Titans Sales Watch: September

Thanks again to Detroyes! He writes 'em. I post 'em.

September Sales estimates are out, so its time to crunch the numbers. And there's actually some good news to offer, all things considered.

As always, raw data courtesy of ICv2.

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/16022.html
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/16023.html

FORMAT:

TITLE
Issue # / Release Month / Year / # Units Sold / +/- Previous Month

Blackest Night: Titans (3-Issue Mini Series)
#2 September 2009 64,086 -7,235
(NOTE: See sales note below)

Teen Titans (ongoing)
#75 September 2009 32,808 +2,428

Titans (ongoing)
#17 September 2009 30,154 -1,254

Tiny Titans (ongoing)
#20 September 2009 8,435 +3


Booster Gold (ongoing)
#24 September 2009 21,732 -376 -- NTT Crossover

Doom Patrol (ongoing)
#2 September 2009 22,001 -6,266

Vigilante (ongoing) (cancelled)
#10 September 2009 7,856 -531

Graphic Novels:
Titans: Lockdown
September 2009 1,722

Analysis:
Blackest Night: Titans -- First off, I must mention that Blackest Night: Titans #1 had a significant number of re-orders in September; 6,554 units, to be exact. Thus, Blackest Night: Titans #1 sales figures now look like this:

#1 August 2009 71,321 N/A
(August Numbers - 64,767; September Numbers - 6,554)

So for those of you who are looking at the post for August figures above in comparison, that's the reason behind the discrepancy. It still hasn't passed Titans #1 as the best selling Titans title of the last two years, but its getting close. And Blackest Night: Titans #2 did almost as well as the first issue's initial numbers; clearly, BN:T has been the best thing to happen Teen Titans-wise in a very, very long time. And what's more, author JT Krul has received almost universal praise for the series. With those number and those reviews, I think DC would have a hard time justifying not handing the him a Titans title. Good chance we may yet see more re-orders for both issues in next month's numbers.

Teen Titans -- Actually managed to get a 2.5k increase. Several factors probably contributed to that - landmark issue number, first issue of new writer, indications in solicits that old characters would return. What's more, there's some good indications that - for at least the next few months - those numbers are not likely to go down significantly. Upcoming we have a two issue Blackest Night crossover, and that is being followed by a long-anticipated foray in Milestone Comics territory with Static. Thus, I suspect Teen Titans will stay mostly at an even keel for the foreseeable future. It is now quite possible that the worst is now behind us.

Titans -- Back to its normal sales slide, although this one was smaller than average. Didn't get below the 30k mark like I expected, but it seems unlikely to escape it next month. With this title still doing nothing but one-shot filler stories and its "new improved direction" still months away, I'm expecting the slide to continue for the next few months. Only time will tell if Deathstroke Titans will save the book.

Tiny Titans -- Basically broke even.

Booster Gold -- Another smallish drop, most likely due to NTT nostalgia.

Doom Patrol -- Yikes. Not liking that drop. But the new series is proving to be somewhat controversial for old fans of the DP, so perhaps it was to be expected.

Vigilante -- Sadly, its about to be put out of its misery.

Graphic Novels
Since its rather pointless to do a month-by-month analysis of TPB releases, here instead are what the totals have been like for new Titans TPB/HC released this year. Same format as above, except no issue numbers and no +/- change:

Titans: Old Friends (HC)
January 2009 1,853

Tiny Titans Vol. 1: Welcome to the Treehouse
February 2009 2,603

Teen Titans Spotlight: Cyborg
March 2009 1,144

Tiny Titans Vol. 2: Adventures in Awesomeness
May 2009 2,056

Terror Titans
July 2009 1,862

Teen Titans: Changing of the Guard
August 2009 1,975

Titans: Lockdown
September 2009 1,722

All sales are about average for TPB releases. Keep in mind, however, that these figures are ONLY for those copies sold through the Diamond distribution chain; they DO NOT include sales to, say, bookstories like Barnes & Noble and Borders. Those stores get their copies directly from the publisher (via Random House) in the normal book sales distribution chain.

******

Overall Analysis: Definite signs that the Titans franchise has mostly bottomed out. Titans
remains the stinker, but the flagship title looks on the verge of turning things around - or at the very least, settling itself into a range. We probably won't know for certain until early next year, but I would say that there are reasons to be cautiously (very cautiously) optimistic.