Rogue Trooper: IDW #1

[COMMANDO FORCES]

That's the fourth one on my list, it's supposedly available only at the Cardiff and Newcastle conventions but you can get hold off it from elsewhere.

[Link Prime]

Phew!

[BPP]

Disappointing sales - gone on hiatus after issue 4 it seems.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/03/25/rogue-trooper-on-hold-at-idw-full-speed-ahead-at-2000ad/

Tripple boo.

[James Stacey]

Balls.

[blackmocco]

Typical. That garbage Dredd title keeps on rolling while something with real potential gets ignored. Oy vey.

[TordelBack]

I'll never understand the comics industry.  Surely 'sales' can't be judged until you see how many pick up issue 2?

[Link Prime]

I'll never understand the comics industry.  Surely 'sales' can't be judged until you see how many pick up issue 2?

If Marvel had the licence they'd probably re-launch with a new number 1.

Seriously though, bummer news. First issue was pretty good.

[TordelBack]

Seriously though, bummer news. First issue was pretty good.

Yes, I was going to buy it, and I buy bugger-all comics.  Less inclined to now, if it's going to be cut off at the knees, thus fulfilling the prophecy.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Bollocks

[Molch-R]

Surely 'sales' can't be judged until you see how many pick up issue 2?

Sales for issue four are already taking place - it's comic book stores and their order levels that are the customers that determine a book's survival, by the time an issue gets to the shelves it's too late. Perceive the situation with Underbelly with stores ordering low but then panic buying when it became clear it was becoming a hit, leading to a sell-out and reprint.

[TordelBack]

Surely 'sales' can't be judged until you see how many pick up issue 2?

Sales for issue four are already taking place - it's comic book stores and their order levels that are the customers that determine a book's survival, by the time an issue gets to the shelves it's too late.

Oh I know that's how it works, I just don't understand it.  Judging the long-term viability of a comic based on people ordering books before they've even seen them at all, then dumping it because people haven't ordered enough, all before anyone has had a chance to read the second issue...  I'm sure the economic advantages of avoiding risk are sound, but speaking as a customer who has never ordered a comic book in his life (and I'm surely not alone), I'd like to see one or two issues before I decide whether this is the book for me.  The idea that I might read issue 1, then dash straight back to the FLCS and order issue 4 or whatever, well, it's not ever going to happen.

[TordelBack]

...Gah, stupid no edit button. I have had this conversation more than once, and I know what's effectively a subscriber model is how these things get done at all, but this is not a relationship that I have with any of my other discretionary consumables.  Even with those things that are ongoing direct-debit-based, I know the future product I'm signing up for: electricity, childcare, whatever.  I'm always left feeling 'I'm your potential customer here, and I can't buy your book, but I still have to hear about how the industry is losing customers'.

[Professor Bear]

On the one hand a smaller business is finding it hard to sell a niche product is not really unusual.  On the other hand, the direct market and Diamond's ordering system that specifically makes it difficult for indy books probably doesn't help, either - certainly not when Diamond is the only show in town: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Comic_Distributors#Antitrust_litigation
Or at least they are until digital distribution becomes more lucrative, though the way things are going, by then Comixology will have a monopoly on that and we'll look back on the days of Diamond with misty-eyed fondness.

[Frank]

speaking as a customer who has never ordered a comic book in his life (and I'm surely not alone), I'd like to see one or two issues before I decide whether this is the book for me

Would never have occurred to me either; I just want everything here, on my laptop, bloody NOW(!) or forget it altogether.

[Fungus]

Crap news. Enjoyed #1 in a straightforward fighty kind of a way.
Interested in what Guy Adams does with Rogue Trooper, too, in the prog (presumably).