Much has been written on Nerd Living about DC Comics complete reboot, dubbed “The New 52.” The comics publisher is starting all their series over from scratch (Action Comics #1, Detective Comics #1, Justice League #1, etc.).
Most comics fans, it seems, were intrigued. Some weren’t so happy, convinced DC was throwing away decades of history in some Hail Mary maneuver to increase readership.
Well, it worked. The New York Times had this story last week. An excerpt:
In the last five weeks…sales of DC comics have increased by leaps and bounds. The first issue of the new Justice League, the company’s flagship book, has sold more than 200,000 copies, compared with the roughly 46,000 for each of the last few issues before the reboot.
An all-star creative team — the writer Geoff Johns and the artist Jim Lee — and the collector’s tendency to buy multiple copies of first issues almost guaranteed that Justice League No. 1 would be a top seller. But more surprising is that nine other series, including Action Comics, Batgirl and the Flash, at least doubled their normal sales and sold over 100,000 copies, a milestone that had proved increasingly difficult for comic-book publishers to reach.
Of course, that’s probably no surprise to anyone that’s tried to buy one of the New 52 releases. Cheryl’s Comics in Kanawha City was wiped out of the first Detective Comics release. The other titles seem to be selling well, too.
