AW: October 2003 US Comic Book Sales

[ZeldasTriforce@aol.com]

Hi Cord.

Sorry it's taken me so long to email you back. I've been pretty busy the past 
few weeks. As far as I know, the only comic sales figures are the ones from 
Diamond, which take into account sales to comic book shops, etc. 

I don't believe it takes into account subscriptions, though if you live near 
a comics shop, there's no reason to subscribe to the Disney comics(since 
Gemstone charges you the same amount whether you buy it in a store or by 
subscription, instead of a discount for subscribers like nearly every other comic 
title). So I imagine subscriptions are mostly done for the overseas readers. 

I think your comment about half the readers of the Carl Barks Library being 
European may not apply as much to the Gemstone comics. Obviously the CBL was a 
very big deal and as far as I know, the first time all his stories had been 
published in one collection. Whereas the Gemstone comics are mostly reprinting 
stories that have been out in Europe for years. So unless you're an 
English-only reader in Europe or you just like how Gemstone does the comics, there's no 
real incentive to subsrcibe to the Gemstone line(you're not getting anything 
new). I'm sure there are more than a few in the latter category, but I can't see 
it being half(with the CBL being such a special event in that sense). 

And far as all this has to do with sales, the Gemstone comics may have a bit 
higher foreign subscriber list than other comics, thus helping them, but I 
would assume that most of the other comics have at least a certain number of 
overseas subscribers as well, thus negating some of the positive effect for 
Gemstone somewhat. That's a lot of thus' in one sentence. ;) 

I hope Gemstone's efforts to get the comics into bookstores, grocery stores, 
newstands, etc. comes true fairly soon, for the long term health of the line.

Derek Smith
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