Joe Krolik of Comics America in Winnipeg, Canada read the recent article covering comic sales for January 2011 (see "Comic Sales Plummet in January") and had this to say.

In your piece about the severe decline in sales for January, the author states:

"Part of the reason for the year-over-year decline could have been the weather, which was brutal in many areas of the country, especially on the East Coast, and part of it could have been the strength of the releases in the first month of 2010..."

While it is possible that the second part of the quote may have been correct, it's unlikely that the first part would have since orders for January release were placed anywhere between October and November of 2010.  Unless retailers had a simultaneous "crystal ball" moment, no one could have foreseen the weather problems.  Also remember that the report we are reading is, presumably, the result of getting numbers from the single distributor of the bulk of the books.

Another telling point: If Fantastic Four #587 was the best-ordered book there is a VERY big problem looming, since there were only about 65,600 of the regular editions and 500 of those signed variants printed.  That's an incredibly small print run for a book with such great significance.

There are many other problems in the industry as a whole.  This is just one of the signs of the times, and I'm very sad to resign myself to the possibility that it does not bode well for many retailers.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.