Why Todays Market Makes Sense To Relaunch Alpha Flight

[ghostfly70]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=26304

The above link provides a detailed look at recent sales figures for all comics, but for this purpose, its Marvels numbers that matter. You will notice that the companies top selling title is about 75000 copies, with a steady decline for all of its other titles.
Looking down the list you can see the company taking the chance for a C-list character such as Sif, and flopping badly. Sif #1, in a time when Thor and Asgrad-based concepts are getting a major push, manage, in a collector-driven market, only 18000 copies for her debut.
Why is that? (The smart ass in me wants to say, because Sif and everything related to Asgard sucks, but thats just me)...Maybe its because the economy is soft and these truly secondary characters stand no chance?
What about Alpha Flight? Alpha has a dedicated fan base where we WANT the characters to succeed. We arent fly-by-night, fair weather readers.
I have no doubts at all that there enough Alpha fans to support a series in a market where Marvels best selling title is topping out at 75000 or so copies a month.
Can an Alpha series draw in 50000 buyers? maybe not at first, but it can certainly do half that or better from the existing fan base right? then its just a matter of attracting new readers with decent story and art, and basic cross promotion.
It just makes good business sense in a soft market to promote properties with proven supporters.

[MistressMerr]

Sif isn't really a good example, it was just a one-shot to go along with the current 'Women of Marvel' thing they're doing. Marvel has been pretty good as of late with giving random characters/concepts a shot, but for the most part, they fall flat with readers in spite of how good they may be (Doctor Voodoo, SWORD). It's an oversaturated market with a ton of titles out there, it takes a whole heck of a lot (luck being a factor in and of itself) for something new to gain a real foothold (or something old to regain one, in Alpha's case), and with the last 3 attempts to revive Alpha Flight not doing so hot, I think it'll be a while yet before they get another shot.

PS: Welcome!

[suzene]

Also consider that Uncanny X-Men itself is a Top Ten book, and it only moves about 65K copies a month when not involved in cross-overs. An X-Book at 50K would be something like X-Force, which has two Wolverines in it (and one of them has boobs). The Direct Market is a niche hobby at this point and the general push from the Big Two seems to be getting fewer people to buy the same books at a higher price point. That's a terrible environment to launch third-tier X-Book in. At best, you'd probably be looking at a 30K launch and trending severely downward from there unless you had a superstar team on board, and there's no way Marvel's going to put big name writers and artists on an AF book. I'd rather wait until there's an environment and an editorial regime in place where a relaunch would have at least a fighting chance of success. Maybe once a digital comics marketplace gets going in earnest...we can hope.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Also consider that Uncanny X-Men itself is a Top Ten book, and it only moves about 65K copies a month when not involved in cross-overs. An X-Book at 50K would be something like X-Force, which has two Wolverines in it (and one of them has boobs). The Direct Market is a niche hobby at this point and the general push from the Big Two seems to be getting fewer people to buy the same books at a higher price point. That's a terrible environment to launch third-tier X-Book in. At best, you'd probably be looking at a 30K launch and trending severely downward from there unless you had a superstar team on board, and there's no way Marvel's going to put big name writers and artists on an AF book. I'd rather wait until there's an environment and an editorial regime in place where a relaunch would have at least a fighting chance of success. Maybe once a digital comics marketplace gets going in earnest...we can hope.

Which is why an Alpha Flight relaunch needs a "Wolverine" in it...LOL! I kid...Then again...

Dana

[Le Messor]

which has two wolverines in it (and one of them has boobs).

rotflmao!!!!