The Rundown: Marvel Takes the Top Spot in January Sales, McFarlane Interested in “Spawn” and “Spider-Man” Comic, and more

Welcome back to The Rundown, our daily breakdown on comic news stories we missed from the previous day. Have a link to share? Email our team at either david@multiversitycomics.com or brian@multiversitycomics.com.

– I’ll have more on this when the full numbers come out, but January 2014 saw a solid month of comic sales and a weaker month of GN ones, with Marvel taking the top spot and Image pulling more than 10% of the market in unit shares. Batman #27 took the top spot over Detective Comics #27 for individual sales, which some would be surprised to see given that one was an anniversary issue, but that one also was $8, which likely tempered orders. Perhaps most notable of the top 10 for comic sales? Harley Quinn is still in there! WHAT?! Never doubt the popularity of Miss Harley Quinn, I suppose.

– Apparently both Todd McFarlane and Joe Quesada would be interested in Marvel doing a Spawn/Spider-Man crossover. While I doubt that happens, as it would require McFarlane to draw again, and for multiple issues consecutively, it would be a hell of a thing and certainly would sell A LOT. We’ll see though. Maybe they’ll make it happen.

– In an interview with Charles Soule, the implication that Superman being killed by Doomsday isn’t necessarily a thing of his past, but of his future. Given how notable of a deal that was originally, I realllllly hope they don’t do it again, as that makes what they’re doing even more of a rehash than it often has been. Tell new stories! Don’t just tell high-selling stories of the past! Booooo!!!

– Antony Johnston crunches some numbers for his Image Comics series “Umbral” and finds that more than 70% of Diamond accounts didn’t even order 10 copies of the first issue of his book. To which, I sadly say, I am not surprised, as my shop has only ordered 2 copies of each issue with only two pull customers (one of whom is me) getting one. Image #1’s get ordered big, sure, but they are also typically Image #1’s with superstar creative teams. Anecdotally, my shop orders a good amount of “Five Ghosts” and other newer books with lesser known creative teams, but I also know that Frank Barbiere is a marketing machine. It’s hard for retailer to take chances on new books like that, but I definitely feel Johnston in that regard.

– Slate revealed its shortlist for the Cartoonist Studio Prize, both for graphic novels and webcomics, and there is a lot of awesome on them. If you’re looking for graphic novels and webcomics to read, I highly recommend it as a starter list.

– Do you like Meredith Gran? Of course you do! Support her in her quest to make “Octopus Pie” on the regular by backing her Patreon campaign!