The first printing of the Dark Horse/Chaos 9-11 benefit trade paperback (see 'DC Joins Dark Horse, Chaos, Others in September 11 Benefit Project') has sold out from Diamond Comic Distributors and is going back to press.  The initial print run on the Dark Horse/Chaos volume was 40,000 copies, of which around 30,000 went to fill orders solicited through a Diamond Previews Update (not the full solicitation cycle), and 10,000 went to the book trade.  According to Dark Horse VP Marketing Michael Martens, the book trade actually received 7,000 copies less than it wanted out of the first printing in order to fill the unexpectedly high  demand from comic stores through Diamond. 

 

The books are being reprinted to fill orders from the full solicitation through Diamond Previews in January, so the total number printed is going to go up substantially.  Since the DC volume reportedly had somewhat higher orders than the Dark Horse/Chaos one, the total dollars generated by both 9-11 volumes will easily be in excess of $1 million at retail, potentially topping the dollars generated from Marvel's Heroes book, which is currently in its third printing since its release only a few weeks after the attack (see 'Heroes Will Hit $1 Million Retail').

 

Both of the 9-11 volumes feature attractive covers and good value for the $9.95 price, with over 200 color pages each, which is certainly contributing to sales.  There has also been considerable press on all of the 9-11 benefit comic books, including Marvel's Heroes and Moment of Silence, Alternative Comics 9-11 Emergency Relief, and the recently released DC and Dark Horse volumes.  We tagged the 9-11 benefit comics and the surrounding publicity and good will one of our Top Comic Industry Stories of 2001 ( see 'Top Comic Stories of 2001').

 

A quick check with DC indicated that its 9-11 volume was still available from Diamond.  Curiously, DC refused to release the print run on its volume, citing its standard 'sales figures are proprietary' response.  It is hard to fathom this stance since there are strong reasons to release numbers (the need for transparency in a charitable effort, for example), and no competitive reasons that we can think of to keep the numbers secret on a non-profit project.  All of the three other publishers involved in producing 9-11 benefit comic books have released their numbers when asked:  the Dark Horse numbers above, the Marvel numbers on Heroes referenced above, and Alternative Comics on 9-11 Emergency Relief (also 40,000 for the first printing, see 'Emergency Relief Featured in Time').