interesting is 1) the format of the comic is specific enough to be called "The Fell Format," and involves a lower comics page count buttressed by greater attention to supplementary material and a lower price, and 2) this was accomplished through assiduous attention to re-ordering the work, with more re-orders to come. Ellis points out that if these were all initial sales, Fell would place higher on the charts than Image's long-time flagship Spawn.

I think the specifics of any format are less the point here than the hopefully positive general lesson that periodical comics can be sold if some attention is being paid to how and why these comics sell. Comics fans and as an extension comics professionals and industry folk sometimes like to see developments of the comics market as an either/or situation, and nowhere has this been more frequent in recent years than the way some have treated the success of trade and book formats as an indictment of the traditional comic book. (Sorry, on-line vs. print pundits -- you're second!)

No other industry does this to the extent comics folk seem to. DVD sales of television series have become a wonderful, lucrative market, but I don't ever read television executives or critics bellowing that any TV show that appears on a network is helmed by idiots, or wasting time, or doomed.

The comics industry encompasses a lot of work and reading experiences and can probably put to use any and all interfaces between author and audience, including the format solution to serial comics making explored by Ellis and some of his sympathetic fellow pros. It's always nice to see something happen not by accident.
 
posted 10:10 pm PST | Permalink
 

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