2000 AD Online Forum

2000 AD => General => Topic started by: Colin YNWA on 27 March, 2018, 07:40:55 PM

Title: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Colin YNWA on 27 March, 2018, 07:40:55 PM
Over on Facebook one of our chums posted some very good news from Molch-R.

QuoteWell, a couple of stellar progs (neatly demonstrating the same thing that's been true for the last 40 years: if there's a run you're not enjoying, something else will be along shortly) don't seem to have materially improved the mood in this group, so here's a bit of good news for the doom-mongers to chew on, shamelessly cribbed from MOLCH-R's FB feed...
The Megazine is the only top 20 title in its category ('teenage comics', apparently) to record a sales increase over the last 12 months. Meanwhile, although 2000AD's newsstand sales have dipped slightly, the number is more than offset by a surge in subs. In fact, 2000AD's sales are "rising faster than at any time in the last 20 years".
Digital subs are significant, but still a very small percentage of revenue, and the future of the prog unquestionably remains as a print magazine.
All of which cheered me up no end. Feel free to vote on this news in the handy poll below...

Now just you lot be grateful you don't have to wade through the Faceswamp to get this. Some folks - in the face of good news bucking the negative message that can pre-dominate - decided to suggest it might be fabrication. Let's just enjoy the positive vibe.

Sigh.
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 27 March, 2018, 08:08:16 PM
Thanks for that, Colin... the response on that FB group was pretty bloody depressing, TBH. I honestly don't why I bothered.
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: jacob g on 27 March, 2018, 08:29:51 PM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 27 March, 2018, 08:08:16 PM
Thanks for that, Colin... the response on that FB group was pretty bloody depressing, TBH. I honestly don't why I bothered.

That's the same group where some adult folks felt threatened by the prospect of one all-female 2000AD issue?
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: TordelBack on 27 March, 2018, 08:32:28 PM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 27 March, 2018, 08:08:16 PM
Thanks for that, Colin... the response on that FB group was pretty bloody depressing, TBH. I honestly don't why I bothered.

Facebook.  Is there nothing it can't ruin. 

S'very good news there, Colin - thanks for digging it out of the dungheap for us.
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Colin YNWA on 27 March, 2018, 08:42:21 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 27 March, 2018, 08:32:28 PM
S'very good news there, Colin - thanks for digging it out of the dungheap for us.

Well to be fair - thank Jim, A quick Ctrl C + Ctrl V and my work was done!

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 27 March, 2018, 08:08:16 PM
Thanks for that, Colin... the response on that FB group was pretty bloody depressing, TBH. I honestly don't why I bothered.

Wasn't it on a number of levels. Happy to post it here wasn't sure you'd have the energy after the Facebook response and it was far too good to be left to rot there... mind should say the overall response on Facebook was positive, a few bad apples and all that!
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Leigh S on 27 March, 2018, 10:26:36 PM
That's fantastic news - I don't do 2000AD facebook (for no good reason, as I have FB likes for other things... hmm.. maybe I do, but never visit the page?) so I'm not aware of the general mood there....

Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Steve Green on 27 March, 2018, 10:36:58 PM
I think it may have been the 2000AD discussion group, it's a closed group and seems to have a bit of a reputation judging by comments made elsewhere.

The official fb page is pretty vanilla for the most part.
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Leigh S on 27 March, 2018, 10:46:11 PM
Aha! For fans of that old discussion thing - pre the official forum - was it a Yahoo one or something?  I dread to think how a lot of that reads almost 20 years on!
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Fungus on 28 March, 2018, 01:04:52 AM
That's all good to hear. The 40th shindig and the press at the time presumably gave sales a wee jolt.
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: The Adventurer on 28 March, 2018, 03:57:07 AM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 27 March, 2018, 08:08:16 PM
Thanks for that, Colin... the response on that FB group was pretty bloody depressing, TBH. I honestly don't why I bothered.

I'm one of the admins over of the Facebook 2000AD Discussion Group, and I just want to say I appreciate your contributions to the group. I sadly must admit the group tends to skew rather cynical/negative toward modern 2000AD right now. It's not universal of course, or even the majority opinion, it just seems to come across the loudest*. The other admins and I are working hard to keep things civil, and cultivate a positive discussion environment. I'd hate to lose your voice over there just because few doom and gloomers are convinced 2000AD is on the ropes, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

* on the surface you'd think the collective despises everything modern 2000AD offers, and yet Brink won my 'favorite strip of 2017' straw poll. So what the heck do the moaners know?
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Tjm86 on 28 March, 2018, 07:08:00 AM
It's nice to see this sort of news.  I guess I'm like a lot of folks here in seeing Tooth as such a permanent fixture that it's hard to think of a post Tooth landscape.  I know that we've all bemoaned the recent run to one degree or another but I think it's fair to say that there is a recognition that it is the exception rather than the rule, that our 'blip' tends to be the dizzy heights for other publishers and that when we get a surge then we are reminded of why we are so critical on some level.

As regards the general atmosphere, notwithstanding the occasional incivility (and even then it is often easily resolved) this place really does seem to cultivate a very distinct ethos.  I know I'm guilty of occasionally putting my foot in it with a well placed 'amusing comment' that was nowhere near as amusing as I thought and I'm grateful to those who have tolerated my ineptitude with patience (thinking of Jim in particularly here, to whom I owe multiple apologies).

Personally I wouldn't touch Facebook with a barge pole, and that was before the recent revelations.  Even disregarding the rather cynical abuse of personal data, it has always been a particularly nasty part of the web to my mind.  FB have always operated with a degree of disregard for any obligations on their part to anyone other than themselves, it seems.  That does appear to come across in many of the fora over there.

Anyway.  Great news and kudos to the editorial and creative team.  Here's to another 41 years (at least).  I want to be able to hand my collection over to my grandkids and have them know what it was all about.
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 28 March, 2018, 10:26:25 AM
Quote from: Tjm86 on 28 March, 2018, 07:08:00 AM
I know I'm guilty of occasionally putting my foot in it with a well placed 'amusing comment' that was nowhere near as amusing as I thought and I'm grateful to those who have tolerated my ineptitude with patience (thinking of Jim in particularly here, to whom I owe multiple apologies).

You probably don't. I was probably being a git. I'm trying to be significantly less gitty these days, but it'll be a long time before the historical git:non-git ratio swings back in my favour.

Still, how about that good news...?
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Tjm86 on 28 March, 2018, 11:42:52 AM
Nah, I'm quite happy to own up to my mistakes.

On the good news front, to quote the locals round these parts; "Tidy!"
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Steve Green on 28 March, 2018, 12:13:07 PM
Quote from: Leigh S on 27 March, 2018, 10:46:11 PM
Aha! For fans of that old discussion thing - pre the official forum - was it a Yahoo one or something?  I dread to think how a lot of that reads almost 20 years on!

There were a couple - think I only did the old usenet alt.comics.2000AD group before it became a wasteland.

You can still find it on the google groups I believe.
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Proudhuff on 28 March, 2018, 12:17:39 PM
Good to hear that Tooth is on an upward trajectory, hats off to Rebellion for sticking the course!  :D
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: sheridan on 28 March, 2018, 01:38:36 PM
Quote from: Tjm86 on 28 March, 2018, 07:08:00 AM
Personally I wouldn't touch Facebook with a barge pole, and that was before the recent revelations.  Even disregarding the rather cynical abuse of personal data, it has always been a particularly nasty part of the web to my mind.  FB have always operated with a degree of disregard for any obligations on their part to anyone other than themselves, it seems.  That does appear to come across in many of the fora over there.

It was founded on pretty awful principles - stealing photos of women from the university website and using them to generate a 'hot or not' style website on which women were most attractive.  Zuckerman and company don't appear to have developed their maturity or morality beyond that.
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Professor Bear on 28 March, 2018, 04:10:14 PM
Make up your bloody mind, The Forum.
The forum on DC comics: "well I want nothing less than to see the forensic analysis of their accounts you have undertaken going back at least the last decade before you can say they're doing poorly - how dare you insult Batman!"
The forum on Rebellion: "I accept anecdotal evidence from a single source on a Facebook post* that all is well."

I hope 2000ad is doing well.  Hopefully the Mega City One show will boost its profile a bit, or at least shift some trades.



* FROM MOLCHER!  HE THINKS IT'S SHARPE TIMES!
Title: Re: Positive sales news - no figures before you ask
Post by: Colin YNWA on 28 March, 2018, 04:30:26 PM
Touche.

Mind the difference is asserting things as fact and making extrapolations based on limited evidence. Or just showing the evidence and saying so this looks like good news let's be happy for a bit.