Sorry, Apple Bloom: thanks to a port strike in California, issue #2 of the MLP:FiM comic won't be with us until 2 January. Which is, to say the least, frustrating. IDW presumably prints these comics in Korea for sound business reasons, but it does put the company at the mercy of events such as this. On the plus side, issue #3 is apparently still on schedule, so we should get twice the pony in January.
I do hope that this won't have too much of an effect on the comic's sales figures. It would be a real shame if that warm glow of its wonderfully successful start were dimmed because of this. I doubt it'll have a big impact on fans, but maybe some of the more casual family buyers could drift away, as they may turn up in comic shops on the 19th, find there's no Pony for them, and buy something else instead.
This also means that the second printing of issue #1 — including the reprinted box sets — will now come out on 2 January, which unfortunately will have an impact. Up until now, it looked entirely possible that issue #1 would total over 100,000 copies when the overall 2012 charts were published. Now that the reprints won't be sold until 2013, that seems extremely unlikely to happen.
Which is a shame, but remember: this is still a record-breaking — and brilliant — comic book. Bobby Curnow (its editor) has said that anything selling over 10,000 copies is pretty safe, and frankly if this fandom can't keep that number going we should be ashamed of ourselves. So get out there on 2 January and buy issue #2; I know I will!
Two MLP comics? Is that scientifically possible? Am I scientifically possible?
ReplyDeleteBut yes, it is disappointing, but hopefully a temporary blip. If this became a regular problem, and delays become the norm rather than the exception, that can damage a comics reputation very badly. Hopefully they can get back on track though, as quickly as possible, and I'm sure it should be possible for the fans to keep those sales figures nice and high! :)
You? No, of course not. Don't be silly. ;)
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, I saw a comment about this by someone at IDW, saying that in fact IDW are less prone to delays than either DC or Marvel. And a clearly-defined delay like this is obviously much better than a vague gap when you have no idea when (or even whether!) the next issue of a comic will appear. I think we'll be okay. :)
No new comics in Dec also means no significant showing for Pony in the Dec charts (published in Jan) so we'll have to wait until Feb to find out how well the issues #2 and #3 have done. Apparently #3 is coming out on 16 Jan (not sure why it's not the 23rd) so there'll be plenty of time for those issues to make the charts.